Hello!

Today was a travel day, we drove from Switzerland to Raismes France, which was about 6 and a but hours. After a lovely stay at our good friends Eric and Eva, we set off this morning as we’re playing Raismes Festival tomorrow. Not much to report except having to stop for cows. Now these guys are being brought down from high in the mountains, reason being is in the summer the farmers take them away to their other barns while they collect the green grass to put in storage for them to eat in the winter, otherwise everything is covered in snow and we get no Swiss cheese. Not cool. We stopped near the border for a quick pit stop and then Zia (our tour van) wouldn’t start. Now a couple weeks ago when I was visiting family in Southern Italy, the day I was to drive half way to Milan Zia did this for the first time. It just wasn’t kicking over, so in my aggravated mood we called a friend over to check it out, he got in and it started first go and said sometimes air gets in the fuel line. So this time, it was doing the same thing. We found this little mechanism that flushed a few air bubbles through the visible fuel line and it started, phew. Things you learn on the road.

Off we go and everything is cruisy until we drive past some cops on the highway, vans are a hot target over here with all the crime and shit that goes on, especially with Italian number plates. So, they come after us and we get pulled over. They ask questions, where did we come from, where are we going, blah blah.. but usually when they hear you’re Australian they’re not as harsh on you. Still, all our bags and all compartments were searched. Annoying.

So finally we get some miles down the road and hours later, listening to some tunes, we arrive in Raismes. We’re gonna freshen up, and go check this festival out that we’re playing tomorrow. So we get there and there’s a few language barriers but we finally get our passes and are greeted with a huge artist area fully catered for, we hadn’t eaten yet so this was most awesome. On top of that when we were walking out to watch the bands I noticed a big pallet, then I noticed a KOTN logo, THEN I noticed my name, THEN I noticed Ludwig USA and it dawned on me and I yelled, “DUDE IT’S MY F…N’ DRUM KIT!!”

Finally Ludwig had sent my kit over and it’s ready to use for the rest of the tour. Awesome. So tomorrow we go early and get organised for the festival which should be a lot of fun. Judging by the size of the stage it’s gonna be loud 😀

-Danny