600 Km to New York via Turnpikes.

  That's what the sign read. We were on our way. Regardless of how things actually turned out we were giving it our best shot. CBGB's here we come.

  The Ballistics 13 in NYC. Its not a hard thing to imagine. Lots of bands have played CBGB's before and I'm pretty sure that some of them were pretty bad too. This was just a quick thing. Not a lot of pre-planning involved. It was just the four of us crammed into a Dodge Ram Quad Cab with all our "stripped down" equipment in the back along with the bare essentials in terms of clothes.

  We did have a photographer though. Uncle Phil.

  He was leaving a few hours after us, because of work, and was going to meet us in Clifton, New Jersey, at the Ho-Jo, right on the highway leading into the Lincoln Tunnel.

  We made pretty good time. Around 10 hours. We arrived at the hotel around 9:00 am and tried to get settled in and rest a bit before we went onto the island to promote our show for the next night.

  I don't remember what time it was when I got the call from Phil. You know if you get a phone call in a hotel far away from home and only a limited number of people know your there, the odds are good that it's bad news. And sure enough, it was bad. Phil had broken down in Pennsylvania, and he had already gotten a room at the Emlenton Motor Lodge.

  I looked up on the map where this little town with a red-neck name was and after a little calculating, I figured that it would be another ten to twelve hours of driving to go get him. We had just gotten in after a ten hour drive! We all needed our rest. We didn't need the pictures that bad.

  I told Phil to sit tight and wait for us to do the show the next night and we'd be there around 3:00 to 5:00 am on the morning after we played. He understood, but I could tell he was really pissed.

  Immediately after I hung up with Phil and I told Psycho, Dusty, and Stink what was going on, the jokes started flowing. Punxsutawney Phil this and Punxsutawney Phil that. It was actually kind of funny.

  Well CB's was everything that we hoped it would be. We had been there once before to book the show, but actually being there on THAT stage......... I think we played extra good that night. The good spirits were everywhere, and we could do no wrong. New York to me seems to be filled with only good people that know how to have a good time. Our experience there went against everything that I figured New York would be.

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