On the Road at Last!

Greetings from Bladensburg, MD. The corps is housed here at the large high school. We were here last year also for the Naval Academy show.

I normally get to move-in on the first day but this year, I was finishing up the throne project--didn't post about it because we wanted it to be a surprise for the season. I finally arrived in New Hampton at 03:30 on the Friday of move-out and Spring Fling having missed the first three weeks of practice.




Spring Fling was a treat as always and the interaction between Sr and Jr corps is a great family tradition now. During our stay in Quincy, MA, the Boston Crusader senior corps treated us to cook-outs, and great hospitality. It is a real treat for the volunteers to be able to relax a little bit before the real tour begins. The very first full runs of the show happen during the Quincy week also, with the first uniform runs always generating alot of excitement. This season was no exception and the large crowd gathered for the cook-out and preview were not disappointed. Nothing but great buzz from the first hornline re-warm to the last show stinger, everyone has great
expectaions for the season.




Upon leaving Quincy, we drove the 250 miles to Elizabeth, NJ for a practice day and then drove 200 miles to our site in Bladensburg, MD for the Arlington, VA show last nite. We have had a few mechanical issues to sort out but all is working again at this point. The members are in an air conditioned gym and we are all glad as the temperatures are going into the 90's now.


The show in Arlington was very good for Boston--at 75, it is the best out-of-gate, first show score in many years. It was perhaps a good thing that the parking lot situation was so cramped and chaotic last nite--it put some pressure on the corps to optimize their loading and unloading of the equipment.

As a bit of trivia, I have decided to wear a pedometer for the summer--just to see how far I walk. I put it on when we got to Quincy, MA and so far, it is showing 58,000 steps.

I am also running an amateur radio-based, GPS tracking system in the U3 vehicle I am driving. When moving, it broadcasts the current GPS position and information every 2 minutes as long as a network link is within range (pretty much 100% across the US now). I have a link to the mapping site and will embed a google plot below so you can follow along on a map. For more information you might Google "APRS" to find out more information on how it works.

For now, I will leave you with these pictures and should be able to update this site as in seasons past. Depending on the work-load and internet access, every couple of days is the target.

Thanks for following along and I hope you enjoy the pictures of where we are and your sons and daughters--they are a remarkable group of young men and women.

See you on the road.

For now,

Curt