Final Destnation (Banquet Day)

We have arrived at our final destination for this summer! We rolled into Bloomington around 6am after our last bus ride of the season and now we are getting ready for our exciting day! It is a great feeling being back at Binford Elementary School because this is where our season got started. It seems appropriate that we get to end the season here...

The weather is a bit cloudy... So hopefully the rain will hold out on us...

Im posting the schedule on here just in case you want to know where we are going to be... I hope the picture comes out well...

Off to make recordings...
Later days,
Patrick

Rubber Bowl Rehearsal Day Pt. 2 (Akron, OH)

Today we were in the Rubber Bowl again for our last full rehearsal day of the season. We worked on cleaning the back half of the show most of the day and we got a lot better. We wore our shakos during ensemble rehearsal tonight too... Overall the day was very long and very productive.

The whole Rubber Bowl experience was pretty good. The weather was cloudy and cool both days and it rained a little each day. The stadium was by a massive soapbox derby track and a blimp hangar. I am not sure what was in the hangar, but I heard rumors about the Goodyear blimp...

Tomorrow we are recording our end of season CD and having the age-out banquet. Even though it is the day before Quarterfinals, I feel like tomorrow will be much needed day of rest and will help begin to bring closure to a fantastic season of drum corps. We will be at both Binford Elementary School and Bloomington South High School tomorrow and through the remainder of the week. If you want to check out rehearsal, be sure to get directions to both places just in case we are not there.

Off to bed...
Later days,
Patrick

Rubber Bowl Rehearsal Day Pt. 1 (Akron, OH)

I dont have much time so I am going to make this a quick one. Today we rolled into the Rubber Bowl at around 5am and we were allowed to sleep a couple hours on the bus or on the turf field until we had to get ready to rehearse. The stadium was a great opportunity for us to get better going into Bloomington and we used it very wisely today. We cleaned the whole first half of the show and did some great music rehearsal for some of our weaker points in the show. We are taking care of the second half of the show tomorrow and then we hit Bloomington on Wednesday morning!

We have another full day of rehearsal tomorrow so I need my rest... Much more to come tomorrow!

Later days,
Patrick

P.S. - I want to take a moment to thank all of the volunteers and bus drivers that have made this summer possible for us. We would not be able to exist without them and I deeply appreciate all of their devotion and support for us this year. Thank you!

Westminster, MD (95.150)

Today was a great day. We were all in a really good mood because of last night and we rehearsed really well. The weather was amazing and stayed nice all day. The only thing that made the rehearsal bad was the field. It was literally on a hill and we had to march up and down it the whole day.

The show field tonight was actually worse than the rehearsal field... There was a big hill in the middle of it and patches of dirt everywhere. We had a pretty bad show, but we still scored well and beat the Cadets. Tonight was officially our last show of the season before the World Championships and our last Sunday of drum corps.

We have a long bus ride tonight so I need to get some sleep. We are pulling it old school tonight and getting off the bus and going straight into rehearsal. We will be in Akron, OH at the Rubber Bowl for the next two days rehearsing into finals week. It should be a long couple days...

Off to sleep...
Later days,
Patrick

Allentown, PA (95.400)

We made Carolina Crown history tonight! We scored a 95.4, which is the highest that the corps has ever scored... and we still have a week left! Also, we are only .5 points away from 1st place right now! All of the top 4 corps are within the half point range (95.400 - 95.900) going into finals week. We could actually win this year! As far as brass goes, we are in first place by .2!! The next corps below us has a 18.9 and we got a 19.1 tonight. The Jim Ott brass award is within our grasp!

Overall our show tonight was spectacular. We performed really well and we are getting credit for it. I think that both the judging comminuty and he fans are on our side this year... I got to see my good friend Vikram tonight and last night and he said that the show was amazing! It was awesome to see him tonight and last night. One of my favorite parts about tour is being able to see friends and family that I havent seen in a long time..

Today's rehearsal was probably the most focused and overall best that we have had all season. This morning we had some rain and lightning activity that took up a good portion of our Visual rehearsal... it eventually passed over.

It should be interesting to see how the show in Westminster, MD (another YEA show) and our two rehearsal days in the Rubber Bowl go for us leading into finals! We are on the home stretch... One week from tonight is the Drum Corps International World Championships!

Off to bed...
Later days,
Patrick

Allentown Rehearsal/Laundry Day (8 Days)

We are finally in Allentown! Saturday is our last regional before finals... This morning we got to Raub Middle School and rehearsed until 6:30pm. We treated today as a full rehearsal day even though we only had 2 blocks. We had to finish early because the Friday evening portion of the Allentown regional was starting.

After rehearsal, I went over to J. Birney Crum Stadium and got to watch my first drum corps show of the entire season! Up until this point, we have been performing last or near last and the show is usually over before I can get back into the stadium after changing out of uniform. I only got to watch the Madison Scouts and I really enjoyed their show. Afterwards, I left the stadium and went and found my friend Nick who marches bass drum for the Scouts. We went to eat at the Hamilton Family Restaurant, which is a famous place to eat for the Allentown regional. While we waited on our food, I ran over to the nearby laundry mat and threw my laundry in. Everything was timed out perfect and I made very efficient use of my time!

The Blue Devils lost to the Cavaliers tonight for the first time this season... It will be interesting to see how things go for us tomorow for our portion of the regional. We compete against Phantom and the Cadets (among others) tomorrow...

One week from today is Semifinals...

Off to bed!
Later days,
Patrick

West Chester, PA (93.800)

What a day... We had a fantastic rehearsal and a spectacular performance tonight. This morning we were completely on fire. The staff told us that we were rehearsing phenomenally and it was very easy to feel what they were talking about. The school that we stayed at was somewhere in New Jersey about 90 minutes from West Chester. It had 3 great turf fields for us to rehearse on and we got a lot acomplished!

We performed 3rd to last tonight behind the Blue Devils and the Cadets. We beat the Cadets again and we are closing the gap between us and the Blue Devils! We only finished 1.05 behind them tonight! It feels great to climb towards the top and to get cleaner :)

We are rehearsing in Allentown tomorrow at a middle school right next to the stadium. We have to finish rehearsing early tomorrow because the school is so close to the show. Instead, we are going to do laundry and/or go watch night 1 of the regional. (We dont perform until Saturday evening)

One week from today is Quarterfinals...

Off to bed!
Later days,
Patrick