This is the van. We shall call it...THE VAN. It is a diesel van. A kind of tired, slow but wonderful little Mazda van. After flying to Montreal, Canada and missing our connecting flight to Frankfort, Germany, we were re-directed to Heathrow in London, England where we caught a connecting flight to Frankfort. We discovered we had no luggage and in the Frankfort airport we met up with our driver, tour guide, interpreter, bandleader of his own and hired gun drummer for us Randy Rich and his bass player and VAN owner Michael Kielas (aka: Vassily called so because he was the only kid in his highschool mieleu who didn't fail his Russian language class) who informed us we were driving to Spain. Hear that folks? DRIVING to Spain which is a 20 hour drive. No problem, we have a van. We shall call it...THE VAN!

This is the inside of THE VAN. We were a bunch of nomadic musicians. Hey...it's a part of the gig.

This is what awaited us in Calella, Spain (just up the coast from Barcelona), a crowd of enthusiastic European Hillbilly music fans. EXCELLENT! We are beginning to love Europe...and Europeans.

We must show this photo again because it was time to get back in the VAN.

The van...the van...the GODDAMNED VAN!

We stopped at a rest area in France. They have this hole in the floor and some places for your feet. What the hell are you supposed to do here? Number 1 or 2? There are no handles or anything! Ken is justifiably mortified.

We drove the 22 hours from Spain to Hannover, Germany and shacked up with our drummer for the tour Randy Rich here and his lovely gal Ina (pronounced EE-nah). Our drummer Rick Murawski wisely decided to stay home to help his wife Patti out with their newborn and we had Randy fill in for the tour. Randy is on the same record label as we are and has his own band and is a helluva good Merle Travis fingerstyle guitar picker too. Visit his websight at http://www.randyrich.de/ to find out more about this man. Here Dave, Randy and Casey talk about the advantages plaid shirts have to offer a man of discerning taste. ???

Our first gig was in a very small place in Uelzen, Germany called Schillers. We skeptically set up but to be honest the crowd won us over and not really the other way around. We had a great time there and made some interesting memories.

Our next gig was in Oldenburg at a club called Bikers. This here is Amin who is the promoter and is a nice guy to know. Thanks Amin.

We next journeyed to Hamburg, Germany where we met up with our label owner Ralph and his friend and partner in crime Wolfgang who decided we must see the red light district known as the Raperbahn. Sure, why not? We saw some Beatles sights and really not much else. There was no time.

A REALLY great sight was this refrigerator inside our dressing room at the club Knust. THANKS for feeding us Knust. THANK YOU sweet Jeebus!

Randy Rich pulled double duty playing with his band Randy Rich and the Poor Boys as the opener and then drumming with the Gin Palace Jesters. Here we can see "Vassily" on upright bass and Red Martin on drums. These guys are great musicians.

Next it was time for the Americans to play. Dave has his "boss man" jacket on.

Club Knust is a great music room to play. Thanks for having us...and FEEDING us! We loved Hamburg.

The next day we played a day gig at a record store called Wackelpeter's. This is a picture of a gal we first saw in Green Bay singing along to a Jim and Jessie McReynolds tune we sometimes play. It turns out she is from Hamburg and caught our two gigs there. Her name is Barb and she likes country music. Hi Barb!

Next we were off to Berlin to hang with the Preußen Rebs club. This is a club of German guys and gals who dig old hillbilly music, old cars, motorcycles and getting drunk. God bless them. Dave hit it right off with the promoter Lemmy. Here Dave and Lemmy have some German beer.

The club in Berlin was in an industrial factory complex located on what used to be the East German side before the Berlin wall came down. They had a full on motorcycle shop and auto body garage in this complex. Here Dave, Casey and Cousin Buddy ogle over an old Indian motorcycle.

Big time in Berlin town!

Now, after our set in Berlin (which STARTED at 12:30am and ended at 3 am) we had to drive to Geldrop, Holland to play the Cafe De Kroeg to start playing by 2pm. Now...this is an 8 hour drive so it was back in the van, THE VAN, THE GODDAMNED VAN!

Let's DO THIS!

UGH!

We busted our humps to get there on time to play for the promoter Koon and for sure it was completely worth it despite getting only 2 hours of sleep.

Holland was great. The Dutch people are so nice. We had a very enthusiastic and appreciative crowd and met some fine folks from all over including some who traveled from Amsterdam and far western Germany to hear some Gin Palace Jesters music. Thanks everyone who came out to see us!

We also got to meet some disc jockeys who play our music frequently over there in Holland on Stadsradio Helmond, Erwin and Diny Schapadonk and Harrie v.d. Westerlo. Thanks for spinning our tunes!

A few shows we played and have no decent photos of but eventually we ended up in Regensburg at this underground cavern type place. It was a bit strange but...the whole trip was strange so what else is new? We took it in stride.

Randy Rich choppin' on the woodpile and looking resplendid in his red GPJ shirt against a red wall.

"Da Mayor" Ken Mottet chops along too.

Ken was amazed at how many beautiful girls were at our show dancing along to our tunes and grabbed his camera and took this picture of himself.

Casey asks Dave if he has noticed all the beautiful girls to which he replied, "Girls??? There are GIRLS here?"

It seemed like mostly guys hung out by Dave. Hmm... Bummer.

After a whole drama unfolded where we missed our flight from Frankfort, Germany to Tampere, Finland and we had to call the promotor and beg to switch with some band and play the next day and get new tickets and wait around for 24 hours in Frankfort we eventually made it the Midsummer Festival in Vammalla, Finland. This was a nice hotel which had been overrun by the friendliest bunch of scary looking people you could ever imagine. It was very close to the longest day of the year and in Finland that means the sun dips just below the horizon for about 2 hours from midnight to 2:00 am. With that type of planetary event occurring it just seems natural to get together for a holiday, hang out with friends, listen to great music and party all night..err..all DAY long. Some folks camped out in the wooded parking lot of the hotel and the scene was a cross between the infamous Woodstock Festival and "The Wild One."

There were alot of old American cars and motorcycles and alot of drunk people staggering about naked and tripping over 3 foot piles of empty beer bottles. In other words, it was not for the weak of heart and probably not a fine example of human behavior for the younger family members but...hey, live and let live right? Sit down, shut up and drink your beer!

Dave sporting the "boss man" jacket and Casey sing some harmony to a VERY energetic, large and enthusiastic crowd. This picture and the remaining were sent to us by a fella working the festival as a driver and coordinator Timo Terho aka: "Tipi" who picked us up at the airport. Thanks Tipi, good to meet you.

We did our level best to entertain and really had a ball in Finland. They should just change the name to FUNland.

This is a B7 barre chord kids.

We'd like to thank Hakki from Jungle Records for inviting us to play and thank everyone in Finland for being so dang nice to us. We had a ball and want to come back and visit you again.

We also thank the talented Randy Rich for helping us out on our first pathfinding mission to Europe and for covering our asses more than once. We could not have made it without you. Thanks Randy! Also we say "Howdy" to all the special people we met along our journey...you know who you are, who took pity on us and helped us out in so many ways. All in all it was a life affirming trip.