North America Guitar Tour - spin off
Ingolstadt
July 26, 2008
On this day, I traveled to Ingolstadt, a city in southern Germany, and in the evening I was going to play at a garden party at the home of Mr. M, who was also friends with the late Marcel Dadi. According to the plan, if I left Lemgo around 10:00, I should arrive in Ingolstadt after 3:00. In addition to Mr. M, Mr. T, who lives in a city near Ingolstadt, had also invited me, so I asked Mr. M to join the garden party. Mr. T said he would pick me up at the Ingolstadt station.
*Marcel Dadi: One of the five CGP members who died in the Trans World Airlines Flight 800 crash when returning to France from CAAS in 1996.
Still feeling the afterglow of the previous night, I took a shower as soon as I woke up. Learning from the lesson of the previous day, I checked the direction of the hot water flow before entering the bath, so I didn't get soaked, but I think it would be better to have a step. When I went up to the third floor, Mr. B's son and his girlfriend were there too. As a thank you for their hospitality, I played "Here Comes The Sun" on Mr. B's Lakewood guitar. It was a perfect song for the attic room dazzling with the morning sunlight.
After saying goodbye to his wife and son and his wife just after 9 o'clock, I left his house. Me and Mr. B got on a local train at Altenbeken station near Lemgo, then changed to another train at Warburg station, about 15 minutes away, and went to Kassel station to catch the train I had planned. On the way to the station, Mr. B told me a lot about the city of Lemgo. He said I needed a few more days to see it all. I think it's great that he can brag about his hometown like this. He gradually became less talkative halfway through, and when he found out that there was no parking space near the station, he started to get a little grumpy. It seemed like he didn't have much time until the train I was planning to catch. I was dropped off in front of the station, and when I went to the platform first, the train was already approaching the station. Mr. B arrived late, and we shook hands and said, "See you again," and got on the train. The train was filled with people, luggage, and bicycles, so it was like rush hour in Japan, and once you get into a position, you can't move. I somehow managed to find a spot where I can stand and looked out the window, and for some reason Mr. B had his back to me, and the train started moving. I imagine that the man was not crying. I continued to wave my hand to his back, expressing my gratitude as much as I could.
There were many high school students in uniform around me. I was in front of the toilet at the connecting section, but I couldn't change my position. I couldn't miss the transfer at Warburg, but I couldn't hear the announcements very well at the connecting section. I decided to take a gamble and get off at the station where the high school students were getting off. There was a relatively empty space surrounded by acrylic in part of the carriage, and several people were sitting there, but I didn't know what kind of space it was, and I thought that if I made a clumsy move and lost the spot I had finally managed to secure, it would be even more painful, so I just endured it. My legs were numb for about the last 10 minutes. I found out later that the pass I had allowed me to ride first class on local lines, and the area surrounded by acrylic was that first class area.
Soon the high school students started getting ready to get off, and it seemed that most of the people and cyclists in the connecting section were also getting off at that station, so I was standing in the aisle with my guitar on my back and had no choice but to go out with the flow regardless of my will. I checked the name of the station and found that it was the first transfer station, Warburg. I asked a nearby person which train I should take to get to Kassel, and got on the train as instructed. In this way, I safely arrived at the last transfer station, Kassel, but there were several express trains waiting and I didn't know which one to take. I asked a nearby station attendant, but the person said he didn't understand English. While I was wandering around, one of the trains quietly left the station. I had a bad feeling, but I finally found someone who spoke English, and when I asked him, he pointed to a faintly visible train and said that it had just left.
I reserved a seat on the next train to Ingolstadt at the ticket counter at the station, called Mr. B from a public phone, and asked him to tell Mr. M and Mr. T, who was coming to pick me up at the station, that I had missed the train, that the next train was about an hour and a half away, and that therefore I was scheduled to arrive in Ingolstadt around 4:30. At this point, the three of them didn't know each other, so I was worried about whether the communication would go well, but I could only pray. I sat in a daze in the spacious lobby of Kassel station for a while, then went to a Burger King inside the station for an early lunch. Then I found that the next express train was not from this station but the next station where I had to take local train, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, where I would transfer, so I headed to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe on a local line with plenty of time to spare. According to Thomas Cook, this should not be a mistake, but if I made a mistake here, it would be a big problem, so I asked a young girl sitting in a box on the other side of the aisle, "Is this the right train to go to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe?" Fortunately, she spoke English, and said that if I was going to Ingolstadt in the end, this train was definitely the one to take, and that she would also transfer to another express train at that station. I arrived at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe in about five minutes. It was a larger station than Kassel, and there was an open cafe in front of the station. There was still almost an hour until the train, so I decided to kill time at the cafe.
When there were about 15 minutes until the boarding time, I left the cafe and returned to the station, and headed to the platform I had confirmed earlier. The train arrived on time, and I was again traveling in a luxurious first class car. Compared to the morning trip, when my legs were numb, it was a heavenly ride. I was so comfortable that I started to doze off, fell asleep, and woke up to the announcement that we would soon be arriving in Ingolstadt. It was a close call. When I got off at the station, a parent and child were staring at me. It was Mr. T and his family. They had been watching me on YouTube, and since I was the only Asian person at Ingolstadt Station with a guitar on that day, they seemed to recognize me right away.
I got into the car parked in the parking lot in front of the station and headed to Mr. M's house. I was a little dazed because I had just woken up, but everyone in Mr. T's family was a little nervous. Thankfully, the whole family was a fan of mine. He asked me if I could stay at his house tonight, not at Mr. M's, but I explained that Mr. M had already made arrangements for me to stay, and politely declined. On the way, we passed a small bridge over the Danube River and arrived at Mr. M's house in about 10 minutes. It was a pretty big house, and apparently it was originally two houses combined into one.
I had heard that it was a private gathering that day, but there was a small stage in the garden behind the house, and about 30 neighbors had gathered there. It was a bit too much to play with a Ramirez without a pickup, so I borrowed a Gibson Chet model that Mr. M had and played it. The one I had before was a heavy solid type, and I gave it up after a few months because it was so heavy, but the one I borrowed that day was hollow, so it was lightweight and had a pretty good live sound. I heard that it was already out of production, and I thought I wouldn't have sold if I had this hollow-body model.
*This may be the prototype of the Kirk Sand guitar.
When the performance started, the children who had been making noise until then immediately sat down, perhaps urged by their parents, and the adults forgot to eat and just stared at me. After playing two songs, I asked the kids to play as they pleased and the adults to enjoy the barbecue. Some of them still looked at me without eating much, but the kids started running around as before. After about two hours, the clouds started to look ominous and rain started to fall. In the end, I was playing almost whole time, so I ate the reheated leftover barbecue after everyone had gone home.
That night, I stayed in Mr. M's study, which had an internet connection, so I borrowed it to check my email. There were quite a few comments and messages from YouTube, but I was too tired and sleepy, so I went to bed without replying. The next day, I had to be in Bregenz, Austria.
*The people mentioned in the text are written using their initials until we can confirm their identity.
Contents
Introduction
Until Departure
Seattle
To California
Day Off
Sunnyvale
To La
LA 2 Days
To Tucson
Albuquerque
To Colorado (beginning of Miracle)
Berthoud
Denver
to Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City 2 days
To Texas
San Antonio
Georgetown
Dallas
Houston 2 Days
Benton
Nashville (CAAS)
Roswell
Tampa 2 Days
Miami
Orland 2 Days
Myrtle Beach
Chapel Hill 3 Days
Kingsport
To Indiana
Indiana State Fingerstyle Guitar Festival
To Staten Island
Manhattan
Phillipsburg
Nazareth (Martin Guitar Factory)
To Massachusetts (end of Miracle)
Methuen
To Montreal
To Buffalo
Meadvill A Day Before
Meadvill Ghost Hotel
Detroit
Chicago
Minneapolice
Spin Off #1
Spin Off #2 "EU Tour IN 2008 / Until Departure
Czech 1
Czech 2
London
Liverpool
Chesham
To Germany
Lemgo
Ingolstadt
Bregenz
To Italy
Florence
The Last Gig
Going Home