Wed., April 8, Angola, IN, Skip's Lounge -- Morning rush hour never seems to end in Chicago. We tried to head out by 2 p.m. to beat the evening rush hour, but ran into the noon rush hour. Too many damn cars, and too much damn construction for no real apparent reason. Some construction company is nursing a fat Cook County contract... We managed to get out onto the open road after about 90 minutes of dodging traffic and some pretty fancy lane change acrobatics by Darnell. It's five hours to Angola, so we were cutting it close. We arrived uneventfully in time to not have to rush, but we barely had time to eat. I helped myself to an excellent soul food buffet upstairs that was being provided by the local billiard club who was having some sort of playoff or beer party...I couldn't tell which. Every Wednesday is "Blues Night" at Skip's when the regional blues fans get an opportunity to get down with their favorite touring blues bands. The weekends at Skip's pack out with 20-somethings rockin' out to the sounds of Top 40 hard rock and metal bands and apparently there's nowhere to sit or even stand in there. Tonight's a bit different from that, with 30 and 40-somethings who seemed geniunely interested in the band and who were die-hard blues fans filling up all the seating, but with plenty of SRO. I talked with about half-dozen local folks and a couple from out of town who were happy to find the place for their monthly hit of a decent blues band. Three guys were drummers, which confirmed my theory that drummers always travel in groups: there are either NO drummers or everyone is a drummer. Never seen it fail... Must be a deeply subconscious bond of sticks and testosterone harking back to the days of primordial hunting and gathering. We had fun comparing equipment and war stories... Skip's is a well laid out joint with all sorts of old instruments that you might find at a garage sale hanging on every conceivable inch of vertical surface at every conceivable angle. The stage is a nice size and the sound was very good. CD sales were brisk and we signed up about 25 people to the mailing list. Maryam was just the little munchkin jewel of contentedness amonst the adoring crowd on breaks...man, that girl has the travel jones bad. We elected to drive on back after the three-set gig, so I was seriously nodding off after about 4 a.m. I knew that I would wake up again about the time I'd be lying in bed, which turned out to be true at 6:40. I did manage to hit sleepland after about a half hour of zen meditation...