Day 2: Day two of tour was a good, but long one. The morning block was a grueling 4 hours long, but we got a lot of visual clean in. The two blocks to follow were just as efficient. The 14 hour rehearsal day ended at 8:49 with the daily run through. Our 13 minute show is the most difficult of Drum Corp International this year as is said by many judges. During the run something clicked within all of us performing. We all immediately sync up and slam out a near flawless run of our show. At the end I almost passed out from not breathing and instead pumping out max volume through the entire closer. (I march trumpet) Oh yea it was also 98 degrees and 100% humidity. Haha. Soon after rehearsal, we eat dinner, pack up, and are soon off to south Dakota.

Day 3: we got into Sioux south Dakota at 5:20am, so we are lucky and get some much needed floor sleep. We have a show today and must be in tip top shape. We awoke later at 8am. It's my usual duty to wake all around me, seeing as I'm the only one who actually gets up on time. After waking my friends, I walked outside to the food truck and ate eggs and hash browns. After breakfast, we began to work the company fronts in the show over and over for an hour and 40 minutes. Lunch soon came, and we were given more noodles to no ones surprise. Every meal is comprised of some sort of noodles based meal and a salad of a random variety. At the strike of noon, we moved to the secondary field for sub-sectionals and ensemble music practice. An hour into practice, a storm was on its way, so we decided to do the daily run through early. Soon after starting, it began to rain heavily. We pushed on, and 13 minutes later, we had the best run of the season under our belts. Due to the great run, we were given an extra 2 hours off, and we went to the local gas station to stock up on food and supplies. Upon returning, we polished our horns, showered, and got ready for the show. Upon arriving at the show site, many corps were already there. Our rivals, the Boston Crusaders, were trooping off to warm up as we arrived. Upon exiting the bus, we set up the dubstep block and did our warm up marching block. We then got our horns and went to music warm up. Ironically, the crusaders were directly across from us in the lot, and we decided to intimidate them by playing right next to them our loudest and proudest chords and progressions. After warming up, we went to set up and perform. It was a great performance and we came out proudly beating our rivals! To celebrate, we ventured to Buffalo Wild Wings, and ate hearty for our trip to Minnesota.

Day 4: w awoke at 8 am this morning. And immediately went to PT block. It was raining harshly outside, so breakfast was inside and then we hit a jam. Where would we rehearse? We waited around, then got on a bus to go to an alternation rehearsal site. Upon arrival, it was also raining, so we returned to the high school. We broke into sectional rehearsal and waited out the storm inside. As a treat. Halfway through the rehearsal we went to an auditorium and watched the show from the previous night. We critically analysed it and really cracked down on the mistakes and visual holes. We were released to lunch, and by then the rain had stopped, so we set off to visual rehearsal. Upon arriving at the field, we were appalled by this high school. It was massive, easily larger than many colleges I have seen. The field itself was pristine. Perfectly marked and freshly maintained. After setting up the pit equipment, we began visual practice. Things went on as normal, then we did our run. Nothing special, just a few fixes and overall improvement. Then we got a special surprise, we learned an opener/intro to our show featuring our premier colorguard and it set up a nice back drop and story to our show. After a few runs of that we headed back to our beds for a full nights sleep.

Day 5: At 7 am, we woke up to the blaring speakers playing Coldplay into our sleeping area. It did its job to wake us, but it started me in a pissy mood. We immediately loaded the busses and went to our rehearsal site to make up for lost time from yesterday's rain. Soon upon arriving, lightning erupted over the sky, making a quick close to the visual block. We decided to go into the high school to rehearse music and ensemble. The interior of the school is completely what the outside led it to be. It was a massive, three story complex with state of the art technology and modern architecture. It seemed to go on forever, I thought that this place must accomodate around 5 thousand students, instead it teaches only 2 thousand. It was nicer than many federal and university buildings I've seen! It was marvelous. Ironically, the town it is in is named farmington and is in the middle of nowhere. Any ways, we practiced while a massive storm hit, killing the lights mutliple times during rehearsal. Lunch came and we ate indoors and continued rehearsal. Finally the storm let up and we went outside to practice. We had an audience surprisingly, and did an run through almost immediately to show off. Once that was done, many left, but some stayed to watch rehearsal. The rest of the block was usual, and we soon loaded busses to go back to the housing site. On the way back, one of the busses hit a snag. It hit a ditch in a corn field. It took 40 people to push it out of the ditch. We then entered the middle school and hit the hay.

Day 6: today was a special one. It was the first regional of our tour. We were due to perform at six, so our rehearsal day was short. We awoke at 7 and immediately loaded the busses. We arrived at the field with a sunny sky over us. We rehearsed for 4 hours and had a great lunch lasagna and salad. We arrived at the university of Minnesota and unloaded to rehearse next to the gorgeous ROTC building. It, along with other buildings, were an old English style architecture and the ROTC building itself was a castle. After warming up, we went to the magnificent stadium to peform. We took the field and gave it all we had and made an amazing show. Unfortunately, we were the first of the world class block, meaning our score was lower to allow for the possibility of other corps doing better. We soon left to get a good nights rest and an early start tomorrow. I myself left with a patch for my corp jacket and memories of performing in front of thousands. At the housing site, the fire alarm went off, so we had to evacuate the building. There was no fire, but it was annoying and cut into my valuable reading time, but it soon ended and we all returned to our beds to rest for the next day.

Day 7: So today was an alright day. We were having our last day in Minnesota so we really hyped on that. It was 90 degrees and 97% humidity so we had to think of something to keep our spirits up. A new tech, Tony, replaced Brad, who will be off for a week. We awoke the regular time to get rehearsal underway as soon as possible. We began rehearsal as normal, we hit sets 20 to 25 really hard for about 4 hours, then after lunch, we touched musical aspects on sets 126-128. After dinner, we began ensemble and were working the ballad really hard when a freak storm hit and once again, we were delayed. After it rained for 30 minutes, we got back on the searing field. Rehearsal soon ended without a run and we loaded and went back, packed, and headed to Kansas, the fabled Hell of the corp world and I'm about to find out why.
Quote of the day - "I'm gonna be a really anal asshole about breathing! Wait....."

Day 8: No signal, so no internet. No daily update today.

Day 9: we arrived in Arkansas at 6 am, and got a great surprise. They gave us four hours of floor time to wake up at 11! It was much needed sleep and a welcome change to the whole routine. We awoke as usual with cereal and a corp meeting that I decided to miss on account of the required sunscreen application ritual every corp member does. I ran to the turf just in time to catch the first rep. As soon as I stepped on the field, the heat smacked me. I'm very tolerant of heat, but the index was 120, plus what the turf was radiating after absorbing the days sun. Four hours felt like eternity, it was so hot my shoes literally melted a bit. We didn't have lunch, and went straight into packing ans loading the busses. We left for our show site at 6:15pm. We arrived and got the usual warm up. We went to perform but this night held a special treat, we were implementing our preshow for the first time on tour. We continued flawlessly and ended very strong. Our score was a whopping 81.5 and beat long time rivals, blue stars! We were fan favorite and second in drum accuracy and peformance. We loaded our busses proud and headed to Texas.

Day 10: First day in Texas, uneventful. Hot as Hell however.

Day 11: first performance in Texas. Hot as Hell, however, it's one day closer to the san Antonio regional. The show was good, we beat Madison scouts! Other than that, nothing. But the next 2 days will prove to be quite entertaining.

Day 12: we were given a gift today, we were allowed to sleep till noon and only rehearsed six hours. We went to the show site rejuvinated and refreshed and it showed in the performance. We went up another point and a half.

Day 13: San Antonio, Tx. the next regional. we were due to perform at 7pm. we were allowed to sleep in, which is a rarity, but it left everyone with alot of energy. we did a bit of rehearsal to check everyone's knowledge of the show. Once we got it under our belts, we went off. we arrived to a huge crowd of spectators. We warmed up to the eyes of many, and went on in the air conditioned Alamo Dome. It was a grand show, my best of the season. It was amazing to perform for thousands and many of which my family and friends. After the show, we went to a hotel with my family and two close friends for the off day we had tomorrow. we chilled and played Xbox all night and even hit up Denny's at midnight. we went to bed at about 4am from partying so hard haha.

Day 14: Lost track

Day 15: Of

Day 16: Time

Day 17: Mississippi is a horrid state this time of year. We rehearsed hard today through 100% humidity and rain and 90+ degrees. The rain storms were sudden and often had us running in circles to try and rehearse and be efficient, which we failed to do. The blocks ended and we had our four and a half pack and eat time. Instead of eating, I sprinted to the nearest Walmart to stock up for the rest of the tour. We left the school in heavenly air conditioned busses towards our show in hattiesburg Mississippi.

Day ugh: Too

Day agh: Tired

Day omg: To

Day wtf: Write.

Day whatever: Must

Day breakfast sux: push

Day airbeds suck: on.

Day ???: Finals Week! Here we are, on the verge of the most glory any of us have ever known. We at a very nice high school off the edge of Indianapolis. Its a very nice facility with many fields and practice facilities for us to use. It was a cool day, appropriate for the day before World Quarterfinals. We had the usual day of rehearsal, 5 hour visual, lunch, 5 hour sectional/music practice, dinner, 2 hour ensemble. There was a special vibe going on now,one we havent felt all tour. Tomorrow was a very important day for us, our performance was to be broadcast on movie theatres all across America! After the day was over, we got some extra time for sleep, and delightfully got to bed early.

Day Finals2: QUARTERFINALS! This was the start of something amazing. We woke up, did some stretch and some warm up, then went to the stadium grounds to get ready. It was a magnificent stadium, huge and full of fans ready to cheer at the power of Drum Corp Internationals finest corps. After we were prepared, we walked down the long corridors of the underbelly of the stadium towards the exit tunnel to the field. We walked out to the field. It was glorious. The run was magnificent! I nailed everything. I walked off with the feeling that I just impressed the world! We went home, and slept hard and well.