East Coast Tour - Athens, GA - 5.9.11

We hit the road east from Louisiana to Georgia with me at the wheel and Mike in shotgun for the 9 hour trek. The plan was to drive through the night and arrive at our State Park camping accommodations early the next morning to enjoy the day before playing. Along the way during this leg we saw a pair of armadillos cruising around on the side of the road, and we all flipped out in excitement like when you go to the zoo.

In preparation for this trip, we scouted out Yargo State Park about 20 minutes outside of Athens. Having become regular patrons of the US State Park system over the past few years of gigging with Precious, Yargo’s appeared to be a legit park to our expert eyes.

Our hopes were high for some nice accommodations. Yargo’s yurt village was the factor that had us all feeling like it was going to be fun place to relax. We arrived to a beautiful lake and a super hip lil’ yurt, and quickly made ourselves at home. The next few hours were filled with chilling out, cooking and crushing tallboys.

We eventually got ourselves together and made our way towards Athens for our gig at Rye Bar. I got in contact with my cousin Stephanie who lives in town. She gave us a recommendation for some good local grub, then we all met up before the gig.

It was great catching up with my Aunt and Uncle who made the trek out for the show, as well as my hip cousin who I haven’t been able to hang with in years. We sipped on some local Terrapin beer and talked about the family. This was a rare southern Chekos summit meeting. The southern Chekos faction is a unique branch of the tribe. Lighter in complexion and speaking in a less traditional, consonant-rich dialect, these Chekos, much like their brethren to the north, are astute conversationalists. In her natural habitat, Stephanie clearly displayed many traditional Chekos personality traits that begin to surface in young adulthood. Her understated confidence projected to all with delicate style and grace. Everywhere we went, she won people over with ease. Her friendly but assertive approach at one establishment had her behind the bar sifting through aperitifs to add to the round of complimentary shots being prepared by her new friend tending bar, at her request. She was clearly in her element. The band all seemed to find some level of familiarity in her ways, and swiftly resorted to egging her on with the familiar “Chekooooooooos” shout out I had heard so often throughout my formative years. It was satisfying to see another Chekos on campus making their mark with our unique family surname. It was a great night for sure. We played with a cool band out of Atlanta called Cloudeater, and despite a thin room, considered the gig a success… largely thanks to Chekoooos bringing her A-game. Way to be, Chekos; )

"you guys are so fuuuucked..........."

jim