Road Trip!

I know, my whole life is a road trip, but this was different. Thursday morning I got out early to give Matey a walk before Jamie picked me up to drive up to Indianapolis to watch Adler and the band compete at the Bands of America Grand Nationals.

Jamie had hoped to fly, but there were no good flights and right now is a bad time to rely on the airlines. So instead we took Adler’s 2023 Honda Civic Hatchback. It actually has fewer miles on it than any of our other vehicles and it gets almost 45 mpg on the highway. The only drawback is it’s a 6 speed standard. Happily driving a standard car is like riding a bicycle, you don’t forget.

We got there just in time to watch the band do a two hour evening rehearsal.

The Grand Nationals are held at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Colts, and the adjacent convention center is used for practice.

The large halls are divided into rooms the size of a football field and bands are assigned practice times. 104 bands participated this year, so their preliminary performances took place over two days. Lake Hamilton performed at 8 PM Friday evening, the third to the last band. They had practice time Thursday evening from 8 until 10 and Friday afternoon from 3 until 5.

The kids had an hour and a half bus ride back to the camp where they were staying, but Jamie and I just had to walk across this skywalk to our room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Nice!

The hotel is built in the old train shed for the next door train station and the decor is railroad themed,

including two rows of railroad cars that have been converted into rooms. The cars were pushed onto the existing tracks and the hotel built around them.

It was a fun place to stay and very convenient.

Friday morning we had some time so we walked around downtown. First we wandered the skywalks searching for a way into the adjacent mall.

The direct route was closed for construction so we ended up taking about four different skywalks. It’s impressive.

The mall didn’t have any store that carried Afrin nasal spray, which Adler needed, so then we took a tour of the streets. We found our way to a nearby CVS…

and managed to deliver it to Adler just as the band was getting some final words from their director before their 3 to 5 practice.

For this practice they are wearing their bibbers, which are uniform overalls without the top tunic.

Jamie left to work with the prop team while I went in to watch bands perform. The screens and props all have to be assembled before every show.

Then all the props and the equipment are taken under the stadium. There’s room down there for the band to warm up. At last it gets pushed through the tunnels…

and up to the entrance to the field.

Jamie took this picture of Adler at 7:40, waiting at the tunnel exit to the field.

Here’s what it looks like when they are all lined up on the sidelines, ready to come on the field.

At 7:59 Adler is playing with the pit (the percussion instruments that don’t move) and 5 other woodwinds while the show is introduced.

And at 8:00 the show starts.

It’s fun to see them perform in such a great venue. They even get put on the Jumbotron.

After their nine and a half minutes they all had to exit the field. The kids went up in the stands for a photo and the parents on the prop team took all the props back out to the parking lot where they had to be partially disassembled to fit on the truck and two trailers. They had to be removed to a farther parking lot, so the close lot could be used by the bands that would be first to go in semifinals the next day. I joined Jamie there and we walked back to where the band was having a watch party waiting for the announcement of the semifinal bands.

And here we are, moments after finding out that Lake Hamilton made semifinals, 36 bands out of 104.

So the next afternoon they got to do it all again.

They did not win a medal this year, but it was a great experience for these kids. This is Adler’s section posing for pictures after their performance.

That’s him in the middle.

A ton of work, but a proud moment for Jamie and Adler.

Congratulations Adler, thanks for the road trip.

(I must confess, I did not take this picture. A professional photographer posted a picture of one student from each band, and Adler was the one from Lake Hamilton.)