A Trip to the Badlands and Black Hills

I'd only heard about the Badlands but never have been. It's been a busy summer and I didn't have any days off either with work or the band so my wife and I set aside some time for a little road trip of our own. We hopped in our little car and headed West from St. Paul, MN. On interstate 90 you cannot miss the signs for Wall Drug, one of the most famous gift shops in the country. I think we counted some 40 cartoon-like signs on the 8 and a half hour trip. "Cowboy Up - Wall Drug," "5 cent Coffee at Wall Drug," "Free ice water - Wall Drug,"  and the many mile count downs to the place. The ride is pretty flat until you get further west, then you start to see some big rolling hills and acres and acres of yellow Sunflowers which was a real beautiful site to see.

Near the end of our trek across South Dakota we saw our first glimpse of "Badlands" style formations about the size of a few cars. "Oh look there's the Badlands" we joked and laughed. "There it is. Lets turn back." But then then we turned our heads to the other side of the road and saw these HUGE vast formations and we both fell silent and then "WOW!!" Really cool to see stuff like this for the first time. It is like they say about it looking like the surface of the moon or some strange sci-fi landscape. Now I was getting excited to see more. We approached the national park and had a couple hours before check-in so we drove through and walked a couple trails and fed some Prarie Dogs. Apparently they love peanuts. It got really hot here and we found it difficult to follow some of their trails as some of them were poorly marked but we found our way.

Our first night we stayed in a little cabin of our our in Wall, SD. We walked down to Wall Drug of course and spent some time there checking out all the jewelry, leather goods, shirts and knick knacks. After that, we grilled some brats and watched the sun set.

The following day was spent hiking more Badlands trails and then driving up to Hisega. We stayed at the oldest lodge in the Black Hills called the Hisega Lodge. This bed and breakfast was located right on a river in the woods. Just a gorgeous location. The owners were very kind and told us of the history of the lodge as well as some of the paranormal experiences which my wife and I were very eager to hear about. We spent the evening on the second floor front porch outside our room eating take-out and playing dominoes with the loud sound of the river just down below, waiting to see if an apparition of women in white would walk by.

Breakfast at the Hisega was amazing. Some sort of delicious peach cake and a breakfast pizza. We sat all together at one table with the other guests and got to know how everyone else's trips were going. From here we traveled north through more of the Black Hills and met up with a woman who would take us on a horseback ride for a couple hours. It was just three of us so that was pretty great.  I've been on a horse a few times and really liked the experience so I thought it would be cool out here too. Our guide Barbara was awesome. I learned about Western geological words like "Gultch," "Bench" and "Butte." She took us through the woods and up the side of this huge hill that opened up to this great overlook of the land below and also saw Deadwood in the distance. I was pretty overwhelmed looking out at this point with a really intense feeling. Some sort of spiritual "fit" to the experience and the surroundings. My horse was named Scarlet and Brigid rode a wheezing horse named Doc.

Barbara gave us some tips on were to go from there to get to Deadwood so we followed her directions on 14A through the Black Hills.

Alot of "wow"s from Brigid and I passing through here. Rivers, creeks, mountains and forests on these hilly winding roads. We stopped for an "Indian Taco" for lunch. It's basically a Native American fry bread with taco fixin's on top.

We arrived at the famous wild west city of Deadwood.

It was really cool here. Settled in a neat valley. You might know Deadwood from the TV show too. We just started watching it the night we got back from this trip. Wild Bill Hickok was killed here. Calamity Jane lived there and Seth Bullock was the sheriff. This late 1800's era town used to be home to cowboys and miners with lots of brothels, gambling and daily murders. I wore my western wear and someone asked me if I was part of the reenactment that happened 3 times a day in the streets. I think my longish hair and mustache helped on that point. Still alot of slot machine casino stuff here. We wanted to get up to the old cemetery but just didn't have enough time.

We stayed at the Bullock Hotel that Seth Bullock owned. The Bullock is also famous for being a major haunted location. Of course we had to stay there! In fact the whole city has been known as the "City of The Dead" as so many people have witnessed paranormal activity in most of it's buildings and houses.  Kitty corner from the Bullock is The Farimont Hotel which is also notably haunted (check out Dead Files and Ghost Lab TV shows). We were so lucky to get our own ghost tour at The Bullock and later after hours with Fairmont owner Bob Rousseau! Brigid and I came prepared with a video camera, EMF detectors and voice recorders.

In the Bullock we got to spend some time alone in the basement at the end of our tour. Brigid and I sat at the bar. At one point I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and Brigid got the same feeling and as this happened we got a couple good readings on our EMF detector. It was for sure an odd feeling that lasted quite a few minutes. We explored other areas but this was the most significant moment for us.

In the Farimont we walked through the building after closing time with the owner Bob. At one point, we stood on the 2nd floor in this big long open room where renovations were being made. We all heard something that sounded like a woman real quick from the next room! Both the 2nd and 3rd floors had a spooky feel to them in spots as well. I kept looking over my shoulder having the feeling that someone else was just behind me. We also hung out in a room were a woman had jumped out the window. Bob also showed us the documents of the day signed by Sol Star (partner to Seth Bullock) describing the suicide.

While in Deadwood we got our pictures taken at one of those "old west" photo places!

I felt like I wanted a steak and a whiskey in this old town so we got some food and drinks later in the evening, walked the streets and played some slot machines.

In the morning it was breakfast at Bully's at the hotel and then we got in the car and headed back. 10 hours to home. Really great time. We packed alot in! I think we might head back some day as there is so much more to see including Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument as well as some other key haunted locations.

Little Run: On the Road with Little Man

Little Man got out for a little tour run this past week hitting Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago trying out new songs and promoting Orbital Amusement. Here's what all went down.

DAY 1: A van of drummers and me.
My old Little Man drummer Sean Sauder came along for tour help. It's great to have someone to help with driving, moving gear and to sell merch. Happy to have him along. Then there's my current drummer Sean Gilchrist and my bass player Brian Herb who is also an accomplished drummer. Packed up gear and drove to Milwaukee. It wasn't until a couple hours in that I realized that the van conversation was all drums and that I was surrounded by - drummers. I have to say drummers are usually interesting characters. You probably know some crazy folks. They might be drummers. These guys here in the van are great. I love 'em. Thankful to have them help me out and be a part of this band.

It's a beautiful drive across Wisconsin from the Twin Cities in the summer. We made it through just fine with a stop at the good ol' Subway. Swarmed in the parking lot by an entire high school cheerleading squad. I so wanted them to spell out the band's name. L-I-TT-LE...M-A-N! That would have been fun.

We played a place called Club Garibaldi in Milwaukee. Cool spot. Very Minnesota "nordeast" feel. Carved wood, brass and vintage looking stuff about the place. Very nice staff. We really enjoyed hanging out and having dinner outside over at The Palomino.

The Cactus Club is just next door. First night out was slightly rag-tag for me starting off, but then we rolled right into the set real good. Plus I got try out a guitar pedal from ZVEX I brought along straight from their office called the Machine which gave me some inspiration. Big room, meet some real nice people here. The night ended at The Sleep-In. This hotel was really great. Plus we got the big handicap room to pile into. Whiskey party.

DAY 2: Celebrate with The Mel's and the ghost's.
Headache. Perfect place for lunch was Glorioso's. An amazing Italian deli in Milwaukee. You HAVE to go there.

It poured rain at this time. Hop in the van and on the road to Madison. We got to spend the afternoon at Sean's sister-in-law's place not too far from the club. It was really nice to have a place to chill out, sit on the porch, grill and nap. Beautiful day.

Here's me at the cool little shed out in the back yard.

The club was The Frequency. We had played here before not too long ago. Love this place. Great rock & roll club. Staff is awesome. So I'm sitting at the bar with my feet tucked back on the stool rung and I thought someone's foot bumped into mine. No worries. Then it happened again about 2 minutes later and I look back to see who's kicking my foot and NO ONE WAS THERE!!! Here's when I asked the club manager Darwin about paranormal activity. "Oh yeah," he said, "this place used to be a funeral home." He's seen a couple strange things including a little girl. That could have been who was playing with me. He's also heard voices as clear as day in the basement. Pretty neat stuff.

Our friends from back home, The Melismatics where on the bill to celebrate the release of their new album. It sounds great. All of the people in this band are really very cool folks and it's always great to be on a bill with them. They put on one hell of a show. Fun to get in a slot hockey game with bassist Mark in the haunted greenroom basement. 5-3 me. I love those things. Also Garbage guitarist Duke Erikson was in the club and we got to talk a bit about guitar gear. Very cool.

We played a great show here and it was a fun audience. After bar we shared a bottle of Prosecco on our host's deck till the very wee hours. Salute and bouna notte.

DAY 3: My old residence, Chicago!

After a great home-made breakfast we headed to Chicago, Illinois. Sometimes I miss this city and it feels real good to roll in with the band back to the place I lived for about 8 years. Tonight we play at Reggie's Music Joint for their 6th anniversary bash. Real cool to be a part of that. We played with some great bands including The Ghost Wolves out of Austin.This is a fantastic place with a great vibe. Lot's of people here all night. Got to meet up with some great friends. Some old friends even from way back when I lived here, and most of them saw Little Man right at the very beginning of getting the band started in the late 90's. Real strong show hear and I loved every minute of it.

After the show we checked out The Dictators next door for a few songs. Then we loaded out and headed for my good friend Dave's place. You know Dave? He was one of my drummers with Little Man when I lived in Chicago. He plays with Ike Reilly now. We're musical brothers. Our beer run on the way to Dave's took us four tries at the late hour, but we found some. At Dave's apartment we got to listen to new mixes of ours and Ike's. Great to hang out with him, but yes, now I'm hanging out with four drummers. Old Style (hey we're in Chicago!), PBR beers all around and more whiskey.

DAY 4: Travel
Continued party till 4, up at 8. Drove home to the Twin Cities. Construction was hell. It took us an hour to get to the freeway. We couldn't even make it onto the free way before the guys wanted to stop and rest at the Dunkin' Donuts. Construction still on the freeway and tolls on a very hot mid 90's weather with no A/C made for a longer trip back, but boy what a fun time. Great run. TOURRRR!!!!!

The Perricelli's go to Sicily

Sicily!!! My gosh what an adventure. My wife and I traveled to the Mediterranean to visit the Italian island with my mother, father and sister for 8 days to celebrate my folks 40th wedding anniversary. Some of my family is from Naples on the mainland but most of my lineage is from Cattania, Caltenassetta and San Cataldo, Sicily. We got to visit these towns and literally feet the magic. We saw my mothers maiden name on a nearby shop and enjoyed some pizza from a local bakery which was very similar to to they style of pizza my grandfather, father and I make. It was really fun to see that and have a taste. Buonissimo!

Sicily is totally beautiful and blew my expectations away. We flew to Palermo, met up with our guide Alfie and headed straight out after an 8 hour flight from New York's JFK (got up at 4 am to catch our flight from Minneapolis). Being in the airport I could practically feel Italy and got excited as we were surrounded by Italians and the sound of the language. It seemed like we were at a big family reunion with distant cousins.

Sicily is very mountainous, there are towns in valleys, sides and on the very top of mountains. Lots of palm trees and cactus. Very similar to California and Mexico. Quite hot in the mid 90's this September. All sorts of hazel nut, almond, pistachio, fig, peach, orange and olive trees. Plenty of wine vineyards. We zoomed around the city in a private passenger van, caught the sights in the historical area including beautiful church, a catacomb full of hanging skeletons and had our first taste of Sicilian food at a trattoria on Mondello Beach. Straight away we did it up with a Prosecco, pasta, aracini (a delicious large fried rice ball with meat, sauce, onions and peas), seafood and local wine. Stray Sicilian cats crept by once and awhile and we saw them throughout our visit. This was a great first meal.

From there we traveled east to Castel De Tusa and the medieval town of Tusa up above. Strolled through town as we seemed to be the only tourists around and hung out at a little deli for a panini and a beer. Then it was off to Cefalu near the water for another walk through town and a swim in the Tirreanean Sea.

Our guide Alfie Orlando

Day 3 found us in the port of Messina, from where you can see Italy's mainland, to watch an amazing clock turn noon with a Negroni cocktail, antipasta and an excellent pepper pasta in the town square, then over for a cannoli at a nearby bakery.

We drove up and up and up, winding and zig zaging to the little town of Savoca where some of the movie The Godfather was filmed. They shot the wedding scene here, as well as a scene at Bar Vitelli that we took a little break at. Again, we were the only tourists up here, it was totally peaceful and beautiful and got to hang out with some of the people that were actually in the movie. Another plus to having a guide was that not only do we travel to places not very many people visit but also that he's there to tell us the history, help with the language and have conversations with locals.

Taormina is a beautiful seaside resort town. We enjoyed a cocktail at the famous Wunderbar, had pizza for dinner, people watched and walked through town at night. Toaromina, Messina, Caltanassetta and Cattania were notably hip on fashion. There's clothes shops everywhere and people especially like to get dressed up in the evenings for a stroll. Italians love there shoes and it showed. Mostly high heels and wedges, short skirts and dresses on women. The men donned high collared polo's and thin pants often colored solid red, purple, light blue or white. Also the Sicilian football team's colors are black and pink, so a man in a pink shirt was frequently seen.

We visited Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano and had the most delicious lunch way up there that seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere. Stripped bare trees and crumbly volcanic rock surrounded the place where we ate and just next door they were rebuilding from where the lava had totally engulfed the previous structure from a recent eruption. This was the best meal ever. I exclaimed that I was in "gastronomic ecstasy" with a truly wonderful tomato sauce macaroni and a BBQ dish with a delightful red wine.

The typical day was breakfast at the hotel, then a hop in the van for fast windy road traveling to our first destination. A walk about town with a cocktail or espresso at a little bar, back to the van for more travel and another walk through town or a swim in the sea. We saw many Norman castles and strongholds (1100's) and visited very old churches and Greek ruins dating as far back as 585bc. Lunches were around 2 or 3pm and we ate dinner at about 8:30, 9pm usually. These were big events. Dinners finished with lemoncello's, the popular lemon liquor, often on the house.

We were in such awe by the sheer beauty of Sicily and how delicious and fresh the food was. Everywhere we looked was good enough for a postcard. Every little narrow ally with hung clothes, smells of Parmesan cheese, flowerpots and cobbled streets was SO Italian. Most of all it was fun to be together as a family and to actually be in the towns where my relatives lived. I think we'll be back.

The plane trip home was exhausting. We flew from Palermo to Naples (45minutes), then sat in the plane, on the tarmac for 3 and a half hours(!!) before taking of tho New York. This time it took 10 hours and Air Meridiana was not the greatest. Lot's of the amenities on the plane didn't work, like my seat that wouldn't stay in the upright position or the tv screen built into the seat that flickered. The flight attendants and everyone on the plane spoke Italian. We got back to the USA as everone applauded at touchdown. Coming in 5 hours late we missed our connecting flight to Minneapolis so we had to grab a hotel room and catch the first flight back to Minnesota in the late morning. Whew, what trip and well worth it!!