Back at home with Morgan Orion

Posted in MUSIC to Tour Diaries by Erin Hayes on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 11:00 am

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Well, Morgan and I have been back in C-U for almost a week now, but I think it's important to finish painting the tour picture for anyone who's been reading. However, since it is no longer spring break, this will have to be brief. So, I'm going to recap the final days of the tour in list form, with some photos inserted as necessary.

After Jackson, our stops were:

Pensacola

Went to a vegan restaurant/café called End of the Line. While there, a probably-homeless man told me that I would one day be a famous actress or singer, and whipped a Mary Kay mirror out of his jacket to give me. He claimed that the restaurant had a photo of him flashing a peace sign on the wall; when he left, I looked on the wall — it was a photo of Elvis.

We were accompanied by some local musicians and their friends.

The previous night, we stayed at a musician's house which was infested with fleas. I was uncomfortable about staying in such an environment, but Morgan persuaded me that it would be okay. We ate some garlic and slept with a packet of lavender (Did either help? I have no idea.), and I came out of the ordeal with only one flea bite, on my foot.

Morgan didn't get to play an official show; we took a wrong turn on the highway and missed his show at the Et Café.

However, Morgan did get to play some songs for some kids at the house where we stayed.

We went to visit beaches in a neighboring suburb. It was cloudy and chilly, but still nice.

Ran into a fair on the way out of town.

New Orleans

Got to Morgan's sister Gabrielle's place (where we were staying) a little after midnight. We went out at about 1 to try and get sushi, but it was raining and the town was flooding-there was one place we drove past where a car was up to its windshield in water. Instead of sushi, we stopped at high ground and ate at a bar & grill/laundromat called Igor's. It was a strange place, but it fixed the hunger problem.

Pretty much hung around the house all the next day. Morgan played a show on his sister's porch that night.

Next day, we ate at a Middle Eastern place called Mona's, then hit the French Quarter.

We also stopped by Louis Armstrong park.

Morgan and I returned to Gab's place when she went to work at Lola's, a Spanish restaurant. We ended up going to Lola's later, for dinner. The food was delicious: bread with garlic aioli, ceviche, some sort of garlic-roasted mushrooms, seafood paella, and almond ice cream, all accompanied by in-house sangria.

Stayed our last night. The following day, we returned to the Quarter before leaving town so that I could find a birthday gift for a friend at the open market. The drive ahead of us was all the way back to Champaign, so our start (afternoon) was a bit late. We managed to make good progress into Missouri by midnight, but we decided to stay overnight in a town called Sikeston to avoid dangerous sleepy driving. This was the only time on the tour we had to pay for our lodging (we stayed at a Best Western by the highway). The next morning, we left the hotel, which was surrounded by many ridiculous fowl.

A dude tried to hitch a ride with us, but we didn't take him. We stopped to eat Subway in southern Illinois, and arrived back in Champaign early in the afternoon (early enough for me to make it to work by 2 p.m.).

Now it's back to life as usual. Morgan Orion's next show in C-U will be on the opening night of IMC Fest: Friday, April 17 at 6:40 p.m. (in the Independent Media Center, as the name of the fest would suggest). He will be preceded by Megan Johns, and Headlights will perform later in the evening. It'll be a show worth checking out!