Day 41

Date: June 24, 2011

Time: 11:50pm (PST)

Playing on iTunes: "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry

Location: West Clovis, CA

Recent trip: 270 miles

California just keeps getting better and better. Went to the beach yesterday, now we're at a beautiful high school with beautiful weather; 75 and sunny! Couldn't ask for more.

When the corps wakes up everyday, there is a whiteboard on the food truck that has the schedule for the day. Although we're usually told where to go and what to do, it's nice to know the schedule of the day just incase if you have someone visiting and they need to know what's going on. And it's just nice to know how your day is going to lay out. Personally I love it because I love having a scheduled life...couldn't live without it. Here's what a show day schedule could look like (varies day to day):

Now as I said, this high school is REALLY nice. Not to mention very wealthy. They have a semi for their band equipment along with a box truck and a small trailer to move more equipment. I was very impressed to say the least.

On top of the nice automotive vehicles, they have an olympic sized swimming pool! WHAT?! This is absolutely insane. What kind of high school needs an olympic sized swimming pool?? In talking with my Uncle who is from California, apparently this school is big into swimming. And that they were because when we woke up for the day at 8a, there were already kids outside practicing their swimming. Very dedicated group of high schoolers.




As the pit was loading the truck, we were having a lot of trouble with this smell that was going around the parking lot. To me it smelt like burning rubber, to my friend Dan it smelt like sewage. Regardless, it was not pleasant and was distracting most of us. We ending up finding out they were tarring the roofs around the school grounds. Not the best thing to deal with but we got through by covering out faces up with old t-shirt sleeves that we had cut off our shirts during spring training to make sleeveless shirts. As you can see below, Samuel Ferrante is modeling his grey sleeve that is covering up his nose so he doesn't have to deal with the smell.

After our rehearsal that day, we were off to our first show in California! The one thing that I appreciated when going into that stadium was the one fan who yelled out before we performed "Welcome to California!!". That made me feel very welcome to the state since we aren't the favorited group around the area.


Tonight, my Uncle Alan and Aunt Angela came to see me perform with the Cadets. This is the first of many visits from my family throughout the summer so it was great to see some "outsiders" that I was close with. I really missed them and was so happy to see them. I haven't seen them in a long time since they live in California. They were both very impressed with the show and the dedication everyone in the corps has for perfection, performance, and overall greatness. My uncle said, "Ya know, let me tell you something Robert...never in my life have I see such a dedicated group of kids. You're all amazing. Keep up the good work kid." That made my night because it shows that people realize appreciate all the hard work that we put in. All in all it was a great night.

Uncle Alan and Aunt Angela came to see the Cadets!!

Scores from tonight:


CLOVIS, CA
1) The Cadets - 75.3
2) Blue Devils - 74.6
3) Phantom Regiment - 71.3
4) Santa Clara Vanguard - 71.3




Thought of the Day: "Take some time to broaden your horizons and see what's out there in the world. You'll learn a lot."