Time For Three – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the americana band, Time For Three, shares one of their stories from being on the road. You can check out the story, after the break.

From Peoria to Prague
It was the height of winter and we were in Peoria, Illinois for a show with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. It was an afternoon show on a cold Sunday and our tour manager Dave had calculated a strict itinerary for us so that we could make our flight to Europe that flew out of Chicago’s O’Hare later that night. We were scheduled for a morning rehearsal in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic the very next day.

According to the plan, our show in Peoria would end around 5:00 pm and the drive from Peoria to Chicago is about 3 hours which technically would give us enough time for a leisure ride and an easy check-in for our 9:30 pm flight (with bags) before the cutoff. Dave had it all strictly planned out and had ordered us a stretch limo in order to fit 5 guys (TF3, Dave and our collaborator on drums Matt Scarano) plus our bags and instruments, that would be waiting for us at the stage door. There would be food and drink waiting for us in the limo. Sounded like a glamorous and smooth ride and we were worry-free!

So we finished our show just around the time Dave predicted and we exit the hall to find a limo waiting for us as planned. Then from behind the car stepped Tad, probably the coolest fucking limo driver in the land. He took our bags and let us in the glorious limo where we immediately started making drinks to celebrate the successful show we just played. The limo was decked out with colored lights like it was prom all over again, minus our dates of course haha. Tad let us rock out to whatever music we wanted at whatever volume we wanted while we got rowdier and rowdier. We were on our way and for the first hour or so, it was all smooth sailing. Then a giant blizzard hit us out of nowhere.

Snow was coming down hard but we didn’t notice the blizzard until we were going about 2 miles per hour and saw the HUGE traffic jam that looked like it stretched out for miles. Shit…we really had to make that flight. It was our only option in order for us to make rehearsal the next day and now with the blizzard and the traffic jam, we were about to cut it reaaaaal close. On top of that, we were all wasted and suddenly half-assedly panicking. Dave definitely was. Tad kept us calm and said we should be able to make it there right on time. We all had to pee. Tad said we wouldn’t make it if we made a pit stop. So I pissed in a bottle…and so did others I think, I don’t know I was hammered. An hour goes by and at this point, the blizzard was so bad that we could only see the car in front of us. But, we were picking up speed, the jam was finally loosening up! Our panic subsided a little as we gambled if we were gonna make our flight or not. Tad kept calm the whole time. Cool fucking dude. It was now 30 minutes before our flight was supposed to take off and we had definitely missed the cutoff to check-in bags for an international flight but at least we were approaching the airport. Tad dropped us off at a terminal and we ran inside looking for our airline. Our airline was nowhere to be found. WE WERE AT THE WRONG FUCKING TERMINAL! Not cool Tad. Now there was only about 20 minutes before took off. We were certain we would miss it. Tad called Dave. Dave rushes us out of the terminal to find Tad there in a panic to tell us to get back in, a very different demeanor from his usual cool self. He rushed us over to the correct terminal in what felt like lightspeed which convinced us we still had a small chance to make it or at least try to hold the plane. We got to our airline’s check-in counter in a sweat, completely sober now and ready to beg our way onto the plane only to be greeted by smiling faces at the counter. Dave blurted a mile a minute about how we got stuck in a storm, how we just had a show and we really had to make the flight so that we could make rehearsal the next day in Prague etc etc. The wonderful lady at the counter just smiled and said,

“How many bags are you checking in? Your flight had just been delayed 2 hours because of the storm.”

I’ve never felt such bittersweet relief in my life. (And no, I’m not talking about pissing in a bottle)

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