After the driest September in 130 years, the rains finally came to the mid-Atlantic region. Unfortunately, the rain has been a bit like the Everready Bunny--it just keeps going, and going, and going on, and seems like it will never stop.
Consequently, every job for the past 10 days has been a real challenge, one that requires loading and unloading the gear, often in torrential downpours. In my case, I load the Rock & Roller to full capacity for most jobs, then sometimes have to roll the gear distances up to 150 to 200 feet to get to the front door of the job, which can make for a soggy day.
I have a sheet of plastic that covers the loaded Rock & Roller, but while loading and unloading in heavy rain things were getting soaked. Yes, all of my gear is in protective bags, but those bags are not waterproof, and eventually the moisture soaks through. I had to come up with something for today's job, and it only took a few minutes to devise something that worked well.
The back doors of my full-size van are pretty darned big, big enough to wheel the Rock & Roller between them and still have room to stand. I draped a 6X10-foot Blue-Poly tarp over the tops of the doors, forming a tent like cover. I then attached some 10-ounce fishing weights to some of the eyelets at each side and covered the eyelets with soft rubber tubing. This provided weight to keep the tarp in place, even when the wind was a bit stiff. Along one edge of the tarp I glued a half-dozen refrigerator magnets in place with rubber cement. The magnets hold the edge of the tarp to the top of the van so wind and rain cannot blow under it from that side. It works like a charm.
After loading the gear on the cart, the cart is covered with a lightweight, clear, plastic sheet and wheeled to the venue's door. Once inside, the tarp is folded up and placed in a zip-loc bag. The van tarp is shaken out and placed in the van to use for the return trip.
This is how I keep the equipment dry--how do the rest of you do this?
When it stops raining I'll take some photos and post them.
Cheers,
Gary
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Travlin' Easy
) have covered up a lot of mistakes while playing and the audience rarely even notice them. The number one thing to do when you make a mistake is NEVER show it in your facial expression. Most of the time the audience is never sure you made a mistake but when they see the musicians frowning then they know FOR SURE you DID and it sticks in their mind. But if you keep the same expression like nothing happened then the audience don't think anymore about it and it all moves on as though nothing ever happened.
Whoops!
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