Does anyone know how to work a date book?

Where do I begin today? I have lots to write about but I will start with the concert I went to Tuesday (4/3) night in Moline Illinois.

Moline is part of the Quad Cities and is located about 2 and half hours from where I live. Eric Clapton was booked to play the Quad Cities! Rather than get back on the road after the show, we had made a hotel reservation and were planning on spending the night in lovely Davenport Iowa.

For some reason we had put the concert on the calendar for Wednesday (04/4) night. This is where the fun begins! About 3:30 P.M. on Tuesday I decide to go up to EC Access, Clapton's fanclub site to see if anyone had thoughts on the fan club Crossroads festival presale debacle that left most members ticketless, including me. I happened to see a message posted regarding "going to Moline". I clicked on it and the writer was talking about how he was "about to leave for the concert in Moline tonight". I thought, "Wow, they must have added a show" but thought I should look at my tickets. I looked and they said "Tuesday April 3 at 7:30 P.M.". OMG!!! I walked around the corner to my wife's office and said "the Clapton concert is tonight!" She literally shouted "WHAT?" and then "Can we make it?" I said "yes, I think we can but we have no time to spare." She was on her way home to pack a few things within milliseconds. Rather than get back on the road after the show, we had made a hotel reservation and were planning on spending the night in lovely Davenport Iowa, thus there was minor packing to do. I'm not sure I have seen her move at that pace ever! I printed the tickets and was right behind her. We were on the road to Moline at 4:15.

While on the road, we left a voice mail for our "dog sitter" figuring if she was unable to help we might have to call in backup sitter, my son J. Fortunately, she called us back fairly quickly and said there was no problem. It was at this point that I think my blood pressure was beginning to get under control.

We made it to the Quad cities by 6:30 P.M.. Alright it is possible that I exceeded the 65 mph speed limit from time to time but I can't be sure of that (your honor). We checked into the hotel, wolfed down a very mediocre dinner and made it to the show about 10 minutes late. We missed a couple of Robert Cray's opening numbers.

The concert...Robert Cray was very good. The size of this gentleman makes his Stratocaster look like a ukulele. Big man, great style.

I was really looking forward to seeing this leg of the Clapton tour since I had seen one of the earlier stops on the US leg of this tour last September. I thought the band was not quite "smokin" the first time around. They were good...they just weren't killer.

Well, no Derek Trucks this time around. He's apparently off doing an Allman Bros. reunion, so the apples to apples comparison went out the window. I was really disappointed that I wasn't able to watch this kid play again.

Overall, the band was better. EC and Doyle Bramhall had some outstanding guitar duet moments and Doyle had a couple of great solos this time around. Hell, the band is made up of a bunch of all stars...Steve Jordan on drums and Willie Weeks on bass. Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon on keyboards.

EC is EC. He's a virtuoso at any age. At age 62, he's still amazing. He makes it look effortless and that's genius. He pisses me off. He obviously hogged up all the guitar talent because I can't seem to get much. Awesome EC, just awesome.

"Got to Get Better in a Little While" was rockin'. "Cocaine" was the worst rendition of that song that I have ever heard. They were going through the motions. Robert Cray joined the band for a go at "Crossroads" and it was killer.

Summary...nice venue, nice crowd, excellent show, EC is a gift.