Hot Rods & Hershey Bars

Well, our trip to Southern WV was a big hit and the weather, accept for load in - sorry crew :-) was sunny and hot. To say the least, I am a big star....in the frozen food isle anyway LOL!

From there the Rick K. circus headed to Chocolate Town USA, that is, Hershey, PA to be exact. We had a revved up weekend May 19 & 20 with the Good Guys http://www.good-guys.com/news/hotNews.aspx car club and over 1500 of the east coast's coolest rods.

Although there was an 80% chance of rain during the weekend, we never saw a drop until long after we had hit the road Sunday evening. Gee, I guess the sunshine we had must have been that 20% chance! It was great seeing Rockin' Dave Farley, Harry and all our buds with the GoodGuys.

Quite a few friends from Knoebel's Amusement Park and the surrounding areas came out as well and we got to get in an early summer hello to them. Our adopted Pennsylvania parents, Cephas and Janet Stair, made it to the show to be sure and keep Steve in line. Our PA friends also got their first chance to meet the new guitarist Dustin. Of course they could never get a word in edgewise....if you've met Dustin you know how he just won't shut up LOL! Steve thinks he's kinda "lippy" really LOL. I'll try my best over the summer to keep him quit :-O

The Sometimers horn section was in attendance and section leader Bobby Menear, Dave Shultz and Josh Dean added some hot licks appropriate for a weekend of hot rods. Our friend Pat Maynard from Bloomsburg, PA joined the crew for the weekend and gave Pat Dowdy our stage manager a big hand. It was the Pat & Pat show! I wonder if they're related to the famous TV brothers Larry and Larry?

The summer leg of the tour officially starts this week as we start with a swing back home through West Virginia,

*Thursday, May 24 @ 7:30 PM, Three Rivers Festival, Fairmont, WV

*Friday, May 25 @ 9:00 PM, Webster Co. Woodchopping Festival, Webster Springs, WV

*Saturday, May 26 @ 9:00 PM, Elks Lodge, Grafton, WV

then it's off to the Midwest and Great Lakes. Gentlemen start your engines!

Friends In Southern WV

Passing through Charleston, WV to see some great friends in Accoville, WV today. Anna & Nick Ramirez own a Foodland and have an annual weekend bash to celebrate Anna's birthday.



We always enjoy the laid back atmosphere as we get to kick back after the show with a huge cook out and tell stories with the locals.



The sky looks pretty grey. I hope the weather holds out. These are good, hard working people in this region & I always enjoy bringing the show to them. I hope we get to.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device from U.S. Cellular

O.C. Awesome!

Man, what a great time we had in Ocean City. Thanks to great weather and thousands of friends we had a beach party Thursday, Friday and Saturday to beat all beach parties. Friday's 3 PM show was highlighted by some of the largest crowds of the festival while Saturday's 10 AM rock n' roll breakfast featured a standing ovation following Unchained Melody. Maybe they were just glad it was over LOL!

Me and the guys had a blast in the Ripley's Believe It or Not http://www.ripleys.com/ museum which was really cool. No, really I mean it! We thought it would be some small rip off location but it was three floors packed with so much stuff we could have spent all day. Saw full size replicas of both the world's tallest (8'10") and heaviest (1,400 lbs.) men. Good thing we didn't get behind either of them at one of the boardwalk buffets!

Special thanks to the great people we work with on the Springfest staff, Dave Travis and his hard working crew, John Duttera's great sound with John Ross, Robert, and Wayne and Spectra Entertainment's Connie Pichot.

Back home to Wild Wonderful West Virginia for a hometown area show on Thursday, May 10 at Middletown Mall, Fairmont, WV at 7:30 PM and then down south with some great friends at the Buffalo Foodland anniversary bash at 1 PM, Saturday, May 12 in Accoville, WV. Both shows are FREE FREE FREE and open to the public.

Greetings from the O.C.

With Iowa and the ghosts of legends past in the rear view mirror, my wife and I arrived a day early (yesterday) in Ocean City, MD for our 3 days of performances at the annual Springfest http://ococean.com/springfest.html.

The festival is on the boardwalk and directly beside the beach. The band is arriving shortly but I had a few minutes to drop a line or two. Temps in the 60's today but May winds ocean side will make it feel colder. Partly cloudy today but then nothing but sunshine starting tomorrow and it should be a really fun weekend. Using Bobby Menear and my "Sometimers" horn section this week which will add to the fun on stage. Country star Billy Currington, Davy Jones of the Monkees, and the Grassroots will also be performing this weekend.

Come on, kick off your shoes and hit the beach with us!