We’ve been writing up our travels as we go, and you can come along by visiting http://www.projectarctic.com/tourblog …

I keep being amazed by the difference in the venues and crowds at each location. Regina’s show was at O’Hanlon’s, a straight-up Irish pub. It’s a pretty big place, with an upstairs balcony; they play U2 and Van Morrison over the speakers while they serve typical Irish pub fare (I had bangers & mash, in honour of the Radiohead song named after the meal). And the place fills up pretty nicely with Friday-night drinkers and carousers.

Lorrie Matheson started the night - he’s a Dylan-esque singer-songwriter from Calgary. Really interesting lyrics and he does looping as well. And he has the exact same kind of merch case that we do. Great minds think alike.

Unlike last night in Medicine Hat, which was more of a downtempo lounge environment, this looked like it called for something a bit more danceable. Marcus managed to persuade the crowd to stop lurking along the sides of the room and come stand near us, and we kicked into a good version of “You Coming Down” and got the momentum going… except that something on Todd’s snare drum broke during the song. He rushed off to fix it after we finished, and Marcus filled the space by playing “Launching Pad” solo - not part of the plan for the night, especially since it’s very, very mellow, but a good save. After that things went more or less according to plan. There were a few full-on happy drunken dancers who were fun to watch. We finished on “Anything More” and a bunch of people shouted for more, which is always nice, so we did our extended dance remix of “You Coming Down” to make up for the lack of snare the first time, and people seemed to get into that. Some towns are dancin’ towns and some towns aren’t. Vancouver isn’t. Regina is.

Over the course of the night I heard or saw about five or six glasses smash. While we were playing I saw one guy drop his second glass of the evening, and it looked deliberate - he just reached his arm out and loosened his fingers and CRASH. Later I saw him with a third glass, but he went back and set it on a table. I wonder why O’Hanlon’s doesn’t switch to plastic.

We wanted to stay at our happy little Sunshine Motel in Indian Head where we ended up by chance on the last trip, but we phoned ahead and to our shock and amazement it was booked up. I guess it does only have four rooms. We stayed at someplace called Travel Inn, one of a few independents in the main drag of hotels, and it was good but forgettable. We did stop at the Craft-Tea Elevator House again (right next to the Sunshine) for brunch today, though.

Just crossing the Manitoba border now as I write this. Today is a long drive - about 7 hours - and tomorrow will be even longer, about 9. Anyone have any suggestions for good exercises to do when you’re stuck in a car all day?