Kid Canaveral at SxSW: 'Good afternoon, Houston!'

After around twenty minutes at the "luggage carousel" it was clear that something was wrong. I had nipped to the "restroom" (yeah, inverted commas may feature in this quite heavily methinks) and returned to see a panicked look on David and Roses faces. After much deliberation we decided that it might be a good idea to check our receipts that we had been given at Newark airport by the wonderfully helpful (sarcasm) check-in attendant.

Alas, it became apparent after checking the automated baggage tracker that David's guitar and Rose's bass had been sent to Edinburgh.  Or had it?
After finally finding a real human being to ask "so, where the f*^% are our guitars?" we established that they had been put in the lost luggage for some strange reason. After David saying his thank yous and signing some autographs (yes, really), we were good to go. 

Next up was the car hire place where we were put through what can only be described as a "rigorous and thorough frisking" and we came out the other end with a car which was  stupidly large on the outside but disappointingly small on the inside.  Off to Austin then.  No?
As it turns out we received a phonecall from Folko, of BBC documentary fame, en route to Austin wanting to do some filming of our journey to show our arrival from NYC, and indeed, compare all the routes that the different Scottish bands had taken getting to Austin.  Cue the stop off at a services outside Elgin where David and Kate did some driving shots and then Rich (cameraman) got in the car with us to do some action shots.  Our banter was rank rotten - an extreme hangover in addition to the heat and having to drive for four hours meant that we weren't exactly singing and dancing with excitement.  I think we may have indeed came across as being ecstatic to still be in a car and not in a bed - possibly a subliminal high/delayed after effect from the NYC shows.

Finally we arrived at Michael Zakes gaff.  The wonderful Mr Michale Zakes, who offered, after seeing us at Edinburgh Popfest, to put us up and indeed also have us play at his cycle shop on Saturday 19th.  He made some awesome Mexican food and then we went out to a pretty cool bar to see less cool and pretty dubious bands play.  After three pitchers of the local tipple - Live Oak Heffe  - it was definitely time for bed.  We made it back on the 481 night bus in a safe but very weary state.  David and I got the futon - ahffankyou and Kate and Rose have their own room, hmmph.

Today we are playing the Scottish Evening Showcase with some rather awesome bands.  I'm particularly looking forward to seeing Errors and then getting some MARGARITAS.