First I would like to thank our white Ford van, which, despite various dashboard warning lights flashing on and off throughout the course of the trip, did get us home safely.

Next I would like to thank vodka and Netflix. On this tour I learned how to love vodka (great, just what I need), and I also discovered the joys of Netflix on the road. Turns out you can change your shipping address and pick up DVD’s at various friends’ houses on the way, then mail them back from hotels. Which enabled me to meet my goal of watching basically the entire Sex and the City on my laptop during our long van rides.

In other words, the tour through my eyes was kind of like this: Hotel. Travelers’ prayer (which I say every morning when travelling). Carrie & Mr. Big. Waffle House. Load-in, soundcheck, vodka, gig, vodka. Miranda & Steve. Hotel. Travelers’ prayer. Carrie & Mr. Big with commentary. Waffle House. Charlotte and Agent Cooper (I mean, Trey MacDougal). Waffle House. Load-in, soundcheck, vodka, gig, vodka. Hotel. Etc.

But obviously, much as I love Sarah Jessica Parker, playing shows was definitely the highlight; being on stage night after night with my beloved fellow Golemites was a dream. And travelling with Balkan Beat Box was great fun, kind of like pulling into town with a big electronic circus; by the end they felt like brothers. One of my favorite moments of the tour was when BBB serenaded us as a band as we stood behind our merch table after our last show together, in Ithaca.

Other favorite moments included teaching a fiddle lesson at a Super 8 Motel in Asheville; the amazing vegetarian hot dogs they sell on the street in Toronto (I loved Toronto!); and seeing Niagara Falls for the first time out the van window (we didn’t stop, but we did drive by slowly). And seeing friends in various cities along the way. Also lighting shabbes candles and doing kiddush backstage as a band in Baltimore, my hometown. That was a great show for me: not only long lost high school friends came, but also one of my first music teachers, the fabulous Leo Wanenchak. And of course my parents, who not only came to the show but welcomed us to the Rabins Homestead not once but twice.

We also played at a bar mitzvah party where the poet Mary Oliver was a guest (unfortunately, I think we were a bit too loud for her); performed in a venue which was the childhood home of the inventor of the Tommy Gun; and were refused service in a Pennsylvania diner, perhaps due to our matching track-suits. We definitely felt like freaks in certain areas of the country, but that just made us love the fellow freaks who came to see us even more.

Now fall is in full swing here in Brooklyn. It’s beautiful. It’s good to be home. And come Chanukah, it’ll be good to be on tour again.