After months of waiting, the 2005 marching season finally arrived and we were giddy with excitement. In what has become an annual tradition, I spend several hours the night before the first show cleaning my camera equipment.

As many of you know, it is absolutely critical that we listen to the proper music on the way to the show. Both Evansville Central and Mt. Vernon are close to our homes, so we had to find something that would not only get us hyped to shoot the shows, but do it quickly. Fortunately Tim had just the thing.

Some people think that Queen is one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time. Can any of their original recordings be improved? You betcha! A band named The Former Yugoslavia has remade one of Queen’s classics into a version that not only captures the raw passion of singer Freddie Mercury, but also enunciates each word according to the strict standards of Merriam-Webster. Check out the Dictionaraoke version of Bohemian Rhapsody

The first show started at 11:00am so we had time to go somewhere, sit down and have a leisurely breakfast. We decided to stop at a local restaurant and go over our strategy for the day. The hostess recognized us and said, "Hey, it's the SI guys!" "Is Scott pregnant?" I explained that I put on a few pounds since last season. She said, "well, I have the perfect breakfast for you!" She called it the "Tapeworm Special," and said it was marketed as a meal for people who are perpetually hungry. The meal was essentially an all-you-can-eat breakfast bar. Tim and I decided to go for it because we knew that we would not get a chance to eat lunch for a couple hours.

The forecast was for sunny weather so Tim and I stopped to pick up some sunscreen. There were many brands to choose from, so we asked the lady behind the counter - whose nametag said "Squeeky" - to recommend a sunscreen for us. Her suggestion was predictable:

So with our sunscreen in hand, we headed off to the show.

One of the cool things about being an SI staffer is that people recognize you and are always willing to help anyway they can. That usually includes free entry into shows. We can always count on the folks at Evansville Central to roll out the welcome mat for us.

The show was relatively short, but we were happy to get out see a bunch of our old friends and take a few photos. Tim and I were having a great time until the awards ceremony. I opened up the contest program to write down the names of the award winners and then I saw something that devastated me.

There was no pit crew award! I looked to the heavens and screamed NOOOOOOOO!!!! Then I turned to the stands, pointed my finger at the press box and said "this is YOUR fault - people who I can’t see in the press box!" "How dare you deny the pit crews something that they worked so hard for during the off season?!?" "I sure hope you sleep well tonight." Then I fell to the ground and started sobbing. Tim finally calmed me down and we headed back to the car. We had a quick lunch and updated the web site with the Evansville Central results, sans pit crew caption.

Our next stop was the Mt. Vernon Invitational. Tim and I have been members of the band staff at Mt. Vernon for several years and we know a lot of people there. When we got to the gate we were happy to see our old friend and former Mt. Vernon drum major Stephanie Copeland. After we re-introduced ourselves, Stephanie checked the contest program to see if our names were in there. I heard her mumble "Sure you’re staff members. I don’t see your names in the program. Some people will say anything to get free admission."

Soon afterwards, Amanda Greenwell, another former Mt. Vernon DM stopped by to remind us that we had some business to take care of.

The show started and the sun set quickly. Unfortunately the lighting at Mt. Vernon’s stadium is not very good so most of the photos were a little dark. Here’s an example of one of the better ones.

Tim and I are working on web-based scratch-n-sniff photos for the ones that don’t turn out very well. That way you can at least smell what happened at the show in the event that you can’t see it. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

What a great opening weekend! We saw some great shows, met a bunch of old friends and even made some new ones. It is going to be a great season!