Like Royalty Frozen Over

After the longest drive of the tour so far (approx 850 miles), we're here in blustery Rochester, Michigan. I walked off the bus this morning to the delightful/alarming sight of *gasp!* snow. We all knew it was coming but none of us were prepared for it. Some of us in the band have a pair of gloves or a scarf or a hat, but nobody seems to have brought all of the above. Facing winter seemed like a far-off notion to me...yet here it is. So I scuffled as quickly as I could into the hotel, while feeling like my skin was being ripped off by the cold air. Well, okay it wasn't quite that bad.

We're thankfully staying at the Royal Park Hotel, which is basically what you'd see if opulence threw up on luxury.
I was very psyched about my room:

So I went about my normal hotel christening ritual, the bed jump:

In the middle of this, I got a phone invitation to join Candice and Jaco on a wintry odyssey about town. Despite the fact that I couldn't seem to find my gloves or hat, I threw on a hoodie and headed out. Jaco was much more bundled up:

He only looked a tiny bit like a crazed psychopath. So out we went. The impossible had occurred. The weather had actually cooled down since I was last outside. We all linked arms like schoolchildren and braved the icy sidewalks of Rochester.

[there would be pictures of snow and holiday decor here, but it was far too cold to take my hands out of my pockets to photograph anything -- so use your imagination]

Candice was looking for a specific restaurant with some sort of legendary bread, but she had forgotten the name, so we wandered for a bit and stumbled upon an oddly-named, overly-facaded joint on the main drag:

Looked good enough. More importantly, looked warm enough.

It turned out we'd accidentally stumbled into exactly the place we were looking for. And the bread was very good. Even better though...was the absolute best cup of warm cider I've ever had:

Yes, that is cinnamon on the rim, and I died a little knowing that no cider will ever make me this happy again.
Then we called a shuttle back to the hotel and promised never to go outside again.