Jodie Ponto Photography

What most people don’t know is that touring musician is really a synonym for trucker. The vast majority of time on tour with a band is spent in a vehicle. Life becomes a series of whizzing dashboard scenes and you become more intimate than you ever thought was humanly possible with gas stations, CBC radio, side of the road pee stops, and creative methods for amusing yourself and staying awake on long-haul drives.

That said, here is what 7,500kms of BC and Alberta roads looks like through my iPhone and the Vangina windshield.

Banff National Park, AB

Jasper National Park, AB

Crowsnest Highway, AB

Crowsnest Highway, AB

Medicine Hat, AB

Kootenay Pass, BC

Highway 95, BC

Kootenay National Park, BC

Kootenay National Park, BC

This is what having an entire day off in Spences Bridge, BC (home of the Desert Daze music festival) looks like:

Home sweet retreat in Spences Bridge.

Music, music, music.

Holy mother of shit-hot shack shaking, does Cumberland ever know how to go to a show!  I’m talking raring to rock n’ roll full force festival crowd style. I’ve spent most of the past 3 years living in the corners of small venues across the country so trust me when I say The Waverley is a gem.

Here are a few photos from the show in question — Miss Quincy & The Showdown and one of our biggest band crushes, The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown

Miss Quincy & The Showdown as painted by Rhia Ironside

The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer

Cumberland Crowd

The ever-dapper Vig Schulman

Air Guitar

Every once in a while there’s a tour stop that’s so much like a vacation you can’t believe you get to call it work.  For example, the past 2 days Miss Quincy & The Showdown and I spent at the Long Beach Resort Lodge in Tofino.

Home sweet rainforest cottage.

Cox Bay panorama #1. Click on the photo for a bigger & better view.

Cox Bay panorama #2. Click on the photo for a bigger & better view.

Winter Surfers.

Fun with bull kelp.

Pre-show cottage rehearsal.

Post-show cabin jam with The Poor Pistols.

Shari channels her childhood violin lessons.

This is what Vancouver looks like at night from atop Cypress Mountain.

(Click the photo to get a closer look)

Mount Maxwell is supposed to be the highest point on Salt Spring Island and offer “Oooh! Ahhh!” views of Vancouver Island, the surrounding Gulf Islands, and mainland BC.  I can’t be sure if that’s true because when I was there it was socked in with fog straight out of a haunted postcard.

(To check out Salt Spring’s backyard farms click here. To check out Salt Spring’s fall frenzy click here.)

Fall‘s flaming in full fiery force on Salt Spring Island.

(To check out haunted postcards of Salt Spring’s spooky old trees click here. To check out Salt Spring’s backyard farms click here.)

Maxwell Lake.

Maple leaf covered beach.

Salt Spring Island is dotted with hundreds of little backyard farms of all varieties.  It’s one of the only places I’ve ever been where folks leave their fruits/vegetables/eggs/cheese/milk/meat/baking/etc. unattended in roadside stands with a price list and honour system style you take what you want, write down what you purchased, and leave your money in the cash box.

(To check out Salt Spring’s fall frenzy click here. To check out haunted postcards of Salt Spring’s spooky old trees click here. )

Here’s an absolute once in a lifetime photo adventure — Full moon light so bright that the sky & lake both shine hints of blue and a night & water so warm that no one hesitates to dive in naked for the 30+ second exposures required to make silhouettes appear.  All light in these photos is solely from the moon.

Oyama Lake by full moon light.

Midnight moonlit swim in Oyama Lake.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown moonlight as Sailor Moon.

Attempting to awaken Artemis.

How many upright bass players do you know who can hold their big brown friend above their head for 30 seconds while submerged naked in a lake? I only know one — Shari Rae.

In this summer’s second display of unprecedented sportiness (see Hiking Quincy Style for the first), Miss Quincy, The Showdown, and I spent the last weekend of July playing on & offstage at the Kumsheen Rafting Resort near Lytton, BC.

Room with a view.

View of White Canyon from our canvas cabin’s front porch (click on the panorama for a full screen view).

Inside our antique-clad, electricity-free, luxury wall tent (click on the panorama for a full screen view).

Shari feeling sexy in her wetsuit while Miss Q mopes about being given and XL sized one.

Whitewater rafting on the Thompson River Peruvian pirate ship style (photo by Timshel Jackson).

Celebrating Fiestas Patrias with Nice, Peruvian rafting guide extraordinaire (photo by Timshel Jackson).

First time I’ve ever watched Miss Quincy & The Showdown play while lounging in a hot tub.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown rock a late night rafting resort pool party.

Morning-after-whitewater-rafting partner yoga.