Eugene, Oregon

Another beautiful day in Portland, up and out for a short walk to Peet's Coffee for full caffeineation, a non-word according to my spell check. I can't remember where or when I first got on to Peet's, but it gets the Bennett seal of approval. Back to the hotel for a little practice, pack the bags then off to the Legacy 600 and a short trip down to Eugene.

The Hult Centre for the Performing Arts is a beautiful theatre with capacity of nearly 2,500. Hard to describe, but it's a domed auditorium with a large basket weave design ceiling and two balconies that sweep around the sides. We were all taken with it's look and once again the crew was pleased with the facility's relative ease of set up. I imagine that Guy will have some great shots of this outstanding theatre posted on his diary page, it's worth a look.

Pieta Brown and Bo Ramsey continue to delight me with their music and I always enjoy visiting with them both, they go down so well with the audiences too. Time to take the stage for what turned out to be a seriously solid and confident show, everyone playing great and our new members, Mike and Tim, coming on strong and the Brit boys having turned the corner with the jet lag. Tonight was the first show of the tour that I felt I had some control over my right hand...it felt like my own hand and not a prosthetic. The subtlety and touch coming back nicely, no one could be more pleased about that than I. While still very stiff and not exactly a pretty sight, it's a miracle how much progress is made every day in healing.

After the final encore it was a runner to the Legacy which was delayed due to weather, so we sat on the tarmac (in the plane of course) and enjoyed a delicious meal of Asian noodle salad with prawn, spring rolls and chicken sat-ay. We finally took off for an hour long flight to San Francisco that was mildly choppy at times but not too bad, the Legacy's sturdy power coming through. When I walked in my room at the hotel it was 2 in the morning knowing tomorrow's a day off. Good day, good show, good night.

So long,

Richard