This week, the Phantom Regiment finally left for tour. Early in the week, the corps had several public performances, including the dress rehearsal, and more concerts. We first performed our annual concert in the park, and a couple Sunstrand concerts in Rockford, Ill. On that same day we left for Oswego, Ill., and had a clinic in full uniform at the show site. The next day we had a full practice day, and worked on the most demanding segment of our show, the hit of the third sketch. Although after each repetition the corps became more fatigued, but each one was better and better because of our mental effort. Above all, the mind is what makes a corps great. Our first show was good, but sloppy. Our staff was glad we were not timid, because confidence gives us a good starting point. On Saturday, June 15, in Toledo, Ohio, we made some small adjustments to make the hit of the third sketch cleaner. We had a great show at the Glass Bowl. It's a great stadium with a responsive crowd. Scores in Drum Corps Midwest shows are much lower this year than in years past. Even though we had a better performance, our score went down. Our show is incredibly demanding, so we must work on adding emotion to execution. Today we had only a four-hour rehearsal with an hour-long ride to the show. Our score went up from a 63 to a 67, and we won our first show. Now we are heading to Columbus, Ohio, and will have a full rehearsal day and show.By April G. SommerPhantom Regiment Mellophone