By Eric Fox Well folks, it's a different year, I've got a different computer, and now I'm at a different corps. Yup, my fourth corps in five years. I guess you could cal me a drum corps "free-agent" now; hopefully this will be my last stop. I'll have a nice member jacket by the time I age out in 2005 though.

Eric's favorite activity: Unloading the truck
As for where I auditioned this past weekend, I spent the weekend in the freezing cold tundra of Madison, Wis., for the Madison Scouts' auditions. It was a definite change from what I've been used to in the past. Being back at a corps with so much history and tradition was great, one of the reasons why I chose the Scouts this year. The weekend went by just like every other audition camp I've been to over the years, but it just seemed as if the forces were out against me. For starters, I had a 5:40 a.m. flight out of Tampa, Fla., on Friday morning, which connected in Atlanta, Cincinnati, then into Madison. The flight into Madison arrived at 11:30 a.m. I went to the baggage area, met up with my ride, and then discovered that my luggage wasn't on the turnstile. To my luck, my luggage got lost between one of my connections. A quick stop to the service desk was made, and then I was on my way. I wouldn't have minded so much if I were to have been better dressed -- I stepped off the plane in a shirt, jeans, and flip-flops. All my cold weather clothing was in my luggage, which was lost somewhere at another airport. With all of that behind me, my friend Rob took me on a little tour of Madison and Sun Prairie, Wis., where he lived. The rest of the day was just spent goofing around town, drumming on pads, and bowling. Fortunately, as 10:30 p.m. came around, an agent from the airport showed up at Rob's door with my luggage. Apparently my luggage just never made it onto my plane in Atlanta heading to Cincinnati. I didn't even get any condolences or anything; a voucher for a ticket discount would have been nice. Saturday morning rolled around and we made our way to the school for auditions. We showed up an hour early cause I knew we'd be unloading the truck around then. Over at the school we mingled a bit, met up with some of the Madison guys that I had met online, and went outside to unload the truck. I was just thrilled to unload a truck again, especially since we had the luxury of unloading equipment trucks (we borrowed drums from Capital Sound for auditions), I sure hope you can sense my sarcasm on that. Fortunately it's a pretty easy load and unload for this truck, as compared to some of the trucks I've dealt with in the past. The rest of the camp went as audition camps usually do. There's not really much to say, I've been to like seven audition camps since I began my drum corps career. I've certainly got my work cut out for myself -- we were given a very extensive audition packet in the front ensemble, enough to make a book out of pretty much. My weekend was topped off with a delayed flight Sunday night, which left me sleeping at the airport until my new 5:45 a.m. flight back to Florida. Luckily my luggage showed up at the same time as me this time. I'll definitely have my fair share of frequent flyer miles after this year is over. It's just great knowing that I've got another 130 guys to add to my drum corps family soon. It's ridiculous the amount of different people I've ate, traveled, and showered with over the years.