Editor’s note: this is the last installment of a four-part series that has run in the last two weeks documenting the trials and tribulations of a musician’s life on the road – the trials and tribulations inflicted by reporter Boonie Boone.

Boonie bravely decided to enter this world by signing up for a 10-day trek across the Midwest with New Yorker Bari Koral.

Koral was generous enough to take Boonie out on the road. Little did she know what she was getting herself into.

Here I am, back in the comforting confines of my damp basement. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy to be back to stability and around loving friends. But allow me to strain your eyes one last time.

The rest of the “tour” was rather uneventful, but not mundane. The shows at Rib Fest in Sioux Falls were pretty good, as was the food. I, in my infinite glory, hit up one of the barbecue vendors for a pork sandwich Friday night. When they asked if I wanted the mild, hot or inferno, I couldn’t help but prove my manhood by requesting the inferno. As I took a fork sample of it, the pit cooks started giggling and smirking as tears welled up in my eyes. You’ll just have to trust me: it hurt a lot more going out than it did going in.

Bari played another show the next day after already having baked in the midday’s blazing sun the afternoon before. In disgust she said, “It looks like someone took a red Crayon to my skin,” in regards to the tender sunburn upon her pale arms.

Saturday’s set was highlighted by 3,000 mothers and kids waiting in line to meet the Nickelodeon cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. What happened to G.I. Joe? Don’t kids know cartoons these days? Unfortunately for the kids, ol’ Bob had to depart back to animation world, but not without first visiting the stage.

At 2 p.m., Bob, who was actually a girl under the costume, jumped up on-stage with Bari as she played a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away.” At the end of the song, she kissed Bob, er . the girl.

After her set, I asked her if she knew it was a girl inside the suit. She was oblivious to the fact. Funny, I didn’t think you put the girl in the sponge, but the sponge in the girl.

The following days were a lot of driving, playing, driving, playing and more driving. Nothing special. Both Bari and I were anxious to get home to see those persons we’d been missing. I tortured her with a lot of “sad bastard music” by the likes of Nick Cave and the Pernice Brothers. When I was driving, it was always dark out.

What the trip basically came down to was doing a job. I did mine by driving, mixing sound and offering encouragement and support when it was needed.

It’s not much different from an office job, I suppose. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. We had few deadlines to meet. Show up on time, and play for X amount of time and that was it. It’s not the glamorous lifestyle many might assume it to be.

Would it have been different had I been on the road with three other guys from Canton, Ohio in a van that constantly breaks down? Yes. But I was spoiled out here and for about two weeks I stayed in posh hotels and ate better than I usually eat at home.

It’s a job – you drive, load in, play, load out and repeat the cycle for a while until you’re ready to go back to what you assume to be a normal life. In this case, though, I had the upper hand. I had the opportunity to meet some great people, see new places and experience something few have the chance to.

Am I saying I’m better than everybody else? No. I was just fortunate to have this job for this period of time instead of working in a white, fluorescent, sterile environment where people talk about what they’re watching on the fucking television the night before.

My work took me hundreds of miles away instead of the 20-mile round trip beaten path so many tread each day.

No TPS reports for me. I’m not looking forward to Hawaiian shirt day. If I’m lucky, it’ll always be that way.

But we all have a job to perform the best we can. And we all have one agenda as my best friend Ryan says:

“Gettin’ it done.”

Boonie is a senior in pre-journalism and mass communication from Madrid. He places high emphasis on personal hygiene. He showers two, sometimes three times a day.