On The Road Again -- July tour DAY 1

Howdy!

I'm back out on the road with Cyril, we have headed up from Austin to Snowmass Village, near Aspen. We arrived late Wednesday night, and after 23 hours in the van I was anxious to head down to the bar nextdoor to the hotel for a brew and food. I ordered "cheese" fries, where were akin to the kind of cheese you get on your nachos at a football game. Upon investigation, I found out that this was so they didn't have to bake anything. Apparently a deep fryer is more practical for a kitchen than an oven...

So things were winding down there, and I wandered over towards the other end of the hotel, where another bar was. As I neared the back of that bar, I could hear two very inebriated individuals having a mostly unintelligible conversation. Amazingly, they could still run a pool table, I asked to play with them, and even though they could hardly stand or speak my opponent hit in 5 balls on his break and first four turns. I still whipped 'em though. Some other drunk fool hit me on the head with his pool cue, but smashing my pint glass on his head wasn't going to help my band get through the rest of the tour. Sanity prevails. Sigh.

Thursday was a gorgeous day, apparently some people were complaining that it was too warm...wasn't it 106 in Austin the other day? Pansies. I was tempted to tell them they could still prance around in a dress in this weather.... Anyways, I played disc golf on the mountainside, which was awesome. I lost a $25 disc and got lost after hole 6, but still managed to enjoy myself.

The show was part of a free outdoor concert series near the base of the ski slopes, which are covered in beautiful grass this time of year. There were over 3000 people in attendance, a large stage, and very comfortable accomodations for a dressing/green room area. What a great start.