On the Road Again - July tour DAY 5 & 6

So the itinerary indicated that we had Monday and Tuesday off, and so rather than drive all the way to Columbus, MO in a hurry, we took our first day off in Denver. Rather uneventful, other than our dear friend from the Delbert cruise stopping by to see us. Most of the day was spent resting...

Tuesday morning, Super 8 Denver parking lot, 8:45 am.

Norman walks out to the van to find that the trailer is partially open. He opens the door to find that his brand new keyboard, Manny's 50th anniversary 5 string Jazz Bass, and the suitcase with our CD's are all gone. We've been had. So we get to work trying to replace the stuff--first we drive down through Aurora (east of Denver) to Colfax St. where all the pawn shops are. No luck after checking 1/2 dozen+ stops. After stopping for barbecue, we are on our way to the music shop to pick up a Schecter bass to keep Manny up to speed. BIG THANKS to Johnny @ Schecter Guitar Research for saving the day.

Cyril calls, we have to run back to the hotel before we get charged for another day. Another surprise is waiting for us--our gig in Columbus was for Tuesday night, not Wednesday. Our itinerary was erroneous, and we had to cancel our gig, so we lost even more $$$. So what do we do? We drive nearly 600 miles, all the way to Kansas City, MO to another Super 8 and we'll be able to move to the hotel provided by tomorrow night's club in the early afternoon Thursday. And who says playing music is all fun and games?

Oh, and did I mention that we got pulled over in Kansas City, KS? I was driving with no ID and got asked to kindly remove myself from the van to go ID myself in the trooper's sedan. Luckily, he was a very nice officer who took kindly to me knowing all my info and it matching up with the voice in his radio. The consensus in the van was that I wasn't coming back. They don't know how well I get along with officers of the law. Apparently our fuse went out on the van/trailer tail lights, but I made it out with a warning for that and the driver's license (I told them mine was stolen this morning). I'm going to go ahead and call that a stroke of luck so this day isn't entirely crap.

Goodnight, folks.