Welcome to the longest blog of all time
(many of the pictures in this blog are in a slideshow, be sure to click a pic to see more pictures)
Wednesday August 13, 2014
I pack for Colorado. This is also the 20th anniversary of living in our current house. We watch old home movies with the family, seeing clips of the house before it was built. I love how my parents (mostly mom) have tons of video of us from when we were kids. It is so cool to go back and revisit those memories. I hope to do the same for my kids some day. This is definitely where I get my video/photo skills from. Thanks Mom!
Thur 8/14
I of course waited last minute to pack my own things, so spent the day packing again, finally finishing late at night and heading to bed at midnight.
Fri 8/15
Leaving at 4:30 am Friday
Wake at 4 am and leave at 4:30am.
I drive all the way to Omaha – 7 hours. Listening to CD mixes we made, as well as some NPR radio talk. Pretty boring drive, although Iowa is much hillier than I would have thought.
John and Rachel both drive the rest of the way. Jmon went and got his license revoked so he won’t be driving this trip. We stop at a janky gas station in Colorado where a lady starts to leave carrying trash as we pull up. We kinda stare at her as she walks away after she locks the station doors and then she starts to come back so we walk toward her. She makes some dumb rude comment about how we see her leave and try to go inside? Well yea lady, it’s called customer service, which you have none. I had a weird feeling about the whole thing so only put in about 20 bucks worth of gas, enough to get us to a normal gas station. The Weird mean lady at the gas station in Colorado gave us a bad first impression of the state. But the landscape was absolutely gorgeous. We pulled over to the side and snapped a couple of quick photos after pumping our gas.
Deer Tick hooking it up with additional tickets!
As we were driving, we realized we would be able to make the Deer Tick concert that night at BlueBird, but then saw it is sold out, so I leave them a message on facebook. At this point we felt so disappointed, we make the drive in record time, plenty of time to make the show, but there are no tickets. How could this happen!? To our fortune, Deer Tick responds a couple hours later saying they just added 50 additional tickets. We secure 4 tickets for the show. What an incredible amazing band, spirits were at an all time high for the rest of the drive.
We then arrived to our super ghetto 8 hotel at 6:15pm. After putting some stuff in the hotel, we try to get some dinner at Panera, but line is too long so we head over to Arby’s. Reminds me of childhood and getting them 5 for $5. No longer though. Paid about 4 bucks for one Arby’s Beef, still tasty.
We got back to the hotel and ordered a cab to come pick us up. The cab driver kept calling the place “Little blue bird” and gave us some general knowledge of the area, pretty cool guy.
While waiting in line for the doors to open, we see all the members of the band walk by outside, and no one really said anything to them, which is a bit weird, but also pretty cool. I felt like we were hanging with them, but clearly we weren’t. Here is a blurry picture. We also saw their tour van parked out front.
The Blue Bird was a very cool small bar type of venue with staggered level seating. We chose a spot a few rows back, but on a step up, so we had a clear view with no tall people in our way. I swear everyone in Denver was 6 feet and above, thank goodness we had this elevated view.
Dead Man Winter, Trampled by Turtles smaller side band opened up for Deer Tick, and they put on a solid show. Then Deer Tick took the stage and played the most amazing, incredible, jam filled set I have ever seen. It was by far the best concert I have ever seen played. Deer Tick jams out to a 10 minute version of mange, my favorite song. I had wrote MANGE at the end of my thank you post to them earlier in the day, perhaps they were inspired? The whole show was absolutely rocking and I still couldn’t get down from my high from Mange. I need to find that version somewhere. Ian and John just going shoulder to shoulder jamming out, Dennis going hard on the drums with brother Chris slapping that bass while the man behind the keys (only guy I don’t know his name, oo it’s Rob) jams away. Breathtaking.
We headed home a bit after midnight ending our 20 hour day, we went straight to bed when getting home, although I admit I was still amped up from the show and couldn’t fall asleep for a little bit. Check out some photos from the show.
Sat 8/16
Wake up at 10 am and shower. Then drive to downtown Denver and walk around and take photos on the 16th street mall. The mall reminds me of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, small little shops, people selling things, no cars. We stop at a couple of souvenir shops and see people protesting to save the bees. We get stickers. Denver was a quiet city that I really enjoyed despite my initial thoughts, sounds typical of me!
16th street Mall
3 hikers in the big city
Gaucho
Cool spire thing
This is the day I also fell in love with the Colorado logo and its colors. The yellow circle, with the Red C, with a blue and white background is a great composition. I love it.
Then we began our hunt for a candy shop. After a little bit of confusion, we found ourselves walking over to the Walking Raven (oh the irony!). I pick up the car and meet the others there. Small little joint, where we pick up 2 cookies and a bottle of gummies each. Yay candy!
When we drive back to our hotel, almost running out of gas, we finally find a station where we put in medium grade gas, which in Colorado is 87. In Illinois unleaded is 87 where in Colorado it is 85. And don’t even get me started about the “clean air” gas in Iowa. Confusing stuff. We then walk to jimmy johns and for the first time in my Jimmy Johns career I get the JJ Gargantuan. Brings me back to my college days, raiding to JJ with Nolan, but I had never got this delicious sub before since I was on a tight budget back then. The sub was everything I dreamed of, layer upon layer of meat, quite the combo.
After a short cat nap, John’s friend Melissa meets us at our hotel and I drive us all over to red rocks. A beautiful drive up the red rocks layering the park, and we find a parking spot. We indulge in a brownie which hits the spot about 2 hours later. No cameras are allowed in the venue despite our Asian girl tourist efforts (thanks Melissa). We decide to enter at the top of the outdoor theater to take in the incredible view. The venue is absolutely gorgeous. It is so beautiful and majestic. The best outdoor setting for a concert in America and maybe even the world! (I can compare to Midwest Bank & Solider Field….) We find our seats in the 56th or 65th row or something and relax waiting for Deer Tick. The theater is so cool because the seats are carved out of the stone and built right into the red rocks.
Deer Tick comes out to the Weird Al song Bed Rock and are dressed as the Flinstones. Couldn’t tell if they were making fun of themselves or were just being funny, either way it was hilarious and John introduced themselves as the Flintstones. They played a great 45 minute set, ending with The Rock followed by Crying Shame. Some of our favorites like Clownin Around, These Old Shoes, & Baltimore Blues were played as well. A more “folk” set from these guys considering the setting and the bands they were opening for. Special guest, John McCauley’s wife, Vanessa Carlton, made an appearance as well, singing her duet with her husband. Pitch perfect.
Then we noticed how beautiful and amazing the clouds in the background look. They are producing all kinds of shadows and images over the mountains. We see kangaroos, Hitler, & a dinosaur. Very trippy. Now that I think about it, this cloud viewing was actually before Deer Tick. The next band was Devil Makes Three. They were pretty good and very folky but got your foot tapping and the crowd bumping. Rach and I had to use the bathroom about halfway through so we checked out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame under the stands.
Trampled by Turtles then came out and stole the show. They played all their hits and sounded absolutely amazing in the amphitheater. The rock looked majestic with the light shining on it.
That night we drove back and hit the hay, pretty darn tired.
Sun 8/17
We woke up at 9am and headed to Boulder to meet up with Melissa. We picked up some Smash Burger for lunch and met Melissa at Target, where we picked up some essentials like canned fruit and food for the camping trip. Then we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park through the beautiful mountains to our campsite. The ranger at the gate told us we had a really good camp site, and she wasn’t lying. Our site was in the very back of the park, a good distance from any other site. Shoutout to John for picking this amazing site. The view was absolutely incredible, we were basically in a valley with mountains all around, including a very rocky mountain to the South? Longs Peak perhaps!?. Once we soaked in the view, we struggled for 2 hours to set up our tents. Not as easy as it was in the backyard where the ground was nice and soft. But needless to say, we got the tents up! While waiting for Melissa and Jmon to come back with some firewood and ice, John, Rachel, & I were sitting up on a rock formation behind our site when two graceful deer began to approach over a hill, eating berries and grass as they walked. The continued to come toward us and I was able to snap some amazing photos, probably over 200, with these deer less than 10 feet away. Jmon and Melissa got back in time to see these beautiful creatures as well.
After this incredible deer experience to start off the camping, we decided to do a little off trail hiking up the side of the mountain right behind our site. We were climbing up rocks, brush, and dirt to get to a “crag” as John and Melissa call any rock formation that sticks out. I am pretty sure they got this term from the Nickelodeon tv show Guts and the “Aggro crag.” We got to the top of the crag and took in the beautiful view, where we could see our campsite a ways away. Climbing down proved to be a little more difficult, but we all survived our first hike without a scratch, except some thorns in the socks.
Back at the site we finally got the fire going and were set to have our first meal of the camping trip. Cooking over a camp fire we found to be pretty easy when the fire pit had a grate to cook over. We just removed the paper wrapping (someone had the bright idea to remind us) and let it simmer. For quite some time before it got hot enough to enjoy. Delicious. Dinty Moore Stew suggested by the Hyma family proved to be as tasty as they described.
An amazing thing that we found out about being so high in the mountains is that things will inflate. We brought a flat football to through around since I couldn't find a pump at the last minute. When we pulled it out to throw around at the camp site, it was fully inflated. I asked John and Johnny if they had pumped it up but they had not. The high atmosphere can do amazing things. I guess this is also why our bags of trail mix and bag of marshmallows were inflated as well.
That night, I was able to take some stunning photos of the night sky. Out in the Rocky Mountains the stars are so prominent. I have seen more stars here than I ever have before. Jmon played some music on his guitar while we stayed warm around the fire and gazed up at the beautiful night sky.
Mon 8/18
The next morning, I was one of the first to awake. The first night sleeping outdoors wasn’t too shabby. It was a bit chilly, but once inside your sleeping bag and your tent, you stay relatively warm.
This seems like a good time to describe the “bear box.” When I was first told about these contraptions which bears cannot get into, I thought it would a series of locks and switches so complex that only a human could operate. It is quite the operate, except that apparently only a human can operate as well. A bear box is simply a metal box that you have to stick your fingers under and come up, pushing a lever that unhitches the lock. Very simple, but I guess bears paws always face down and then cannot turn their hand upward like a humans. I thought it was funny… no one else? Okay.
Today we would be doing a 4.5 mile out and back hike for a total of 9 miles. Glacier Gorge starts out, and we see amazing views throughout the whole hike: the Alberta Falls, The Loch Lake, Glass Lake, and end at Sky Pond. While we were out on our first big trail hike, I witnessed a man take photos of chipmunk… on his ipad.... ah when will people learn.
I also made a different chipmunk tremble later, sorry little fellas
On this hike, I came to realization that carrying a big water bottle jug is a mistake, so heavy. I was also struggling to survive on this hike. Jmon and I fall behind.
Photos tell the story better than words: so here are a bunch of photos in a gallery
We made it to a waterfall and it started to rain, we had been warned to stay below tree line if it storms so not to get struck by lightening. We consider turning back, but the rain passes after a few minutes, and we climb up a slippery waterfall. Pretty dangerous.
After climbing, we make it to the top and take in the beautiful sight of Glass Lake
From Glass lake we continue on our journey with some more hiking until we reach Sky Pond.
John thinks he can make it half way around the Sky Pond in 5 minutes. Doesn't even get 1/3 of the way before he turns around at 10 minutes.
Climbing down the waterfall ended up actually being easier than going up. I think it was because it had been raining when we were climbing up, but sunny when going down. You just had to go slow and be careful. We all made it without dying. You will see this adventurous climb when the documentary comes out (gopro footage) in about 3 or 4 months.
On the way back, the group got split up. John, Jmon, & Melissa were way ahead of Rachel and I. Jmon takes the lead on all hikes back. He hikes back with a speed unseen or unheard of on the way out. We walked for a couple hours without seeing them, so we decided to do a quick 0.6 miles detour to Mills Lake. We were pretty exhausted and being nearly there, Rachel decided to stop and take a little rest, while I ran down to the lake and snapped some photos.
We finally made it back to the start of the trail. Wondering if John, Jmon, & Melissa would be there waiting, or if they had taken the bus back to the car parking lot. They were still there and we were all exhausted. Our first day of hiking and we walk about 9 miles. Not a bad day at all.
We took the bus back to the car park, then I drove us back to our campsite. We were all pretty hungry, so got the fire going and had some Colorado Brews to go with dinner. We also busted out the propane grill to cook our food a bit quicker. Can of corn and can of refried beans to go with our soup. Yum. We still cook some of our food over the campfire.
That night we saw a couple of younger female deer take a stroll past our camp site. Then an epic gummy trade was made. John caught in the act.
Loved doing long exposures at night, and the sky was absolutely gorgeous and insane. Amazing to think about all of the stars out there. Sad that there is so much light pollution in cities that you can’t see this amazing view always. Milky Way Galaxy in plain view. The big dipper bigger and lower in the sky than I have ever seen before.
Tuesday August 19, 2014
The next day we drove over to the Wild Basin region where we would be doing a shorter 5 mile hike along the Calypso Cascades until we reached the Ouzel Falls. Our favorite ranger lady who welcomed us to the park told us it is an amazing beautiful trail. John had picked this hike out the night before after talking to some rangers. Shout out to YaBoy.
Once at the falls, we are not satisfied with just being at the bottom looking up, so after I make my way half way up to be by the side of the falls, we decide to go on an adventure to find the top of the falls.
We make it to the top of a little mountain in search for the top of the waterfall. It feels like a desolated area where we would come across a bear. Everyone is on the lookout. Stay together is my best thought.
After walking through a bit of brush for a hundred yards or so, we finally see one of my favorite sights of the trip. A majestic river that leads to the waterfall. So beautiful.
Again on the walk back, Rachel and I fall behind as the others speed down the trails lead by the great Jmon. We eventually catch up this time and get back to our car as one.
On the drive back, I stop on the side of the road to take some photos of the amazing landscape even though everyone is tired. Longs peak in the distance.
Back at our campsite. Everyone else wanted to go check out downtown Estes, but I wanted to do a little more hiking, so they all left in Melissa’s car and I stayed back at the site. I then headed out behind our campsite to do some exploring.
As I was venturing out, I took some magnificent photos of the landscapes, cactus, & wildlife.
Right as I hit a dirt road that was headed toward Cub Lake, I had the sudden urge to poop. This was unfortunate for a couple of reasons. One, I has now at least a mile away from my camp site. Two, we brought a bunch of rolls of TP, and I had not brought a single one. Three, bears were spotted in this area the day prior.
I started to make my way back, but the urge to take a big steamy cornfilled dump was too strong. I made my way over a hill, out of view from the road, dropped my drawers and let it out. This stool sampling was full of corn and seemed a bit dehydrated. Realizing I had no TP to wipe with, and no underwear as well, I took a granola bar out of my bag, opened it up, and put it in my mouth. Then I took the wrapper and did what I had to do with it. I did take a photo of this stool, but will just leave you with the description. I am no sinner though, so I took that wrapper and drank the rest of my gatorade, and then put it in my empty bottle. I ain’t no litter bug. Feeling revived, I headed back to camp where I then rested for about another hour so until the others camp back. While waiting I saw a mother deer with two babies.
When everyone else came back, we took a couple of group photos at our tent
That night clouds covered the night sky, but Jmon and Melissa played an amazing song duet that brought a full grown man with a beard to tears (almost). Give a listen below.
Our first song since 2011, and perhaps our best, since John and I were not singing.
Wed 8/20
Wake up and Melissa is gone, she had to depart early that morning to go to work. It was nice to make a new cool friend on this trip and we will miss her on the rest of the hikes. The clouds are hanging low over the mountains behind our site
We made the decision the day before to do a trail at Longs Peak. An 8 mile round trip that would put us at the bottom of Longs Peak at Chasm Lake (pronounced Casm). Word is that if you want to do the whole Long Peaks hike, you need to begin around 3 or 4 am in order to get back by night fall. From Chasm Lake to the top of Longs Peak is an additional 3 miles of “advanced” climbing, so we will save that one for a couple years later when we are hiking pros.
This hike today, again was different than the last two. This one had the greatest elevation change, which was a steady incline throughout the whole way out. In fact, I don’t remember a single decline on our way to the lake.
As we struggled to continue climbing, we took more breaks that usual, but they were needed. Take a look at these tired folk.
Continuing our way up the mountain, the landscape and foliage was changing with each step.
We friend a chipmunk. Chipmunks kept coming up to us as we were hiking along the trail. Probably due to people like Jmon feeding them. One of them we met was very friendly, even making his way onto Johnny’s lap at one point. Jmon gave him a treat.
As we took this gorgeous group photo, the chipmunk was actually right below us at our feet, but the rock is in the way and you cannot see him. Good little fella though.
Clouds cover the top of Longs Peak as we keep climbing. Wow we are tired.
As we waiting and took a break, we saw that some Llamas were gaining ground on us. We were dead tired so we let them pass, and talked to the ranger who was walking them. She told us that the pack llamas are only used to carry items up the mountain. Each carries around 80 lbs. They had names which I forget, but they all looked so funny.
The llamas past us, but we were on a mission to keep pace with them, so we set out again. We reached a “stopping” point and took a couple of snaps while resting where the llamas and horses could go no further. Whether this was good news or bad news we weren’t sure, but we were surely going to see some more amazing views
We continued our journey and took in the breathtaking views if that makes any sense.
In one last effort and climb, we scrambled up a rock face, gasping for air I reached the top and took in the sight of Chasm Lake. Literally breathtaking as I was hit with a strong wind in the face and already out of breath from the climb. What an amazing view though. It was very chilly up here as well, with the strong wind and the cold mountain air.
It was only about 30 minutes of being at the lake when I was hit with a sudden urge to go to the bathroom once again. Was this becoming a regular habbit for me? I scurried over to a spot right next to the lake and in between some rocks, squatted down and experienced my second “woods” dump of the trip. This time I had TP which I buried. It was a relief once again to release a corn filled stool. Meanwhile, John ends up taking a nap, tired from the hike.
As we begin our descent, Jmon again leads the way with John hot on his trail. Rachel and I drift back as they bust down the mountain not slowing for anything. There was a beautiful waterfall down the side of the mountain coming from Chasm Lake.
Finally Rachel and I make it the 4 miles back to where the trail started. While we are sitting on the bench resting, a guy came running down the trail looking exhausted. I start talking to him and find out he did the whole hike, including Long’s Peak. Impressive dude.
We stop as we are leaving longs peak to again take some photos of the view. This time the weather is absolutely gorgeous and the sky is much clearer than the day before so I snap some great shots
We get back the campsite and take a short little nap to regenerate since we want to do another small hike near our campsite that evening. Our last day in Rocky Mountain National Park, we need to squeeze every drip of adventure out that we can.
Here is the view from our tent
That night we head to cub lake and try to find a bear. The Cub Lake trail was a short walk from our camp site and again another hike with different terrain and landscape. It was by far the easiest hike with very little elevation change, and we were all on edge. A bear had been spotted at this location just 24 hours prior, so we had our hopes in catching one of earth’s beautiful creatures in the wild. As we walked and walked, without weapons of course, even though we brought a machete and hatchet to the campsite, we were all on high alert, peering around every which way. We kept walking, but we didn’t make it to the lake, probably ended up a quarter of a mile short. It was getting too dark so we had to turn back since we brought 6 flashlights with us on the trip, but none of them with us on the late night hike. Smart. Very disappointing, as we are walking back we hear something that sounds like howling. We rush over a small rock formation and see a herd of Moose. Absolutely gorgeous creatures until later we realize they were Elk. Still pretty cool as we got really close, in fact closer than we should have, but luckily it wasn’t mating season? At least we didn’t get attacked.
Herd of Elk – Despite these photos being relatively bright, it was actually very dark outside, and we could barely see the elk, luckily my camera can do some amazing things.
That night we called it a pretty early night once we got back to the site and cooked up some canned food on the propane stove. We also had a bright propane light that we used to light up our area for that night as we had gotten back after dark.
What an amazing end to our time in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Thur 8/21
We wake up, pack up our tents and head out of Rocky Mountain National Park.
Once we arrive to Colorado Springs, we have high hopes, but they soon dwindle away. Manitou / Colorado Springs sucks, everything is closed. The incline is closed until December, garden of the gods is closed for some bike race. The COG up to Pikes Peak is closed, then we find out we can drive up, so we decided to drive the long way up to Pikes Peak.
Winding roads through the mountains take us higher and higher. I find it crazy how at most spots on the road up, there are no guard rails, and if you are not paying attention, you could literally drive right off of the mountain. Luckily I was behind the wheel and everyone felt very safe as I told them I could drive us all off this mountain right now!
The view from the top of Pikes Peak was beautiful, but if you are this far in the blog, you know that everything in this state is beautiful, even the hobos. Take a look of some of the lovely photos I took while up there. I’m not sure if it was because we had hiked all the way up on our other trails, and drove up on this one, but I felt very unstable and poor footed up at 14,000 feet. After awhile, I became acclimated and was bouncing around from rock to rock like the young children who have no fear of falling 14K feet to their death… it’s not really that big of a drop off, but you get the picture.
As we got in our car and started to drive out of the parking lot at the top of the mountain, John was able to snap this amazing photo. Perhaps the photo of the trip. Batman at 14K feet, looking for Rachel.
There were various pull offs on the way down that we were able to stop at and take some great photos, as well as do a little climbing on the rocks.
I didn’t listen to the park rangers and used neutral on the way down, trying to burn off my brakes, luckily they had a brake check. They conveniently have us pull over at a gift shop, pop our hood and cool off our engine and tires. Seems like an easy way to get extra sales! But really, I could smell the rubber burning. Little known fact, gears 1 and 2 limit your speed so you don’t have to brake the whole way down the mountain like I was doing.
After we got down from the bottom of Pike’s Peak, a 19 mile drive, we headed over to our campsite which was at an RV park. Not the same beautiful view that we had at RMNP but we’ll take a place to rest and sleep.
That night we headed toward downtown Manitou to check out the small little town at the bottom of the mountain. We stopped in at the Keg Lounge for dinner and I got a delicious buffalo burger. It was a cozy little family owned restaurant where we had a beer with our dinner. I got the Laughing Lab (Scottish ale), John got the Shake (chocolate porter), and Rachel got the Buffalo Gold (golden ale). All these fresh brews were from Colorado. Coors is from Colorado and makes Blue Moon as well, so both of those were on tap. Check out Manitou Springs.
That night we play hearts at our RV camp site. I shoot the moon, then John shoots the moon immediately after. John then finishes out the game by shooting the moon on the most amazing hand of hearts I have ever seen. He still comes in second, but it feels like a win for him, going from 4th to 2nd on the last hand.
Boy scouts ask us for drugs and come up to our tent, I send them off telling them there is no group of four younger adults around here.
Weirdos.
Fri 8/22
The next morning we left our RV campsite and headed to Garden of the Gods.
Garden of the Gods was very “touristy” compared to everything else we had done and quite honestly, everyone was very tired. Due to these factors, we enjoyed it slightly less than we would have otherwise. Regardless the rock formations were very cool and the rocks were so red in the Garden. The also call pigeons “rock doves” which is pretty comical. We did some off trail hiking, which is against the rules at the park, but honestly there are small paths you would think are trails, but apparently are not. While we were off trail, we saw a little fox or wolf running through the open field. Some Park Ranger gave us a word about it, but we pleaded the fifth telling him how we were lost, which we really were because we just wanted to see the Siamese Twins, which I eventually saw alone because everyone else was too tired to get out of the car. Our last stop in Garden of the Gods was the balanced rock, where an old man had recently fallen and smashed his head on the ground. Another of our favorite rock formations was the Kissing Camels. Check out the pictures and see if you can identify the formations!
We then stop at Josh and John’s Icecream. Shout out to Brian for recommending us to the best ice cream shop ever invented. I got some type of icecream with a heath-bar in it, suggested by the dude working there, and covered in sprinkles. John and I also got matching glasses. We also wrote them a nice suggestion card. Best icecream ever!
We head back home around 12:30pm. Good Bye Colorado. We stop in Omaha around 10:20pm. We get Arbys somewhere outside the city around 8:30p.
Sat 8/23
Wake up around 6 or so and drive back to Naperville. Finally after a long 8 hours we arrive home around 2pm. It literally rained the entire ride home, which was kind of depressing, but who really cares since we had such amazing weather the whole trip. Squid was happy to see us and gave us all big hugs when we go out of the car. Only a few hours of unpacking the car and taking a shower and we were off again.
We headed to Chicago for another Deer Tick show. Our 3rd show in 7 days. This show tops the Bluebird show but Mange at blue bird is still best individual song performance. We pregame at Brian’s place in Wrigley with some Summer Coors, which taste really good. They were only in 10oz cans which I thought was a rip off, but it was not surprising they tasted so good after re-learning that Blue Moon is made by Coors when we were in Colorado. After the pregame we walk over to the show and get our usual spot, stage left 2nd row. A band called The Weeks opened up for DT and they were pretty solid.
Deer Tick took the stage and played all their jams including Mange and Blood Moon back to back. An amazing set that I cheered and screamed as much as I could throughout, but it pretty much came out as little screetches as my voice was lost from the week prior. Vanessa Carlton again graced us with her presence and we were also sprayed with super soakers. At the end of the show, Brian catches John McCaulleys pick that was headed right for me, but as I reached up nothing happened. Everyone then was looking on the floor and Brian looked down into his open hands and there it was. We head over to John’s friends place after the show and have a few drinks. Rachel and I cab it home and call an end to the best week of my life.
If you made it to the end of this blog I owe you a drink. Next blog coming up is about moving to Chicago. Stay tuned.
Yaboy Josh
