Thursday, July 13, 2017


TBT - Lauren Austin and I playing in Estes Park, CO April 2011.
 I've done several big, long drives in the past few years but the one to get us to Estes Park for that gig is 2nd only to the time I drove almost straight from Austin to LA - but for that trip I didn't have a gig to play upon arrival.
We started one morning in Austin then drove up to Dallas for a good paying 3 hour gig from 9pm to midnight then packed up and got in the car and started the drive to the Rocky Mountains. I stopped and slept around 6am for about 45 minutes and then continued on. After Amarillo Lauren took over driving for about 2 hours and then she had to start working on her laptop for her job in the front seat.
 We made it to Denver before bad rush hour traffic and finally started our climb up the winding roads to Estes Park just past Boulder. We were in a rush since we thought that it was a 6pm start time and we were going to get to the lodge by about 5:30 or so. Thankfully though, after we passed through the amazing and scenic mountain town and checked in with the host, we found out that it was a 7pm start time. So we were able to check into the complimentary band room and go down and get some beer (Oscar's Blues from right down the road in Lyon) and some food which was great since I don't think we ate much at all on that 16 hour drive.
The host (can't remember his name) was awesome and he took a few photos while we played. He missed, thankfully, the point where I seemed to be drifting out of my head on stage - Lauren had to nudge me and bring me back to where we were. Amazingly we stayed up late and ate and drank with the staff at the bar until it was shut down for the night - post 2am.
I haven't done anything like that since - which, I guess, is a good thing

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