Day 17: June 7, 2008

After hitting the snooze a couple times on my phone alarm, I mustered enough energy to get up and get ready to roll out. We had another big drive ahead of us so we needed an early start. Christian told us about this breakfast place that was great, but we had to get there before 11am so we could beat the rush. He decided to join us and we beat the rush. This was a healthy/vegetarian diner in Salt Lake called The Blue Plate. OMG! This place rules. The portions are hefty and food is spectacular. Great choice and a solid start to the drive. We had some serious mountain driving to do today, so we were stocked up.

We said our good byes to Christian and hit the road. This drive was really jaw dropping. Beautiful mountains, river rapids right next to the highway, wild life, the whole nine. A bit long, but by now we're road warriors, we know how to handle it. Stitch and Joseph had a huge wrestling match in the backseat. I thought it was a little gay, not that there's anything wrong with it, but yeah, they like to wrestle. WE'VE BEEN AWAY FROM OUR WOMEN FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW. It tends to weigh heavy on you after a while. But that's another subject we won't get into. Use your imagination.

We pulled into Avon, Colorado which is a ski resort town and met the folks at the venue where we were playing. Loaded Joe's Coffee House Lounge is the place. Brian the manager/doorman/soundman/babysitter-bartender was super cool and greeted us with a smile. Allison who also works there and makes the best Mocha coffee ever was also very nice. It's a cool spot, but again we were cursed with bad weather outside and a bigger event 20 min down the road so the crowd wasn't very big. We were booked to play for 4 hours. We were to be the house band from 10-2. That meant that Jointmethod would do 2 sets and so would Mother's Anger. Not the best situation after a long drive, but that's the road and the job.

Oddly enough, although there weren't too many folks there, we made a killing in merch. I mean it.We sold t-shirts, CD's, stickers, even buttons. The people couldn't get enough. It was really encouraging. Both bands rocked 2 sets and packed it up. I get the feeling that this little resort circuit could be lucrative for the future. The only downside is the weather aspect. We didn't have a place to stay in Avon, and this was the first time we were unlucky in finding a place with someone from the show, so we decided to make the 1 and a half hour drive to Denver to stay at Mama D's. She's a band friend for years now and she puts up bands she's friends with.

We figured an 1 ½ drive is no big deal, but we didn't know about the weather situation. If we'd known what was instore for us, we would have maybe stayed in a parking lot. We started the drive and even though it was drizzling, I wasn't worried. That changed dramatically however. Soon we were climbing in elevation and the weather was taking a turn for the worst. Emsy who had a strange reaction to the elevation suddenly was a chatterbox. The man hadn't said anything for 3 weeks and now he had opinions on everything. We were all enjoying the show. Suddenly Stitch points out that there was ice on the road. My attention turned to the road and sure enough there was ice on the road and then snow. And I don't mean like light flurries. It's started coming down hard and we kept climbing. Stitch was whiteknuckling it the whole way and I was just as tense next to him. We go to 10,000 feet and we couldn't see shit. Stitch wouldn't turn away from the road or even talk. I was panicking. I'm looking at the guardrails and parts are missing from them, like people have gone through them. This shit was scary. WE'RE NOT FROM THE SNOW!! WE'RE A TROPICAL PEOPLE!

Not only that, but we're running out of gas. Yes, we forgot to fill up before heading into the mountains in the middle of the night. Not very smart. We got lucky and found a small station in the mountains, strategically placed for retards like us. We filled up and trekked down the mountain. What should have taken us 1 ½ hours took us 3 and we pulled into Mama D's drive way at 5:30 in the morning. The stress was over. Mama D had enough beds for all of us and I hit the sack immediately and passed out. No more strength left.