Ok! I'm home. Now it's storytime so gather 'round, chilluns! We left on Friday with the intent to drive all the way to Colorado Springs that day so we wouldn't have to stop anywhere else and get a hotel room. We ended up finding a couchsurfer there named Fei and I'll talk about her in a sec. (this is broken up with spoilers to make it looks shorter. It is in fact VERY long.)
Before we even left we went back to my house to pick up some things like my acoustic bass, Jeffe. Unfortunately Joey and Joe didn't know the rules that the cats stay outside on the porch during the day while we're gone so they can't cause mischeif. So the cats ended up getting in and when we tried to get Mick outside he freaked out and turned into a feline blender and clawed and bit both me and Joe. At that point I was like "ok let's just leave the cats inside for one day because they're way too freaked out to lure out now." and so we got disinfected and bandaided, took pictures of the battle damage, got my stuff and left.
So on the way up we got turned around in Fort Worth because we missed the turn where 287 turns into "main street" and so we backtracked almost half an hour, but we bought a nice atlas there that saved our patooties. Also it was next to a cingular store and Joey bought a new charger for his phone because his broke just as we were leaving.
We drove up through Amarillo, and now we know better but we decided to take a direct route through Oklahoma to get to Colorado Springs. We were in Oklahoma for a grant total of 30 minutes going through the pan handle and not 5 miles from the border Joey gets pulled over for going 77 in a 65. Not like they had any SPEED LIMIT signs in Oklahoma. We spent the last 10 minutes before the ticket trying to figure out how fast we were supposed to be going, and since it was 70 in Texas we assumed it would be the same. We also saw a dinosaur corssing sign in Oklahoma. That was the highlight of our time there.
We got to Colorado Springs around 1AM mountain time (we would have been there sooner if we hadn't gotten pulled over and we had chosen a road that wasn't being worked on. that shit cost us like an hour and a half. 2 hours sooner if we had no trouble getting there. We even made sandwiches in the car, and Joe peed in a bottle. Would have been like 14 hours but it took 16. We met our couchsurfer host Fei in Colorado Springs at like 1AM at a bar downtown because she was up partying with her roommate Kjersti.
Before we even left we went back to my house to pick up some things like my acoustic bass, Jeffe. Unfortunately Joey and Joe didn't know the rules that the cats stay outside on the porch during the day while we're gone so they can't cause mischeif. So the cats ended up getting in and when we tried to get Mick outside he freaked out and turned into a feline blender and clawed and bit both me and Joe. At that point I was like "ok let's just leave the cats inside for one day because they're way too freaked out to lure out now." and so we got disinfected and bandaided, took pictures of the battle damage, got my stuff and left.
So on the way up we got turned around in Fort Worth because we missed the turn where 287 turns into "main street" and so we backtracked almost half an hour, but we bought a nice atlas there that saved our patooties. Also it was next to a cingular store and Joey bought a new charger for his phone because his broke just as we were leaving.
We drove up through Amarillo, and now we know better but we decided to take a direct route through Oklahoma to get to Colorado Springs. We were in Oklahoma for a grant total of 30 minutes going through the pan handle and not 5 miles from the border Joey gets pulled over for going 77 in a 65. Not like they had any SPEED LIMIT signs in Oklahoma. We spent the last 10 minutes before the ticket trying to figure out how fast we were supposed to be going, and since it was 70 in Texas we assumed it would be the same. We also saw a dinosaur corssing sign in Oklahoma. That was the highlight of our time there.
We got to Colorado Springs around 1AM mountain time (we would have been there sooner if we hadn't gotten pulled over and we had chosen a road that wasn't being worked on. that shit cost us like an hour and a half. 2 hours sooner if we had no trouble getting there. We even made sandwiches in the car, and Joe peed in a bottle. Would have been like 14 hours but it took 16. We met our couchsurfer host Fei in Colorado Springs at like 1AM at a bar downtown because she was up partying with her roommate Kjersti.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Fei is a cute Chinese girl from San Fransisco and Kjersti's parents are Swedish. Oh and Kjersti's last name is Ellison. They had met some drunk dude at the bar that looked like Kevin Federline and acted like Fabio. I called him K-Fraud. he was pretty gross. They dropped him off at his house but he was so drunk he left his keys in their car and they didn't find them until the next morning. It was hilarious. Colorado Springs was pretty groovy. We followed them back and watched Donnie Darko (first time I actually saw the movie) and fell asleep promptly afterwards. For some reason I always thought it had Johnny Depp in it. Apparently it doesn't. It has Jake Gyllenhaal in it.
Anyway. We woke up at the crack of 11 and walked down to this groovy little Kerby Lane type place up in CS and I had the Huevos Rancheros which were killer. Apparently Colorado is obsessed with green chilies. It had it's own fucking section on the menu. Anyway we tlaked with Fei and Kjersti and found out how awesome they are and decided to cancel one day of our 2 day hotel reservation to stay with them another night. Saved us some money too. We went to this Jermaine Rogers exhibit (he does concert posters for like Ween and Weezer and NIN and stuff) and then we went swimming and had seedless watermellon.
After the swimming and watermellon we went to Garden of The Gods and I took lots of awesome pictures including "The Mexican in the bush" "penis rock" and a great shot of Pike's Peak. And Fei actually has 2 roommates, but one is almost never there because she stays with her boyfriend in Manitou Springs which is right down the road. And after that we went over to her roommate's boyfriend's house in Manitou and hung out with them. He's like this stoner hippie guy that's all into rock climbing and rafting. We also met this old fisherman Jim who told us all these awesome stories about fishing in Alaska.
He would tell us about how his boat would capsize is 60 foot swells and how he was the only survivor and he had been in the water for 17 hours and he caught hypothermia and nearly died. and then there was a time his boat flipped and some whales tried to push him and his other friend towards the shore, because they knew they didn't belong in the water and they wanted to save them. I forget where he was but it was in a fishing town in Alaska and they had the names of about 300 people who had died fishing just from that town on a wall and he was looking at it reading the names and he just broke down crying because he'd known personally about 180 of them.
And towns in Alaska are friggin small. 300 people dead is a whole lot. He was a cool guy. He was drinking and telling us stories. It was great. And Luke, the boyfriend was talking to Joey and after asking him if he wanted some weed he said "hey I got this friend that lives in Purgatory out near Durago and he's got some space for you guys to stay if you're going to Albuquerque. Let me call him up and tell him you're coming." and gets his friend Larry on the phone and Larry's like "yeah man, any friend of yours is a friend of mine." and so we got another place to stay even though it wasn't with someone from couchsurfing.com
That was cool and we had bratwurst and hamburgers and mojitos, then we went to this bar where this old hippie jam band was playing and danced for the next 2 hours. And the high altitude kinda caught up with me there and I did throw up once :X but my highly pressurized Texan stomach could not be contained by the light mountain air. It was only once. I wasn't sick or anything, just drank my amber ale too fast. I drink like that all the time down here and I'm always fine. I just need to remember to take it easy in the mountains. at 7000 feet alcohol does a number on you.
Anyway. We woke up at the crack of 11 and walked down to this groovy little Kerby Lane type place up in CS and I had the Huevos Rancheros which were killer. Apparently Colorado is obsessed with green chilies. It had it's own fucking section on the menu. Anyway we tlaked with Fei and Kjersti and found out how awesome they are and decided to cancel one day of our 2 day hotel reservation to stay with them another night. Saved us some money too. We went to this Jermaine Rogers exhibit (he does concert posters for like Ween and Weezer and NIN and stuff) and then we went swimming and had seedless watermellon.
After the swimming and watermellon we went to Garden of The Gods and I took lots of awesome pictures including "The Mexican in the bush" "penis rock" and a great shot of Pike's Peak. And Fei actually has 2 roommates, but one is almost never there because she stays with her boyfriend in Manitou Springs which is right down the road. And after that we went over to her roommate's boyfriend's house in Manitou and hung out with them. He's like this stoner hippie guy that's all into rock climbing and rafting. We also met this old fisherman Jim who told us all these awesome stories about fishing in Alaska.
He would tell us about how his boat would capsize is 60 foot swells and how he was the only survivor and he had been in the water for 17 hours and he caught hypothermia and nearly died. and then there was a time his boat flipped and some whales tried to push him and his other friend towards the shore, because they knew they didn't belong in the water and they wanted to save them. I forget where he was but it was in a fishing town in Alaska and they had the names of about 300 people who had died fishing just from that town on a wall and he was looking at it reading the names and he just broke down crying because he'd known personally about 180 of them.
And towns in Alaska are friggin small. 300 people dead is a whole lot. He was a cool guy. He was drinking and telling us stories. It was great. And Luke, the boyfriend was talking to Joey and after asking him if he wanted some weed he said "hey I got this friend that lives in Purgatory out near Durago and he's got some space for you guys to stay if you're going to Albuquerque. Let me call him up and tell him you're coming." and gets his friend Larry on the phone and Larry's like "yeah man, any friend of yours is a friend of mine." and so we got another place to stay even though it wasn't with someone from couchsurfing.com
That was cool and we had bratwurst and hamburgers and mojitos, then we went to this bar where this old hippie jam band was playing and danced for the next 2 hours. And the high altitude kinda caught up with me there and I did throw up once :X but my highly pressurized Texan stomach could not be contained by the light mountain air. It was only once. I wasn't sick or anything, just drank my amber ale too fast. I drink like that all the time down here and I'm always fine. I just need to remember to take it easy in the mountains. at 7000 feet alcohol does a number on you.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
We stayed that extra night and when we woke up, we jammed out for Fei and Kjersti on our accoustic instruments. Then we headed out to Denver and stayed at a La Quinta. The service was pretty awful because the free wifi server was down half the night and everyone kept calling and complaining and the room was... well, a La Quinta room. We decided that La Quinta is actually Spanish for "next to Denny's"
we totally went to downtown Denver to this record store called Twist and Shout and got them to carry our album, and this one guy who was just standing there bought one on the spot and talked to us for a good 30 minutes about how he was from Dallas and how he knew some people over at the radio station and we should drop off a CD with them, and that he was working at the College newspaper now and he could get us a review in it, so we went down to the Clear Channel radio station and dropped off 2 copies in the hopes that we'll get radio play in Denver. If you know anyone in Denver, tell them to get our record at Twist and Shout so they'll get more.
Then we found tickets for The Police concert in Denver but we could only get 2 so it was gonna be me and Joe going, but Joe ended up getting sick from some funky salsa he ate the night before, and so he stayed and Joey and I went. We got pretty good seats that were worth about $95 for $60 on craigslist and the Police just blew me away. They were great and they did all kinds of alternate arrangements on their songs. Stewart Copeland even had this auxiliary percussion set that would rise out of the ground behind him with his bigass 5 foot gong in the middle of it. Andy and Stewart were simply amazing. They've gotten so much better, and they were so tight as a group. It made Joey and me optimistic that even a 3 piece can put out a killer sound and that if we work our asses off, eventually we can be like The Police. We're gonna try to catch them in Dallas or Houston so Joe can go.
We finally got the wifi to work and found one person to couchsurf with in Utah. Our original plan was to stay with Spencer, one of Joey's friends from highschool. Due to some misunderstanding he was like "Oh.... you guys wanted to STAY here?" and yeah... we had to find a hotel for one night, but I convinced the guys to go to Extended Stay because I like those cats. we got to do our laundry finally and watched Conan O'brian.
we totally went to downtown Denver to this record store called Twist and Shout and got them to carry our album, and this one guy who was just standing there bought one on the spot and talked to us for a good 30 minutes about how he was from Dallas and how he knew some people over at the radio station and we should drop off a CD with them, and that he was working at the College newspaper now and he could get us a review in it, so we went down to the Clear Channel radio station and dropped off 2 copies in the hopes that we'll get radio play in Denver. If you know anyone in Denver, tell them to get our record at Twist and Shout so they'll get more.
Then we found tickets for The Police concert in Denver but we could only get 2 so it was gonna be me and Joe going, but Joe ended up getting sick from some funky salsa he ate the night before, and so he stayed and Joey and I went. We got pretty good seats that were worth about $95 for $60 on craigslist and the Police just blew me away. They were great and they did all kinds of alternate arrangements on their songs. Stewart Copeland even had this auxiliary percussion set that would rise out of the ground behind him with his bigass 5 foot gong in the middle of it. Andy and Stewart were simply amazing. They've gotten so much better, and they were so tight as a group. It made Joey and me optimistic that even a 3 piece can put out a killer sound and that if we work our asses off, eventually we can be like The Police. We're gonna try to catch them in Dallas or Houston so Joe can go.
We finally got the wifi to work and found one person to couchsurf with in Utah. Our original plan was to stay with Spencer, one of Joey's friends from highschool. Due to some misunderstanding he was like "Oh.... you guys wanted to STAY here?" and yeah... we had to find a hotel for one night, but I convinced the guys to go to Extended Stay because I like those cats. we got to do our laundry finally and watched Conan O'brian.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
We couldn't play x-box though because the TV was ancient crap and only had a coaxial hookup. And even that was literally about to fall out of the back of the TV set. But we got by. It was a really nice hotel all things considered. The next day we didn't have anything to do because Spencer was busy filming some movie and we hadn't gotten a call from our couchsurfing host yet, so we had breakfast at the Cracker Barrel because Joey likes it. They had pretty good pot pie actually. Nice southern comfort food.
We drove around SLC for a while and stopped at the library and got comic books, then we stopped at the park and while Joey and Joe slept I watched Zeiram. Then Joe wandered off and got a haircut at this place called Bikini Cuts where the lady was wearing a bikini and styled his hair all cool. I got a call around that time from Ed, the couchsurfing guy in SLC and we got a confirmed bed for the next night. Somewhere in there we stayed at a Howard Johnson Inn but that place was so crappy I can't remember where it was or what night we stayed there. I've blocked it from my mind. No Wifi anyway. Oh! the La Quinta was in Aurora (we kept making fun of that name) and the HoJo was in Denver proper. Wait... what did we do Monday then? The police played Sunday night... OH that was when we watched Knocked up and went to the Twist and Shout and the Radio Station. Got it. Drove through the mountains Tuesday, stayed at the Extended Stay on Tuesday Night in SLC. Wednesday was when we hung around and Joe got his haircut. Now then... back to Wednesday.
So THEN we eventually found the club in Sandy, despite the fact that none of the streets are clearly marked (and it's even worse at night) and met up with some Photographers that my friend Caz pointed us to. They took a million awesome photos of us and even shot some live pics of our performance, and we got a GREAT deal on the photos too. normally they charge $200 but since we're friends of Caz and we were kinda strapped for cash after the ticket in Oklahoma they only asked $100 from us. shhhh don't tell anyone.
They were such nice people. And so yeah we played first that night at this little cafe/coffee shop in Sandy, Utah called Solid Ground Cafe. We were seriously like the oldest people there. well... I take that back. we were the only people in our 20s. everyone else was a teenager or thier mom, but it was funny everyone who played after us was "How about that first band! They rocked." Of course none of them had any money so we didn't sell any CDs but we made $30 on the cover charge through the door. We made friends with the bands that played too and stuff.
Ed couldn't make it out to our show because he was at a Tango lesson with 3 of his roommates. Spencer couldn't make it because of the movie. Still we had fun and Joe was feeling a little better. Then we headed back to SLC to find some food and we were debating what we should eat and then we saw this 24 hour mexican food restaurant called Betos. That was totally it. I had this giant chimichanga (fried beef burrito) with sour cream and guacamole and beans and rice and pico, and a giant mango juice. mmmmmmmmmmmm!
I loved it. Oddly enough the one true Mexican among us was totally decimated within about 15 minutes and we had to stop off at a Smith's (kinda like an Albertsons) and wait quite a while while he recovered. Meanwhile Joe seemed to be empowered by the mexican food (and the 2 cups of mountain dew) and he was off like a rocket for the rest of the night. It was hilarious. There was this parking lot attendant that looked like Mr. Strickland and every time Joe saw him he'd go "Slacker!!" and then continue his rant about how girls suck the happiness out of guys and then he'd see the guy again and say "Slacker!" It was a riot.
After about 20 minutes Joey comes back out and he looks much lighter on his feet and pretty happy. We half expected to see a tidal wave of shit pour out of the store but I think it was all contained in the bathroom. Anyway we headed out and proceeded to get lost again in SLC because none of the streets have signs or when they do, you can't read them at night. We just ended up calling Ed and having him tell us how to get there by landmarks. We arrived there before him and we met Marco, Tim Heather and some other guy whose name I forget. They introduced us around, offered us some weed and chatted as we brough our stuff in.
Finally Ed comes through the door with Courtney, her boyfriend, and one other guy, neither of whom I remember. And maybe one more girl? but in any case, they all live there in the same house. Student housing and such. but yeah we hung out and talked, and found out that they had an old drumset in the basement that needed to be tuned and fixed up, but Joe offered to tune it for them because he's a drummer and he always carries a drum key with him. Tim had a mandolin with him that he'd been playing a grand total of 2 days, but he got the open chords down and jammed with us when Joe tuned the drumset. Also they had a micro brewery in the basement where they were making beers ales and honey wine.
Some time during the night Juan and Melissa came back home. They live there too. So we jammed with Ed and Tim until like 3AM and slept on thier comfy couches and giant bean bag chair, and in the morning we met Hayley who had been asleep the entire time we were there that night. She said she was annoyed at first that we were making so much noise but then it started to sound really good so she was ok. She made me some irish coffee and we hit the road. He has a million friggin roommates.
We drove around SLC for a while and stopped at the library and got comic books, then we stopped at the park and while Joey and Joe slept I watched Zeiram. Then Joe wandered off and got a haircut at this place called Bikini Cuts where the lady was wearing a bikini and styled his hair all cool. I got a call around that time from Ed, the couchsurfing guy in SLC and we got a confirmed bed for the next night. Somewhere in there we stayed at a Howard Johnson Inn but that place was so crappy I can't remember where it was or what night we stayed there. I've blocked it from my mind. No Wifi anyway. Oh! the La Quinta was in Aurora (we kept making fun of that name) and the HoJo was in Denver proper. Wait... what did we do Monday then? The police played Sunday night... OH that was when we watched Knocked up and went to the Twist and Shout and the Radio Station. Got it. Drove through the mountains Tuesday, stayed at the Extended Stay on Tuesday Night in SLC. Wednesday was when we hung around and Joe got his haircut. Now then... back to Wednesday.
So THEN we eventually found the club in Sandy, despite the fact that none of the streets are clearly marked (and it's even worse at night) and met up with some Photographers that my friend Caz pointed us to. They took a million awesome photos of us and even shot some live pics of our performance, and we got a GREAT deal on the photos too. normally they charge $200 but since we're friends of Caz and we were kinda strapped for cash after the ticket in Oklahoma they only asked $100 from us. shhhh don't tell anyone.
They were such nice people. And so yeah we played first that night at this little cafe/coffee shop in Sandy, Utah called Solid Ground Cafe. We were seriously like the oldest people there. well... I take that back. we were the only people in our 20s. everyone else was a teenager or thier mom, but it was funny everyone who played after us was "How about that first band! They rocked." Of course none of them had any money so we didn't sell any CDs but we made $30 on the cover charge through the door. We made friends with the bands that played too and stuff.
Ed couldn't make it out to our show because he was at a Tango lesson with 3 of his roommates. Spencer couldn't make it because of the movie. Still we had fun and Joe was feeling a little better. Then we headed back to SLC to find some food and we were debating what we should eat and then we saw this 24 hour mexican food restaurant called Betos. That was totally it. I had this giant chimichanga (fried beef burrito) with sour cream and guacamole and beans and rice and pico, and a giant mango juice. mmmmmmmmmmmm!
I loved it. Oddly enough the one true Mexican among us was totally decimated within about 15 minutes and we had to stop off at a Smith's (kinda like an Albertsons) and wait quite a while while he recovered. Meanwhile Joe seemed to be empowered by the mexican food (and the 2 cups of mountain dew) and he was off like a rocket for the rest of the night. It was hilarious. There was this parking lot attendant that looked like Mr. Strickland and every time Joe saw him he'd go "Slacker!!" and then continue his rant about how girls suck the happiness out of guys and then he'd see the guy again and say "Slacker!" It was a riot.
After about 20 minutes Joey comes back out and he looks much lighter on his feet and pretty happy. We half expected to see a tidal wave of shit pour out of the store but I think it was all contained in the bathroom. Anyway we headed out and proceeded to get lost again in SLC because none of the streets have signs or when they do, you can't read them at night. We just ended up calling Ed and having him tell us how to get there by landmarks. We arrived there before him and we met Marco, Tim Heather and some other guy whose name I forget. They introduced us around, offered us some weed and chatted as we brough our stuff in.
Finally Ed comes through the door with Courtney, her boyfriend, and one other guy, neither of whom I remember. And maybe one more girl? but in any case, they all live there in the same house. Student housing and such. but yeah we hung out and talked, and found out that they had an old drumset in the basement that needed to be tuned and fixed up, but Joe offered to tune it for them because he's a drummer and he always carries a drum key with him. Tim had a mandolin with him that he'd been playing a grand total of 2 days, but he got the open chords down and jammed with us when Joe tuned the drumset. Also they had a micro brewery in the basement where they were making beers ales and honey wine.
Some time during the night Juan and Melissa came back home. They live there too. So we jammed with Ed and Tim until like 3AM and slept on thier comfy couches and giant bean bag chair, and in the morning we met Hayley who had been asleep the entire time we were there that night. She said she was annoyed at first that we were making so much noise but then it started to sound really good so she was ok. She made me some irish coffee and we hit the road. He has a million friggin roommates.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
We met up with Spencer that next morning in Provo which is south of Sandy which is south of SLC. We had dinner at the one hidden IHOP in the entire city. We really don't think they like IHOPs there for some reason. We had so much fun with Spencer. He's a comedian after all. But I don't know if it was because he was funny or it was because we were really on that day but every minute of that breakfast was hilarious. Me and Joe had to drop our Betos bombs that morning. Spencer was like "Oh you guys went to Betos huh? Yeah they have good food there but you better set aside some time later for them too... but it's totally worth it." and that was like the motto of our entire trip. "We had some good times and shit happened... oh but it was totally worth it."
We joked around about this van full of explosives that apparently rammed into a mountainside about a year ago and exploded a big black hole in the mountainside and how it reminded us of the episode of the Simpsons where Snake tosses a beer can out his window and Bette Midler chases after him and makes his car fly off a cliff and he shouts "I'll get you for this Midlerrrrr!" as his car explodes, among other things, and then we said our farewells and headed for Durango. Which we now affectionately dub Draino. That part comes next.
We headed out old highway 666 to get there which has since been renamed probably because of ghost stories. And the place was about 24 miles north of Durango but we had a hell of a time finding it because Joey wrote down the wrong adress. Once we got there it was pretty obvious. We got there around 8:30 and there was this brand new liquor store that had opened up across the street but that had closed at 8 so we couldn't go there to get beer or anything. The general store abotu 5 miles down the road had also closed at 7. The only place still open was this place called The Olde School House.
The Olde School House is this bar/pizzaria up there in the middle of nowhere and it was really packed so we decided to pick up a menu and call our order in since it was gonna take them at least an hour to make it. That's how busy they were. So we picked up a menu, Larry drove us back, offered us beer and weed, and we started watching Sin City since Joe was the only one of us who had seen it already. We watched about 3 stories into the movie and then we paused it and went back to the School House to pick up the 'zas.
I had a stout from a local brewery called the Ska Brewery which was surprisingly smooth and tasty and Joey and Larry had the pinstripe amber ale. We were watching the last of the basketball game since it was gonna be another 15 minutes before the pizza was ready and this guy comes up to us, and Joey says he was the Mayor but it technically wasn't a town out there and I think he was some sort of elected official in charge of the entire County, but we'll call him the Mayor for clarity. And he was a good buddy of Luke's and he sat down and started to shoot the shit with us and he was telling us about this new seal he designed for Durango (he said it "Draino County") that had a hand giving devil horns in the middle of it. And then he looks at me and he points behind the bar and says "Hey whatcha think of my daughter? That's her behind the bar. She's pretty hot, eh? She ain't wearin them pigtails tonight but that makes her look cute."
I was just grinning at him. But then he started telling us about the place and how he'd been retired from the military for 25 years and he built the bar with his bare hands and he's been around here ever since running things. He was telling us you can go out 5 minutes into the woods and there's nothign but bears buttfucking bunnies and beavers fuckin deer and shit and every year at the close of the ski season there at the School House they have mud wrestling. Well, more like pudding wrestling. And we looked at Larry and we said "Dude we're leaving you 2 copies of the CD. one is for you, the other is for the Mayor to play at the School House. We want to come back here and play for the pudding wrestling." and around that time we got our pizzas and we headed back to the cabin where Joe had been taking a shower. because he'd already seen the movie.
It was good pizza if a little greasy. Great flavor though. Also had some baked chicken wings with bleu cheese dressing. Great stuff. We finished out the movie, talked a while, and then pretty much went to bed. Little did I know what Joey was talking about with Joe in there. I was sleeping on the extra sofa in the Ganja room with the beautiful view of the mountains and the flourescent blacklights so I couldn't quite hear what he was saying.
We joked around about this van full of explosives that apparently rammed into a mountainside about a year ago and exploded a big black hole in the mountainside and how it reminded us of the episode of the Simpsons where Snake tosses a beer can out his window and Bette Midler chases after him and makes his car fly off a cliff and he shouts "I'll get you for this Midlerrrrr!" as his car explodes, among other things, and then we said our farewells and headed for Durango. Which we now affectionately dub Draino. That part comes next.
We headed out old highway 666 to get there which has since been renamed probably because of ghost stories. And the place was about 24 miles north of Durango but we had a hell of a time finding it because Joey wrote down the wrong adress. Once we got there it was pretty obvious. We got there around 8:30 and there was this brand new liquor store that had opened up across the street but that had closed at 8 so we couldn't go there to get beer or anything. The general store abotu 5 miles down the road had also closed at 7. The only place still open was this place called The Olde School House.
The Olde School House is this bar/pizzaria up there in the middle of nowhere and it was really packed so we decided to pick up a menu and call our order in since it was gonna take them at least an hour to make it. That's how busy they were. So we picked up a menu, Larry drove us back, offered us beer and weed, and we started watching Sin City since Joe was the only one of us who had seen it already. We watched about 3 stories into the movie and then we paused it and went back to the School House to pick up the 'zas.
I had a stout from a local brewery called the Ska Brewery which was surprisingly smooth and tasty and Joey and Larry had the pinstripe amber ale. We were watching the last of the basketball game since it was gonna be another 15 minutes before the pizza was ready and this guy comes up to us, and Joey says he was the Mayor but it technically wasn't a town out there and I think he was some sort of elected official in charge of the entire County, but we'll call him the Mayor for clarity. And he was a good buddy of Luke's and he sat down and started to shoot the shit with us and he was telling us about this new seal he designed for Durango (he said it "Draino County") that had a hand giving devil horns in the middle of it. And then he looks at me and he points behind the bar and says "Hey whatcha think of my daughter? That's her behind the bar. She's pretty hot, eh? She ain't wearin them pigtails tonight but that makes her look cute."
I was just grinning at him. But then he started telling us about the place and how he'd been retired from the military for 25 years and he built the bar with his bare hands and he's been around here ever since running things. He was telling us you can go out 5 minutes into the woods and there's nothign but bears buttfucking bunnies and beavers fuckin deer and shit and every year at the close of the ski season there at the School House they have mud wrestling. Well, more like pudding wrestling. And we looked at Larry and we said "Dude we're leaving you 2 copies of the CD. one is for you, the other is for the Mayor to play at the School House. We want to come back here and play for the pudding wrestling." and around that time we got our pizzas and we headed back to the cabin where Joe had been taking a shower. because he'd already seen the movie.
It was good pizza if a little greasy. Great flavor though. Also had some baked chicken wings with bleu cheese dressing. Great stuff. We finished out the movie, talked a while, and then pretty much went to bed. Little did I know what Joey was talking about with Joe in there. I was sleeping on the extra sofa in the Ganja room with the beautiful view of the mountains and the flourescent blacklights so I couldn't quite hear what he was saying.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
See, Joey had gone up to take his shower after the movie was done and he locks the door, gets in, has a nice hot shower, and he gets out and starts to dry off, but as he looks at the mirror, he sees something written in the steam. Now all it says is "YES IT IS" which is cryptic at best, but all Joey can think of is the movie Fallen with Denzel Washington where the serial killer keeps singing "Time is on my side, Yes it is" by the Rolling Stones. So Joey was kinda freaked out.
He went downstairs and asks Joe "You didn't write anything on the mirror upstairs did you?" And Joe says "No..." and Joey explains the situation to him, and Joe says "Yeah I can totally see a serial killer hanging out in a place like this... You go out into the woods and there's nothing there. No one would find you." And Joey's like "You're not helping dude! Look. There's a machete by the fireplace, there's glasses and cups you can use as projectiles, maybe you can use the furtniture too, just keep an eye out."
He got like 3 hours of sleep that night. In the morning he tells me what went down and I'd seen the movie too and I said "Dude, you know that was a demon posessing people right?" and Joey's like "Thanks that makes me feel a LOT better." And we have a laugh and I go up and take a shower myself and sure enough when I get out, written on the mirror there is "YES IT IS" and so when I go downstairs I eye Joey with my creepiest grin and start singing "time is on my side, yes it is!"
And so that's how that went down. Larry had to go work at the golf course that morning so we left him with 2 copies of the CD and booked it out of Draino. We actually had to find some Wifi to confirm the gig in Albuquerque. Sho nuff we were booked there at Atomic Cantina. I kinda wanted to go to Four Corners but we didn't have the twister game mat or the video camera so it kinda lost out with the other guys. Next time we're going and playing Twister on four corners. Right hand Colorado!
He went downstairs and asks Joe "You didn't write anything on the mirror upstairs did you?" And Joe says "No..." and Joey explains the situation to him, and Joe says "Yeah I can totally see a serial killer hanging out in a place like this... You go out into the woods and there's nothing there. No one would find you." And Joey's like "You're not helping dude! Look. There's a machete by the fireplace, there's glasses and cups you can use as projectiles, maybe you can use the furtniture too, just keep an eye out."
He got like 3 hours of sleep that night. In the morning he tells me what went down and I'd seen the movie too and I said "Dude, you know that was a demon posessing people right?" and Joey's like "Thanks that makes me feel a LOT better." And we have a laugh and I go up and take a shower myself and sure enough when I get out, written on the mirror there is "YES IT IS" and so when I go downstairs I eye Joey with my creepiest grin and start singing "time is on my side, yes it is!"
And so that's how that went down. Larry had to go work at the golf course that morning so we left him with 2 copies of the CD and booked it out of Draino. We actually had to find some Wifi to confirm the gig in Albuquerque. Sho nuff we were booked there at Atomic Cantina. I kinda wanted to go to Four Corners but we didn't have the twister game mat or the video camera so it kinda lost out with the other guys. Next time we're going and playing Twister on four corners. Right hand Colorado!
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
We Finally got to Albuquerque and I had to peeeeeee and we decided to stop at the local Clear Channel building because we found free wifi there in Denver so we figured it would work there too. I tried to go to the bank to take a leak, but they "didn't have public restrooms" and I tried the Clear Channel building and it was the same friggin deal.
I should have said "Let me rephrase that: I need to pee now. Do you like golden showers or shall I use your restroom?" but I just held it in until we got to the PF Chang's. That's a fancy chinese food chain. swanky place really. Expensive food. Free bathrooms though. We had been craving Chinese food the whole trip and we kept missing all the chinese food places. so that was our treat to ourselves since Joey got his direct deposit paycheck that morning.
The food was great and we got this huge bowl of wonton soup for all of us for like $6, and it turns out our waiter was also in a band and they were just pulling themselves back together after their drummer was in a wreck 3 years ago and was almost killed. He got a really good tip and one of our CDs. He was a nice guy.
So after that lunch we found some Wifi at the Albuquerque Holliday Inn: where the towels are oh so fluffy! We actually didn't have that Weird Al CD with us but we intended to but a copy there. We never got around to it. We got in contact with our couchsurfing host in the big A and we met up with him at his house. His name is Rich. He was yet another really cool guy that offered us beer and weed. He had a beach in his house! It was all sandy and neat with a chair on it. I guess it was more like an indoor sandbox... and he has the coolest dog called Cooper. he's a 9 month old weenie! he's tiny and cute. I got lots of blurry pictures of him because he's always in motion.
We talked and hung out for a while and then he had to go to work at the tattoo parlor. Then his roommate got up from her late night of partying. She'd probably gotten home at around 8 and she'd been asleep until then. oh! We started watching Cake Town. Which is what Joey calls 300 now. Because of that Youtube video.
And we say Cake Town instead of the number 300 too. We rock. So then his roommate Carly wakes up and she's like "ohh you're those couch surfers Rich was talking about! If you wanna come party, here's my number." and she walks out to go to see an Isotopes baseball game. Then we headed out and found the venue, but it turns out we got there really early because we didn't go on until 11. We got there at 7:30 and talked to the guys there, unloaded our stuff, and headed off to the cheapest liquor store in existance called Quarters. I still have the little map on how to get there. We bought Rich a 12 pack of Shiner Bock for $10.99 because he only had one lonely beer in his fridge.
Also I tried to call Selket Suicide because she's friends with Vanessa who lives in Albuquerque. Selket said I should send her an e-mail and invite her to the show because Vanessa is friends with her and she'd totally come to the show, but she never responded to the mail I sent. I wanted to see if Selket could call her but I changed my phone number and I don't think she knew it was me. oh well. no SGs at the show.
We get to the Cantina and it's 21 & up, no cover charge so the place is finally packed with people our ages, but it turns out that of the other bands the first band going on is called 3 Hole Punch and they're totally metal. Then after the metal band it's us, who do a million kinds of rock, and the next band Unusial Content is rap-rock like Hed PE and the last band, Agency E, tried to do a RATM thing but only so so. Not to be egotistical but we were the best band there. Yet again. At least the crowd liked us and the other bands loved us!!!! and we sold 2 CDs on the power of our rock alone without having to talk up our CD!
Rich missed our show because he had to work late and then he was taking his girl to see a movie because he had promised her. We didn't get back until like 2. All that waiting around made me tired so I bought 2 Jager bombs to keep me awake. Joe is always our DD because he doesn't drink. I like that guy. He's a good guy. All you ladies need to pay attention to him because he needs a good woman.
So after the show we were hoping to catch Rich again so we could barbecue and hang out but he wasn't back yet so we just went to sleep. We wanted to get up early so Joe could drive us all the way back in time for Father's day. Sure enough Carly comes rolling in about 8AM having partied and drunk too much all night and immediately heads out for work. She was cute too but I'm kinda scared of her.
Anyway. We got packed up and headed out early, We drove to Cuba, and also we passed through Concho county. Concho is a game that Japanese gradeschoolers play where they see how far they can ram their finger up your ass when you're not looking. We stopped in Lubbock to have lunch with Joe's cousin Andrew and we had Subway and realized we should probably play a show in Lubbock because it's a college town. Texas Tech is there. So we left around 9:00 Mountain time and got home at 10:30 Central.... and that's the end of the story. If you want a playlist of all the music we listened to then you'll just have to wait.
I should have said "Let me rephrase that: I need to pee now. Do you like golden showers or shall I use your restroom?" but I just held it in until we got to the PF Chang's. That's a fancy chinese food chain. swanky place really. Expensive food. Free bathrooms though. We had been craving Chinese food the whole trip and we kept missing all the chinese food places. so that was our treat to ourselves since Joey got his direct deposit paycheck that morning.
The food was great and we got this huge bowl of wonton soup for all of us for like $6, and it turns out our waiter was also in a band and they were just pulling themselves back together after their drummer was in a wreck 3 years ago and was almost killed. He got a really good tip and one of our CDs. He was a nice guy.
So after that lunch we found some Wifi at the Albuquerque Holliday Inn: where the towels are oh so fluffy! We actually didn't have that Weird Al CD with us but we intended to but a copy there. We never got around to it. We got in contact with our couchsurfing host in the big A and we met up with him at his house. His name is Rich. He was yet another really cool guy that offered us beer and weed. He had a beach in his house! It was all sandy and neat with a chair on it. I guess it was more like an indoor sandbox... and he has the coolest dog called Cooper. he's a 9 month old weenie! he's tiny and cute. I got lots of blurry pictures of him because he's always in motion.
We talked and hung out for a while and then he had to go to work at the tattoo parlor. Then his roommate got up from her late night of partying. She'd probably gotten home at around 8 and she'd been asleep until then. oh! We started watching Cake Town. Which is what Joey calls 300 now. Because of that Youtube video.
And we say Cake Town instead of the number 300 too. We rock. So then his roommate Carly wakes up and she's like "ohh you're those couch surfers Rich was talking about! If you wanna come party, here's my number." and she walks out to go to see an Isotopes baseball game. Then we headed out and found the venue, but it turns out we got there really early because we didn't go on until 11. We got there at 7:30 and talked to the guys there, unloaded our stuff, and headed off to the cheapest liquor store in existance called Quarters. I still have the little map on how to get there. We bought Rich a 12 pack of Shiner Bock for $10.99 because he only had one lonely beer in his fridge.
Also I tried to call Selket Suicide because she's friends with Vanessa who lives in Albuquerque. Selket said I should send her an e-mail and invite her to the show because Vanessa is friends with her and she'd totally come to the show, but she never responded to the mail I sent. I wanted to see if Selket could call her but I changed my phone number and I don't think she knew it was me. oh well. no SGs at the show.
We get to the Cantina and it's 21 & up, no cover charge so the place is finally packed with people our ages, but it turns out that of the other bands the first band going on is called 3 Hole Punch and they're totally metal. Then after the metal band it's us, who do a million kinds of rock, and the next band Unusial Content is rap-rock like Hed PE and the last band, Agency E, tried to do a RATM thing but only so so. Not to be egotistical but we were the best band there. Yet again. At least the crowd liked us and the other bands loved us!!!! and we sold 2 CDs on the power of our rock alone without having to talk up our CD!
Rich missed our show because he had to work late and then he was taking his girl to see a movie because he had promised her. We didn't get back until like 2. All that waiting around made me tired so I bought 2 Jager bombs to keep me awake. Joe is always our DD because he doesn't drink. I like that guy. He's a good guy. All you ladies need to pay attention to him because he needs a good woman.
So after the show we were hoping to catch Rich again so we could barbecue and hang out but he wasn't back yet so we just went to sleep. We wanted to get up early so Joe could drive us all the way back in time for Father's day. Sure enough Carly comes rolling in about 8AM having partied and drunk too much all night and immediately heads out for work. She was cute too but I'm kinda scared of her.
Anyway. We got packed up and headed out early, We drove to Cuba, and also we passed through Concho county. Concho is a game that Japanese gradeschoolers play where they see how far they can ram their finger up your ass when you're not looking. We stopped in Lubbock to have lunch with Joe's cousin Andrew and we had Subway and realized we should probably play a show in Lubbock because it's a college town. Texas Tech is there. So we left around 9:00 Mountain time and got home at 10:30 Central.... and that's the end of the story. If you want a playlist of all the music we listened to then you'll just have to wait.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
the paintings look great!