Short visits and a long haul....

...such is the life on the road with a band I suppose. Or perhaps we have become spoiled with the opulent locations that we have been stopping on this tour. Or is it just that we were in Portland, one of the finest cities in this great nation and had a mere hour to spend in which we ended up looking for food and hastily eating before loading in. Then playing our set and leaving out the next morning, everything went by too fast. Surely aside from the great venue and response we had, the highlight was our late night drive across town after the gig and the drive back through the next morning. I took in all I could of the area in that brutally short time. The tree lined streets, the funky culture, the king Columbia River, the dams, the beautiful evergreens, the looming mountains, the parade of trains along the river. I was in a pretty bad mood as we climbed up river back to Idaho and Utah passing waterfalls, windsurfers and apple orchards.




We ended our journey for the night in Boise and as if there was a golden light though the setting haze, we found the Flying Pie pizzeria. We were walking unknowingly into probably the BEST pizza we have ever eaten, no one could put a finger on it exactly. Perhaps it was the pizza itself with it's robust toppings or the place, which was equally unique. I think it was literally soul food, consoling us from leaving Portland so quickly. We have a show to get to 1200 miles away, in another one of God's showplaces, Crested Butte, CO. With only have two and a half days to get there, that pizza put all the uneasiness behind us and the prospect of another great show in front of us. As we left the iconic pizzeria all six of us honked the "horn of good will" to the wild grateful cheers of it's employees. Hear here! Flying Pie you put Boise on the map for the Union without doubt. We soldiered on early in the morning driving as far as we could.

An odd wobble plauged us all the way to Salt Lake City. Breakfasts and yesterday's pizza feast turned into a shake like mush in our bellies. We sang in harmonic vibrato to the shaking of the van. Hesitantly we stopped in downtown SLC to have it looked at. We were really wanting to rack the miles up, but this didnt seem safe. Our instincts were correct, tread separation on the rear two tires, a potentially messy danger. Doubled by the fact that we were soon to head into the mountainous desert of southern Utah. After two hours we rolled on confidently and thank goodness, smoothly. The Union Pacific followed us south and gave us something to concentrate on though the rolling hills, we saw train after train and a magnificent sunset as we drew closer to Colorado. Now we are holed up 6 to a room in Grand Jct thanks to our tire dilemma. We are a stones throw from our destination. All is good.