Rocky Mountain High Minus the "GH"

I say this tongue and cheek, as I mean no disrespect to the wonderful mountains, rivers, snow and kind people of Colorado, it’s just that our most recent visit was, in a word, SHORT.
Wednesday/Thursday: Plains, Plateaus and Mountains
After eighteen hours of driving, with a quick stop in Amarillo at Hoot’s Pub, which was a raucous good time by the way, we set down camp in Breckenridge, CO, the heart of Summit County. We joined our friend Janice in our circa 1965 condo digs for a quick libation and refresher course on the ways of the mountains.
We walked out the front door and trudged up the hill in the snow, (it was a balmy 22 degrees) to KSMT and KCMV where we chatted and performed live on air for Johnny and Brandon.
After a long wait, quick sound check and a quick meal at Amy and Jon’s (great hosts by the way), we hit the stage at Sherpa and Yeti’s and had a good time playing for a small but appreciative crowd of mountain fans, they really were a cool group. After a few nightcaps, we were off to the land of dreams to catch up on some needed sleep.
Friday: The Bird is the Word.
The sweet slumbers lasted a whopping five hours as we rolled into Friday. After some breakfast and a quick hang we headed to Denver, and more specifically, The Soiled Dove, one of our favorite places to play. We had a great night, with some old friends showing up from Carbondale and some new faces grooving on the floor. Many thanks to Rhett and Chris and all of the folks at The Soiled Dove, a first class joint for sure.
Back into the White Pig (aka the luxury van) for a white knuckle slide up and down I-70. After passing our destination a couple of times, we landed in around 4:30am, just enough time to close our eyes and open them again.
Saturday Part I Aka: We Got the Funk
The day began at 9am (definitely not rock n roll hours), not that you want to hear us bitch about getting to do what we love, but c’mon. We learned first hand about “ski traffic,” a phenomenon that is a little like beach traffic, only colder. We rolled up to Copper Mountain, just in time to give a quick shout out to George Clinton and some of the P-Funk crew and catch some of the smoke trails coming off their heels. Rocked out a pretty excellent set for 11am and watched some people dance in those big moon boots, while holding their skis and snowboards and beers, good times! The Set List went something like this.
One More Step
Second Line
Wilson and Otis>Rolling and Tumbling Jam
Ain’t No More Cane
Unsleeping Eye
Bumblebee
Heart on My Sleeve
Jackson Station
Saturday Part Deux: Colombian Fat Tire
Driving took up the rest of the afternoon as we rolled into Montrose around supper time for a sound check and a quick hang. Dave and all of the crew were mighty kind to us and helped promote a packed house and a killer 2 set 3 hour tour closing show. As always the fans in Colorado showed why they’re some of the best. Lots of dancing, hooting and hollering and audience participation spurred us on to a really great show. After a lengthy discussion about the merits of Fat Tire and the beauty of things that grow in Colorado we headed back to the hotel and caught a bright moon and some cold air skies before drifting off.
Sunday: The Heat Seeker
1100 miles in 18 hours, that was the goal. We were blazing through the morning and afternoon and well into the night, fueled by coffee, Dr. Peepper and McDonalds. We even made it into Monday morning, just outside of Austin, before we were stopped dead in our tracks. I’m not sure what the exact cause of our travellus interruptus was but I suspect it was a magical deer hoof that cursed our forward progress. In sparing the life of said doe (spring has sprung and so have the deer, we missed hitting it by inches), I believe the Deer spirits left us with a reminder of their power. In the words of Fletch, it’s all about the ball bearings, and we certainly had run out of ’em by this point.
So we got in a few hours later than expected, tired and weary, achy and groggy, but we made it home and we can’t wait to do the whole damn thing again for ya’ll.
Thanks to everyone that came out and supported us, you know we love you and couldn’t keep doing this crazy weird stuff without you.
Cheers,
TBOH