The second of two days off on this run.
Only would be much less a day off than the on one we had the previous week in Sedona AZ. Which already seemed months ago despite it only being 10 days.
And instead of much needed rest and not-going-anywhere, we had a run of three Colorado dates starting in Denver the following night. Which was 546 miles away. Hmmmm...
I woke early, remembering our hosts' off-handed offer the previous night of their washer/dryer in case anyone needed to do laundry. I'm sure my hand shot up like Horseshack (sp?).
Got everything done in one load, which was surprising. And it was one of those fancier front-loading setups and rather high tech. Which meant I immediately put it on the wrong wash cycle (the one our host cautioned against) so had to stop it and start the program process all over again so it would take 23 minutes to wash my clothes instead of an hour.
Also got in a much needed-shower in their luxurious garden tub/shower stall. Of course came dangerously close to busting my ass getting out.
Felt like I had shed a layer of skin. And had all clean clothes. Wow. Nice to feel like a human being again.
But we couldn't stay long, we had more ground to cover.
We thought about powering all the way through to Denver. Get there after 9-10+ hour drive, check into hotel, pass out, and have the entire next day to relax before gig. But check out time would be noon and that would leave us with an entire day to kill until load in that evening, and we would be staying with friends in Denver that night.
So was decided to drive to Cheyenne WY, which would mean a mere 100 mile drive to Denver the next day. After all the ground we had been covering that might as well be a trip to the grocery store.
So 452 miles to Cheyenne it is!
Don't recall what we did for breakfast. Just remember going through the mountain pass just outside of SLC to begin the long drive, crossing the high desert plains and occasional weird rock formations of southern Wyoming.
Leaving Salt Lake City:
After leaving the mountains it started to look like the Moon.
Fireworks stand somewhere in Wyoming
And we found a Kum & Go!!! Yes!!!
And at some point this happened.
As we crossed Wyoming we started seeing more snowcaps on occasional distant mountain peaks. As we got up in elevation at one point, we were seeing patches of snow, and lots of evidence of meltwater and overflowing creeks. As the odd patches of snow got closer and closer to the highway, it got more tempting to pull over and go play in it, heh!
Turns out they recently had a very heavy late-season snowfall, which was resulting in floods. Crazy.
Finally rolled into Cheyenne before sunset. Weird, beat desert town kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Checked into a kind of beat hotel, had two rooms due to a donation from a good friend. So we'd get to stretch out a little instead of three-to-a-room, and Adrian would have her own space.
Me and Armando's room looked over the pool (ewww) and a bbq area with a resident colony of prairie dogs scurrying around. Our external AC unit would make an occasional sputtering/farting sound. Judging by the dents in the grill, kicking it did not remedy the noise.
Got cleaned up more or less (I was already clean ha!) and headed to the Steamboat Steakhouse for an actual sit-down dinner. After 4 days of eating-on-the-go, tour tacos or missed meals (last full meal was with A's parents on Saturday), we really needed this.
And we splurged.
Appetizers, local beers, etc. I had a huge burger and probably inhaled it, and Adrian and Armando gorged themselves as well. It was glorious. The most full I have been the entire trip, and I don't like to feel that full after eating (especially if playing that night). But this was exactly what our bodies needed. Coffee and B-complex can sort of keep you going, but running on fumes will only carry you so far.
Surprised the staff didn't need to carry us in wheelbarrows back to the van, heh.
Back to the hotel to rest and have some beers--stopped by a liquor store, I believe Cheyenne is in a dry county, or they might have been van beers from the venue in Salt Lake City, who fucking knows at this point haha--with Armando in our room. I think we even turned on the TV for once(!) and Adrian hung out with us for awhile.
Even tho we had driven 8 or 9 hours that day, it was nice to have a night off from playing and some peace instead of the noise of a venue.
In the courtyard by the pool there had been a group of guys at the picnic table drinking beers and hanging out. They were there when we left for the steakhouse, and still going strong when we got back. But Armando and I outlasted them, heh.
With as exhausted as we were, we went to sleep technically early for us, but our skewed musician hours still kept us awake past midnight.
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