I forgot to mention that the original plan for Tuesday was to rehearse for the Friday Tucson show as there would be some guest players, and I believe that was also our original lodging for the evening. But that fell through as one of their room mates had to be rushed to the hospital due to a kidney stone.
Hence the hospitality of Bonnie was that much more appreciated.
We began the day with AJ cooking breakfast and us trading off cleaning and doing the previous night's dishes.
Thunderosa: We make a mess and we clean it up. Then we make another mess, and clean that up too.
This evening would be AJ Mac solo (and possibly a semi-acoustic Thunderosa set) at Independent Distillery, run by his/our old friend Larry, but we still had the day to kill.
AJ went to visit a tattoo artist friend, and Bonnie took Drew and I for a nature adventure.
Beautiful country in Tucson, high Sonoran desert plains flanked by mountains on all sides. She was taking us to the top of Mt. Lemmon, and we brought lots of warm clothes as it gets real cold real fast as you ascend in elevation.
But our path was blocked by police and road blocks. Turns out the El Nino-fueled weather pattern had the road closed off due to snow. Well shit. So we detoured and drove through Sabino Canyon.
Not finding a suitable hiking area, we created our own. Drove down some back desert residential-ish street, parked in a random spot, and walked down some official-looking but not exactly closed to the public road.
Fucking beautiful out there. I don't think I would want to live in the desert per se, but I do love visiting it and spending time there.
A Saguaro cactus forest
Drew, Bonnie and myself
Selfie with a cactus
Beautiful country
Back to Bonnie's to rest, regroup, have dinner, and prepare for the evening at Independent Distillery. Awesome day so far.
Pulled into Independent well after sundown. Did I mention it was cold as balls by now? This would be a recurring theme.
The solo opener was a younger kid with a great voice and good songs, def a Hank I vibe. Can't recall his name now, for reasons I will soon get to.
Plan was for AJ to play solo for a bit, then Drew and I join him for some stripped down tunes. We called the second part off real quick as (a) we still would have been too loud and (b) Drew and I spent AJ's set getting good-naturedly hammered at the bar. He and I had coordinated before hand to heckle AJ like the two old guys on The Muppet Show (and AJ was ok with this) but we drunkenly forgot.
Why? DOOM JUICE
This was Larry's own creation. His aged and specially blended potion. He described it as an improvement on and replacement of Fireball.
It was aptly titled. Drew and I were rather obliterated on this fine beverage which could probably send a rocket to Mars as well as some of the local craft beers. Good Lord. And good times!!!
AJ Mac solo. This is pretty much how the world looked at the time.
Near the Independent. Not sure what the story is here, but curious to know
Eventually went back to Bonnie's where we all slept like the dead.
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