Day: July 4, 2012

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How to torture a professionally trained musician…

I’m in Grand Junction Colorado.

My Traveling companion and I went to an Applebees for dinner. You know… you only want to eat junk food for just so long before you want a salad and steak.

So in we go and the place is pretty busy, but we get seated pretty fast. As we sit down I’m presented with one of those things that really bugs the crap out of me. 4 or 5 different languages being spoken loudly all within earshot. I don’t know why it just makes me a nut job. I know that part of it is my locking onto the parts of those languages I do understand and then thinking all the other stuff I should understand and well … That’s my problem! You know… one of many!

All this annoyance about the hodgepodge of languages pales as the night entertainment begins to sing.

He calls himself “Wailin Willey” and well, I’ve heard better sounds from a cat whose tail was caught under a rocking chair.

Suddenly I can no longer hear all the languages around me… HELL I can’t even hear my traveling companion across the table.

Speaking of which…

You’d have thought that something foul and diseased had just been delivered as the main course. I thought he was going to get up and strangle the lame assed singer.

I know “Wailin Willey” was seriously sucking but hey what could I do? I mean we’d already ordered! I simply chose to ignore the “music” as if I was in a machine shop where all the air ratchets were vein used at once… (Been there, a preferable experience by the way to hearing Wailin Willey)

As we were discussing in loud voices so that we could hear each other over the Wailin the fact that we could not now leave… a lady at the table behind Jerry asked the waiter for earplugs and some ketchup.

At which point I busted up laughing!

I suggested that perhaps Willey could have a unlikely freak accident involving a slip & fall situation which resulted in the microphone cord being wrapped several times around his neck and the microphone ending up in an unlikely orifice. A subsequent tragic tripping over his untied shoelaces would find poor Willey accidentally strangling himself with his sound system. I think there’s an allusion to one being hoisted by his own petard in there somewhere…

Finally AFTER almost 40 minutes we got our food and less than 20 minutes later I was out the front door of the place.

But I learned something…

If I ever want to torture a classically  trained professional musician, all I have to do is find the shittiest singer I can whose playing in a small venue. Then take my musician friend to the place and buy them watered down well drinks.

I figure after about two hours of that… My musician friend will be compliant to just about any deviant whim.

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Trip Day 2

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Went to bed about the same time as normal last night.

Woke up this morning about the same time as well but still tired.

As much as anything its the adrenaline from the push to get underway is fading. 

I can also tell that my body is not happy because I didn’t drink enough water yesterday. Have to do better today. The local time is 7:30am  My body says it’s 6:30.

I’m in a part of the country that I’ve never been in I’m enjoying it. This is the first time in several years that I’ve been able to feed my wanderlust. The people I’ve met thus far are very nice.  Looking forward to the day and hopefully some more photos.

The day didn’t go quite as planned. One of the roads through that would connect me to Bryce canyon was closed by fire. They were very nice about letting folks know instead of allowing us to drive the 40 miles to the closure. 

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We also thought about doing Zion but two things held us back. 1) was the $25 entrance fee. 2) was that we didn’t want to have to ride the trams to the sites with all the unwashed masses on the 4th of July.

If I’m going to go someplace like that, I want to do it in the Autumn so at least the I can drive and take my leisure at any of the monuments.

Back to the freeway where the ambient speed was 75 to 90 miles per hour… My Car LOVED IT!

All was not lost because there was this very cool Fort. The place is called Fort Cove. It was built at the direction the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City. The Fort was a way-station and prior to it’s being built folks had to “rough it” under the open sky.

The LDS folks had lovingly and expertly restored the buildings and out buildings to as close to original specifications as possible. Few photographs existed of the rooms inside the fort so the furnishings were approximations, not originals as you’d find at Shaker Village in Kentucky.

The grounds were beautifully kept and everyone is given a personal tour by a member or members of the LDS church. Don’t let that put you off. regardless of what you thing of the LDS church here apparently is an example of the church actually practicing what they preach. Everyone was equal and welcome. People passing through had a safe place to stay, a good hot meal and companionship.

The fort also served another purpose. It was a telegraph office, a relay point for the pony express, a post office, and stage coach stop. Each of these functions were vitally important at the time.

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Here are some of the photos.

After we left the fort we drove a while then encountered the first of many scenic viewpoints. 

I have to say Utah did this very well.

They have these exits right off the freeway. You’ve got plenty of warning that you’re coming up on one, and you can zip off into a parking lot that’s built for cars and Trucks & RVs.

Then when you’re ready to leave they’ve got this nice long acceleration lane coming out of the viewpoint, so you can get back up to 80 before you enter the freeway.

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Something else I haven’t seen and haven’t missed is carpool lanes, or those moronic traffic control lights, you see on the freeways. These people want you to have your ass MOVING before you get on the freeway so THEY don’t make you stop at a light at the end of the  freeway entrance ramp.

I got some interesting shots at a couple of these places I may be posing more of them later.

Hope everyones 4th was a great one.