Pulling into San Luis Obispo around 4pm, we found our venue (Frog And Peach), a parking spot, and a delicious place to eat (Cheeky Tiki). The sun shining hot and dry, the baby napped and we all stepped outside to stretch and breathe. Jared and I called our parents, got a little love via wireless, woke the baby and then met up with Kim and Sandi for lunch. Rudy was grumpy from being woken up, so Auntie Kim took him to look at hats. He found a Darth Vader hat that we all almost bought him, but, as I had recently bought him a Yoda one, we decided to keep him away from the dark side a bit longer…
While waiting for the gig to start, we were greeted by the Fat Tuesday bike parade/celebration and one very colorful man.
It also was “Pint Night” at the bar where we were playing, so it promised to be a success. And so it was. After the few days of set backs, we all really needed to get our sing on. We took the stage fast and hard and were sweating just a few tunes in. SLO is a college town, so attention spans are short and quickly drawn away to shiny things, so we fought hard to pull them in and keep them. We did recognizable covers and catchy originals and kept them dancing and drinking til almost 1. Even when the fire dept and paramedics came in (still don’t know what for), kids hung around the stage to listen to Kim’s version of Adele’s “Rumor Has It”.
*Fun Fact: in 2007, when CS was just a baby and we were playing as a 3 piece with Thom Thomas, we played this same stage. You can still see our original white oval sticker on the ledge up to the right of Kim’s head in this picture. Naturally, we added our current one to it before we left!
Anyway, my Uncle Chris and Aunt Diana made an appearance and then insisted we stay at their place for the night so they could see Rudy and feed us breakfast. Things almost felt normal again…
Chris and Diana’s place is in a gated community, up an incline. Just through the gate is the hill into the rest of the area. So, no speed had been accumulated to get up this hill. We had to go it from a dead stop. Not 1/3 up, I look at Jared and ask why we aren’t moving. “I literally have the gas pedal to the floor.” He replied. We thought we were going to be stuck at the entrance. It occurred to him and Kim simultaneously that we weren’t in first gear. Once that was adjusted, the Lindy tip toed up the windy path. Chris’s driveway was another nightmare to get up and we had no idea how we would get down, but we’d come too far!!! We finally parked and got out to see a sky beyond measure.
Like a used Light Bright paper, the jet black sky was peppered with a million white holes, some of which looked close enough to touch. We took in the heavy floral smells in the thick, cool night air, pointed out constellations, and stood silently for a moment to take it all in. Tired in every way, we saluted one another with our quick, but ever so relevant mantra, “All in.”, hugged and headed to bed, literally having no clue as to the astounding beauty we would wake to in the morning. For now, we had beds and were safe. And that was good.
