The kids had to be up for a dentist appt. pretty early, which, KUDOS to Brooke for rallying her three boys after two days of hard play. We got ready quickly so we could sip some coffee and enjoy every last second together. The two youngest, Rudy and J, took turns telling Alexa to play different songs. J wanted to show his punk prowess and shared several hard tunes, while Rudy (I’m certain he would have been a mixtape master in the 80’s), chose “You Are The Best Thing” by Ray LaMontagne, to express his feelings about the boys… It was a summer “bromance” to remember, and I’m pretty sure we made some “lifer” friends. While sitting at a coffee shop later that day, Rudy drew each of his friends to commemorate his time. I think he nailed it too.
The Gamble . . .
Western Cider, was one.
We rolled the dice on a place that said, “We can’t pay you because we can’t advertise quickly enough, and we only JUST started doing music, so there probably won’t be anyone here. . . but you can play for tips.”
This isn’t uncommon. We’ve gone through it before and sometimes really come out on top. But, tonight, Kenny Rogers’s words clung to us like the sweat from the 96° heat and blazing sunshine…”Know when to walk away, know when to run.”
No one wanted to sit outside. The stage was covered partially, designed with the main flaw that it would only protect from a sun that would hang in the sky around noon, not 6:00, at which time it would just glare at us from the horizon until we bowed to its will. We gave it an hour. Because of the sun, at one point I moved my mic stand in FRONT of Jared, FACING him, just to get away from the burn. We sang a few tunes like that and then just said to each other, “It’s time.”
We broke down the gear, set up our bed in the back and were on the road to the little Italian villa of Wenatchee before it was even 8:00. We stopped for gas when a woman pulled up beside us and said, “Your back trailer doors are WIDE OPEN!” Holy crap. If Kenny Rogers had just written that line into the song, we may not have forgotten. But, alas, “You never drive your trailer, when the doors are swinging open. They’ll be gear out on the highway, before the drivin’s done.” were NOT the next lyrics in the song, so we DID forget to check. Happy ending though…NOTHING FELL OUT!!
Rudy was absolutely exhausted from 2 full nights of “sleep” overs with his “Missoula Brothers”, so, after a cherry seed spitting contest, some non-stop blabber about YouTube crap, he was asleep by 9:30 and didn’t move until 8:00am! Jared and I finished 2 more crosswords, then called it. A Flying J in Spokane was perfect for our rest and we were sacked quickly as the roaring semi-truck generators slowly turned into white noise as we drifted off.
