Drivin' West...

hello friends and greetings from beautiful del mar, california! carolyn and i just made it out here to her brother and sister-in-law's house last night after an epic 6 day trip. we are out here visiting with her young nieces, sophie and charlotte. after a few days of baby time we'll be heading north to see some old friends here on the west coast before Boss Tweed begins a three week tour of the pacific north-west and canada. we hit the road last friday, heading first to boston since i had a show with mr brownstone at the paradise. this backstage photo may not sum it up or say it all but it should give you an idea of what mr b is all about, assuming you don't know already:
after rocking boston city, carolyn and i left the next morning in the minivan bound for chicago. funny enough, it was exactly 1000 miles on the nose from izzy's (false mustache on the far left) doorstep to carolyn's hometown of northbrook, illinois. we made it in about 12 hours, crashed at a hotel and surprised carolyn's folks the next morning. we spent the day playing mini golf and relaxing. carolyn at the mini golf entrance:

on monday morning we woke up bright and early and headed south though missouri, oklahoma, texas and into new mexico. powering though these states, we saw lotsa corn, jesus billboards, gun shops and adult book stores... ah the heartland. to keep our spirits up, we hopped out of the car to play some catch:

snapping a quick photo of a great old hunk of junk being pulled down the highway on a trailer in texas:
we made it just shy of albuquerque by about an hour (1200 miles from chicago) and crashed in a hotel in santa rosa, new mexico. unfortunately it was dark as we drove through texas (my first time in the great state) but we had an amazing time driving through the deserts of new mexico, arizona and california during the rest of the drive. craving some tasty southwesten eggs that morning, we hit the road and stopped off at a great little diner in albuquerque. please excuse the shameless plug but i must admit that having an iPhone on this trip has been a real help. we never would have found this place without it!
inspecting the menu:
we both settled on the huevos rancheros although while i prefer the red salsa, the lady prefers the green...we made great time heading west through new mexico and into arizona. we stopped for a breather at this native american-run roadside tourist stop:
view from the road in new mexico:
our plan on tuesday was to make a quick pit stop at the grand canyon en route to vegas. here we are:
we even had time to swing through seligman, az on the way. known as the birthplace of historic route 66, carolyn had the enormous good fortune of spending a couple days here 9 years ago when the RV she rented with some friends broke down and required a new transmission. this is one of those classic towns full of kitschy souvenirs shops and oddities you (or at least i) hope to find on a trip through the desert. weirdly cool stuff...

we stopped for a bottle of suds at the black cat, seligman's watering hole:
and then we were off to the magical world of las vegas. driving off into the sunset:

i gotta say, i'm not much of a gambler (at least when it comes to playing cards or playing the slots) so my one-night experience of vegas was rather tame compared to some. we drove the length of the strip, stayed at the luxor hotel and took full advantage of the breakfast buffet. i'll confess that i did play some video poker. i dropped $5 into a machine, lost some and won some and in the end walked out breaking even. how's that for living it up?

the next morning we slept in a bit and checked out ed roman guitars... the famous guitar shop in town. more bizarre stuff here, the kind of instruments you might associate with las vegas. case in point, here are two custom built double-neck ed roman instruments. on the left is a joe maphis meets george lynch model complete with an octave neck. on the right is a completely useless yngwie malmsteen-esque 6 string/12 string model. (guitar geeks please note that on the yngwie model both necks have scalloped fret boards... eep!)
we hightailed it out of vegas, heading west on route 15 to san diego. always on the lookout for interesting roadside attractions, we stopped in the ghost town of calico, california located deep in the mojave desert. the terrain and landscape here is beautifully desolate... it looks like you're driving across the surface of mars. at one time calico was a booming silver mining town but now it exists solely as a curiosity for travelers. there are still a few straggling residents who work the shops in town. i wandered into a saddle and boot maker's shop and met henry, an honest to goodness cowboy. he even wore spurs! he's the kind of guy that calls it a "GITar" and means it. some photos, note the town name laid out in white rock on the far hill:

view of the mojave desert from the road:
and now we're relaxing for a few days here in southern california. we're glad to be out of the cr for a few days at least. more stories and photos to come!