Adventure #45: Summer Tour 2012: Rock Springs, Wyoming

Having successfully failed to find anywhere to crash in Casper, Wyoming, we decided to drive through the night to Rock Springs and get a hotel room there. And by “we,” of course, I mean Joshua. Because I was asleep in the back seat like the fragile flower I am.

We got to Rock Springs, Wyoming at the break of dawn with still a few hours before any hotel would let us check in to sleep the day off. And by “us” here I mean Joshua and Holly, because I had gotten my beauty sleep in the car and was ready for awesomeness. We wandered downtown for a bit and ended up killing time at this little local diner called Grubs, because just calling the place “Food” would have been pretentious. This is Pen Pen being welcomed to Rock Springs.

The Rocky Mountains stood over the town taunting me with their existence. Sure, I had part of my right lung removed only 8 weeks ago, but these mountains were just so there. I couldn't let them be there without hiking them. That would be un-American, or something. So while Joshua and Holly napped, I took the Rusty Shackleford and drove toward the mountains. I got to where the pavement ended, parked the car, and started walking. Now keep in mind that 7 weeks ago I still needed help to walk any more than a few feet. And it was only about 3 weeks ago that I stopped requiring high dosages of pain medication to do anything more complicated than play Minecraft. So sure, these aren't the tallest, most difficult peaks in the Rockies, but as far as I was concerned they were the damn Himalayas. This is Pen Pen staring up at the mountain concluding that this wasn't the dumbest possible thing I could do.

It wasn't until I hit the rock scramble about 2/3rds up that how massively suicidal this was really registered with me. But at that point it had become a matter of pride. I was going to scale this comparatively easy mountain whether it wanted me to or not. My heart pounding through my chest, I crested the mountain and looked around. It opened up on a massive plateau, a sun bleached rib cage rising up from the dust 20 feet away. I sat down on a rock for a little while to catch my breath, eat cashews, and read some Asimov. I crashed out at the hotel for the rest of the afternoon. My adrenaline still pumping, keeping my body from knowing just how pissed at me my lungs really were. This is Pen Pen, King of the Rockies.

We headed off to the venue, not really sure what to expect. I play places like Porky's on tour a lot, and it's usually a good time. But it's the sort of place where they'll either love us or hate us. And unfortunately by the time you figure out which one it's going to be it's too late to do anything about it. So you just sit there singing your stupid songs absorbing rays of hate from the crowd. We walked in, nervously looking around. It wasn't packed, but there were enough folks there for a decent show. But I guess they were the right folks. It ended up being a pretty awesome night. Definitely the best of the tour so far. Everyone was really fun and we kept playing until 1 or so juggling between covers and originals. So way to be rad Rock Springs, Wyoming. This is Pen Pen riding Porky's pig.

This is a song I wrote one time. You should download it and share with your friends.

Adventure #44: Summer Tour 2012: Casper, Wyoming

The drive across Nebraska is really nice if you're not the sort of person for whom the sight of acres upon acres of dead corn fields dried up from drought causes existential crises about the unsustainability of American agriculture. Otherwise, it's great. It's also a great drive if you're in the sort of car where the gas gauge has any bearing on reality.

So we're in a 1995 Ford Aerostar that gets roughly 21 miles per gallon. It has an 18 gallon tank. So when it hits an 1/8 of a tank, that should mean “start looking for a gas station, but you'll be fine as long as you find one within 47.25 miles.” Not so for the Rusty Shackleford. We made it about 7 miles before it sputtered off to the side of the road. OK fine. Joshua and I both have AAA and we still had an hour of flex time before we needed to be in Casper, Wyoming. We learned the hard way that the gas gauge on the car is sort of arbitrary and that 1/8 of a tank = empty. But otherwise, we'd be fine. This is Pen Pen waiting patiently for roadside assistance.

So Joshua calls AAA and informs them we're at mile marker 2, right before the turn-off for exit 1 on I-80 on the Nebraska side of the Nebraska-Wyoming border. Jennifer the not terribly competent AAA employee proceeds to put him on hold for 20 minutes, then comes back to inform him that it's impossible, and that where we were simply didn't exist. Also insinuating in no uncertain terms that Joshua might be lying for some nefarious purpose. Some sort of Joker-Batman conundrum? The world will never know. This was news to us, but we had spent a good chunk of the drive discussing time travel paradoxes, so we were totally in the right frame of mind to be told that where we were didn't really exist. This is Pen Pen in a time travel paradox, somehow existing both now and a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Oh wait, did I say we were in the right frame of mind? Because no we definitely weren't. We were now almost certainly going to be late for the show and stranded in the hot Nebraska sun 3 tantalizing miles from the nearest gas station. Just close enough to be walkable, but far enough that if we attempted it we'd never make it anywhere even close to on time. 2 mind-bogglingly frustrating calls to AAA and about 45 Tom-Petty-on the-ukelele-filled minutes later (during which not a single person stopped to ask if we were OK...so much for midwestern hospitality...) a guy from AAA shows up. Re-fueled, we set off back on the road, slightly embarrassed for having run out of gas 3 miles from a gas station, but mostly late. We finally got to the venue only 30 minutes late and set about playing some folk songs for the surprisingly awesome patrons of Casper, Wyoming. This is Pen Pen strutting in to the venue 30 minutes late like the rock star he is.

This is a song I wrote one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.