Williams Wall at 100%, Pack, Bears ask for bailout

A Judge has ruled that the Williams boys will be able to play without distraction this season by postponing their trial regarding a dietary suppliment they took until after the 2009 season is over. In a related and pitiful move, both the Pack and the Bears have asked for bailout funds to stem the losses they expect to see after being flogged mercilessly all season by the purple headed warriors and finishing 5-11 and 6-10 respectively.

Favre to stay retired, Vikes set to flog NFC north regardless.

Our old boy, Brett Favre, says that he'll stay retired and not play for the beloved purple headed warriors. While it would have been *pure joy* to see him take the field at Lambeau wearing gods colors, his avoidance of destiny will only relieve me of having to hear how, "The vikes only won because of Favre, blah blah blah". This way, the pack can feel the full shame of defeat come September. Nothing is better than that. Go Vikes!

Oregon & Idaho Road Trip

Wow! We just got back from the best road trip we have had in a long time! The pacific northwest is one of my favorite places in the country, and it certainly delivered on this trip. We started by burning rubber from D-town to somewhere in the Udaho area (South of Pocatello) last Wednesday night after work, and we're on to the beach past Portland by Thursday afternoon. Erica claims that the water was warm enough to swim in. Yeah - and so was the Monterrey Bay - Aye!

We stayed on the coast Thursday night and watched the sunset over dinner. Friday, we headed into the coastal hills for a pre-game safety meeting in the woods of the coastal range. It was the perfect place to gather up some forest energy and get our minds set to descend into the Horning's campground. The van was super happy up there, and this is it crouching like a Puma in the old growth forest.

Much of the magick that we recalled from the previous visits to this place was still here. Oregon has the finest freaks around, and they were here in force. Funny, the Full Moon Dream Dance and the String Cheese shows all happened 8-9 years ago, and there were a BUNCH of 8 & 9 yr olds running around. Hmmmmm. This is Greensky Bluegrass tuning up and preparing to kick some ass.

The show was AWESOME - complete with a Space Station Fly-By at 10:57pm on Saturday, well in to the second set of Yonder. The band freaked! It was super cool. After Sunday's sets we bailed and camped over north of Hood River. This is Mt. Hood looking good in the morning sunshine!

This guy feels good about hood!

After that it was on to Donneley, ID, and a birthday party for Erica. The cake had huckleberry filling. It was fantastic. Jayme & Colin have a sweeeeet place up there. Donneley / Macall is one of the few aeras I have seen that can throw down with Durango. Idaho may just wail on Colorado in terms of beauty augmented by lack of people. We're definitely headed back, so I'll keep you posted.

Colin recently picked up this sweet Van. I always knew they were van-people! He's got a Suby 2.2L in the back with custom wheels and a slew of other sweet upgrades. This thing is sick. I can't wait to hit the road with them! We had so much fun up there. We hit the North Fork of the Payette for a day of rafting, ate a bunch of good food, drank beer from the new Salmon River Brewery, and generally had a blast. Woooooo - hooooooo! Summer !!!!

Favre, a purple headed warrior, pt. 6

Check the headline from this article on ESPN today: SOURCES: Favre to Throw for Vikings. I *Cannot Wait* to buy my official Team Color Vikes jersey with F-A-V-R-E stenciled on the back!! Mitby will *LOVE IT*.

Tommy V. at SKA!

Check it out!! Old Buddy Tommy V. and new friend Willie T. throwing down on the badn tent at Ska! The lovlie ladies at Ska took good care of us all. The sun was warm, the tunes were killer, and the beer was nice n' cold. Here's Willie:

If you havn't, check out his band the "Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit". Hopefully I did enough sales work to get them and tom up to Telluride next year! The axe he's playing is a four string number from 1929. The tone was superb.

Tom took the stage next and ran through a bunch of tunes that I hadn't heard before, and some old favorites.

We asked for a couple together and they obliged.

Thanks for coming to Durango, fellas!!!! Hope you'll come back some time!

Backpacking in the Weminuche Wilderness

We grabbed the packs and headed for the hills on a short 3 day trip into the backcountry. The beauty of this was that the trailhead (Vallecito Creek) is 15 miles from the house. We went in Thursday morning and pulled off 8.5 miles, camping within a stones throw of the Johnson Creek bridge. Prior to this we had to ford the Mighty Vallecito Creek (video coming soon).

There's nothing like a hot cup of coffee in the morning at a place like this!!

This is the trail marker for the Johnson Creek trail. Due to the bridge being out, not a lot of folks come back this way. Johnson creek was one of the best trails I have hiked for overall beauty. I can't wait to get all the way up into the Vallecito Basin next summer.

All of the creeks were running strong and balance came in handy. The new set of Danner Boots are all that I'd hoped they'd be. In them, out there, I am a force of nature.

I believe these to be early season Agaric mushrooms. Fatties!

This fella was packing in gear for three hikers. They rallied the horses and rode right across that creek. I wish I had four wheel drive.

Yacht Rock!

There is nothing I can add to the awesomeness of this video.

Yarmonygrass info!

Telluride Bluegrass, Sunday

In the previous three festivals that we have attended, we never hung around for Sunday's sets (burning rubber back to the front range). This year, I was determined to stick it out. This is no easy task. On top of physical and mental exhaustion, the sun was burning HOT again. This guy was, of course, inviting this with his shirt. Why not, we are totally solar powered!

The dude on the left is an excellent metaphor for the average mental condition of the crowd on Sunday. Arrgh!

~FESTIVAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL~ !!!!

I *CAN'T WAIT* for next year...

Telluride Bluegrass, Saturday

Friday was pretty intense in the sunlight. We cut out during Elvis Costello with the intent of coming back 'round for Railroad Earth. Costello must have made the mistake of his sound crew taking over the sound from the Telluride house crew (same mistake Ryan Adams made last year). His set was tinny with muddy bass. The house sound crew has the town park set DIALED. These national acts come in and screw it up every time. suckers. Anyway, after all day in the blazing sun, we retreated to our "Fortress of Solitude" (the van) where I promptly crashed and slept right through Railroad Earth. Oh well.

These are the band contest finalists. The band that won, The Hillbenders, are a high energy unit out of Springfield, MS (far Left). You'll hear about them again.

Here is Greensky Bluegrass kicking ass. Anders Beck on Dobro in the rain. The cover of Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary" *KILLIED IT*. Just bought tix yesterday to see these guys again up at Yarmonygras in Del Rio in August.

This guy was still rockin to the David Byrne set two days later. This was his impersonation of Billy Idol covering "Girlfriend is Better".
Then the pulled a long segue into, " Wind Cries Mary". ~EPIC~ !!
Greensky Bluegrass is my new favorite up-and-coming bluegrass band. I can't wait to see them with Billy Nershi up at State Bridge!
Musical proto-genius Chris Thiele put together a single mic unit, The Punch Brothers, and ran down covers that aptly summarized the history of bluegrass music. It was FANTASTIC! The cover of Sammy Bush's "Spider John" was repeated by Sam later on, which was pretty cool.
Here's the boys from Yonder kicking ass. Nothing to say other than the 3 day extravaganza in Oregon is gonna be GREAT!!!! I can't wait. They ran down the version of "Girlfriend is Better" that they have been doing for years, causing flashbacks to the David Byrne set.

After the Yonder set, we headed out to chill for a few minutes, and watched the mists break over the mountain, and saw the rainbow. Rainbow's are, after all, just excess bliss.
Doesn't get much finer than this.
This photo acurately captures the energy of Sammy Bush's set. Pete Rowan is onstage here, throwing down. I've seen Sammy Bush play a bunch, and this was my favorite set that he has played. Killer!