Gilbert, Arizona

A drive across the New Mexico and Arizona deserts brought us to Gilbert, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix for our next show.  On the way I had a realization of just how much I really love and appreciate the United States.  The mountains of southwest Virginia and east Tennessee are home and I love the lush beauty of the land there.  But on this most recent leg of our journey I've come to appreciate just how beautiful desolation can be.  The southwest US is tough territory.  It can be dangerous (especially if you're not tooling along in an air conditioned tour bus.)  But it is also absolutely breathtaking.

At a rest stop in the desert

Holley, Hardy and Mike O - Do I need say more?

How many rattlesnakes do you suppose are in this shot?

As we drove across the desert....

...it seemed like every five minutes....

...someone on the bus would say....

"Look at that!"

A stretch of cacti at 80 mph

We reached Gilbert in the afternoon.  It was about 80 degrees and we took a little break at the hotel before heading over to the Higley Performing Arts Center, our venue for the evening.

It was an interesting evening.  The folks at Higley served us a delicious meal and after some time walking around to let it settle we went into our usually nightly routine of fight call and sound check.  The Higley PAC is similar to the Niswonger PAC in Greeneville (where we started the tour) in that it is a venue used by the community that is attached to the high school.  We had a pretty small crowd for the show but they all got to see a unique performance.

The moon over Gilbert just before our show

Apparently Rocky was in a foul mood last night.  In the scene where Lennie is petting Candy's dog at his bunk, Rocky decided that it was time to pee.  And he did.  All Mike could do was just watch as it puddled up and began dripping down the raked stage but eventually a towel was brought on stage and - completely in character for the bunkhouse - a farmhand (AKA John Hardy) cleaned it up.  Ah, the best laid schemes o' mice and men....