Flagstaff to Albuquerque

After Las Vegas, we headed towards Albuquerque to see our next Dead & Co show.  The landscape is really nice along this route, as we see the high desert.  A few times, we saw wild horses grazing in the open plains, which was really cool.  We got as far as Flagstaff, and decided that would be a good place to stop for the night.  Kelly made, and paid for reservations at Woody's RV Park, but when we got there, the park manager was wearing full camouflage clothing.  He took one look at our bus, gave me the hairy eyeball and said that vehicles like ours weren't allowed in their RV park.  I suggested that he take a look at the inside and reconsider, but his prejudiced mind was made up about us colorful hippies and he sent us packing.  As we got ready to pull away, Kelly started taking photos of the front of his office like we were going to post a review on Yelp or something, and he came out and paced the length of the bus and got in his golf cart and said he'd go measure the spot we had rented.  Well, we knew the answer that was forthcoming, as he drove back and said that our bus just wasn't gonna fit in that space (that he previously rented to us).  Out of 40,000 miles and 40 states of wandering across this awesome country, we've only run into discrimination three times.  One other time was last July 4th in Hilton Head, and it was the same thing...they took one look at us and turned us away.  The other is at our favorite RV park in Austin, Shady Grove.  It's run by an old curmudgeon named Bob, who doesn't allow buses...no matter what.  We've stayed there twice, but it was always against his "better judgement" and last time he swore, "Never again!"  We made friends with many of the permanent residents, but because Curmudgeon Bob runs his little fiefdom, everybody is afraid to put in a good word for us as it might jeopardize their tiny plot of land in the heart of beautiful Austin. It is horrible to be discriminated against, for anything, and we all felt the feeling.

At this point, all the RV parks were full and we weren't able to find one.  We ended up getting a couple rooms at the Drury Inn, where the manager, Tony loved us and allowed us to park Sugaree right in the front porte cochere, a far cry from GI Joe just a few minutes earlier!  We all got a good night's rest and rolled out of town early the next morning for Albuquerque.  The drive there was beautiful, with the high desert and the mountains rolling along.  When we pulled into Albuquerque, we found a KOA campground, which had a pretty rough drive up neighborhood, but once we got there, it was nice.  This was our chance to relax a little and get our clothes washed and get ready to pick up Avery, who had been living in Thailand for about six weeks and had missed our family trip thus far.  The next day, we picked up Avery at the Albuquerque International Sunport and my brother Eric had reserved us a couple rooms at the Holiday Inn & Suites near the Isleta Amphitheatre.  On show day, Wednesday July 11th, we picked up Dylan's buddy William at the Sunport, and headed to run a couple of errands before we headed to the show.

We got to the lot around 10:30 in the morning, and it was quietly bustling with Shakedown Street and Deadheads pulling in.  We got a prime parking spot, right next to Shakedown, but soon, the parking goons were scratching their heads and deciding what to do.  Two guys came over, and one guy says, "you can't park there".  I told him I had paid for a premier parking spot, and he immediately says, "I'm sorry...I assumed that due to the color of your bus that you hadn't paid, which was wrong of me to assume".  I thanked him for recognizing his prejudices, and he radioed the boss to ask what to do.  The boss says, "NOPE...can't park a bus in one premier parking spot."  I tell them I'm happy to pay for another, and soon the boss drives up in his cart.  He loved Sugaree, and said we were fine to park where we were, and did we mind if he took some photos of the interior.  Of course, I said yes, and after about five minutes of checking out the bus, we were good to go!

My friend, Steve Malavolta, who lives in Albuquerque, met us in the lot before the show with his girlfriend, Kim.  It was great to see Steve, as we hadn't seen each other in a few years when he had stayed with us in Dallas for an art show he was in.  About a couple hours before the show, a big dust storm rolled in and filled the air with dust and debris, as the Shakedown vendors rushed to pull down their awnings and secure their stuff.  We were very happy to spend the dust storm in Sugaree, in comfort, though there were quite a few of us in there.  Jeanne and Brandon Rollins and David O'Daniel had come in from Dallas and spent the storm with us in the bus.  The storm ended up delaying the start of the show by an hour or so, and also had the band change their setup a little with Jeff Chimenti now on the left side of the stage and Oteil on the right.  Not sure why they did this, but it certainly worked.

The show opened with a mellow Mississippi Half Step Uptown Toodeloo, Crazy Fingers (with Oteil on vocals), a rare Dire Wolf, Big River, They Love Each Other, West LA Fadeaway, Music Never Stopped, and Easy Answers to end the first set.  The second set started with Here Comes Sunshine, Uncle John's Band, Looks Like Rain, Help on the Way>Slipknot>Franklin's Tower>Drums>Space>The Wheel>then into one of the most beautiful Hard Rain's Gonna Fall (how in the world does Bobby remember all those lyrics??) and ended the second set with a smokin' Good Lovin'.  The encore was a rocking Johnny B. Goode.  As Dylan was walking out of the show, Rockstar Richard gave him his sweaty bandana, signed by none other than Rockstar Richard himself.  Could our collective good fortune get any better?

The scene after the show was on the bizarre side, as it seemed to be a full moon kind of night.  Though overnight parking was not allowed, I talked to an officer and told him our headlights were out and asked if we could stay til morning.  He said that was fine.  I was grateful to not have to drive home with no headlights!