Boulder Life

From Kansas City we headed to Englewood, CO to play the Comfort Dental Amphitheater in the Denver area. I was excited to see Colorado since so many people have told me that Evan and I are the type of people that would love living in the Boulder/Denver area. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I wanted to know if it would be love at first site.

The day was a bit difficult emotionally because of the night before in Kansas City and this being the first show without any of Evan’s instruments. We must have told our story of being robbed over a dozen times but each person that heard it gave us words of encouragement. By the end of the evening Evan and I were so full of love it seemed like the violations against us were a distance memory.

Without any of his own instruments, Evan played Vivian Campbell’s gold top Gibson and a Dobro guitar that Jeff (one of the guitar techs for Heart) picked up on loan for Evan the day before. Evan cut his set short and played only three songs that night in light of the emotional dealings in Missouri. He started his set with “Woodpecker” on the Gibson, then invited Vivian out to play their Robert Johnson cover on the Dobro and finished the set with “The Giving Tree” on the Gibson.

Before playing his last song, Evan told the Denver audience about the thievery in Kansas City and dedicated his set to the crew of Heart and Def Leppard along with the band members. He gave a special thanks to Jeff, Dave (Wolfie), and Jason for all their help in recovering equipment for him so the show could go on. The audience shared in Evan’s grief as he belted out his pain in “The Giving Tree”. Music was the perfect therapy for working out those lingering emotions from the day.

That night we stayed at a friend’s house and awoke the next morning determined to have some fun. We drove an hour to Boulder, CO and walked the quaint streets; we window-shopped, listened to live music and drank non-Starbucks coffee. It was fairly quiet except for the sound of children playing in the water which was shooting up out of the pavement. After we felt satisfied with our stroll we decided to get back in the car and drive up into the mountains less than 5 minutes away.

The drive up was beautiful! The mountains were covered with greenery and a clear water stream flowed down the opaque boulders which ran parallel to the winding road. There was a bike path on the other side of the stream with happy joggers and exhausted bikers climbing the hills with us. We had found a place to park the car and dip our toes in the water. It was amazing that this rugged, natural beauty was this close to the artsy downtown of Boulder. I feel in love, a place I definitely would like to visit again at the very least.

I wanted to stay another night but we had to leave and drive on to Salt Lake City for a show on Wednesday, August 31st at the USANA Amphitheater. Boulder life might just be the next step, we will see! 

Life before Kansas

After the Blossom show we needed to travel over 11 hours to reach St. Paul, MN for the Minnesota State Fair on Friday, August 26th. Evan and I decided since we had a day off before the show that we would find a campground and put up our tent for the night. We chose to stay at Devil’s Lake right outside of Baraboo, WI. It is a large state park that sees tourist from all over for its expansive beauty. Thankfully we stayed on a Thursday night because their over 200 camp sites were already booked for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Evan decided that since we had some time before nightfall that he wanted to cook a gourmet meal over the campfire. It's one of the things we miss about being stationary, cooking! We headed to the nearest grocery store and picked up all our ingredients. The finished product was a prosciutto wrapped pork chop stuffed with cilantro, Uncle Ben’s brown rice, black bean and corn, with a handmade grilled pineapple, avocado, cilantro, purple onion and lime chutney. Everything had that great smoky flavor from being cooked over an open fire.

The cooking experience at the campground made me realize I could live like a gypsy with grace and poise. No need to be ashamed of living on the road out of the back of our car. In fact, I dare say that some might be jealous of our lifestyle. Well there are ups and downs living this way but that night was definitely a high for us.

The next morning we showered and packed up which took awhile. We arrived at the Minnesota State Fair around 4 PM and met the owners from the Porch Board Base Company. They had driven several hours to bring Evan a new porch board base (which was stolen a few days later in Kansas City, unfortunately) since Evan’s was covered in duck tape. His old one still worked, it was just beaten up from the tour and they wanted to bring Evan a pretty new one.

That night we headed south to Kansas City. I had wanted to drive through the night because our friend Chuck had flown in on Thursday to his sister’s apartment to see us and I didn’t want the long drive from St. Paul to Kansas City to take up most of the daylight hours. I didn’t get as far as I wanted to, I needed to pull over and sleep around 3 AM but the next morning we arrived before noon in Kansas City.

The account of the Kansas City visit was an earlier entry so for the account of ‘what happened next’ see the entry “Living Victim”.

Living Blossom

So I know I jumped ahead to the Kansas City show but I would like to go back and talk about the Blossom show in the Cleveland, OH area because I spent some time in my hometown of Wooster and have fond memories of my visit.

We had played Buffalo, NY on that Sunday, August 21st and stayed in a hotel in the area that night. The next morning we woke up and leisurely ate breakfast before we drove to my mother’s house in Wooster. We arrived in time for dinner Monday night and went to bed after a few rounds of video games with my sister.

The next morning we needed to be in Cleveland by 8 AM because I had gotten a television spot for Evan on WKYC-TV, NBC’s channel 3 News for Ohio. I had been working on press for Evan pretty heavily when we were stationary in Nashville and as a result had a lot of interviews lined up for Evan in the month of August.

We were greeted by the producer of the show and escorted upstairs to set up. I had never been in a television studio before but I assume the setup was normal. There were 4 different areas built up around the perimeter of the room; a lounge area, a kitchen area, a stage area, and what looked like a small audience section with about 10 chairs. In the middle of the room were the 3 cameras and a handful of people helping with the production of the show.

Evan set up his amplifier and porch board base before running through a few songs. I watched from the production booth down the hall and shook with anticipation. The hosts, Mike and Andrea introduced Evan before going to a commercial break. The camera panned to Evan as he played his song “40 Nights” and cut to commercial after he sang the lines, “No I won’t pray, to a killing God”.

The anticipation was killing me, I was so nervous for the next segment where he would play an entire song and then be asked to join the hosts on the couch for an interview. Evan played his song “Latitude” and answered the questions in a relaxed manner. A rush came over me as the segment ended, his first television appearance had gone wonderfully!

We drove back to Wooster a little before noon and met my mother and my sister for lunch at Broken Rocks in the downtown. We then walked the streets and stopped in many of the unique shops before settling in the Hungarian coffee and pastry shop. Evan and I parted ways with my family and spent a few hours on the College of Wooster campus, our alma mater and where we first met.

I remember breathing the air and feeling revived, drinking the water from the tap and tasting home. I don’t think I could settle down in Wooster but from this tour around the United States I have developed a respect for my hometown. It is beautiful and clean, the downtown is thriving and the campus is tranquil with its mango tree grove, limestone archways and modern art sculptures between the academic buildings. It felt safe and familiar which is what home should be.

Wednesday, August 24th was the show at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls just outside of Cleveland. The outdoor amphitheater is a large wooden structure built for orchestra acoustics and is surrounded by a large national park. My father, sister and her boyfriend Tony all came to the show to support Evan. I also greeted a photographer and radio host from Maximum Threshold who did a piece on Evan before the show. And to our surprise a friend of ours from college, Justin attended the show. We were very busy!

That night we started our drive to the Minnesota State Fair in St. Paul, MN. It was a long drive and driving back to Wooster for the night would have added an extra 2 hours to the trip so we decided to get a hotel in Toledo. Even though the couple of days in Ohio were busy I felt revived by the familiarity of it all.