California 2005 Travelogue

California 2005 Moody Blues Tour

by Maggie Clarke

(I took hundreds of photos Moodies and otherwise; they're being added to www.Moodyland.org all the time)

On the road again... Willie Nelson's tune comes to mind as I start this latest saga on the California Moodies road trip. I'm in an Amtrak thruway bus having started the morning near San Francisco airport, taking BART (Bay area rapid transit) to Richmond in the East bay, then upstairs to Amtrak to Sacramento. The Amtrak train would have been all the way to Stockton from Richmond, but they're doing track work.

The ride through the Central Valley was a little different from the last time I followed the Moodies into California. Then, it was June -- summer -- the dry season. So the hills were brown but thanks to extensive use of groundwater in the central valley (so much so that the land has subsided something like 50 feet in places), the whole area supports an extensive agricultural industry. The winter landscape was green, with farms, cattle feedlots and the occasional marsh and river. There are still puddles everywhere from the heavy rains of a week or two ago. I began to wonder if Stockton got its name from all the stockyards.

I'd begun my trip the day before, after a heavy day starting on four hours of sleep (after five and five the two nights before). Thinking of where I was going to be soon, I gave a lecture to my Environmental Policy class about agricultural price supports, and what are now anti-environmental laws like the Mining Act of 1872, which was designed to encourage people to mine, log, ranch and farm the great West and send the resources back east to the big cities, giving Federal lands away for free or for a song, building roads into forests and to mines for free, etc... It struck me as I was lecturing that these laws unwittingly set up a sort of welfare state where people expected these subsidies to last forever, even when the west was already tamed and it was no longer risky to move out there, and no more government subsidies were really needed to encourage these businesses. Ah, but I digress.

I left for JFK immediately after testifying to the City Council on the solid waste plan for the next 20 years, taking the rush-hour subway out to Queens and to the new Air Train for the first time. Once on the Air Train there were very few people to be seen. I was running late, but there was NO line at Delta check-in, federal transit security people everywhere, and wonderfully enough, there were maybe about twenty people on my flight to San Francisco. There was no food, but I got some in the terminal. The flight was very laid back. The stewardess invited me and everybody else to spread out over three seats, and was able to get some shuteye. I realized a long time ago, that the main ingredient of jet lag is sleep deprivation, so I always look out to replace what I lose changing time zones. At least I try. We started our descent right above where I started writing this, entering Stockton. It was clear all the way across the country; and looking down, it appeared from that height that Sacramento and Stockton were pretty close to one another and might one day grow together.

Arriving mid-afternoon at Amtrak, in the south, bad end of town, I was advised not to walk the half mile to the HoJo, and the bus was only every half hour so I resorted to a cab. On the way we saw a major police activity with several cop cars and two on bikes, so I guess they knew what they were talking about.

In walking around the north side, I spied the Fox (aka the Bob Hope theater). It was hard to miss it, with all the gaudy lights. Looking inside, it was quite ornate, with carved wood, with the comedy/tragedy faces here and there, as well as gold all over the place.

This was my first concert since Oxford in England, so I was ready. Others have reported on the usual... changes in setlist etc. There was a big clump of us online fans in the John section this night. Speaking of that the stack of speakers was hanging with the lights from the ceiling not unusual, but the speaker stack was RIGHT OVER ME…Certain death in an earthquake. I was very interested to see John singing low harmony during The Actor and harmony during the verses of YWD (finally - I had thought he should be doing a lot more of that since Norda and Bernie have the higher parts covered) Jus introduced them but not Gordon and Paul... I had wondered about that since Forever Autumn was taken out of the lineup, but can't understand why he wouldn't have introduced them at the same time as Norda and Bernie. I really can't figure why they put FA in for England and leave it out for America. Norda's hair is growing out nicely. The lighting show had evolved again, with even more brilliant colors. I particularly liked the backlit purple which showed up on the back of Justin's shirt and pants, the English sunset orange and red. I didn't care for the change from blue to purple as the backdrop color for AYSC. I watched John play IKYOTS and he was whacking away with his first finger during the middle part and seamlessly switched back to using the pic. I'd never realized that he did that, as Justin does with so many of his songs, like The Actor. The security was out in full force, but I was able to hide behind my comrades and take a good slew of pix. Most of the pix were of John since I would have been seen taking any of Justin. But tonight, John was really brilliantly lit, even during ILS. It's as if the lighting guy had read my post from a few weeks ago, about his lighting show being nice, but the lighting of the subjects not as good. I noticed Norda is now dancing even more with Graeme at the beginning of his dance in Higher and Higher. The girls have moved to the front mic to sing See Saw. I remember someone saying that they had left Ray's mic free in respect for him or something, but I think it's better having them share it. As usual I was clapping double-time to Question, and a couple of folks in the front row near me were doing it half that speed. John smiled and said 'faster faster! I noticed that during the few songs that we stood for, there were only a few standing on Norda's side and several on our side stood and clapped. The middle section must have been sold to non fans. At the end Graeme and Norda and Gordon and Paul all put arms on each others' shoulders in a line. Then I think Norda punched Graeme's butt or vice versa. I wish I could have taken a shot, but I'd already been shut down by security just before Question. After the concert I complimented the lighting guy, with particular kudos that John was well lit. Even though John's sweet spot was absolutely full of fans, he didn't work us that much, maybe because he knew he had us already? I couldn't figure it out.

Afterwards we waited around the back for the band. John cam out first and signed a lot of things for people. John was the only one to sign anything. I think the backup members must be on orders not to interact with fans under such circumstances. When the bus peeled off, several of us stood talking so long on the street corner that the cops from the extensive police force in evidence around the venue, were joking with us, wondering if we're the groupies. We said yes and laughed. All in all, it was a great concert; we’re looking forward to San Francisco on tomorrow's day off.

The day after the Stockton concert dawned nice and sunny, just as California should be. And considering the huge rains that stopped just before the tour began and have now begun for another week as the tour ended, we should count ourselves very lucky. But I arrived from the Northeast with what I’d hoped was a subsiding cold, and unfortunately, the room had been either too hot or too cold all night, like the previous one and I woke with a recurrence of my cold from last week. After a bit Nancy, Patti and I started south then west through the central valley past the farms and stockyards towards none other than Hayward, California. As we were driving into the green, rounded hills of the coast range where cattle were grazing, up from the Central Valley, modern wind turbines began appearing in long dense rows on every ridge, and there were lots of ridges. This went on for miles on both sides of the freeway, and looking out to the sides, you could see these machines way into the distance (at least as far as I could see through the not so dense fog). There were easily hundreds of them. I'd seen a picture of these in one of the textbooks that I use, but I had no idea of the extent. It was quite impressive and heart-warming to me.

Shortly after we got over the ridge, we were in Hayward, name-sake of the Hayward fault, the second most active long transform fault in California (the one that goes up the East Bay area helping to divide the huge Pacific plate from the North American plate). We figured we couldn't just pass by so headed in. At first I thought we could be very disappointed as it looked like a long semi-shabby strip mall. But then we arrived towards the center, and found the up-scale shopping center, the main street, the old and the new City halls. After much picture-taking, we went into the Stone Cold Creamery and had some Nights in White Chocolate ice cream, which is white chocolate ice cream, white chocolate chips, caramel sauce and whipped cream in a waffle bowl. The die-hard chocolate addict that I am, I got the chocolate decadence. This was all we had for lunch, after a very small breakfast. I didn’t even finish, but I was to pay for that later.

After posing for pix next to the Nights in White Chocolate sign, we were off the San Francisco! There was some smog, so visibility wasn't perfect, but it was still great to see the City by the bay. We approached from the south, through Oakland, where Mayor Jerry Brown has decided to run for state Attorney General, then from the east on the Bay Bridge, which is actually two long bridges with a large hilly island (Treasure Island) inbetween. We noticed that the tunnel through the island was something like the tunnels that permeated the Monaco hills. We first drove around the City Hall, well known as the most ornate in the country, with a large building and gilded dome. Then we were off to the Haight district, as in Haight Ashbury. There was quite a bit of 60s flavor in the shops around Fillmore St. (yes) and Haight, and then again, when Ashbury crosses. It's almost as if we'd entered a time warp. Then almost immediately we were in Golden Gate Park, which, aside from the type of vegetation, is very much like Central Park (e.g., in size, shape, usage, etc.) I could imagine what it must have been like with all the hippies having love-ins in the late 60s. Further into the park on the right, I noticed a new penned area where a dozen or more buffalo were roaming. We took pix and then were off to the Pacific Ocean, right at the end of the park. There was the familiar, huge brown Dutch windmill, one of a pair that I’d remembered from last time. Since Nancy hadn’t seen the Pacific, we spent quite some time watching the surfers navigate the excellent waves, playing with a Greyhound, beachcombing and soaking up the sun and sea air. We then headed north to an overlook of the Golden Gate, from the Pacific side of the peninsula. We also drove up, down and in circles through the Presidio, a very large park and (former) military installation at the southern end of the Golden Gate, and down to sea level for another excellent view from Fort Point. We stopped briefly at the Marina district, and then followed the cable car line straight up and straight down these amazing grades. At this point I started paying the price for my indulgence at lunch, so we beat a path to our hotel near Union Square. Unfortunately, the bag I used had a hole in it, the first accident for one of the only two pairs of pants I brought… After a short recuperation, we set out on foot and walked a mile and a half UP, over and around the ritzy Nob hill neighborhood (Whew!) All three cable car lines go over Nob Hill; they built the cable cars specifically to help people up the steep grades. We went to a typical San Francisco restaurant, where all the dishes, like "meal crepes" and California salads, etc (the minnestrone and SF's signature sourdough bread were Wonderful!) were written on a blackboard in all kinds of pastel colors. It reminded me of the psychedelia of the 60s, and started wondering if here is where it all began and continues to this day. There were lots of psychedelic murals in the Haight as well, even today. All in all, it was a very full day and we're all set for more travels in San Francisco tomorrow morning before heading off for Cache Creek.

I woke a bit more refreshed and healthy -- almost seven hours this time! After breakfast we headed a few blocks for the cable car turntable (where they turn the cable car around to go back in the other direction). On the way, we used my "F" line streetcar trainspotting guide to identify streetcars traveling along Market Street, the main dreck (drag) as my Irv used to say. Before the oil / auto lobby conspired to rid the big cities of streetcars (and in the case of SF, also most of the cable cars) in favor of buses in the 1940s, there were lots of street car lines all converging onto Market Street, headed east for the Ferry Terminal. This was before there was a Bay Bridge connecting SF to Oakland... Everybody used ferries. Now, SF runs just one line on Market, but the cars are not only vintage SF cars as old as 1912, but cars from Moscow, Italy, Spain, I think, as well as a host of American cities. They're painted in the original colors so all are different. The Russian one was donated during the cold war, as a “Streetcar named desire for peace”.

We boarded a cable car immediately upon arriving at the turntable. It's so great being in San Francisco in winter because everything is cheap, it's not crowded, and at least while we were here, the weather was great - clear in the 50s. What’s not to like? The interesting thing was, though it was only Feb 3, the first cherry and plum blossoms were coming out on the trees. Many trees were bare of leaves, but many others were full of them. There was one type of tree that was everywhere, large trunks, but clearly pruned to death, and looking quite ugly without leaves. Looking at the bark, all I could think of was none other than the ubiquitous London Plane! Interesting how this tree is the workhorse of western cities. Cool weather flowers were everywhere. Temps in the 40s and 50s are tolerated well by many species, but think it's the short days of sunlight that cause some of the leaves to be shed by some species. But amidst trees with no leaves were palm trees of huge proportions and lots of other trees with leaves. Even bouganvilla (which I remember from growing up in South Florida) was blooming on the vines. We saw one climbing up several stories of one of the houses on Lombard. It was a little foggy today, but not bad. The cable car was neat as usual. I rode outboard, hanging on with one hand and shooting video with the other. We got off at the top of the "crookedest street" Lombard St walking down the steep incline where there are seven switchbacks in a block. It's a good thing that SF's climate doesn't typically involve ice or snow. They'd have to ban autos in half the city.

Next -- off to Fisherman’s wharf. We saw postcards ten for a dollar, and before I got out of the store, I'd bought a new lens for my digital -- a .48x wide angle, to give my camera an effective 18mm lens and super macro. Next to the Cannery, where Del Monte used to can veggies, then to Ghirardelli's for some chocolate -- in my case a Foghorn, like I had last time -- chocolate ice cream, raspberry and hot fudge, chips and whipped cream. Had to do it!

In Ghirardelli square there was a clothing store that had an interesting collection of natural-dyed shirts, shorts, and pants. All three of us settled on the same shirt -- jewel-necked rather than the detested T-shirt neck -- it's actually chocolate-dyed, with the slogan “Chocolate... here today....gone today”, with San Francisco and a flower on one sleeve. It has a chocolate scent as well. (I liked it so well, I wore it for the show.) They also had stuff dyed in wine, beer, rum and even volcanic ash (grey). I almost bought the volcanic ash shorts -- I mean, what a conversation piece amongst fellow earth scientists, but I think they were $35 or thereabouts.

Then, running out of time, we were quickly off to see the sea lions at Pier 39. There are hundreds that hang out there, you see males jostling and shoving each other off the wooden platforms, males lording over a harem of females, and mostly just lazing in the sun, and much barking -- can be heard for a block away. To get back to our car, we caught another cable car, got back to the hotel and beat it out of town. This being a Friday afternoon, we had wanted to leave early, like 2 pm, but actually made it closer to 3. We enjoyed the drive over the Golden Gate, and then after some traffic, over the Richmond bridge. This one is really really creepy. It’s very long, curving, double-decker cantilever, and entirely under construction. Patti and I were both thinking the thing would collapse in even a small earthquake. In its current shape, it probably wouldn't withstand a 6 occurring some distance away. Since we were running late, we decided to go direct to the venue. ... There was no time for dinner, but we’d had more than an ample lunch in SF.

Cache Creek is an Indian casino – not too large. It's the first one that I'd ever seen that actually had mostly Indians as patrons. It was also very smoky and loud with lots of bars and I couldn’t stay in the casino part long without my lungs being affected. The inside of the venue was a big flat square. The stage was high, but most noteworthy to those of us seated at the ends of the front rows, dozens of seats were so far over on the sides that they were marked by Ticketmaster as being obstructed and I ended up with one in the front row that was beyond Paul where I couldn't see Paul or Gordon for the whole concert. If we hadn't been able to slide over about four seats, I wouldn't have been able to see John half the time. At the end, going to the front, I saw that Paul's keyboard was facing the audience rather than John. Though she’d probably done it before, I noticed tonight that Bernie adopted the “grunt” during the guitar bridge in TOSOL as had Tracy and Sue and those before. I also noticed that Gordon wears the yellow Livestrong plastic bracelet – it’s the Lance Armstrong cancer statement. John's mic was up really loud and I could hear the strength and nuance in his voice. He again sang the low harmony to The Actor's chorus, but not quite as loudly as in Stockton. He again sang the harmonies in the verses of YWD, that are on the original record, and it sounded really nice. Sometimes there were three-part harmonies. Nice and rich. There were times I couldn't hear Justin in the mix, particularly at See-saw.

There weren't many (fingers of one hand) standing in the middle section again, just like Stockton, but tonight there were very few of us standing in John's section either. Graeme had good energy tonight and some of the men in my section really enjoyed Graeme's hula shirt, and the shaking routine. It was particularly effective since the 2 videographers caught it for the two large screens of the concert being projected above. This was an interesting show for that reason as well. There were extreme closeups on Norda; some flute players I know would have enjoyed that quite a bit as you could see her fingering and ambusschure (I'm sure I spelled that word wrong). Since my angle was so extreme, I sometimes watched the big screen to get a different angle. I've started to study when Justin uses his Bigsby lever. I may get one installed on my guitar one day.

There were good and bad aspects to sitting in the front row. The bad news was of course the obstruction and the omnipresent (one could say oppressive) guards in the front right corner. They were standing and eagle eyed. They nabbed one in the third row. I didn't even try to take any pix during the show, except when we went to the front at the end. Then I was nabbed by a un-uniformed Indian after one shot. I shot a few after it was over and got one of Bernie hugging Gordon - two hands around his chest and middle, and another of them and Norda, with Norda smiling at me. She does remember fans as well as the Jays do. (I'd given her, Bernie and Paul some pix in England this last time.)

The highlights of the show were the sometime benefits of sitting in the front row. John saw me during Lovely to see you and smiled, and in four songs he played with me, at one point playing hide and seek behind this stack of speakers that was obstructing the view for a large number of people. That was during Slide Zone, where I was standing and dancing for it. He was waving again during IKYOTS at the beginning when the lights went up, and again later in the show and at the end while in front. Since it doesn't always happen, I take real satisfaction when I am able to give him some energy on which to feed. So all in all, in the end I didn’t mind sitting so far over.

Day dawned bright and sunny again.. Good driving weather. It was interesting climbing up from the Central Valley to the mountains. We kept passing each 1000 foot elevation markers and I was surprised to see no snow till we got as high as 4000 feet. By the time we got to 7000 feet, the piles were a few to several feet high, though the snow was dirty enough to indicate it was all quite old. I saw a snow removal machine which looked like it could eat up and spit out drifts or falls as high as four feet at a time. Not the usual kind of snowplow you see out east. It explains a lot. As we cruised though the area, there were location signs one after another referring to the Donner party, who was lost climbing through the area back more than a hundred years ago. Climbing from Truckee up to the lake was picturesque and looked quite Alpine, with slanted roofs with two feet of snow, and high drifts, snowmobile tracks in the riverbanks, and then, at Tahoe City, the northwestern village at the lakeside, the lake vista opened up. We followed the winding two lane road out and in, up and down around the east side through the forested lands surrounding the lake, with great lake views quite frequently. Just gorgeous. I’d never been around the east side, and I think there are better lake views from there, with the one exception of Emerald Bay on the west side.

Upon arriving in Stateline, NV, which is just north of the lower CA/NV state line, at about the 5 o'clock position on the lake (the other border being at about 1 o’clock position), we decided to walk down to the lakeside. The temperature was very pleasant, just about 40 with no wind. There was as much as two feet of snow still on the beach as evidenced by the snow level being the same height as a bench. It was very beautiful; the lake was peaceful, not with waves slapping as last time. As we were walking back to Caesars we came upon John and Kirsten walking along the main drag and talking animatedly; he was handsome as can be. Though I didn't notice him until he was even with us (because I was talking animatedly with Nancy and Patti), his hair was shining so blond in the strong sun, with shades and black clothes. Always looks so cool. After we got back I decided to go for a massage at the Caesars spa, taking advantage of the jaccuzzi and the stairmaster. Though I've been having massages for over twenty years, I could tell within a couple of minutes that this fellow was more skilled and knowledgeable than any masseur I'd ever encountered. Not only did he zero in on the precise points in my poor stiff neck, but figured that the spine at the neck was out of balance, which I knew. Then he proceeded to chide me gently for being so dehydrated (he guessed only 55 to 60% vs. the normal 70% water in my tissues) -- guilty as charged. He could tell because your muscles stick together more when there's less water in them so it’s harder for the masseur to do the job well. He described how the air at Tahoe is so much drier than even in Las Vegas, in the desert. I know why that would be true. There's not only less moisture in the air here, because of the altitude (it doesn’t take much cold to precipitate moisture), but there’s less air in general -- Lake Tahoe is a thousand feet higher than a mile above sea level. Additionally, warmer air can hold a great deal more moisture than can cold air; that's why humidity can be so insufferable in summer.

Our dinner was just stupendous. It was at Primavera, the Northern Italian restaurant just outside the Circus Maximus. We decided to continue splitting and sharing dishes, to minimize cost and waste, and maximize variety. It worked extremely well, with a spinach salad with raspberry vinaigrette, crunchy onions and raspberries as garnish, a side of capellini with Pomodoro sauce and a steak and veg dish. To top it off we had a baked alaska, italian style, with cappuccino ice cream, lit on fire with Brandy and another liqueur I don't remember. It was quite flashy and everyone at the tables around us applauded the waiter. I took pix.

Circus Maximus is a small room (something like 1,000 seats, all at tables). The pit (A section) has got 1 to 3 rows of tables, more in the middle, fewer on the ends. I was in the right-most B table, up at stage height and even with the second row of tables in the pit (A). The venue isn’t that wide, so my spot was right in John’s usual sweet spot.

Everyone expected that Graeme would be using oxygen and he was doing so after his jig, natch, but as well after IJAS and even after Nights. At one point he was drawing heavily on it, then removed the mask from his nose and mouth long enough to flash a huge smile and then went back to drawing some more. It was sort of comical the way he did it… just to set everyone’s heart at ease, I guess. I was a bit worried about him when he gave his intro to Higher and Higher. He clearly had developed a cold, not good on top of having less air to breathe at altitude... He sounded very hoarse.

John was less prominent in the mix tonight compared with previous nights, and instead of singing the low harmony to The Actor's chorus, he went back to singing the higher harmony (I must say I prefer the low). His harmonies during Your Wildest Dreams was quite good as it has been. I watched John pluck his bass with his index finger for the middle par of IKYOTS again, and then deftly pick the plectrum out of his hand to go back to picking with it. I haven't figured a way to actually pull the pic out of one's hand single-handedly and quickly, but both of the Jays are pros at it. At one point I was standing when John came over to the right, as is wont to do, and he looked up out of the pit, first startled then a broad smiling nod, all in a matter of a second. During the drumstick toss, Graeme threw one over Gordon's head. During See Saw, after the guitar solo when they have added an extra couple of bars, John started a bit too early as Norda and Bernie were still hurrying down the stairs to the front microphone. John is always amused because once he started singing before they got to the mic. I keep noticing that Justin doesn't introduce Gordon and Paul as he does Norda and Bernie. I wonder why.. It seems a slight to the guys. And why does Forever Autumn doesn't get into the program as in England. Was it that big a hit over there that the average audience member knows it well over there? I wonder. I noticed quite a few digital cameras in the center area in the pit snapping away... They weren't accosted by security as far as I could see. But I pushed my luck a bit too far at one point and was told to stop "filming" the concert. Sometimes they think I am doing video because I hold the camera still to my face for long periods. I’m actually waiting for just the right shot. I was an easy target being at the right-most table. But I still managed to get some more anyway. (The nice heavy rail in front of me at chest height was very helpful…)

This night there was another show going on ... this one at my table. There were a few of us fans in the front of it... I was sitting at the rail, a pretty good spot for photos, but there was a security guy who spent a lot of time dealing with our table. There were a few at the back who wouldn't stand for any song, not Higher and Higher, not Singer, not even Question or See Saw. After the security asked me to sit down, I did and didn't get up to clap till See Saw, looking around to make sure I wasn't in anyone's line of sight. But there was another fan next to me who was, so at this point, one of this irate fan pushed her way to the rail and stood with us, which was fine with me, but then instead of just standing and clapping, she had to throw her elbows into me repeatedly, on purpose. Apparently she was pulling the other woman’s hair. (Talk about a piece of work.) Bruno came to my aid, or tried, telling the security guy to buzz off. After the show this lady started ordering us around. Very very unpleasant. Kinda wiped out the good feeling and memories of the concert, which I guess was her intention.

Afterwards I heard from one person that people were going to gather at one of the bars in the place. The bar wasn’t specified; there are lots, of course. Bruno and I went to Cleo's bar, but I didn't see anyone I knew. After spending a little time with Vickey looking at pix, I cased the joint as best I could and looked everywhere in the compound for anyone I could recognize. There was only one place I didn't go into, because there was a long line to get in, not seeing anyone I knew in the line. I also heard that a group was given backstage passes earlier in the day and went to see the Band. I kept having this feeling that I missed out on lots of fan gatherings, which I find fascinating since I'd been posting on the boards my interest in meeting with fans, particularly at this venue... So here I sit writing this late at night up in this "Lonely room" (sounds like a Justin lyric), roommates out carousing, and me missing the action and hurting inside (John lyric). Later I heard that many fans were indeed in the club with the long line and also at the Hard Rock, where I'd suggested a gathering could be held, as it had been a couple of years ago. I wonder if I should take this as a sign that I’m not welcome. My scientific mind probably over-analyzing again, but Talking out of turn is not the only way to leave one hurting inside... Lack of communication (not being in the loop) either advertently or not can also hurt. I guess not having sat in the pit, I was outside the geographic range of the "word of mouth". At least that's what I'd like to think. I realize now that all the time I take putting these reviews together, taking and processing photos for the web, in solitude, done ostensibly for the benefit of fans I know and those I don't, is the time that others use for building friendships and well, just having a good time. It's really a shame if it has to be one or the other.

This was a day of snowballing bad decisions and I feel as if I've been through the mill. Once again I got less than six hours of sleep, punctuated by hotel residents across the hall and next to us slamming doors and screaming expletives at 3am, and getting woken up by housekeeping at 8:30, so that's over a week of 4 to 6 hours per night, and as I write, it's 9pm and I'm in a restaurant awaiting dinner, starving having driven from Tahoe getting quite a late start. But I get ahead of myself. There must be some lessons in here somewhere for the solo traveler.

Once I was up, things were looking good. The weather forecast had improved... Snow was not to fall till evening, so that made driving Route 50, the shorter route to Sacramento, possible. I'd done this winding mountain pass two and a half years ago, obviously in summer, when the band was here before. Then, I was headed up on a seven hour marathon drive to Clear Lake (Konocti) for a concert that night. This time, I didn’t have that time pressure, and the Moodies were having an uncharacteristic two days off in the middle of a short tour. I thought of going up to see the redwoods again in northern coastal California, but decided against it as the drives would be quite long, and though I had an offer of a bed in Arcata for a couple of nights, my friend was going to be too busy to see me! I’d never been to Monterey, and had heard it was nice, so opted to go there on the days off. I’m not a wine drinker, so going to Santa Rosa area was not something that held any fascination. The coast of California was said to be quite beautiful.

First mistake? I had such a good half hour massage the day before, and this fellow was so good I thought I’d go for another. But the only appointment available was 11am. That made a late start inevitable, but I tried very hard to get my rental car situation totally settled and get packed before 11. To save the buck per phone call levied on room calls (even 800 numbers) I used the lobby pay phone. While waiting on hold calling Avis etc. dealing with geographically-challenged staff who tried to direct me to where Avis was in this small town (and got it wrong), Paul, then Gordon, then Norda, walked by. (I said ‘Hi’ to each.) After the massage and a light lunch, I called the blue van (equivalent of public transportation for $3 in Tahoe). It took more than half an hour to arrive, and in short order I realized that Avis was just 2 blocks away. I’d asked the nincompoop at Avis every which way whether it was at the Embassy Suites just 2 blocks away on Stateline Ave, but she kept saying no (of course, it was). Avis wasn’t too swift on getting me the car either, so I was set back an hour (which proved to be critical).

The soundtrack for this day was the first of a two-CD set with about a dozen very early songs of the Mach I Moodies and the biggest hits through IKYOTS. I don't mind saying that, aside from Go Now, I disliked every one of the early songs. I can see what that guy was talking about when he came to their dressing room and told the band they were crap. Thank goodness for that guy! One of these early songs was so bad, I cringed through the catterwauling. I'm not putting that CD back in anytime soon.

The drive out of the lake basin was a bit dicey as I'd recalled, with lots of switchbacks. But it was lovely looking out with quick glances at the snow-covered mountains and valleys. I wished that I had time to get out and take photos, but I'd gotten such a late start that I just couldn't. There weren't that many turnouts for this purpose as the road was narrow. Coming down from over 7,000 feet and emerging from the trees into the central valley still a half hour away I saw Sacramento way in the distance as a few tiny buildings poking up in the middle of a vast flatland with no trees. Funny thing, but the last time I'd driven route 50 from Tahoe to Sacramento, I'd coincidentally turned off the highway for a break at the same exit (Deja vu all over again), where there was a Del Taco right near the exit. I just had some OJ though… didn’t feel I could stop too long.

Just after crossing the northeastern extension of the SF bay, and after the really ugly oil terminal at Martinez, there were those beautiful green grassy hills all the way down to San Jose, just below the lower end of the bay. I was surprised that I saw no windmills on any of these hills. They were so beautiful in the setting sun (the green was Intense!) that I decided to get out and take a few shots. But if I’d been able to leave Tahoe the hour earlier, those sunset shots would have been of the approach to Monterey and the Pacific. Driving in the dark, not sure of the exits made it a bit more dicey, but eventually, crossing the coast range and emerging on the coastline there appeared an apparition in the darkness to the right… It almost looked like a jeweled, giant ship in the water. It turned out to be Monterey itself and as the road turned I headed straight in.

Finally circled in on the downtown Travelodge... That was a good decision - $42 per night. You gotta love those off-season rates. There was free wireless internet access in the rooms, which allowed me to upload that first review on Stockton. My 10-year old laptop had developed a fatal error, so it was so much dead weight in the luggage (heavy, hardshell case this time), but I did bring my IPAQ PDA with the Wifi card and pint-sized foldup keyboard. This worked like a charm. You wonder why more hotels don’t invest the measly $40 to buy a wireless transmitter. With the good sometimes comes the bad tho… the guy at the desk was also geographically challenged, so after I emphasized to him that I was absolutely famished and exhausted from my trip, and wanted a good place to eat not hard to get to (on foot or otherwise), he sent me on a wild goose chase, walking about five blocks uphill in the wrong direction till I realized he had to have been pointing 180 degrees in the wrong direction. It was just so hard for me to believe that someone in the hotel business could have been that ill-informed about his own location. After the hotel clerk had trouble even making clear directions for parking the car, my mistake was ignoring my own intuition. He finally sent me towards Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner, and by 9pm restaurants were closing. I finally found another nice northern Italian restaurant (Cibo) with a jazz band with absolutely delicious, healthy food (plus a lovely chocolate dessert) and devoured about two thirds, saving some for breakfast.

This was a great day. Though I'd planned to rent a bike and do the 17 mile drive through Carmel, Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove, and then drive down to Big Sur along the coast road, unfortunately, the area's first rainfall in three weeks happened today, so the bike ride was out. But I started the day with a lovely brunch with Nancy from Carmel, who I first met at Cache Creek. We shared a mushroom fritata with fruit slices and a fresh spinach salad, enjoying "Coastal Cuisine", which as she explained involves lots of very fresh veggies because of the year-round nearby agriculture, and fish. Every town on the coast has a Fisherman’s Wharf and an old Del Monte cannery from times before it was so easy to get the produce to customers. The Mediterranean influence is everywhere in the restaurants. As I teach in geography class, southern California and the Mediterranean climates are one and the same, so it's not surprising that the cuisines are similar.

After brunch I went down to the beach in Carmel for some wonderful pix of windswept junipers, future driftwood, then to the local mission, and then headed down the coast in the chilly drizzle, popping out repeated to take photos. The scenery, of course, is spectacular, with steep cliffs covered with sagebrush and other scrubby vegetation, alternating with less steep shorelines with grassy smaller hills. Route 1 was hilly and windy, but nothing like that CA 175 that I’d taken after Konocti in 2003. There were beaches here and there, and early 1930s vintage bridges over some of the canyons. I’d seen these in a documentary on the building of the coast highway. The whole thing was quite an engineering feat since the coast is cliffs for miles. I got photos of all of it. The new extra wide angle that I bought in SF came in handy (it's like 18mm). It’s easy to forget important things when you’re sucked into such wonderful scenery. I was lucky there was a gas station in Big Sur, since it’s really not much of anything (a roadhouse and a gas station as my mother said). Got a hot chockie and promptly spilled half of it on my pants (same ones as got the last …”spill”). Went down as far as the Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park, where after a short quarter mile walk, the vista opened up to a gorgeous cove, with massive palms, eucalyptus, and most amazing, a 50 foot waterfall coming off the cliff onto the beach. I’d never seen anything like this. It was about this time that the sun came out, so I was finally able to use my new polarizing filter.

On my way back up the coast, I stopped here and there, since the light was now entirely different from my trip down. At one of the stops, near the signpost six miles south of Big Sur, as I was taking stills down the cliff, I heard something familiar... The barking of seals! I used the 380mm zoom on my camera and there they were: a colony of probably a hundred seals or sea lions. What a find! I grabbed my video camera, zoomed in, and filmed away as the waves crashed on the shore a short distance from the colony. When I had driven the coast road in Oregon a couple of years before, I'd stopped off to view a similar colony from way up on a cliff but had to pay for the privilege. I couldn't stay that long since it was getting late, and I didn't fancy driving the coast road in the dark. As Nancy told me, they lose a few on this road every year.. usually tourists, and the first rain after a few weeks of dry usually makes for pretty slick conditions. Next thing was the hope to get some good sunset pictures. As I sped through Big Sur again (a little ways from the coast), the sun went into sunset mode, but I was able to get a couple of pix before the sun went into the marine layer just above the horizon.

The prospect of finding dinner in Monterey again was not nearly as appealing as going back to Carmel. The lunch and short walk through town really had left me wanting to experience more of this eclectic town, where Clint Eastwood used to be Mayor, and which allows no billboards, no traffic lights, 25 mph throughout, beautiful, varied architecture, art galleries, neat shops, and amazing vegetation all over the place. They actually plant coast redwoods as street trees. The camelias were blooming, and plum blossoms were coming out. There were New Guinea impatiens and geraniums that we grow in my community garden as annuals, that had fat stems, clearly living outdoors for many years here. I had dinner, actually an appetizer of duck, warm spinach, mushrooms, pine nuts, in soy and ginger sauce, in a cozy restaurant with an interior with nice woods and a fire blazing in the fireplace. I went to another Italian restaurant for mousse dessert. The pictures on the wall and the place itself reminded me of my time in Italy last summer.

In all, this was a great day. Since I didn't get a chance to bike the 17 mile drive, I'll want to get up early tomorrow to drive it before leaving the area for the next Moodies concert in Santa Rosa.

The sound track for the day was the second CD to a two CD set, and the scene changed as the songs played. As I get to the beach, Driftwood plays, as I'm feeling carefree driving the coast road in California, John's singing "Sitting at the Wheel". As the sun is going down, Justin sings :The summer sun is fading...". As I see a sign about the “Slide Area”, John sings Slide zone.

The day dawned cloudy but dry. I thought I would start out by driving the 17 mile road which connects Carmel, Pebble Beach, and the famous golf course, Pacific Grove and Monterey. Alas, as I was warned at lunch the day before, it might be closed due to the AT+T tournament and so it was. So no Pebble peach, but Pacific Grove was really great. The road wound around the Monterey peninsula with waves crashing on the ragged rocks, the shores with sand dunes and ice plants blooming purple and white, and burnt a little by frost, so some orange color. There were also huge clumps of red pokers -- I think this is what they're called. I saw these in the UK as well. There were also windswept junipers rape seed surfers. Got a little off track in SF upon arrival, but it allowed me to see some areas I hadn't seen before. Drove on trolley tracks behind a streetcar, drove on the California line cable car tracks, drove down what might be the steepest block, not the crookedest street, but north on Mason. Dog licking pants on way bacK to car from Ghirardellis. Stopped off in a number of places to get pix of the bridge without the fog of the last time. The trip was deja vu again .. The third time I'm heading north out of San Francisco in the last week, second time over the GG bridge.

In stark contrast to venues like the Bob Hope, Luther Burbank Center is a new-fangled kind of place several miles from Santa Rosa. It has a square floor and balcony in back and sides, also on a square. I'd bought a $75 membership to try to get better seats, only to find that another person I knew who didn't get the membership got tix in the same row as I (6th), and two others who called in on the day of the show got second row tickets. I get frustrated, and I almost think of just giving up. I used to be able to get second and third row tickets most of the time just on Ticketmaster. That was five years ago. Now, it never happens. I wonder what has changed in that time. Has the band become that much more popular? The venue size was similar in 2000. Are more fans scalping for all the first few rows? (I know that's not true... There aren't enough of those of us in the online community to fill all those seats, say four rows times ten or fifteen seats at each venue). Of course, I'm sure that some others who had memberships got those front row seats. Maybe the venues the promoters are choosing these days are more apt to sequester seats for special people? Maybe it's the ugly monster Clear Channel? Maybe all of the above? If it's just that the venues have become more greedy, I guess it spells worse tickets. Adjunct prof wages are beneath contempt, and I do these trips on the cheap, staying in $50 accommodations, trying to split that and even dinners with others where I can, save bucks in choosing cheapest airfares, scrimping for Triprewards points, and renting the smallest, cheapest car. I know others do that too and even more can't go at all even without scalping or buying memberships, etc.. I guess it is the American way though ... Capitalism rules. Competition over cooperation. I wish there were a better way.

It was good to meet up with more of the CA fans, Karen, Vickey, Vicki, Cindy, Nancy H and Judy. As for concert specifics, tonight I was happy to hear John go back to doing low harmony for The Actor, the G's completed their drumstick tosses flawlessly, that is, until Graeme dropped his self-toss. Oh well. Though John did wait for Bernie and Norda to get down to the front mic on their cue halfway through See-Saw this time, he is still amused by seeing them tripping over themselves flying down the stairs to get to the mic before he starts up again

Though it usually gets harder to give unique descriptions to shows later in a tour, the fourth one was the best so far because the fans were really into it. Unlike Cache Creek, where there were only a few of us on each side, the whole Luther Burbank center was up and into it by the end of the show. We showed them it was ok to stand during the show for numbers like Higher and Higher, and how to come down to the front for the last two songs. I was amazed I could get down right to the edge of the stage, which was on the low side.. maybe crotch-height. It made it easier to give John the big heart-shaped, rose decorated box of miniature chocolates with a card with the Chrysler building on front and with a corny poem that I wrote... Roses are red, chocolates are brown, the fans sing and dance, when the Moodies come to town. I bid him to enjoy and share them. I hope they find a central place in the bus for them.

The reason I could get to the stage from the middle of the fifth row (yes, we moved up into two empty seats the second half) was that folks were a bit timid at first, but eventually the front area was filled by happy fans. During the show when I'd look around everybody was waving their hands for See Saw as directed by John, they were even standing in the rafters. I could tell things were going to be a bit more lively even as early as the end of Slide Zone, when the howls and clapping went on for some time. Of course, as we all know, the band does feed off of the energy.

Though there were the usual signs about cameras, and security was in evidence, I was far enough away and shielded to be able to shoot at will this evening. I had an interesting camera angle for Paul and Gordon, and for John and fans at the beginning of See-Saw. Unfortunately, the venue was on the dark side. I have a feeling it has to do with the height from which they string the lights, as well as the angle (i.e. How far from the stage). Optimal is further from the stage, rather than almost overhead, but also not very high.

The day’s drive started in Santa Rosa just before 10. After finding apparently the only gas station in town (where everyone was queued up from all directions and really dicey getting in, pumping and getting out), I decided to take a scenic route, the Sonoma Highway - California 12 through the Sonoma and Napa valleys rather than the longer and uglier interstates recommended by Mapquest. It was worth the occasional slower driver. First, scattered amongst the wineries were town with names that indicated Geysers and hot springs (Agua Caliente, Fetters and Boyes Hot Springs, etc). I figure it must be the southern-most extent of the subduction zone that’s resulted in the volcanoes of the Cascades.) Some of the views of the wineries on the undulating hills were breathtaking. Some of the grapevines, devoid of leaves in the “winter”, were quite young, and others all gnarly and mature. In some of the vineyards there was bright yellow rape seed in and amongst the vines. All the many wineries offered tastings. I could see how one could spend a whole vacation on this. All that was missing from the picture was windmills, since grapevines are only a few feet high, though some might argue it would spoil the scene. Exiting Napa towards the Central valley, the hills flattened out a bit and the road became a straight roller coaster, where you could see the little ridges several at a time. Cattle were grazing on the grass; towns were infrequent. It was fast too, most of the time, but became slower, so I escaped onto Interstate 5 south to Stockton, left through town to 99 and down to Fresno with just one lunch stop at a McDonalds (good old California Cobb salad). By this time, the visibility was really poor and the pollution level high. The air smelled BAD! It seemed partly agricultural, partly truck emissions. My lungs were getting uneasy.

I had in mind to go out to see the Sequoias east of town if I had time, and so I did, heading out before even checking into my hotel. Up to that point I didn’t really do that much passing on the two-lane roads – a bit on Hwy 12 in the roller coasters, but I did a lot more here. Just at the edge of the valley were two big hills, and from there it was up, up, and more up. This was some of the most demanding driving – as much or more so than the coast road. I didn’t stop too much to take pix on the way up but did take a few looking out over the smoky ridges, sometimes four levels of ridges out into the distance. Unfortunately, I’d misread the Warnors theater ticket to say the show started at 7 (when I actually said the doors opened at 7), so that put undue time pressure on. I saw my first sequoia at about 4,000 feet and took a few pix there and at the park entrance which was over 6,000 feet up. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground there and I was out in my T-shirt. Since I thought I didn’t have time to go in and get back to the venue in time, I had the ranger take a few pix of me against this giant sequoia that looked like it had been hit by lightning a few times. I was less than a sixth the width of the trunk. With regret I started back; I’ll have to come back another time. I got back to Fresno as the sun went down. Probably a good thing, not negotiating the sharp cliffs of the Sierras in the dark…

This venue was another oldie, and the seat rows were so close to each other you could barely move around. Ken, who I’d met in Stockton, found me and passed a $20 down the line – the remainder of what he owed for the ticket. I was in the sixth row John again. Justin started out by wearing this dark blue blazer – very smart! The audience was not on its feet, so the band didn't put out extra this night. It's not like the audience wasn't enjoying it. I spoke with several who hadn't seen the band in over 30 years and were really looking forward to it. I'd hear a song start and then hear the gasps and whoops all around me. But they were too timid to stand up until Graeme busted things loose with H&H. They also did a perfect stick toss, but it didn't get a rise out of the audience as it usually does, probably because there were so few of the traveling fans that went to that show. There was much polite applause for Norda. John held out his hand towards her at the beginning of a song and everyone dutifully applauded well into the song. I noticed that the lights were actually too bright on certain songs, washing out Justin’s features quite a bit. I realized that there hadn’t been any searches of bags at any of the venues for this tour, and in this case no security at all until towards the end, when I suppose they wanted to make sure we wouldn’t jump on the stage. I was able to shoot away. On top of the Sequoia pix, I got maybe 50 pix with Justin in his lovely navy jacket before changing cards before December Snow and then got another 145 or so.

After the show, I met up with Ken, and several others of us met up at the Radisson where, as it turned out, the Band was staying. We were sitting in the lobby with drinks and pizza looking at the pix I'd taken that night. Then one by one the band members came through. I was able to hand Gordon a few 5x7s I'd been trying to get to him onstage since England. One was him playing flute in good light. After a little while, Graeme came back downstairs and we had a nice long chat with him. It was fascinating. I was gratified that he really liked some of my pictures of him – I had a bunch of 5x7s with me, as I usually do. Unfortunately, when we all left the lobby bar to go to one that was open later, in my haste to collect up all my photos and camera, I'd left behind one of my film cards -- the one with me in the sequoias and maybe 50 of the first part of the concert where Justin was wearing a nice dark jacket. I realized it maybe 15 to 30 minutes after we’d hastily left the lobby bar, and I flew back there looking for it. I went to great extremes to get that card back, looking around the table, then working with housekeeping to empty three garbage cans out onto the floor and pick through it piece by piece, sorting out the glass bottles, broken glass, papers, food etc (felt right at home manually sorting recyclables). I found the half-eaten piece of pizza I’d started on but still didn't find the chip inside its little plastic case. It had to be there. As I was picking through it on the concrete, outside, dimly lit, in the 50 degree fog in shirtsleeves, I kept thinking… asking myself whether the calculus I was implementing – trading time with Graeme for the possibility of getting this film back – was the right thing to do… I didn’t find the chip and, crestfallen, went back to the party. Major bummer. I heard later that Graeme was concerned about it, bless ‘im.

The conversation was wide-ranging. He talked about how he does the dance to get everybody up and fired, and that this might not be fully appreciated. He thought audience was quite dead, not noticing the perfect drum toss, for example, and chortled at how he really set them on fire with his dance. He was interested to hear about the audience that night from my point of view (the gasping, etc). I explained they were just timid. Many hadn’t seen them for 32 years – maybe they hadn’t seen many concerts at all since then. Most folks who don’t attend many concerts really don’t have the concept that the more demonstrative they are, the better the performers appreciate and respond. I said they were like an English audience. He knew exactly what I meant and was not offended.

The H&H dance developed over time. I’d asked him if he remembered early on sideling up to John once. He didn’t remember that but said that he didn't want to upstage anyone -- crossing in front of Justin or John would have constituted that. (Not upstaging is a rule of performing.) Clearly he’s worked that out with them since he does cross everyone (after all, it is HIS song, so he would be the one to be upstaged there…)

In recent concerts Graeme said they’ve been “polishing the diamond” with December Snow - everyone is backing off on volume and letting Justin emote the song with his expressive voice and guitar. In the last few shows, Graeme has changed his introduction to H&H by saying he wouldn't sing, especially following that (song). I asked him if he wanted to ask to have another song (in addition to Higher and Higher). He didn't think it to be a good idea.. and couldn’t figure what other poem or song would be suitable. I asked him why not do You and Me? Graeme told us he wrote the words and Justin the music. I think I remembered that Justin had said in a chat said that he didn’t mind doing this song, but that the others didn’t want it? Graeme said since the lyrics were about Vietnam and he couldn't imagine those words coming out of Justin's mouth now, they just couldn’t do it. (Of course, Question is even more about Vietnam, so I don’t quite get it.) Nowadays, the set list stays the same unless one of them wants to do a different song and then the one song will change.

He calls us superfans. What a nice term! Much better than Groupies! That’s what I’ll say when my friends at home ask if I’m a groupie.

I asked him how he ended up in Florida. I was interested since I’m a Florida native, and lived for seven years close to where he lives now. He said he had lived in many places, including such far-flung U.S. locales as Independence Mo, Seattle, New York, Boston (It was too Cold!), and just liked the area (in west coast Florida). He surprised me by saying that Lakewood High School (where I went) now has a good basketball team (always did).

He told us he’s planning to become a citizen in a year or so. He has prepped for the test, and from the conversation we had, he won’t have a problem. He knows a lot more about our government than the average citizen, which isn’t saying much, I realize, but he also has the advantage of knowing the British and European systems and history a lot more than the typical American. He will have dual citizenship, as Britain won’t let anyone give up theirs.

One interesting bit was his characterization of personalities of people based on what instrument they play in a band. For example, he never met a keyboardist who was not a good guy. Paul is “first class”. He was really glowing in his description of Norda and her contribution to the band. I thought that George Harrison didn’t fit his thoughts on lead guitar players, but he said Harrison was not a real lead player, just a rhythm player that had to play lead. I thought about it and realized that that was true. You never heard George just going on and on jamming and innovating on any song (think Hendrix or Clapton), and most of his leads were reasonably simple. That gave me insights into myself - there ARE people who were born to play lead and the rest of us who just play at it. I kinda knew it all along but nice to hear it confirmed.

We ended up at 3:30am… thankfully, I had the presence of mind to have called the Days Inn north of town to tell them I would be checking in rather late and fortunately, it was easy to find, even in the dense fog. In one respect, I was glad to be getting to the hotel – to clean my lungs, hair and clothes of the smoke. Unfortunately, just before the show, I’d called a solid waste / academic colleague of mine and we were going to meet for late breakfast in Paso Robles at 10:15, two hours from Fresno…

After carousing with Graeme in the bar the night before, I didn't get to check into the Days Inn at Fresno until about 4am. I had to get up by 8, grabbing a quick danish to see Sam, who teaches at Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo. Since he was heading north to San Francisco, he said we could meet at the Denny’s where 46 crosses 101 in Paso Robles. I drove on 41 in pea soup fog for a lot of the time, a deadly dull landscape otherwise. Where land was visible there were scattered vineyards and cattle grazing mostly. Once again the air was really foul, smelling of wood smoke and other stuff. You wonder to what degree the stuff in the air gets into the grapes and the cattle. Later Sam told me that road had a nickname... Something like Blood Alley for all the accidents, I suppose due to reduced visibilities and passing on 2-lanes. The way he described the air was that the whole valley is in a permanent inversion situation, so unless folks stop putting stuff into the air, there's no mechanism, other than rain, to clean the air, and it doesn't rain that much. The sun works on the hydrocarbons, NOx, and other stuff creating ground-level ozone as well.

Sam suggested after leaving Paso Robles, I take the coast road north a little ways to San Simeon, which I did, but I thought the $20 tour would take too long so I looked at things in the museum, put my camera's zoom onto the max 40x with optical and digital, and took my shot at the castle way up the hill in the distance and headed back down the coast road. The visibility was still pretty poor even along the coast from the effect of the inversion. But when it isn’t calm with fog and pollution, it seems the coast range is windy. There were even signs coming out of the valley into the hills at Paso Robles warning that the winds can be dangerous to drivers, but there were no windmills.

Every so often, I stopped when there was an especially wonderful scene to photograph, such as the blooming ice plants, yellow rape seed with cliffs and ocean in the background. I stopped for a while to watch and film some surfers. When the surf's not so good, they and I can wait a long time, but I did get one successful run on tape. The green hills were a pleasure to look at mile after mile. I know that in the summer, it's pretty stark, with brown angular, or rounded mountains in the coast range. But in the winter, the flowers bloom and the hills are green with grass. I saw more spring flowering trees in bloom since I was now quite far south from San Francisco, where the plum trees had been just starting to come out. I noticed along the roadside that wild blue lupines and california (orange) poppies were blooming here and there – nice contrast with the green.

Getting into the Santa Ynez area was unremarkable at the time… Finding the Days Inn was a little harder than it should have been since it was immediately next to the highway entrance; but it was hidden by trees and inset quite a bit. But that gave me a chance to drive around the area a little bit. I remembered that a lot of the hotels in the area had a distinctly Swedish flavor to them and saw a restaurant – Andersen’s I think, that looked like a local fixture. When I finally rolled into the Days Inn, it too was a bit unusual. There was a large dark wooden shingle sort of Dutch windmill thingie on top of the lobby building. I almost took a picture, but was running a little late. Driving to the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, I couldn’t help but notice Solvang. It’s almost over the top Swedish / Dutch? kitsch with little lights strung everywhere to add to the festivity. Windmill motifs and flags everywhere (yet I didn’t see any real windmills…)

The casino reminded me of Caesars Atlantic City… pretty smoky, large, noisy, etc. There was a coffee shop with the worst service imaginable. It took three people to get one that had some idea of what the chicken gumbo soup was like (sort of like lentil, spicy with bits of chicken?) I didn’t have time for more than that without missing the concert.

Though the area didn’t seem so remarkable at the time, yesterday everything took on new significance, when I went to see the movie, Sideways. I was interested to watch the protagonist drive up the coast from L.A., but then got very interested as I saw signs for Rt. 246, Solvang and Buellton. Then, I couldn’t believe it, they drove into the Days Inn with the brown shingled windmill (they had it called the Windmill Inn for the movie, but it was unmistakeable). The movie was shot where I’d stayed 8 days before! I wonder if the windmill was there before or whether it’s left over from the filming. They showed bits of Solvang, with extras walking down the street in lederhosen and clogs(!), the nearby restaurants, the Santa Ynez hospital, the motel lobby where I’d gotten breakfast just days before, the room with the distinctive headboards. Talk about déjà vu! A big theme of the movie was wine, as well as relationships… John would like this movie. I certainly did.

The room, like Cache Creek, was a large box with folding chairs. But at least the seats on the ends weren’t so far out they were blocked. But the distance from the high stage to the first row was quite considerable – something like 20 feet. My seat was fifth row on the left edge – not too good for watching or photographing the concert, considering the close proximity of security. The concert got off to a rocky start, with a mechanical glitch that must have lasted a couple of minutes AFTER the band took the stage. I’d never seen anything like this… they were all standing around looking very uncomfortable, and I couldn’t figure what was happening. But somehow it was fixed and they started up fine. It looked for a while like it would be a deadly dull audience, but one hippie type woman was swaying with arms in the air and finally went down to the front during IKYOTS continuing to sway. Ya gotta love California! Right away more and more followed her to the front from all parts of the audience, a few here, a few there, catching security off guard. (Just another example of nature abhorring a vacuum – you put a really big space between the front row and the stage and you’re asking for it to be filled.) By the end of the song there were probably about 25 up there. I was one of them, sneaking past a few guards at the left front corner to do it. It was great and reminded me of the mosh pit in Eugene. It was the most fun I'd had at a concert since then. Unfortunately, the fun was short-lived and the security swarmed around us pushing pushing pushing pushing us off to the right side way past Paul and then brought in a stanchion with cord to pen us in. Immediately feeling uncomfortable with this situation, recalling how the NYPD did the same thing, penning up hundreds of thousands of us on Feb. 15, 2003 who were just walking towards an anti-war rally ineptly sited at the U.N., where there is no space for more than a few thousand, and doing more than just pushing, I figured either things could get ugly behind the barricades or I'd just see the concert from a very bad angle. I saw a bunch of empty seats in the fourth row middle (from folks who were in the pen) and bolted for them and stayed there. The band tipped their hats, as it were, to the penned-in group several times. I was very happy in my new seat.

The usual rush to the stage started one song early and everyone was up there bellowing Nights in White Satin, as well as Question later. It was great, even if they (the audience) weren't in tune. I was glad that their last concert was such a good sendoff. I do like the interactions of Bernie and Norda on a few songs now. Got something like 150 shots; I was shut down right after IJAS, but moved with the rush directly to the front in front of Justin for Nights and was surrounded by many so was able to shoot away for the rest. After the concert I got the prettiest event staff credential I’ve ever seen from one of the staff. It’s a recent picture of the three superimposed on amazing pink, orange design with blue green highlights.

After saying goodbyes I went to the coffee shop for a treat... I'd only had the bowl of soup for dinner, and met up with a table of fans. We relived the concert and they bought a few pix.

Writing this at 36,000 feet or thereabouts ... transitioning back to reality. The drive to LAX was about what everybody said -- three hours on the nose with three traffic jams. One of the fans I met at the casino café after the show told me where to look for the La Conchita landslide so I was able to see it, albeit at 60 miles an hour. As I looked for it in the hillside, I was musing at the name La Conchita. The little Conch, but there's another meaning... If I'd known I did have time, I would have stopped and looked around. After all, I teach environmental geology, and this is the sort of thing that can be very dry when taught from a textbook, but comes to life when you see pictures of a real life event.

The air was much better today what with the pouring rain. I was gratified that there were no accidents on the freeway down the coast despite the challenging conditions. Ventura Highway … in the sunshine, it was not, but I remembered the long curving coast from my train ride down to San Diego two years before after the last Moodies swing through the west coast. It did get pretty windy there buffeting the car, and though the surf was up, there were no surfers on this beach.

The hardest part of the drive was finding the Avis rental car place. Unlike most airports I know, the car rentals were located all over the place on the city streets. The best part of the airport experience was spotting and talking briefly with Alan Alda. I recognized him immediately even though I first saw him some distance away just pulling his bag toward the gate (my gate). I told him I was a big fan and he smiled and thanked me, but I didn't say anything further, though I wanted to, and didn’t ask for an autograph, as he had that look about him that he didn't want to be recognized. He set up shop in a corner with his newspaper, then stood first in line to get on the plane. I learned the next day why he was flying to NY – he gave a fiery eulogy at Ossie Davis’ funeral, so it’s a good thing I hung back. The rest of the flight was uneventful, just recalling the shows, the pictures taken and the scenery. Converting my hundreds of photos to webpages will bring me back to this place again and again.

About 8 days after I got home, I went to see the movie, Sideways. I was thrown back in my chair when I realized that it was shot at the Days Inn in Buellton, where I'd stayed just the 8 days before. That windmill was unmistakeable, scenes from Solvang as I'd remembered, and the Santa Ynez medical clinic that I never saw were all there, as well as neighboring wine country. Pretty nifty!