When In Utah...
I voyaged into new territory (for me) this weekend to join the Wasatch Mountain Parrot Head Club at their summer BBQ. My bud, Mark Mulligan was booked to play the event and I was psyched to go see my Utah homies on their own turf. Yes, there are Parrot Heads in Utah. Really fun ones, as a matter of fact.
It was so good, though!
Lewie and Rhett contemplating dumping Shannon over the edge.
The ski jumps at Olympic Park.
Saturday morning came too early after a late night. We kinda putzed around waiting for Mark to call (story of my life with Mark). Gary and I finally decided to get some breakfast then drove up to see Olympic Park. They were doing a diving demo so we decided to skip the $10 fee for that and headed back to Lewie's (we compared the fee to how many beers we could buy for $10 - beer won out).
Moo cow.
On the way down the hill from Olympic Park, we pulled over to take a picture. I was amazed to see cows grazing right off the road. I mean, Park City is quite fancy and pricey so the cows seemed out of place. Call me naive. Rhett absolutely hammered me the rest of the weekend for being surprised about the cows.
The first of several Rum and Cokes.
Mark had showed up while Gary and I played tourist. He normally doesn't drink before a gig but he told me we were going to break the rule. I think being in historically restrictive Utah made him want to be a bad boy. Lewie mixed Mark a weak Rum and Coke and stronger ones for the two of us. I sipped on mine for quite a while but then Mark decided we should have one more. What a wild man!
My AZ buds would have been surprised by how much work the Princess did in Utah. I chopped tomatoes and onions for the burgers, did dishes and even served as the cocktail girl. The latter is so out of character as I'm an expert at the "while you're up..." game. I told them all I was on good behavior so they'd invite me back and the next time I would be totally lazy.
First shot of the day - me, Griz and Gary.
The Hydster and her great shirt!
Just as I was getting ribbed about being the Princess, who should walk in but the Hydster wearing the perfect shirt. I knew I had to have a pic of the two of us. Nice of Gary to add the antennas...
Mark's first forehead signing.
Mark was a hit with the 'keets in the crowd. He signed their shirts and had his first request to sign a forehead. He was thrilled to do so. Mark was popular with the adults, too.
We moved out to the patio and she started requesting the Eagles. I told her Mark didn't know any Eagles when he broke into Take It Easy (which is his traditional sound check song). I whipped my head around and gave me a look that scared him. He said it looked like I was going to kill him. I nearly wanted to. Here I was, trying to save him and encouraged her! It's the last time I try to save his ass. I finally told her she was becoming an stalker and declared a buffer zone around Mark to keep her away. Poor thing, she was pretty liquored up and when we ran into her the next day, apologized for "torturing" him.
The party ran late and Lewie finally kicked us out around 2 AM. Rhett had been "napping" downstairs and wouldn't wake up so Lewie actually carried him upstairs so we could take him back to our condo. We stayed up even later after we got back there. I was clearly on vacation mode.
Come Sunday, Mark, Lewie, Gary, Rhett, Mike and I went out to get some lunch. I was pretty tired but had a good time. The Bloody Mary didn't hurt. Looking back, I realized it was just me and five boys. I like that ratio!
Mark headed out to his second gig which was a house concert that night in Draper. The guys and I worked on cleaning up after the party. It was mostly them working, I will confess but I did help. Lewie and I said goodbye (it was sad) to Gary, Rhett and Mike then headed to Mark's show.
Surprisingly, Mark was drinking a Rum and Coke when we got there. He and I decided that our motto was, "When in Utah...drink!"
The people hosting the show know Mark from San Carlos. There were some former Wasatch Mountain Parrot Heads there whom Lewie hopefully talked into coming back to the flock. I chatted with some people from Apache Junction. As we talked about Mark, I realized that I'd met them one night at Valle Luna during one of Mark's gigs a couple years ago.
Mark asked us to stay for a beer after the show so, even though it was a school night, we agreed. Mike sent me a text as we were sitting on the patio asking how the show went. I said it was great and that we were joining Mark for a beer before going home. He replied, "'A' beer? sure..." I had to reply, "Okay, 2." I think he knows me too well now.
Lewie and I finally had to call it a night some time after 11. Lewie told me we needed to leave at 6:45 in the morning and it was after 12:30 before I got to bed. I was not fond of my alarm as it went off at 5:45.
I think I got a total of 15 hours of sleep over my four day, three night stay.
It was a great weekend! I got to meet a lot of people that I had only heard about or seen emails from in the Utah club. Mark and I spent a lot of quality time together which always makes me happy. Mark and the Utah crowd fell in love with each other and I got to enjoy being with my "core" Utah group that I've come to know and love in the past few years.
It won't be my last trip to Utah, that's for sure.
The view from Lewie's backyard.
Gary picked me up at the airport on Friday afternoon and we headed up to Lewie and Charlotte's place in Park City. It's about a two hour flight from Phoenix and I had two text messages from work while I was in the air. So, I spent part of the scenic drive talking Sugar Daddy through some stuff. My new response at work when someone asks me about something is, "What would you do if I got hit by a truck?" I just can't continue to be one of the few that "knows everything." It wasn't the last I heard from work. I got another call about 11 PM that night. Sigh.
Anywhoo, Rhett was already at Lewie's and Shannon, Troy and Mike drove up from SLC to join us for an evening of pizza, beer and wine.
It was so good, though! We (and by we, I mean I) had too much wine. My line the next morning was that we had one bottle too many. My head hurt, my stomach wasn't much better and once again I was reminded that I need to say "No" to the "How about one more?" question.
Lewie and Rhett contemplating dumping Shannon over the edge.Lewie and Charlotte have a nice little place. Little in comparison to the White House, maybe. It's so big that they actually call each other on their cell phones to communicate...while they're all in the same house! Lewie showed us "his" room which is a great home theater. We lost Rhett in there as he took one of his traditional "naps".
The ski jumps at Olympic Park. Saturday morning came too early after a late night. We kinda putzed around waiting for Mark to call (story of my life with Mark). Gary and I finally decided to get some breakfast then drove up to see Olympic Park. They were doing a diving demo so we decided to skip the $10 fee for that and headed back to Lewie's (we compared the fee to how many beers we could buy for $10 - beer won out).
Moo cow.On the way down the hill from Olympic Park, we pulled over to take a picture. I was amazed to see cows grazing right off the road. I mean, Park City is quite fancy and pricey so the cows seemed out of place. Call me naive. Rhett absolutely hammered me the rest of the weekend for being surprised about the cows.
The first of several Rum and Cokes.Mark had showed up while Gary and I played tourist. He normally doesn't drink before a gig but he told me we were going to break the rule. I think being in historically restrictive Utah made him want to be a bad boy. Lewie mixed Mark a weak Rum and Coke and stronger ones for the two of us. I sipped on mine for quite a while but then Mark decided we should have one more. What a wild man!
My AZ buds would have been surprised by how much work the Princess did in Utah. I chopped tomatoes and onions for the burgers, did dishes and even served as the cocktail girl. The latter is so out of character as I'm an expert at the "while you're up..." game. I told them all I was on good behavior so they'd invite me back and the next time I would be totally lazy.
First shot of the day - me, Griz and Gary.Mark put on a great show. He played his stuff for the first half then took requests for the second half. I was trying to treat the day as marathon and not sprint but Gary and Griz made me do a shot of rum. It tasted like cough syrup. The taste didn't stop me from doing another shot later but otherwise, I stuck to beer and Rum and Cokes for the day.
The Hydster and her great shirt!Just as I was getting ribbed about being the Princess, who should walk in but the Hydster wearing the perfect shirt. I knew I had to have a pic of the two of us. Nice of Gary to add the antennas...
Mark's first forehead signing.Mark was a hit with the 'keets in the crowd. He signed their shirts and had his first request to sign a forehead. He was thrilled to do so. Mark was popular with the adults, too.
One of the women in the crowd was quite enamored of Mark. She called him "Cute Guy" for the most of the show and kept telling him how good he was and how, well, cute he was. She was quite vocal about it and didn't stop even after the show was over. We were upstairs in the kitchen and she pestered him to break into song. I ran interference and told her at every specific request that she made that Mark didn't know the song.
We moved out to the patio and she started requesting the Eagles. I told her Mark didn't know any Eagles when he broke into Take It Easy (which is his traditional sound check song). I whipped my head around and gave me a look that scared him. He said it looked like I was going to kill him. I nearly wanted to. Here I was, trying to save him and encouraged her! It's the last time I try to save his ass. I finally told her she was becoming an stalker and declared a buffer zone around Mark to keep her away. Poor thing, she was pretty liquored up and when we ran into her the next day, apologized for "torturing" him.
The party ran late and Lewie finally kicked us out around 2 AM. Rhett had been "napping" downstairs and wouldn't wake up so Lewie actually carried him upstairs so we could take him back to our condo. We stayed up even later after we got back there. I was clearly on vacation mode.
Come Sunday, Mark, Lewie, Gary, Rhett, Mike and I went out to get some lunch. I was pretty tired but had a good time. The Bloody Mary didn't hurt. Looking back, I realized it was just me and five boys. I like that ratio!
Mark headed out to his second gig which was a house concert that night in Draper. The guys and I worked on cleaning up after the party. It was mostly them working, I will confess but I did help. Lewie and I said goodbye (it was sad) to Gary, Rhett and Mike then headed to Mark's show.
Surprisingly, Mark was drinking a Rum and Coke when we got there. He and I decided that our motto was, "When in Utah...drink!"
The people hosting the show know Mark from San Carlos. There were some former Wasatch Mountain Parrot Heads there whom Lewie hopefully talked into coming back to the flock. I chatted with some people from Apache Junction. As we talked about Mark, I realized that I'd met them one night at Valle Luna during one of Mark's gigs a couple years ago.
Mark asked us to stay for a beer after the show so, even though it was a school night, we agreed. Mike sent me a text as we were sitting on the patio asking how the show went. I said it was great and that we were joining Mark for a beer before going home. He replied, "'A' beer? sure..." I had to reply, "Okay, 2." I think he knows me too well now.
Lewie and I finally had to call it a night some time after 11. Lewie told me we needed to leave at 6:45 in the morning and it was after 12:30 before I got to bed. I was not fond of my alarm as it went off at 5:45.
I think I got a total of 15 hours of sleep over my four day, three night stay.
I don't regret a single minute of that missing sleep.
It was a great weekend! I got to meet a lot of people that I had only heard about or seen emails from in the Utah club. Mark and I spent a lot of quality time together which always makes me happy. Mark and the Utah crowd fell in love with each other and I got to enjoy being with my "core" Utah group that I've come to know and love in the past few years.
It won't be my last trip to Utah, that's for sure.
