Aspen, through West Yellowstone to Spokane

An early start leads to an amazing drive through Canyonlands National Park in Utah where the sunrise lights up the amazing landscape. Snowy mountains are long gone. Now it’s hot and dry.

On the road

The longest driving day has arrived and we are on schedule. We decide to take the major road rather than cut through Yellowstone after warnings of road closures from Dan Gray’s mum. We do not want a repeat of yesterday. We don’t have one either. As we travel north the landscape changes again…snow drifts as high as cars appear –

Buried

And mist on the roads ahead which looks like road blocks. Thank God they weren’t. We pull into West Yellowstone only to find a ghost town. How on earth is this gig sold out? We pull into the Wild West Saloon only to find that the Rusted Root tour bus is nowhere to be seen. Worrying. They do however arrive soon after us with reports of road blocks and re-routing. Happens to the best of us!!

Ghost Town

We love Aaron the manager of the saloon. He’s fixed us up 6 hotel rooms (heaven), a free dinner –

Skinny dinner

and as much booze as is possible to consume. We cannot believe our luck. The people of West Yellowstone start to come out from their hibernation and soon the bar is full of happy people wanting a party.

Flagon Times

They love the flagon and its contents. We love the crowd. Great fun and a brilliant reception. Mule and I decide to stay out drinking with the locals. Lovely lovely people who buy us brightly coloured shots as they stumble and struggle to stand upright. Great fun and all the better for a nice warm, spacious hotel room with a big comfy bed and nice clean sheets. Ahhhhh. And sleep.

Mileage: 24972 Distance Travelled: 689.6

The Crowd

Wake up in a hotel room. Hangover. Snow outside. Eek. Has the RV pipes frozen? A quick breakfast on paper plates and off we go to check.

Snow times

Running water. Relief! Off we go again. There’s no time for kicking about – we have to get to Washington. This entails a short stint through Idaho where we stop for dinner. Wow! I don’t believe this place is open but sure enough we push the door open only to find one of the coolest places we’ve been to so far. It’s a proper hunting diner. There’s a note on the front door that promises a free dinner to anyone who brings in a wolf they’ve shot. We laugh but as we spend more time in there eating ‘broasted’ chicken (deep fried in a pressure cooker) playing hunting computer games –

Mule hunting Moose

and looking at the walls…we notice all the hunting pictures. There are all sorts of pictures of a whole range of people holding up their prey. This guy’s picture was particularly shocking. Yes, that is a BIG DOG!!!!!

Werewolf!

I’m scared. I thought these things only existed in horror movies. As we drive through the rest of the forests we all have our eyes peeled for a sight of the real living beasts.

The Knitting Factory is a great venue. The crowd enjoy the set lots and I have a good old dance with as many as I can. The Skinny Shop is going down well too thanks to Maura. She’s doing a great job of shifting our English tat – we’ll be sold out soon!

On Stage in Spokane

A special thank you also to the promoter Eric for sharing his rum with us and giving us a bottle of Kraken to crack open. We salute you! The night is spent on the main road. We predict an early start tomorrow and promise a lift to Colter, the guitarist from Rusted Root, who has a solo gig in Portland.

Kraken

Milage: 25302 Distance travelled: 330

in the thick of it