Black hole of doom...

ate my fricking cable to get pics off my camera and onto my lappy :(  so no pretty pics till we go to frys then find more internets!!!  

Show last night was fantastic per the norm.. altho ive decided that im too old to be smashed between 3098673 people... its the rail or gtfo of the pit.  Beans should be posting more about the show cuz shes amazing like that!..

Drive from Chicago to Indy was interesting... we failed to realize we were changing time zones and managed to lose an hour to the black hole of doom.  

It's now time to head back west and to Denver.  We're gonna go thru Illinois, Iowa, and back up thru SoDak to see momma again! XD  It's a 16 hour drive from Indy to Rapid so we should be there monday night, just to dash out the door Tuesday to make it to Denver for my flight.

If only me and ma beaner could do this forever...... I would so be up for it.

Chiiicaaaaagoooo

Another day, another show!!

Per what appears to be the norm for us, we got up, got ready and drove off to yet another city in yet another state. On the way to Chicago I saw a sign, and it was heaven sent:

And then he said, let there be lunch!!

OMG!!! *drooools* That was oh so omnomnommy!! Jo on the other hand appears to not be enjoying it as much as I did :( but I guess that her payback for me not loving Taco Johns the way she does.

And then…we hit Chicago traffic!! And this is some serious traffic, not a tractor decided to take his time on the highway shit that I’m used to.  We EVENTUALLY got to our hotel and the moment I walked in I almost walked out. Ok, imagine opening a bag of Ramen Noodles and sniffing it, this place does not smell that good!! We appear to be cutting it close for most of this trip. We had enough time to unload and head straight back out to the show.

Unfortunately I was not able to get pre-sale tickets to for this show, so we had to wait in line and get seats with the rest of the common folk. The good thing about this venue is the awesome view of the Chicago skyline. This show was only Street Sweeper Social Club and Nine Inch Nails, no Jane's Addiction to make it extra entertaining. Street Sweeper was fantabulous again. Boots Riley is ridiculously entertaining plus Tom Morelo plays the guitar like no one else. I think they’ve managed to get pretty up there in my favorite band list.

The NIN performance was FANTASTIC again. This time they played “We’re Afraid of Americans” (YAY!!). Trent decided to re-write the lyrics to “Terrible Lie” (fyi). Seeing them perform makes me a little sad in knowing that this is their goodbye tour. Trent Reznor was very into this show, he decided to do a bit of crowd surfing, which makes for a great performance.

After Jo and I left the concert and were discussing the plans for tomorrows show we got hit with the realization of what exactly we are doing. We are following a band around. WE. ARE. FOLLOWING. A. BAND. AROUND.!!!!! This is something that I have wanted to do since I discovered concerts. It’s amazing to me that I am actually doing this. I still can’t believe it. Even as I sit in this stinky hotel room and discuss the show far from the comforts of my rural life. This is one of those major events that can be crossed off of my “bucket” list. The best part of this whole trip is that I have someone that is just the right amount of crazy willing to go along with it.

Well, tomorrow is another day and another concert. Off to sleep now, it is currently waaaay past my bad time. Nighty night!!

OMG….Ketchup!!

Phew what a whirlwind of driving!! Ok so, let’s get you caught up before we hit another show. We left Denver and headed straight for Rapid City, SD to meet up with the wonderful woman that gave me Jo. We arrived as a great surprise to her (YAY!!), which was awesome because we thought that we had given ourselves away a few times. I got to meet Jos’ nana and see 3 generations of wonderful ladies interact and I’m going to have to admit, it was a little eerie. There is no denying the relationship there. We unwound a bit and realized towards the end of the night that we were waaay more tired that we thought we were. We went to sleep and I woke up to this: Omnonnommy goodness!!! Eggs cut up in squares. yuuummm…pardon while I wipe away the drool.

Through out the entire drive through Wyoming heading towards South Dakota we kept seeing signs for Wall Drug and Jo kept stating how odd it was because it’s just a tiny place in the middle of SD. Well after we left Rapid City we HAD to stop off at Wall Drug and I have to say, I was greatly amused. We continued on our scenic tour through South Dakota and took advantage before we hit nothing.

  After some more driving we ended up here:  Ladies and gentlemen, the Worlds Only Corn Palace!! Needless to say the endless puns kept me entertained to quite a while. 

And then we drove…and drove…and drove! If I never see another construction site in my life, it’ll seriously be too soon. But we eventually had to stop and feed our faces and look at what we found:   After some more driving and some more construction work we ended up in Wisconsin. As Jo has mentioned, we ran behind and I think that was my bad. I thought it was a 6 hour drive and not a 9 hour drive so I decided that we could take our time leaving Rapid City, oops. Well, on to Chicago, cross your fingers we don’t run into Oprah but that we do run into John Cusack.

omgsobackedup!#!@!!

Sooooooooo we're in Wisconsin.. its late i need sleep will post more later kthxbai :D

Afternoon with NIN!!

Ok…so FINALLY some time to sit and go over the show, which is WIN btw. We got to hear NIN sound check “I’m afraid of Americans”, not see just hear (but I guess beggars can’t be choosers). We were front row in the pit, per the Brenda usual :D!! Just an FYI, Street Sweeper Social Club has the BEST stage presence EVER!! Boots Riley has some of the BEST dance moves that I have ever seen, I’m thinkin’ about stealing his moves. After their set Tom Morelo was backstage watching the NIN show and…OMG he waved at me :D!!!!! (That’s one what I’m sure will be many squeeeee moments!!) NIN was awesome, per the usual, they performed “Reptile”, my fav!! I didn’t realize until the drive to Rapid City, SD that even tho they sound checked “I’m Afraid of Americans” they didn’t actually play it. It’s was still a ridiculously awesome show! While I was pointing people out backstage to Jo I realized that I stalk NIN waaaaaay too much. Rob Sheridan came out a few times and Jo took some awesome pics of him takin pics of NIN.

We stayed and watched Janes Addiction and realized that Dave Navarro is a MASSIVE attention whore!! He saw that we were takin pics and we could not get rid of him for the rest of the night. I’m not a huge Janes Addiction fan, but man where they ever so entertaining!! Dave Navarro kept staring at me, I think he wanted the bow on my head…aaand he kept hitting on Jo and telling her that she had pretty eyes. I was 2 seconds away from telling him to stay away from my woman!! Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro are quite the entertainers.

Jo got some ridiculously awesome pictures that you need to check out.

First show!

Was amazing!!! All the photos i took are here.  They’re a little out of order but turned out amazingly! Beans should be posting a lovely review of the show soon.

Nap time again!!!

Questions and adventures….

So after leaving beautiful sunny (amazingly) Portland, I arrived at DIA at 1130 am.  I was greeted by this!! XD  

After our hugs, giggles, and excitement dwindled(barely) we asked each other; “k now what”

Ritz - “I want nachos!!!”

Beans – “I want Chipotle!!”

Ritz – “nachos for lunch… Chipotle for din din”

Beans – “ok deal!”

So we were off to Westminster!!! After getting thru the clouds of impending doom we made it to Raliberto’s. I shit you not.. they have THE BEST FKN NACHOS YOU WILL EVER HAVE IN YOUR LIFE!!!!111 I think my plate lasted for about 3 mins… tops. Ninjo even got in on the action and defended my messican coke!

After shoving as much food as possible in our faces.. the questions started again.

Beans - “k now what”

Ritz – “ummm I need sunglasses sooooo … to the mall!!”

Up the road we went to Westminster mall wandered around.. and prolly paid way too much for 2 sunglasses. Then the question again..

Ritz – “k now what?”

Beans – “SLURPEEEEEEEE”

Off to 7-11 for teh slurpeeeeee. then that pesky question AGAIN.

Ritz - “k now what?”

Beans – “Do you think maybe we should find directions to where the show is and maybe find a hotel near there?”

Ritz – “Ya thats prolly a good idea… Lets go leach some wireless internets off some place!”

So for the next 45 mins to an hour we drove around trying desperately to find some idiots wifi to lurch to find directions. We failed. I miss you portland and your wifi EVERYFRICKINWHERE. We ended up getting directions by Beans txting google (she's amazing and knows things). When we make it down to Fiddlers green amphitheater, I still had my laptop out so we drove around for another 20ish mins to try and find wireless to steal. AMAZINGLY!! We found some lil bakery that had free wifi!!!!  Beans made reservations online then we drove over and checked in.

After unloading all our shit, and settling in, the question came back.

Ritz - “k now what?”

Beans - “Chipotle?”

Ritz - “mmmmm ok!! And after that lets go get groceries at the king soopers.  It’s kinda near the hotel… I think.”

Off we went to shove more deliciousness in our faces.

Then came the expedition to find the king soopers. We drove around in a giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiant circle for like an hour and a half. I hate suburbs..

We eventually found it, got what we needed and headed back to the hotel. After we pulled in at the hotel beans says “bahahahahahahahaha!!!! look!”   I look out the window and don't see wtf she's laughing/pointing at. She says “there's a Safeway RIGHT THERE!!!” So yes, the whole 2 hour excursion could have been avoided… but then we wouldn't have had an adventure would we?!?

I’m sure more amazingness will happen tmr…..

I'm ready for my friggin nap now.

Let the mayhem begin…

Ok, so maybe I should explain this little adventure…just a bit. I love music, road trips, Jo and NIN (among other things). When NIN announced their farewell tour I thought…well, lets combine all these. So far,  a lot more driving than anticipated…considering that we have yet to leave Denver. We’ve been awake for far too long. We got up waaaaaay too early, and if you know either one of use, we are neither early risers nor morning people. A 3 1/2 hour flight and a 4 hour drive and we meet up at DIA. We immediately went to a small out of the way Mexican restaurant with the best super nachos and burritos. After we had our fill, (we inhaled every last bit), we realized that we had not planned anything past lunch. It was after this that the insanity began. (I’m sure Jo will let you in on it.) At the moment I am wondering how I’m going to survive this…day one and  I am beat. I’m sure that I’ll find a way though, don’t you worry about that. 

The day!!!!

Finally at the airport!!!! Beans is in her truck on her way to Denver. Its way too friggin early, and I’ve been up since 4am. Horray for naps on the plane!!!!

 

DENVER HERE WE COME!!!11!!

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tmrtmrtmr!!!!!1!!

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just making sure the truck will make the drive

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omg 3...

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