Grand Junction Today!

Tonight we perform again in Colorado!  Last time was Durango- this time it'll be Grand Junction.

So, a lot has happened since the last post (mostly good, some not, some interesting)!  We had a couple of extra days in Topeka Kansas.  It was great to have a moment to relax.  You would think that living on the road for months at a time with seven people (one of them only two years old) would be crazy, but we love it.  The hard part is all the loose ends that have to be tied up before we leave.  Once on the road, it's great!

Here's Silas with the mascot from the hotel:

Again, I highly recommend the downtown Ramada!

Here's something else you need to see in Topeka.  Remember Evel Kneivel, the motorcycle jumping stuntman?  Well, there's a Knievel museum there!

Interesting thing I learned- do you know how Evel Knievel got his name?  He was actually Robert Knievel.  During a night in jail during his younger years, he was next to a man named William Knofel.  The jailer walked past and called then "Awful Knofel" and "Evil Knievel".  The name stuck, but Robert changed the spelled from "Evil" to Evel" because he didn't want to be considered evil.

Knievel crashed quite a few times during his stunts.  Here's his actual helmet from the famous attempt to jump the fountains at Caesar's palace:

Here's the "Skycycle" from the attempt to jump the Snake River gorge:

And- this, for me, was the coolest part.  You can look at Evel Knievel's actual take-off ramp- up close!

Knievel used only one set of ramps through his entire career, so this is the actual ramp used at Caesar's, Wembley stadium in London, and everywhere else.

We spent a few hours here and could have spent longer.  Highly recommended!

So, yesterday (Sunday) we went to pastor Darren's church before hitting the road for Colorado.  This unconventional looking guy was the guest speaker:

This is Kelly K.  He's a standup comedian and preacher- and he was amazing!  If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, do it!  He has an incredible story.  Trust me- you'll be blessed!

Here was another cool thing.  We spoke with a lot of people that we had met at the Topeka show, but this guy. . .

This is Toby.  Apparently, after seeing our show, he dyed his beard purple!  Not sprayed, mind you, but actually dyed!  I've seen people dye their hair after our shows but this is the first beard I've seen.  Awesome job, Toby!

So- it was on to Colorado.  We got approximately two miles out and the car started chugging, followed by smoke rising from beneath the hood.  Not good when you have more than 600 miles to go!  We discovered a broken radiator hose and coolant all over the engine:

This is why I ALWAYS travel with tools!  We got this fixed up and headed West.  Kansas is a long state!

So, we crossed into Colorado and had four hours more to go in order to reach our hotel.  We knew we would arrive very late at night, but there was still an adventure in store for us.  We had to stop in downtown Denver to pick up a new microphone (ordered through Amazon, delivered to an Amazon locker in Denver, waiting for us to pick up when passing through).  This spot turned out to be in a "questionable" area of town, but it proved to be no big issue.  So, fill up on gas and head out, right?

Well. . . we stopped for gas at a 7-11.  I parked facing an unmarked white van, attached to a small unmarked white trailer, with another unmarked white van behind everything else.  There was a group of 6 men, all dressed in black, quickly unloading stereo and computer equipment from the van to the trailer (BIG stuff, most of it with wires still hanging).  I'm pretty sure we witnessed a stolen parts ring operating right in front of us!

We finally arrived at our hotel near Breckenridge at 2 A.M.  After spending all day in the hot vehicle in summer temperatures, we weren't ready for the fact that it was 38 degrees here!  It really is beautiful, though:

Our show tonight is in Grand Junction.  We can't wait!