Rock & Mud Slides Roll

It’s about 6:30 am when I wake up. Today I’m going to drive to Eureka down at the Coast. The weather looks fairly ok and after a breakfast wrap, a big coffee and some biz time I’m on my way down Interstate 5. Lake Shasta has a lot of water and as if it weren’t enough it starts raining hard. The turn towards the coast is in Redding right when you come out of the mountains and new landscape for me.

Once you get away into a valley it starts to be beautiful. Even the rain does not bother me at all. There is hardly anybody on the road and it seems to be an eventless drive until there are signs for Rock’n Mud slides. Well 10 minutes later I’m standing in a line of cars and am chatting with a truck driver that does that route every day. Even he does not know exactly how long it’s going to take - great, another adventure. He also mentions a pass that lies ahead where we likely need chains. Well, I have ‘em in the car and it would be a waste to only use them once after I got them. After about an hour we move on and the pass is luckily free of snow. A couple of hours later I arrive in Eureka. The Chapala Café is easy to find and Ted, the owner greets me with a nice smile. It’s more a mexican restaurant than a Café and I’m curious how the music will get over.

I change in a little storage closet that is about half as big as I am. It’s 5:30 now and I’m curious what lies ahead. It’s another no clap show, background music. The only thing that keeps me awake is the sound of my voice in the big room. It seems to be everywhere. The guitar can’t keep up with it and disappears. That’s gonna be some long 2 hours without saying anything, only playing. So far I haven’t had one serious show on that tour which bugs me a bit but as always things turn up that where you don’t expect it. Jodi comes along (I met Jodi and her husband Marty in Shasta and they offered me a place to stay in Eureka) and it takes me a while to recognize her but then I get it. After the gig we drive to Martys office. He’s an optician and his band practices between Armani glasses and mirrors. It’s the coolest set up I’ve seen so far. Very nice people and good musicians. After they are done I follow Jodi’s car 30 minutes up the hill through fog and past mudslides to their house. That alone is an adventure - I have absolutely no clue where I am. As soon as Marty gets home we take out our guitars and start sharing some songs. That’s the highlight of the day and I can go to bed easy on my mind.