Me And Sneeky Pete

If you look closely, you can see Barry Manilow in the background.

Sneeky and I won 3rd place at the truck show. Oh, and a set of semi truck tires.

Class and culture, people!! Class and culture!!!!

Ice Road Trucker

Ever watch the Ice Road Truckers show on A & E?

We do. We've been fans for the past three seasons. Our favorite has to be the silly natured Canadian named Alex. Can't figure out his last name, it's huge. Well, look who we met at the truck show....



It's Alex! And he was as sweet as can be. I bought one of his t shirts and had him sign it, for my brother the trucker. He was "tickling" me but down here in the U.S. we call it groping....

Steve got groped, as I did:



Equal opportunity groper.

Clapton Is God.

In Eric Clapton's book, he described himself as a shy, self conscious kid who loved to play guitar but doubted his skills and hated his singing voice. So when he walked into a public restroom in London after a recent "gig," and saw the words scrawled into the wall, "Clapton Is God," his self esteem shot up tremendously and he admits he became unbearable after that.

But. Clapton IS God.

I hold with high regard any person who can master a musical instrument such as the guitar and make a long and wonderful career out of it. Clapton's story is wrought with horrible drug abuse and relationships, terrible tragedy, and a great redemption in the end. And I could not wait to see him play in person.

Here's some hilights:

Steve Winwood, ripping up the guitar at the beginning of the concert with Eric. I had NO IDEA Windwood could play like that!!!



Winwood playing "Georgia on My Mind," with a back-up singer behind him.



My Guitar Hero, Mr. Slowhand himself:



My sweetheart Steve had a great time, as well. He was excited to see the concert he never thought would be possible. I got us access to the floor seats via elevator so he wouldn't have to walk very far, then got us access to the VIP lounge nearby so we could both use the very convenient restrooms and get snacks and drinks at the snap of a finger. Too cool.

Here we are, just before the concert began:



We got there a little early, more than an hour. We were excited. Here are all the empty seats behind us.....



I wished I had some pictures of the varied fans at this concert. There were lawyers, accountants, hippies, young kids, old people ( a whole parking lot was dedicated to handicapped parking...aaahahahahaaaa!! We parked there..... )
and there was even some high-brow looking people who were certainly coming to the concert after a day on their yacht, or at the golf course. What a diverse bunch of people. All of them white, all of them TERRIBLE dancers. Ug. White people should just sit.

Viva. Las Vegas.

We are stopping at home after our few days in Vegas at the truck show. I will post lovely photos of that once I have more than a moment to look thru them. We are on our way to Phoenix for ("gasp") the Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood concert.
And we called the auditorium, we are definitely allowed to take our camera!!! Yaaaay!!

Here's a quick minute of our Vegas time:



Elvi. They're everywhere.

Havasu's Gone Hollywood

Shay and I were talking about the presence that our town has had on tv lately, with the Pirahna movie being filmed here and the show about two people I went to high school with: "Raising Sextuplets" on the WE channel.
He said, "Geez, Havasu's gone hollywood!"
I said, "It's no big deal, they've been filming stuff here for years, it just hasn't gotten that much attention."

Well then he asked me specifically which movies have been filmed in Havasu. It started in the 80's with the "Terror At London Bridge" with the HOFF. Also there was another Made For TV movie I think was called "Million Dollar Mystery." Then that resulted in "Hard Target" which is a soft-core porn. From that a whole slew of soft-core porn was filmed. I didn't tell Shay about those. They of course evolved into hard-core porn. Meanwhile, in 1987, Mtv came for a summer special that lasted a week or so.

There's some Girls Gone Wild footage from here. Mtv did a season or two of their Spring Break here. That was the year I turned 21 and boy did it make that year fun. Tony Hawk filmed a show under the London Bridge. There was a show on Mtv that kind of resembled that "Cheaters" thing on Court tv, and they filmed a couple of shows here. I think it was called "Busted" or something of that nature.

And of course who could forget the series from TruTV last year, originally called "Party Police." I worked as a production assistant on that one. The name was changed to "Party Heat." But it aired to fantastic ratings. Who can resist a show that only has people partying out on the water? Genius.

Most recently there's been some shows for the Fox Sports Channel filmed here because of the boat races. A show called "Smash Labs" did some segments here. The Nitro Circus made a stop here to do some stunts at the London Bridge this past month. The X Games have been here, that was a few years ago.
Shay and I turned the tv on this afternoon and an old "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" from 2003 was on. They featured Tony Castro, a barefoot skiier who was attempting to barefoot ski while driving the boat himself. He was on Lake Havasu.

So, to answer Shay's question, "Havasu's gone Hollywood a long time ago."

While Brandy and R.J. was here, we heard a rumor that Richard Dreyfus took part in Karaoke at a local dive bar every Thursday. It was quite tempting to take the girls there to see if they could have a celebrity moment. But I'm sure it was just a rumor. He's in town for the Pirahna movie, as well as Ving Rames and Elizabeth Shue. I think I'll head up to the film lot that's up the street tonight to see if I can get any photos....

The New Old Me, And Friends

Twenty-two years later, and it's if we hadn't missed one day. Although, we have many stories to tell each other.
Brandy and R.J. landed in Phoenix on Wednesday, and I proudly showed them the Great State of Arizona.

They saw an abandoned pueblo house....



They boated on beautiful Lake Havasu...with R.J. driving for a little while...



They saw the Topock Gorge Wildlife Refuge...



They hand-fed birds some Funyuns...



Watched some burros, who apparently mistook us for the Discovery Channel...



And had a close encounter with some gorgeous Big Horned Sheep....







Oh, and don't forgot the quick view of Route 66, from the water.



I think Brandy wanted to stick around and see if the guys from "Cars" would drive by.

We spent Thursday evening having a nice dinner and then soaking our tired bones in the jacuzzi. Aaaaaahhhh.... And of course more stories.

Not bad, for a visit that lasted about 36 hours!

We have agreed to attempt a yearly reunion, every June. We're thinking Colorado next year.

What The......????

See that wet stuff on my car? I'm posting this so maybe someone could tell me what it is. What is THAT????

The headline in our paper today proclaimed the "monsoon season" is here early this year. For you Midwesterners, it's the time of summer when the remnants of weather down in the Gulf Region make their way to Arizona. It's usually thunder, lightning, and wind. But we got sprinkles today. Sprinkles of foreign stuff.

But a quick check of the Weather Channel confirmed what I feared: we're heading into 110 degrees for the next week. R.J. and Brandy, I WARNED YOU!!!!!!