Billy Vanilly - Topeka, KS

The time had come to end our week-long musical hiatus/real vacation. We got word from our friend Thad in Topeka, KS that he had thrown together a show for us at a cupcake shop founded by former Food Network Cupcake Wars participant, Allyson Fiander. We high-tailed it towards Kansas, eager to taste the cupcakes of a true master.

We first made a pit-stop in Lawrence, KS. As it turned out, Dan's band had a show scheduled in Lawrence on the same night we were planning to arrive in Topeka. Since the two cities are close in proximity, we decided to see the show. We missed Dan's show in Denver, so we were glad to get another chance. We got to see Caroline again as well; she was traveling with Dan to Lawrence for the wedding of a mutual friend. The show was enjoyable, but we were mostly happy to be able to spend another evening with friends.

The next day, we met Thad for lunch at Bobo's in Topeka, a tiny town treasure that had been featured on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives. Bobo's is famous for their "Spanish Burger" and their home-made root beer, so Carl and I ordered those. The food was pretty good, but it didn't make my taste-buds dance as I had hoped. The special Spanish sauce tasted like Sloppy Joe sauce, which gave the exotically-labeled burger a familiar taste, but it didn't really scream "I'm a Spanish burger straight from Chris Columbus' cookbook" like it should have. The root beer was pretty creamy and smooth, and the made-from-scratch onion rings were notable, but anything fried and greasy just tastes fried and greasy after a few bites. Here's Guy Fieri's take on the place, though:

Fieri has such an easy job. He gets to act overly-excited about mundane ingredients going into recipes, then chow down on national television with a "don't-you-wish-you-had-this-job-and-my-hair" grin on his face.

I think the Food Network should hire us to re-judge each restaurant that its food critics have reviewed. Every show I've seen gives all restaurants rave reviews; where's the truth? Why don't the hosts just shrug their shoulders and say, "This is alright. I've had better..."? We all know they must think that sometimes. But I guess if I were to be paid as much as Guy Fieri for giving an exaggerated review of a restaurant, I'd do the same thing. For now though, folks, we've got the truth right here on the tour blog. Food Network, when you're ready to give the public honest restaurant reviews, you know where to find us. But I digress...

The afternoon was a piping 110 degrees Fahrenheit (Carl's car actually said 123, but we didn't have the camera at the time to document it), so we spent most of the afternoon sitting in Thad's living room enjoying the air conditioning.

The show at Billy Vanilly that evening wasn't too bad (especially for a show that was scheduled the day before). A few of Thad's co-workers showed up, as well as his brother-in-law and his roommate, so there were a few people to hear our sad, sad songs wilting in the summer heat.

On the bright side, we tried a few masterfully-crafted cupcakes. They were pretty tasty, but since it was so hot, the air conditioning couldn't save them from fatal frosting-melt. The frosting on my Death by Chocolate cupcake slid off the cake as I set my plate down on the table, so I didn't have much time to admire the aesthetics of it, but that didn't matter. The cake was moist and flavorful, but not too rich. The frosting (a little liquidy, but understandably so) was a lighter chocolate that complemented the cake well, and wasn't deathly overpowering (which was relieving). The flavor that "took the cake," however, was the Strawberry Shortcake. It was simple yet sublime. The strawberry flavoring tasted like true strawberry rather than the manufactured strawberry syrup that litters too many strawberry sweets. Like with the Death by Chocolate, the cake was moist and spongy, and it pulled apart perfectly without crumbling all over my lap. The frosting was simple and fluffy, topped with only a few sprinkles to add a tiny crunch to the tasting pleasure.

After the show, we went to a local brew-pub for some Topeka-made ales along with some dinner. The place was The Blind Tiger Brewery & Restaurant, the first microbrewery ever established in Topeka, Kansas. It was named after the Prohibition-era phenomenon of dive-bars charging patrons to see "exotic" animals (i.e. stuffed tigers or simple farm pigs) for entertainment, then sneakily serving up a tumbler of gin or other sketchy bathtub-made beverage. Apparently, "blind tigers" and "blind pigs" still exist in certain areas of the US today (says Wikipedia), and we may have even played a show at one in San Francisco...

Carl and I both ordered the sampler, which included 4 flutes of any beer of our choice. All of them were enjoyable, but one stood out in particular: the Java Porter. It was thick and dark with strong notes of well-roasted coffee, balanced perfectly with hops to create a creamy coffee concoction of adult beverage radtasticness.

Our food was great as well. Carl got a fresh-grilled chili-crusted Talapia with rice and black beans, while I opted for the black bean quesadillas, I shared my family-sized plate with whoever was sitting to the left and right of me, we all enjoyed our brews, and then we headed back to Thad's to rest up for another long car ride.

When we arrived at Thad's, his roommate Eric Adell, who had joined us for dinner, mentioned something about writing his own music. Carl prodded a little more, and it wasn't long before he started rapping for us right there in the kitchen.



Worn out from the excitement of the day's events, we stumbled downstairs to the refuge of a cold basement and a comfy blow-up mattress.

Driving Music:
Megafaun - Heretofore
Strand of Oaks - Pope Killdragon
White Rabbits - It's Frightening
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
Jackson C. Frank - Blues Run the Game
William Elliott Whitmore - Song of the Blackbird
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Leonard Cohen - Live in London Discs 1 & 2

Telluride & Denver

After the cancellation of the Flagstaff show, our tour quickly became a full-fledged vacation.

My sister Karen and her husband Matt (and my lovely niece Claire) happened to be in Telluride, CO, because Matt and his colleague Brandon had been invited to attend the 2011 American Conference on Theoretical Chemistry, which was being hosted in town. Tricia and I happened to visit the conference one night during a poster presentation session, but with projects like "Calculating the Spectral Shift for Phthalocyanine in Helium Droplets from Path Integral Monte Carlo" lining the walls, we had little chance at understanding anything and we left feeling like cavemen.


As we entered the quaint vacation home town on what seemed like the only access road, we noticed a sign that read "Icy Conditions Ahead," except someone had spray-painted "PR" before the word "Icy." It was an expensive area indeed, just as the delinquent had astutely warned, but the best thing in Telluride was free: the gondola (or as Claire liked to call it, the "weeee!"). Claire loved it, and rightly so; it was a fun form of transportation and a great way to experience breathtaking views of Telluride and Mountain Village from the mountain in between.

A slightly unnerving sign on top of the mountain:

A view of Telluride from the top of the mountain:

A statue in Mountain Village:

We left Telluride behind after a one-night visit and headed to Denver to stay with Tricia's cousin Jessie and her friend Emily.

Here's a sunset we saw at a gas station shortly before we were hit with some nasty storms along the windy mountain roads:


In a spur of the moment decision, we went to see a Rockies game at Coors Field the next afternoon, and we were lucky enough to have my friend Caroline join us yet again. The first great thing we learned about Coors Field is that you could bring your own food through the gate. So instead of paying $50 for a ballpark hot dog, you could pay $2.50 for a hot dog at Mile High Vienna (only two blocks away) and take it into the park.



The second great thing we learned about Coors Field was that Rockpile tickets (seats in an elevated section in center field) were only $4 or $5. This was mind-blowing to a pair of Chicago sports fans accustomed to watching Bears games on TV due to the cost of Soldier Field tickets being roughly equivalent to a kidney sale on the black market.

The only problem was that Rockpile tickets had sold out just before the first pitch. With our hot dogs in hand, we approached the scalpers across the street and they immediately clamored toward us like the dismembered playthings emerging from underneath Sid's bed in Toy Story. Within seconds, we were surrounded by boisterous men shoving tickets in our faces, and the negotiating began. "C'mon, 15 dollars!? Are you crazy!?" I said, knowing full well it'd be a steal at Wrigley or US Cellular. I was excited by the prospect of continuing to talk them down, but the game was already underway, so we settled on $10 a ticket.

The Rockies lost.

Like San Francisco, Denver is home to legalized medical marijuana. As you can see in the picture below, the dispensaries don't look shady from the outside at all!

Even buildings are nice in Denver.

Later that evening, we tried to go see Caroline's friend Dan play a show at an experimental music festival, but we were a bit too late for that, so Tricia and I stopped for appetizers at a place called The Hornet before sharing a sundae down the street at Sweet Action. The flatbread at The Hornet was absolutely delish, and the ice cream could've been the same, but I managed to pick out a fairly horrendous combination of flavors.

That night, we met up with Caroline and her friends to play some shuffleboard before returning to our wonderful hosts' house for a well-deserved good night's sleep.

Driving Music:
Radiohead - The Bends
The Snake The Cross The Crown - Cotton Teeth
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Rachele Eve - Daytrotter Session
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
Ween - The Mollusk
Via Audio - Say Something
My Morning Jacket - Circuital
Battles - EP B
Various Artists - Dark Was the Night Discs 1 & 2
Wye Oak - Civilian
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Anais Mitchell - Hadestown
Iron & Wine/Calexico - In the Reins EP
Ben Folds - Songs for Silverman

Flagstaff, AZ & the Grand Canyon

While driving in southern California, we noticed a number of roadside signs that read "Congress Created Dust Bowl." We didn't know exactly what the signs were trying to say, since we were under the impression that it was 2011 and not 1934, but the land did indeed look dry and dusty. (You can read more about the signs here: http://thewellrundry.blogspot.com/2009/06/congress-created-dust-bowl.html.) Regardless of who is at fault for the farmers' current plight, we found the following sign at a highway rest area (that featured waterless toilets) to be amusing. It says:

"Due to the lack of available water we have reduced water consumption to only essential operational use. All landscape irrigation has been reduced or eliminated... Please help us conserve water."

You can barely see them in the photo, but there are a number of sprinklers behind the sign being used to keep the grass green (after all, green grass is "essential"), perhaps to rub it in the faces of the neighboring farmers with arid fields.


We stayed at a Motel 6 somewhere in between San Fran and Flagstaff that night. When we pulled in sometime after midnight, there was a police officer interviewing a woman, ostensibly about a crime that had just occurred. I checked into the motel by talking to a manager through bullet-proof glass, and I was repeatedly told (without asking) that the area was safe, but that I should make sure my car was locked. So it was obviously a classy area. Here's a view from our room in the morning:


As we made our way into Arizona, it was slightly toasty.


We arrived in Flagstaff, where we were supposed to play at a dance club called Club LEV8. If you're wondering whether or not we were confused by the dance club thing too, the answer is yes.

It turns out the club had changed hands a couple months ago, and it was now called the Mad Italian Club. The owner was an older man flanked by two young men in tracksuits, and he was donning a wife beater, a leather jacket, and a gold chain. He told me he wasn't aware of any acoustic show that night, but he invited me to come back for a DJ/rave night. The fact that his employees were hanging up newspaper on the windows made his offer enticing, but we passed.

We had booked the show through a couple students from the local college radio station, KJACK, and despite some shaky communication and a mysterious lack of promotion, we were assured the show was still happening when I sent out a wary e-mail just before leaving on tour. Needless to say, we were frustrated and a little upset when we arrived and there was no show, because we'd driven quite a ways (out of our way) to get there. I e-mailed one of the contacts, and then we saw Harry Potter while waiting for a response.

The Harry Potter experience was less than magical, mostly due to the movie theater sound being too quiet, which meant that people in the back of the theater could hear a coughing and possibly choking baby somewhere near the right aisle toward the end of the film. If I could've located the parents, I may have asked, "Is seeing the rest of Harry Potter 7 Part 2 really more important than attending to the health and well-being of your child?" On an unrelated note, young Severus Snape looked eerily like Jack White.


After the movie, we heard back from and ended up staying with one of the girls responsible for booking the show, strangely enough. The lack of a show was the proverbial elephant in the room that night, so we still don't know why things turned out the way they did. Either way, we ended up thoroughly enjoying ourselves while conversing with Ben, Taylor, Zach, and Ashley. They were some super-friendly and easy-to-get-along-with people.

The next afternoon, we went to Diablo Burger, which our hosts had claimed was home to "the best burgers" around. It didn't exactly stack up to Farren's in Champaign, which is one of our favorite burger places, but then again, I'm not sure the two places can even be compared. The presentation was awesome (as you can see below) and the burger was made of some fairly tasty (and lean) local meat, but it was cooked unevenly and it could've used a slightly bigger bun. The fries were something else altogether, though. At Diablo Burger, they fry them in olive oil and season them with rosemary, pepper, and salt, which makes for a uniquely delicious fry. Mmmmmm...


After some errands, we drove up to the Grand Canyon, where we started off by walking along the rim for a couple miles. It was cloudy on the two days we were there, so the colors didn't pop as much as they did when I went as a kid, but it was a mesmerizing sight nonetheless.


You're not supposed to approach the animals, but some animals have been fed by tourists so frequently that they've seemingly become domesticated.


When visiting the Grand Canyon, you need to eat salty snacks and stay hydrated!


After moseying along the rim, we hiked down the Bright Angel Trail for a little ways until it started getting dark.


On the shuttle back to the parking lot where we needed to pick up our car, we saw not one but three different elk. They were majestic. I'm convinced that we also almost saw an elk gore a photographer.


That night, we "camped" in our car at the Mather campgrounds. Once again, we were disturbed by the noises of an unhappy baby, but we slept fairly well.

On our way out of Grand Canyon National Park, we stopped at several viewpoints along the southeastern rim. Despite a bobcat crossing sign, we didn't see any bobcats. Disappointing.


Tricia then drove us by the Little Colorado River Gorge and through some impressively oppressive heat in the desert.


Your tax dollars at work:


Driving Music:
Patty Griffin - Impossible Dream
Paolo Nutini - These Streets
Gayngs - Relayted
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Death Cab for Cutie - The Forbidden Love EP
Everlast - Whitey Ford Sings the Blues
Feist - Let It Die
Weezer - Pinkerton
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More
St. Vincent - Actor
Roy Gaines - I Got the T-Bone Walker Blues
Joe Pug - Nation of Heat EP
Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - Not Animal
The Black Keys - Magic Potion
Peter and the Wolf - Peter and the Wolf