Music – The Destinators

Return to The Compound, Los Lunas, NM

In 2014, before this blog began, even before RV travel entered our lives, Sue and I traveled to a blues jam near Augusta, ME. This event was run by a high school teacher and tennis coach with a serious guitar habit who calls himself “Cowboy” in the BGU forum, though his real name is Wilbur. At Wilbur’s jam, we met a whole bunch of cool people from the Blues Guitar Unleashed forum, including one who had chosen “sloslunas” for his forum name, likely because his first name is Steve, which starts with “S,” and he lives in Los Lunas, NM.

But that was my first jam of any kind, my first time playing my guitar in public, the first time I ever plugged into an amp and played at stage volume – a whole bunch of firsts. At one point Steve came to me, acting real serious, and then he told me I was a player (“You’re a player, man!”). I found that to be incredibly encouraging, uplifting and enabling. We became friends. When Sue and I started all our traveling, we stopped in to see Steve and Hy in Los Lunas. That was in April 2017, way too long ago. Though we’ve tried a few times to get there again, each of those efforts was thwarted – until this year!*

Bakersfield, CA

Mutual friends introduced us. “You should meet this couple we met! They both play music and travel in an RV with an insane amount of music gear. You’d love them!” So we first got together with Rod and Tanya at their home in Egan SD in 2016, and love them we did! That was our first year out on the road and we learned so much from them about RVing, traveling with music gear, and making music. Mentors! We were humbled that these pro musicians, traveling as RVDreamTour, invited us to jam with them. We were fortunate to cross paths again later that year, in one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever played music in, and once again in 2019.

When we first met, Rod and Tanya were able to work remotely while traveling for months at a time. Although they still do that, their latest work situation requires them to occasionally be on site at several places in the west. They still spend summers in Egan, but winters now in St David, AZ which is nearer to the work sites. We checked in from Palm Springs, when we were about to be heading towards St David and – surprise! – they were in Bakersfield, CA. Well, that’s not very far from Palm Springs, is it? Set a course!

San Diego, CA

I’ve “known” Dennard from the Blues Guitar Unleashed forums since he first lit up the stage at the BGU Live jam at Lake Arrowhead, CA in 2018. I wasn’t at that event, but his original songs and charismatic stage presence brought him immediate fame within our online community. This man is a player!

Sue and I first crossed paths with Dennard in person at the 2023 BGU regional jam in Grand Rapids, and again in 2024 in Albuquerque. We were looking forward to jamming a few tunes with Dennard again earlier this month in Parker, but, alas, at the last minute he could not attend due to a family visit. We’d also been looking forward to meeting up with Dennard here in SoCal around this time one year ago, and that was one of the visits confounded by our sudden change of plans. Not this time!

BGU/DEN: Parker, CO

Blues Guitar Unleashed regional jams have been a regular enough feature in this blog that I’m not going to open this post with another explanation of what they are (although if you need that, see my posts from last year or the year before that). Beginning last December my friend and fellow musician Bob (aka BobbyUT) has been making and tweaking all the necessary arrangements for our gang of blues brothers and sisters to get together this fall in his hometown of Parker, Colorado, just south of Denver, for 4-1/2 days of music and mayhem. That event took place last week, and history was made. Again.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO

On my cross-country bike trip in 1983, I stopped in Morrison, CO. A local suggested I check out the Red Rocks Amphitheatre – a natural outdoor theatre that had been enhanced and turned into a performance venue. Although there was no show there that day/evening, it sounded like it might be a cool place to see, so I biked up to the entrance. I was in awe of this performance space tucked in between giant red rocks, surrounded by such stunning views! I spent the rest of the day hiking in and around the theatre.

Had there been a show, it would likely not have fit into my bike-bum’s budget. Sigh. Coming back someday to see a show was one of the first official items on my shiny new bucket list. It only took me 42 years to check it off!

Parker, CO

As mentioned in Doug’s post, the uncertainty of how long we’d be waiting for RV repair was unnerving. Sitting day after day in a dimly lit hotel room with only a bed and 2 chairs at the Quality Inn behind the Mercedes repair center would get old fast. And although we were surrounded by shopping malls with a huge choice of chain restaurants, the prospect of visiting those twice a day for more than a couple of days had limited appeal. We needed a change of attitude, a plan B. After all, people fly into Denver for vacation all the time without RVs. What do they do? What could we do without our RV?

Goin’ to Kansas City…

Kansas City, here I come. I’m gonna be standing on the corner – the corner of Twelfth Street and Vine…

…with my Kansas City baby, and a bottle of Kansas City wine.

Ashtabula and Ostrander, OH, thoughts on route-finding, and the Great Air Conditioner Saga of 2025

Sue recently pointed out that our approach to route-finding often places a much higher priority on visiting different places to do interesting things with great people than it does on efficiency or saving time or following a direct route. These priorities brought us not only to Cincinnati, but also to the two Ohio towns in the title of this post.

I want to point out that I am writing perhaps three posts in one right now. The two visits in this post sandwiched the visit in the previous post and the A/C saga spans all three of those, as well as the one before that. In the past, we’ve tried to remain chronologically consistent in our posts, but this shouldn’t be too hard to follow. Still, please pay attention!

Hamilton, ON – Drumeo live meetup, Do It Again!

Dinner – Jim, Thora, James, Marlene, Vihar, Sean, Sue, top of Doug’s hat, Mike’s right eye, Bram, Ed, Ale

The first live Drumeo meetup of our online drum student group we attended was in 2022 in Toronto. Last year’s (nearly) annual meetup was in Hamilton, ON. In the infamous words of Brian Wilson, it was so good, Do It Again! We wouldn’t miss another chance to meet up with the Drumeo group, again in Hamilton.

Get Your Kicks…

Get Your Kicks on Route 66 is the classic 1946 R&B tune about motoring west from Chicago to LA, written by Bobby Troup and first recorded by Nat King Cole. Most of Route 66 has been replaced by the interstate system, although some original segments of the road remain, in varying conditions of drivability. The towns along the old route 66 are proud of their heritage and vestiges of earlier times – gas stations, motels, diners – remain alongside the interstate.