Austin--->Memphis (647 miles)

Day 11 (Tuesday, Feb. 17th) Lanny, Christina, Jade, and I headed out to a attempt to play an open mic at a really cool bar/venue/coffee shop called Ruta Maya in Austin. This was the first time in over a week that I have given any energy to thinking about music, which has been a nice mental break. I was really hoping we would get a chance to play a bit because both Lanny and Jade Day are two of the finest and most talented vocalists I know. They are both incredible song-writers as well. I hope that you have a minute to check out their music.

Lanny Boyer
Jade Day

I've known Lanny for 4-5 years now and have played music off and on with him over that time. Lanny's album, "I'll Shine" is due out sometime in the next few months, I'm very much looking forward to the album finally being released as it's been a loooong project, spanning the entire time I've know Lanny... plus some. I performed on 5 or 6 tracks and I must say that I'm very happy with the way everything turned out.

In May of '08 Lanny was brave enough to accept my invitation to pretend he was Thom York for a night. A incredibly daunting task that no person should ever be asked to do once, much less do it again, which I've asked him to do. Here is a video of Lanny killing "Exit Music For A Film" from Trima's (my band) reconstruction of Radiohead's landmark album, "OK Computer".



After we were unable to hit the stage at Ruta Maya (impossible!) Jade suggested that we check out the Elephant Room(?) Austin's best jazz club. It looked like what a good jazz club should look like... a little seedy, dark, dank, and cramped, with just enough glow from the neon signs behind the bar to shade everybody's profile in a mysterious red hue. The band was smokin (of course--it's Austin) and it wasn't until we left the club and headed back to Lanny's place that I learned the drummer was JJ Johnson, who spent some time as the drummer in John Mayer's blues trio.

I tried to get an early start on Wednesday morning as I had a 10 hour drive ahead of me but I was having difficulty getting the Honda to fire up. After trying unsuccessfully for a couple of hours, I waited until Lanny woke up and asked for some help as I was pretty clueless on what to do. He obliged, came outside, popped the hood, blew the condensation out of my distributor cap hoses and the car started right up. Lesson learned. Thanks Lanny.

On to Memphis...

Day 8: El Paso ---> Austin

Sunday (2/15/08) I helped Victor in Tucson for half a day before heading East. My original plan was to camp outside of Carlsbad Caverns and checkout the caverns the following day. I chose to bypass that and a trip further south to Big Bend National Park for a night in a bed, at a hotel, with a TV and shower. It was a great decision. I don't have the cash to be throwing around for hotels every night but this was a special occasion (a week of hard work... do you feel the pain?)
I drove the short 4.5 hours on I-10 east out of Tucson toward El Paso, TX. I arrived, showered, and hit the sack early.

Monday, I headed out of town toward Austin, TX, a little over 570 miles or about 8 hours. I was a little concerned about this portion of the trip because I haven't really tested the Honda for a prolonged period at high speeds/rpm's, and, if you've ever driven through Texas, you understand that it might be 100 miles between "towns" that have "repair shops".

I made it to Austin unscathed after a rather uneventful trip. I was starving and I knew the right man to call, my low-end brethren and cohort in The Adam Stern Trio (henceforth known as AS3), Mike "Spanky" McClure. Spanky is a born and bread Texan... I try not to hold that against him. He's proud of his state, his Cowboys football, his college football, and his BBQ. Before I headed out of town, Spanky hooked me up with a little cash and a request, "Get you some BBQ, boy!" I pulled into Austin on hwy 290 and hit the first place I saw, Donn's Texas BBQ. Donn's happened to have a featured spot in a great BBQ documentary I saw a few weeks ago called, "Barbeque: A Texas Love Story" I pulled into the parking lot and found it to be completely empty, always a bad sign in my book. I was wondering if the place was even open. I went inside to find a pretty modest, clean place that was, for the most part, unimpressive... so was the service. I ordered some brisket, which, I've been told is the thing to order in Texas. I got some mac 'n cheese and baked beans as a side. They asked me if I wanted sauce (a strange question, I thought) and I accepted. Sides... boring. Sauce... boring. Brisket... wow! tons of flavor, moist, perfect coloring, good enough to eat without sauce, a concept that is completely foreign to this mountain dude. I love my sauce! Not the best overall BBQ I've ever had, that award goes to Moe's BBQ in Vail, CO but it could have been the best brisket I've had.

This restaurant was featured in a great BBQ documentary called Barbeque: A Texas Love Story

The sides were unimpressive, the sauce was bland, the brisket kicked ASS!

After I ate entirely too fast, I met up with my friend Lanny Boyer and his fiancee, Christina. They treated me to a few $1 Lone Star beers at the BS Cantina, a cool little watering hole in downtown Austin with a great patio that was dog friendly.

Speaking of dogs, the photo at the top is of Lanny and Christina's dog, Maya. I got really lucky with this picture as I have a digital camera with the slowish delay between when I hit the picture button and when the camera takes the picture (how do you like that technical explanation?)