Friday Briony and I left Laramie at mid-day, on our way to Colorado to see Keith Urban at Red Rocks. It was to be my 11th Keith show, Briony's first, and the first time we'd been to a concert at Red Rocks. Even when I thought I would live on the East Coast my whole life, I always wanted to see Keith at Red Rocks. If I'd had a Bucket List, that would have been on it.
Our GPS was a little confused, so it took longer to get where we were going than it should have, but it all worked out. We were stopped at a stop light and Briony noticed this little restaurant next to us, The Baker Street Pub and Grill, so we decided to have a late lunch/early dinner there.
From there we headed to our campground to set up. We had borrowed a tent, and we only had time to get it set up before we had to head to the venue. We got there and found our seats, and enjoyed the view until the concert started. Little Big Town was alright, better live than in their albums, but I'd seen them open for Keith two or three times already, so I wasn't terribly interested. As the sun set set over Denver, the view was pretty amazing. Then Keith came on, and all was right in the world! He played an amazing show, and as always, I hoped that it would never end. It did of course, but we were still on the high that comes from seeing his electrifying show.
Back at the campground it was straight to bed, which was a blanket on a gravel site, but as tired as I was at that point, I slept pretty darn well, fairly confident that the tent top wasn't going to blow off in the mountain wind that had whipped up.
Saturday morning we were up early (there's no sleeping in on a gravel bed), and had a very filling pancake breakfast, and some nice chatting with the owners of the campground. We left and headed for the next show, which was in Aspen. We went through some impressive ski resort areas, Breckenridge, Vail, and Aspen, and even though it was not ski season, you could just see the money that these towns are built around.
We got to the shuttle area for the concert, which was Day 2 of a three day festival known as Jas Aspen Snowmass. As we were on the bus, with just our chairs, it was apparent that we were not the pros at this sort of thing. People had coats and blankets and tarps and large bags of supplies. Not to be dissuaded, we continued on and got checked in at the site. We found a good spot and set up our chairs, which we had decorated with feather boas to make them more visible when we left and had to find them in the crowds upon returning.
Little Big Town was the first act, and I think that I slept through most of their show, it was so hot and sunny! Then Train came on, and I'd seen them before, but they were good, as expected. As they were setting up for Keith's show, the clouds came in. By the time he was done with the first song, it was raining. He said that they were telling him in his ear to come off stage, it would only rain for 10-15 minutes. He respond with a Hell No, and continued to play. Even as the rain turned to torrential, cold rain, he kept playing. The band sort of disappeared to the back of the stage, and Keith traded out for an acoustic guitar, and kept going. We were freezing, and a nice couple next to us with tarps and coats gave us their extra rain coats to wear, and even though we were already soaked to the under garments, it did block the wind and kept the majority of the rain off us. It rained for the entire show, which he did not cut short, even though many performers would have at that point. He ad-libed a lot, and had to stall since the set list was not something they could stick to. Once the heaviest rains stopped, the band members joined back in and they went electric again. Even though it would have been amazing to see him do the exact same show again (I've done it before, two nights in a row), he talked to us a lot more during this show, and took requests and played things he hadn't played the night before.
Briony said on the way out, that it was better than the night before, and even better than Rascal Flatts. That though she loved Gary LeVox, he was no Keith Urban. Coming from her, that's quite the compliment.
I loved that my 12th show was in the rain, just like my first Keith show, at Innsbrook in Richmond, pouring rain (though not quite so cold), May 2nd, 2004.
We checked into our hotel and again went straight to bed. It had been a long, but wonderful, two days.
Sunday morning we got up and after breakfast started on the journey home. After a little rest, I picked up Cale and brought him to the apartment. I was locked in my room while they baked and decorated. I had a lovely chat with Jenny while I was banished. I was blindfolded as we left the house for dinner at an Irish Pub. After dinner we came back home to cupcakes and presents. Cale had gotten me a little figurine of three bears in a canoe while we were on vacation, and visited Bear Country. The bears are the three of us. Briony gave me a stuffed panda bear that is the bear that Bearette used to steal from her room all the time. She said she liked to think it was from the both of them, and we cried a little bit.
After dinner we looked at photos from the concerts and watched some video I had taken. Cale had been at the Friday night show with Nid and Carissa, and completely by accident, I had gotten them on camera as I photographed the venue like I always do. I would never have noticed if he hadn't pointed them out. He had seen us there, so he knew where to look for himself from our vantage point.
It was an amazing Birthday weekend, all that I could have hoped for, and more!
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