6,000 miles by plane. 300 miles by car. All in 48 hours. And we spent one hour on stage.

Are we nuts? Yes.

We left Baltimore, MD, Saturday AM, October 8th, 2005. Early AM. George Hazelrigg (piano), and Slim Dogg flew from Baltimore to San Francisco where we met Sax Man Kevin Levi (he lives in California these days). We met at the baggage claim, then took a train to the car rental place. Got a Big Ass Buick (they still make them) and drove to downtown San Francisco...

We parked the car at Union Square, and had a bite at a place called Scala's, a great Italian place that I'd been to before. You'll never guess what I ordered. Macaroni and cheese. It wasn't like the pre-fab stuff in the Kraft box. It was great. Different.

Then we strolled around the shops, checking out the thousand dollar shoes, got depressed, and headed to Santa Rosa. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge--it was a glorious day, warm, clear, sunny, and there were boats all over the bay.

We got to Santa Rosa (Holiday Inn Express), and crashed for an hour. Then we had dinner with Rob Singleton, Legendary DJ, and his wife at a really good restaurant called Nectar's. The restaurant was on top of a hill, and we ate and drank and watched the sunset, and then watched the moon rise over the rolling hills of the Nappy Valley. California. What's not to love? Sure, they got earthquakes. And fires. And high taxes. And bad traffic. But the weather's nice, and the people are all so friendly.

After din-din, it was back to the hotel for a schnooze. I hate to admit it, but I was in bed at 9:30 PM. I slept until...when I got up my watch said 10:30 AM. I almost had a heart attack. We were scheduled for soundcheck at 11:00 AM. I leaped out of bed, grabbed my cell phone, and realized I hadn't set my watch back. It was 7:30 AM Pacific.

What to do? Had some coffee, some fruit, and I was off to the fitness room. I hit the treadmill, lifted some weights, rode the bike for 100 miles, did some one-arm push-ups, some back flips, then it was off to the firing range for some gun play...

Sunday, October 9th, 2005. It was another beautiful day--sunny, warm, dry...I wonder if people get sick of it out there. We went over to soundcheck, and onstage was Sax Babe Mindi Abair, and Guitar Wiz Jeff Golub. We, the Slim Man/Bona Fide band, were scheduled to do a Big Show with the Guitar and Saxes Tour--Mindi, Jeff, and Sax Dude Warren Hill.

After the Guitar and Saxes Tour did their soundcheck, we did ours. Mombo Hernandez (percussion) was there. He had driven over from Lodi with his lovely wife, Kimbo, and their granddaughter Avery. On drums was...where was John E Coale, Slim Man Drummer Dude, you ask? He had some very special plans Back East. You'll have to ask him about it. But he couldn't make the gig, so we asked Dave Hooper, who was playing drums with Guitars and Saxes, to play with us.

I've done shows with Dave. He's the nicest guy you'll ever want to meet. A great drummer. And a dog lover. He's got a Yorkie that he and his wife are crazy about. I'm a dog lover, too. I had three at one point. What happened? One died (my beloved Jess) and the other two...it's a long story. Ask me about it next time you see me. We did our soundcheck in the blazing sun. We finished about noon, went back to the hotel (5 minutes away), got dressed up in our Superhero uniforms, and went back to the venue. In a limo, like rock stars.

The concert was held in a big park in the center of Windsor, California. Old Downtown Windsor. There were about 2 or 3 thousand folks there. Rob Singleton brought us on. The radio station, KJZY, sponsored the show. It was their tenth anniversary, and they asked the Slim Men to come and help them celebrate. You see, 10 years ago we played their very first anniversary party. And now, 10 years later...

We went on around 1:15 PM. We played for about an hour. We did some Slim Songs, and some Bona Fide Tunes. We sang Happy Birthday to Mombo. Did we have fun? Yes. Did people like the show? Well, they were screaming when we left the stage. Just what they were screaming was hard to tell. It sounded positive, though. But people were smiling. They were probably glad we were finished.

After the show, we went over to the KJZY booth and did a little grip and grin, a little meet and greet. There was a line of people there to see us. Probably waiting to slap us around a bit. But the folks of Santa Rosa did show us a lot of affection. I know it's hard to believe, but they seemed to like us.

A woman came up to me and explained that she had just lost her husband. She told me she had scattered his ashes that morning. And then she started crying. I gave her a hug until she stopped.

Man. Stuff like that makes you think. She was a young woman. She lost the love of her life. I felt so bad for her, and a little bit helpless. I also felt really lucky to be alive and healthy.

We stayed at the booth signing autographs for an hour and a half, believe it or not.

And then? Back to the hotel (in the limo). Pack the bags. Drive to San Fran. Got stuck in downtown traffic for...an hour and a half. Got to the airport late. Kevin Levi missed his plane. George and I caught the red-eye back to Baltimore. We left at 10:15 PM. Got in to Baltimore at 6:30 AM.

I still ain't right.

But you know what? I'm really grateful. To be healthy. And relatively happy. To play music for a living. To be able to share that music with folks on a semi-regular basis.

Big Thanks to all who came out. Large Thanks to Rob Singleton. Huge Thanks to Gordon and Laura Zlot (they own the radio station, and put on this free event for their listeners.)

Who loves ya?
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