I had a jam-packed day in ye olde Iowa. I woke up in time to do a bit of day job stuff (which is neverending) while sitting on the porch and playing with the kittens - three of them let me hold them today, which felt like a victory even though I'm severely allergic and should have left them alone.
Then I drove down to the round barn to check out the festivities there and say goodbye to my parents. They were hosting a garden train exhibit today, which coincided with a local celebration - the trains came mostly from some group based in Des Moines that my dad has recently joined, but there were quite a few local visitors streaming through. My dad had somehow conned Aunt B into coming down and helping to sell tshirts, so I gave her some business (but not enough to get a free jar of honey from her bees...but since I'm traveling carry-on only and she'd already given me honey in Colorado, it's okay). I also saw Uncle Mark v. briefly, since he showed up as I was about to leave. The trains were pretty cool and the barn was a good location for it, and I got to see how to learn morse code (reader: .. / -.. .. -.. -. .----. - / .-.. . .- .-. -.).
But I couldn't stick around - I had plans with [censored] that required me driving over four hours, so I had to say my fond farewells to southern Iowa and drive to northwest Iowa instead. The drive was uneventful; Iowa is perhaps at its best in September, so it was quite pretty the whole way. That is, until I got to Sioux City, which was my destination - the hotel is perhaps the worst Holiday Inn I've ever seen, and [censored] and I somehow got yet another room with an air conditioner that is broken in some unique way (not as bad as the one in the room we somehow always get in Texas, but not great).
However, we're not here for the hotel - we are here because we saw Counting Crows, with Live as the opener, at the Sioux City Hard Rock Casino. How Sioux City has a Hard Rock, I don't know. We got here in time to have a quick dinner at Perkins (v. midwestern), and then we went to the concert venue. When we got there, we discovered that our 'VIP' seats were folding chairs on a dais bearing the brunt of the sun, so we got a drink and stood in the shade. And by 'we got a drink', I mean I bought a strawber-irta, showed it to [censored], [censored] said, 'doesn't that have gluten in it?', and so [censored] drank a strawber-ita while I went back and got a vodka cranberry.
Eventually, though, the sun subsided while we watched Boom Forest (yeah, I don't know), and so we took our seats in time for Live to start. They were really good, at least for the songs I recognized - I love all the songs of theirs that I know, and we were glad they played 'Selling the Drama' in addition to the other three or four songs that everyone knows. During their set, an increasingly drunk woman was cheering for them with increasing frequency, to the point that it almost seemed to be what she did whenever she exhaled. Luckily for us, she reached almost-passing-out stage and then was hustled out by security at the beginning of Counting Crows' set (during 'Angels of the Silences', which seems appropriate). So, needless to say, the people watching was fun.
Counting Crows played for almost two hours, and they were wonderful - they hit a lot of my favorite songs, including 'Mrs. Potter's Lullaby', 'Omaha', 'Round Here', 'Angels of the Silences', 'Colorblind', 'God of Ocean Tides', 'Palisades Park', and 'A Long December' (and a few others that I either forgot or didn't particularly care about). I felt a bit melancholy during some of the set - many of these songs are inextricably linked to moods or memories from high school or college or my early twenties. I also saw Counting Crows in 2002, I think, which feels like a lifetime or two ago. But the melancholy was worth it, and I totally loved the set, so I'm glad we came.
Of course, this was the most inconvenient concert to get to, since it required a flight and a four hour drive (and a three hour drive to the airport tomorrow), and [censored] had to drive a couple of hours, and we're staying in a mildly terrible hotel. But we agreed it's not the dumbest thing we've ever done - dumbest thing ever is tied between when we took a five-hour detour via Casper due to I-80 being closed for snow in Wyoming and the time I drove from Chicago to Walcott after my flight was canceled for weather and then we drove home together in a crazy blinding fog to make it in time for Christmas. And neither of those resulted in seeing Counting Crows, so this is clearly a winner.
But now I need to sleep - I have to get up in time to shower, pack, have breakfast, say farewell to [censored], and get to the airport so I can go to California. Goodnight!
Then I drove down to the round barn to check out the festivities there and say goodbye to my parents. They were hosting a garden train exhibit today, which coincided with a local celebration - the trains came mostly from some group based in Des Moines that my dad has recently joined, but there were quite a few local visitors streaming through. My dad had somehow conned Aunt B into coming down and helping to sell tshirts, so I gave her some business (but not enough to get a free jar of honey from her bees...but since I'm traveling carry-on only and she'd already given me honey in Colorado, it's okay). I also saw Uncle Mark v. briefly, since he showed up as I was about to leave. The trains were pretty cool and the barn was a good location for it, and I got to see how to learn morse code (reader: .. / -.. .. -.. -. .----. - / .-.. . .- .-. -.).
But I couldn't stick around - I had plans with [censored] that required me driving over four hours, so I had to say my fond farewells to southern Iowa and drive to northwest Iowa instead. The drive was uneventful; Iowa is perhaps at its best in September, so it was quite pretty the whole way. That is, until I got to Sioux City, which was my destination - the hotel is perhaps the worst Holiday Inn I've ever seen, and [censored] and I somehow got yet another room with an air conditioner that is broken in some unique way (not as bad as the one in the room we somehow always get in Texas, but not great).
However, we're not here for the hotel - we are here because we saw Counting Crows, with Live as the opener, at the Sioux City Hard Rock Casino. How Sioux City has a Hard Rock, I don't know. We got here in time to have a quick dinner at Perkins (v. midwestern), and then we went to the concert venue. When we got there, we discovered that our 'VIP' seats were folding chairs on a dais bearing the brunt of the sun, so we got a drink and stood in the shade. And by 'we got a drink', I mean I bought a strawber-irta, showed it to [censored], [censored] said, 'doesn't that have gluten in it?', and so [censored] drank a strawber-ita while I went back and got a vodka cranberry.
Eventually, though, the sun subsided while we watched Boom Forest (yeah, I don't know), and so we took our seats in time for Live to start. They were really good, at least for the songs I recognized - I love all the songs of theirs that I know, and we were glad they played 'Selling the Drama' in addition to the other three or four songs that everyone knows. During their set, an increasingly drunk woman was cheering for them with increasing frequency, to the point that it almost seemed to be what she did whenever she exhaled. Luckily for us, she reached almost-passing-out stage and then was hustled out by security at the beginning of Counting Crows' set (during 'Angels of the Silences', which seems appropriate). So, needless to say, the people watching was fun.
Counting Crows played for almost two hours, and they were wonderful - they hit a lot of my favorite songs, including 'Mrs. Potter's Lullaby', 'Omaha', 'Round Here', 'Angels of the Silences', 'Colorblind', 'God of Ocean Tides', 'Palisades Park', and 'A Long December' (and a few others that I either forgot or didn't particularly care about). I felt a bit melancholy during some of the set - many of these songs are inextricably linked to moods or memories from high school or college or my early twenties. I also saw Counting Crows in 2002, I think, which feels like a lifetime or two ago. But the melancholy was worth it, and I totally loved the set, so I'm glad we came.
Of course, this was the most inconvenient concert to get to, since it required a flight and a four hour drive (and a three hour drive to the airport tomorrow), and [censored] had to drive a couple of hours, and we're staying in a mildly terrible hotel. But we agreed it's not the dumbest thing we've ever done - dumbest thing ever is tied between when we took a five-hour detour via Casper due to I-80 being closed for snow in Wyoming and the time I drove from Chicago to Walcott after my flight was canceled for weather and then we drove home together in a crazy blinding fog to make it in time for Christmas. And neither of those resulted in seeing Counting Crows, so this is clearly a winner.
But now I need to sleep - I have to get up in time to shower, pack, have breakfast, say farewell to [censored], and get to the airport so I can go to California. Goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment