Our story continued in Orem last night. After waking up first, as I seem to always do on overnight bus rides, I looked out the window to see that we were within the Salt Lake City are. If you have never been there, it is a sight to behold. You are virtually surrounded by majestic mountains so that any way you look you see them rising up in the distance. I caught a billboard that said over 400 guitars on display, or something to that effect, and I made a mental note of the address. When we pulled into the hotel, I realized it was just around the corner and after taking Bubba for his morning constitutional, Jeanne and I hit the streets and found our way there. It was actually a guitar builder who also sells retail. It was all acoustic guitars, except there was a guy named Ken Kenitzer who was selling some personal gear there on consignment. We (I mean I--Jeanne was patient) had a great time hanging out and looking at and playing various instruments. Ken had some awesome guitars and amplifiers that were maintained with TLC. The concert was indoors at the Mckay Center and the place was packed with fans ready for a rock show. We were happy to give them what they wanted. As we were leaving, there were a few hundred folks out back on either side of the truck and bus area, cheering as we were leaving. This was one of those unexpected bonuses you never expect, but left us with an unforgettable mental picture of a fine evening with our friends in Utah.

THIS morning, I woke up (first one up, again) and we were already somewhere in Oregon, and all around were fields of golden wheat. "Amber waves of grain" was my first thought. We soon stopped at a truck stop and ran into our crew, who had obviously made good time on the road. Mark, my guitar tech, told me to keep my eyes open and to load up my cameras because the best part of the ride was yet to come. Man was he right. We soon began following the path of the Columbia River. Mt. Hood kept popping up between the cavernous walls rising up on either side of the river. Fishing boats were anchored in groups here and there, perhaps salmon fishing. Dams, locks, sheer canyon walls, etc., filled our peripheral vision for the next few hours until Jeanne spotted a sign for an old historic highway and next thing we knew, we were trekking up and around this narrow little 2 lane winding road to the top of the mountain. We passed quite a few water falls, crossed several small bridges so narrow we had to straddle the center double yellow line.

Fortunately there was not very much traffic and those cars we did encounter seemed to be hip to the way things had to be in order to travel that scenic route and made way generously and in good spirits. We arrived at an old stone building at a scenic vista and I dug out my camera bag, puled out all the gear and headed for the best looking places to shoot the various passengers of our bus who had all emerged to enjoy the view. I hope I get lucky. If so, there could be 1 or 2 (or 9 or 10) great shots that come out of the shoot.

After a stop at Burger King, we are now back here on the planet. Once we arrive Salem, we will have the rest of today off before the show there tomorrow. Check in every once and a while. I will try and keep you up to speed on the rest of this amazing tour.