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5.26.2013

Colorado Day 3 - 5/11/2013

Day 3 was spent being tired.  Like could've slept for the entire day type of tired. We left the hotel and headed back to the Denver area to Shelby's house.  We all got showered and decided we were hungry and it was time to go get some grub!  Sean found a place on the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives website that we wanted to try, Steuben's.  This place was straight out of Mad Men...total 70's vibe.  And also, delicious!

Gravy fries with cheese and much needed Bloody Marys
Yuuuuummy deviled eggs
Mimosas and blublockers
Our food.  The biggest chicken and waffles I've ever had!

After this big meal, can you guess what we did?  NAP TIME!  Sean on the couch, me in our bed, Shelby and Boss in hers.  I got a good hour in before a big crash of thunder hit and woke me up.  That's when Shelby had this idea...


It took a looooooot for me to be willing to get dressed and ready to go out.  But, shocker...I did it :)  We went to a neighborhood dive bar and had a great time.  We got there at 9 and I was ready to go by 10.  Sp and Shelby had a different idea....needless to say, I didn't get home until 2.  UGH!  The night went something like this...

The bartender ordered us shots.
Karaoke Night ... Dancing Queen
My second and final shot.  This was their 2nd, with 4 more on the way!
Shelby was trying to be serious, ha!
Who knew bars kept bar burritos!

It ended up being a fun night, but I seriously thought I was going to be home and in bed by 12.  Sheesh!  One more full day in this state then homebound!

I can't believe I almost forgot the funniest part of the evening...SP broke out in a bright....red....rash!  We kept thinking he was hot, the bartender even turned the fan on for him.  He insisted he was fine, but I swear to you, I thought I was going to have to take him to the ER!!  Ah!

And last but not least...


5.22.2013

Colorado Day 2, Part 2 - 5/10/2013

If you missed Day 2, Part 1, you can click here to catch-up.

We left the hotel around 5 o'clock with 2 missions, 1 - to pick up the 2 existing tickets at the box office and 2 - to scalp another!

Approaching Red Rocks!

With two tickets finally in our possession, we scalped around as much as possible before parking the car.  We weren't having much luck!  So, we did what we do best...started tailgating and started talking to those around, in search for that last ticket!

Sorry ladies, he's taken :)

As you can see, the views are simply perfection, no matter which way you look!

 

We walked and walked.  Up hills and down hills.  Red Rocks is a serious workout, especially when you're drinking beer, ha!  We walked up by the VIP tent and were able to get a cool picture of us in front of one of Zac's big 18-wheeler trucks!


Still no ticket!  As we wandered along, we saw a group of 3 and decided to stop by and see if they had or knew of an extra ticket.  One of the dudes was quite talkative and he told us their friend Dan might be able to help us!  He used to work at Red Rocks and he has lots of connections.  So we went walking around a bit longer, restocked on beer at our car, then headed back up the hill by the VIP tent to see if Dan had made it back.  Nope, again.  Not back.  Off we went...walking and talking.  Finally, our third trip up to this same group, there was an extra guy. As we approached, I yelled out to him, "Are you DAN!"...to which he replied, "...yep, I'm Dan!....but, I don't have an extra ticket.  I'm working on it though." Well, Dan was pretty cute and Shelby (or maybe me, who wanted her to find a cute boy!) had no intention of walking off from this now group of 4, again!  As the time grew closer and closer to the show, we were sick of looking for a ticket.  We found some new friends to hang with, and we were tired from walking up and down!  SP jumped on his phone and bought a ticket online, instant download.  We were set!  New friends, 3 tickets, and a storm brewing above - great!  It missed us, thankfully!


We all became instant friends.  These people were so nice!  From Laramie, Wyoming.

Dan, SP, Todd, Dean
Shelby, Me, Sarah (Dean's wife)

It was time for the show.  Dan told us he could try to get us a ride in a white van (company he used to work for) with them so that we wouldn't have to walk up the mountain with the poor folk (Dan and his friends were VIP).


Well, unfortunately none of us got to hitch a ride b/c the van never came back for us, ha!  So we all prepared ourselves for what was to come.  A serious hike up the side of this mountain to get to the venue!  Dan warned us all to not try and run. It was a long way up and that we needed to pace ourselves.  He did, however, take us the shortcut route, which was nice.

The blurriness says it all!  We were all hysterically laughing, drinking, and hiking!
I decided walking up backwards helped sometimes.  When my front leg
muscles got tired, ha!
See that parking lot waaaaaaay down there?  This means we made it to the top!  YAY!

We got inside and again, Dan thought he could get us in the VIP section with his friends, but sadly it was jammed packed.  And since he had only put 4 in his group, we were out of luck.

Hanging out waiting to see if we had VIP access, too!

We were giving him such a hard time since this was strike 3, ha!  No extra ticket, no white van service, and no VIP section.  I mean, what, did he not know he was going to meet 3 tag-a-longs, haha!  We parted ways, hoping to meet back up with them after the show.

We didn't go in for the opening band, Blackberry Smoke, b/c we were too busy laughing and having fun in the parking lot!  But we found a spot to settle just before ZBB dropped the white sheet revealing the stage!


The steps up the side of the venue are so steep!  Shelby was having a hard time since she is lacking in the, umm, long leg department.


We were so high up, I would get vertigo if I looked up at the red rocks beside us over on the left!


We had to go up for the restroom instead of down (b/c we were so close to the top) and it was a little tricky getting back to our seats.  We finally found the row number we were on, so that helped.  There is reserved and general admission, but I'm pretty sure people just file in wherever they can find room!  Seat numbers were borderline impossible to read.

Allll the way up top!
I was beyond happy to be there.  It was so cold, but I didn't care!  

So as we all know, marijuana is now legal in Colorado.  There was a guy directly below us with a joint fatter than my thumb!  I think SP must have inhaled a little too much of it, secondhand, by the looks of this picture, hahaha!  J/K, SP :)

Show over, everyone clears out quick!

Zac Brown Band was so great!  They played everything I wanted and more, including Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb, Metallica's Enter Sandman, Nirvana's All Appologies, and his usual Charlie Daniels Band, Devil Went Down to Georgia!  Here is some video that I took of the show.



This next one is my favorite song.  I just love it!  And I knew Zac would play it because it says Colorado in the song :)






Wow, what a show!

We finally made our way back down to the bottom.  As soon as we walked out, we spotted all of our friends....Owen and Jordan from Boston, and all of our VIP friends from Wyoming!  Everyone was on a concert high!  It was that good!  We walked back down (which I liked way better than going up, ha) and hung out by Dan's car while we waited for the traffic to die down.  SP was hungry, so he went back down to our car and came back with leftover chicken wings from Rome's the night before!  He was literally acting like he hadn't eaten in days.  It was hysterical. He also brought the other half of Shelby's sandwich from lunch.  It became known as the "community sandwich" - everyone had a bite except me...too many germs, YUCK!  I can't believe we didn't get a picture of the chicken wings.  SP and Dean devoured them!  After a while, we decided to meet up at a bar in downtown Golden.

So...when we got there, it was not very lively.  So we went to Ace Hi Saloon across the street, and apparently with all the college kids.  Next thing we know, Dan walks in alone.  Todd, Sarah, and Dean had all decided they were tired and ready to go back to their hotel.  So they dropped Dan off with us!  Good thing we like this guy, ha!

There were some cops in the bar, and Dan kept joking saying you know you're old when you make friends with the cops, ha!  Old we were, at least in that bar!  It was fun watching all the 20 somethings make fools of themselves, as we sat very maturely on our barstools :)

Shelbs and her new friend, Danimal - as we like to call him!
Dan kept telling me I looked like Katie Holmes and Where's Waldo, haha!

It was a long, great night.  We were all wiped!  Back to the hotel we went at 2 in the morning.  WOW!  We were troopers.

The next morning, I woke up to find this next to SP's night stand...


His nasty chicken wing napkin, hahaha!  OH, and even better.  At the bar, I kept asking him why he still smelled like chicken wings.  Next thing I know, he pulled out from his pocket the foil with all the meatless bones.  I'm still a little fuzzy as to why he was holding onto these, lol!

It's hard to believe that this day started back at Shelby's house shoving egg sandwiches down our throats and running out the door for a beer tour at 11am!  What a day!

Below is the Setlist from the Friday night show we saw. 
Side note: My restroom breaks were during songs 6-8 and 11-12.  I really think these setlists should be provided before the show so we can choose which songs we are ok with missing, HA!  7 and 8 I would NOT have wanted to miss.  BUT, my favorite song is number 14, Colder Weather.  If I had been to the Thursday night show, I would have missed it because he played it at number 7 that night!  Phew!


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