After months and months of planning starting almost as soon as we got or feet wet on the 2015 trip of the east coast is time to head out on one of the most epic road trips across America. Our trip started in Denver and ended almost a month later in Seattle. Along the way we would see two awesome rock concerts, Rob Zombie with Korn and Guns ‘n Roses with Alice in Chains. We would be in a rental truck for over 6300 miles and we would not only explore our country but Michele and I would reconnect with each other.
We would start our vacation by catching a movie, The Secret Lives of Pets and a nice dinner at Outback in Anchorage. We knew we would need comfortable walking shoes so we dropped 300 bucks on a couple pairs of Hoka One One running shoes. Those are the ones with the big cushiony soles that you may see on Facebook. We had an overnight flight to Denver with a stop in Seattle. Aren’t all flights south from Alaska a red eye? They are unless you want to pay the big bucks to fly with the normal folks.
We arrived early and exhausted and Michele’s parents picked us up. Her grandmother was visiting from Texas so we had three generations and an outsider in the truck. We headed toward the suburbs and decided on a place to eat. We found a cool app during the planning stages of the trip that showed every place that the Diner’s Drive in’s and Dive’s visited and since we love that show we thought it would be cool to add that element to our trip.
We decided on the Denver Biscuit Company. It was a fun hipster place. Speaking of hipster, boy have they re-vamped Colfax Ave, since we moved away six years ago. Now the streets are lined with cool cafes, bars and watering holes in an area which used to be run down and rampant with ladies of the evening and drug dealing.
I had the french toast biscuit with sausage. It was so big I could hardly finish it. We all shared a bite of a strawberry shortcake that was awesome.
After breakfast we headed to the in-laws. I napped on the couch along with my grandmother in-law, is there such a thing? While Michele and our son Kyle headed to the store to pick up some goodies for our road trip. We had a few hours to kill before the Rob Zombie concert and this would be the only real time Michele would get to visit with her family.
Kyle loaned us his car, a old Saturn sedan. I didn’t even know they would sell these anymore, and we headed over to Fiddler’s Green in the snooty Greenwood Village section of the Denver burbs. Fiddler’s is a great place to catch a show. It is second on my list of favorite spots for concerts, only to Red Rocks. It is a cool amphitheater with a grassy lawn and great acoustics.
We grabbed some food from a food truck. I had green chili nachos. I don’t usually eat green chili but when in Denver I do. We were a bit early. Aren’t we always? And we could see the thunderclouds moving in fast.
Before we knew it they closed the venue about 15 minutes before the first opening act was to take the stage and all the sudden you had twenty thousand rowdy fans dressed in black and chains roaming one of the highest income cities in the country. You could see the local Barney Fife’s were on edge. Most of us headed to a parking garage to wait out the storm. They promised us the show would go on.
After almost two hours we were back in our seats and Korn took the stage. They were great! Michele and I saw them 15 years ago right here in Denver as part of a huge festival with Kid Rock and Metallica at the old Mile High. The band played all of their hits and I loved the bassist’s cool Monster energy drink green bass strings that glowed in the lights. They played for about an hour and the stagehands immediately got to work in setting up for Rob Zombie’s massive stage show.
If you have never been to a Rob Zombie show he puts on one of the greatest stage shows you will ever see. It is an orgasm for your senses. It is full of horror references, animatronics, guitar licks and pounding drums.
Rob Zombie is a true rock god. He knows exactly what it takes to do this and do it well. I have been to hundreds of concerts and few do it like Zombie. His stage presence is amazing. It’s hard to explain, you will go and see bands, even big bands like Metallica and they will just stand there. Not Zombie.
The band played all of their hits and many from the newest record before they announced that they had to cut the show short because of a curfew in Greenwood Village. Are you kidding me? At the end of the show they let out a blistering set ending with Thunder Kiss 65 and came back for an encore.
Even though the show was cut short by the thunderstorm it was still an awesome show. There is just something about live music that captures your soul. It is the pounding bass and drums, the roaring guitars and 20 thousand people bouncing up and down. It is the energy that is amazing. Attending rock shows is one of my favorite things to do and I don’t care if I am 70 I will still be rocking out.
This was an amazing way to start the Rock n Roller tour and tomorrow we rent the truck and head east toward St. Louis to our first roller coasters. Stay tuned.
Coasters to date: 0
