November 2nd marked the delivery date for a project that I've been working on for almost a year. The project was very grueling and consumed most of my year. Because of this, I spent almost no time traveling between April and November of this year. This is far too long for me to be cooped up in Phoenix. Luckily, I had some friends coming to Arizona, giving me a slight reprieve from work and a chance to get out of Phoenix.

I got up relatively early on the 8th. I had been looking to relax and enjoy the long stretch away from work. Shakes had hit me up the day before and asked me to pick up some stuff from Guitar Center on the way to Tucson. I was able to get most of it, but still had to make a pit stop in Tempe for the rest. I threw everything together, gassed up the Accord, and hit the road.

The trip to Tucson actually went pretty well. I made a pit stop in Tempe and acquired the remainder of my supplies. The weather was great and I was able to open the moonroof for most of the drive. Traffic was light and there were no cops to be seen. I was able to keep a good pace on the way down, reliving the memories of all of the times that I had made the trip before.

I pulled up to the Rialto Theater just after the band and crew arrived. I popped in and said hello to the gang. By now, it was 2pm and I was getting kind of hungry. I put together a plan to look at a few stores and then get some food. I met up with Brian and Jay. We all recalled that Chicago Music had some really great stuff last time we had been there. We cruised over only to discover that things had changed and that most of the instruments were off brand or in bad shape. We got directed to Rainbow Guitar, only to discover that they are closed on Monday and only open by appointment.

We headed back to the venue and dropped Brian off. He gave us a tip on a great Mexican restaurant. Jay and I cruised over to check it out. The food was delicious and 100% hand made and authentic. It is now on the list of places to hit every time that I'm in Tucson. We headed back to the venue for soundcheck. Once soundcheck was over, Brooks, Jay, Shakes, and I decided to give Chicago one more shot. We quickly discovered that there were no gems that we had missed earlier. I joined Brooks and Shakes while they got dinner and generally caught up on how everyone was doing.

By now, there was a bunch of time to kill. We headed back to the venue and milled around on the bus. I popped out to check out Off With Their Heads and The Bouncing Souls. Both bands performed really well and the crowd was really into it. BR came on next, playing for an hour and fifteen minutes and closing the night out. The sound and lighting was perfect and the crowd was really into it.

I had agreed to help Greg with his book signing the next day, so I chose to head back to Phoenix that night. I hung out until midnight and then made the long trek back to Glendale. I made it home just before 2 in the morning. I had some issues transferring the video of the night's set off of my camera, but was able to get unpacked and in bed by 3.