Monday, February 25, 2019

Ride to the Desert Bar (Saturday, February 23rd, 2019)

Another fun day at the Desert Bar!




We're getting to head out on our club ride to the Desert Bar.  Sam and Don will lead, and we were tail gunners.  Today's ride will had 15 cars.






A quick break on the way.




The wild flowers are starting to bloom.  Beautiful desert lupine.





We met a group of jeeps along the trail.  They came to a hill that they seemed a bit concerned to go over,  so we had to show them the way, and leave them in our dust.


I shot this behind us.  I guess they decided that if we could do it, they could do it.  It wasn't even a very steep one!


Part of our line up at the Desert Bar.


Ordering some Niko's for lunch.









After lunch, we headed up stairs to enjoy the band for awhile. We eventually got talked into dancing!   I love it when I give my friends my stuff to watch and they take pictures on my camera for me!




Check out the people on the hill behind me.  


Time to head back to camp.



It doesn't take long for the dust to start coming back after the rain.



Traffic jam!



Back at camp, enjoying some down time before dinner.


A great dinner with good friends.  What a great day, and a great way to spend the evening!


Kelly Hughes Band (Thursday, February 21st, 2019)

Our friend Cheryl has been telling us about the Kelly Hughes band for several years, and we have been dying to see one of their concerts.  They are a five piece band from Idaho, but Kelly and his friend Steve winter in Yuma, Arizona.  They perform all winter in the Yuma area, and twice a winter or so they head to Shea Road in Parker to perform in the desert for what they call; Howl at the Moon.  It's a concert he does right around a full-moon.

We came out to Shea Road yesterday, and it has been cold since we got here.  We woke this morning to mountains that looked like a painting, and a forecast for lots of rain.  Not what we were hoping for, but we can't control Mother Nature.


As concert time approached, we, along with our friends Russ and Lorraine headed down the road to find the concert site.  This sounds like a simple thing, but the fact is that we have looked for this concert before and not been able to find it.  To make a long story short, the concert is 7 miles up Shea Road, but we always thought it was at mile marker 7.  As we understand it,  the beginning of Shea Road crosses indian land for the first 4 miles.  Once you cross the cattle guard (about four miles in) you go on to BLM land.  This is when the mile markers start.   We had always been looking for mile marker 7, not 7 miles up the road, so we were looking about 4 miles too far up Shea Road!  

We finally stumbled across the concert site and were so excited.  But of course, as Mother Nature would have it, concert time was also rain time.  Since all we had was our RZR, with no windshield, it was a wet ride and a wet wait.




Kelly and Steve (the backup singer) kept coming out, really wanting to do a concert, but the rain just kept coming down.


Finally the rain cleared, and they set up for their concert.



And what a concert it was!  They are true performers, and love their fans, old and new.


They lit a fire to keep us warm while we watched.


Where else can you enjoy a concert in the desert, under the stars on a very rainy evening?



Our friend Cheryl is the one that invited us to join them out here, so when Kelly called me up to represent Colorado, I asked Cheryl to join me on stage.  We had a great time dancing with our tambourines to some John Denver hits of old.


Several other states were represented as well.



He really gets into his show!


Diane, Cheryl and I, having a good time!  This guy is hilarious!


It was a cold, wet night, but we were so glad we stuck it out! What a great time with friends, a warm fire, good music and a beautiful desert sky!  We can't wait to do this again!