The other night, I had a dream that involved me running from someone, or something. In the dream, it was me and three other people, one being a girl I know from work and i can’t remember the other two. We made it to this big house decked out 70s style, much like the house i stayed in while in Fort Worth a couple of weeks back. The family there gave us some cheap walmart flip flops, because for some reason we had showed up shoeless. I had stepped outside to make sure the coast was clear, and saw Tom Morello driving by ominously in a van. By ominous I mean he had dark sunglasses on and didn’t turn his head as he drove by, almost Terminator like. I woke up before anything happened, so I’m not sure if the rest of Rage was in the back of the van and were going to subject us to their political tirades or try to sell us those ridiculous shirts they had at voodoo fest that pretty much said SUCKER on them. The house reminded me that I had to type about some final Ryan Adams road trip thoughts.

One of the things I’ll remember about the Dallas show, was when the guitar tech brought out the acoustic, everyone kind of got anxious of what was going to happen next. When he then brought out the harmonica, everyone kind of knew. When RA actually started Come Pick Me Up with the harmonica, it was almost as if the room smiled. I’m not sure how else to describe it, but it was a feeling of everyone in the room experiencing the same “oh man, he’s actually playing it!” moment at once. It was a great thing to be a part of.

After the show, we drove over to Fort Worth, where we were going to stay at David’s grandmother’s house. (btw, does anyone else to type Forth instead of Fort and have to correct themselves?) After the show, I met two of his bandmates from Father Maple; Michael, the lead singer of Father Maple, and Zach, the drummer for Father Maple, also FTR, David is the bass player. In a quest for some post show brew, we were denied by Texas’ blue laws where you couldn’t buy beer after midnight. We found a sports bar called No Frills. (HA! FORTH!) Food AND beer, JACKPOT! I had a turkey sandwich with avocado and a Fat Tire draft. I made a comment to the table that our waitress reminded me a little of Lindsay Lohan. Michael took it upon himself to notify her of this the next time she came to our table. She questioned whether I meant the drugged out Lindsay or the Mean Girls Lindsay. Not having seen the movie, I said the latter, because I certainly didn’t mean the drugged out version. Following our meal, we were able to witness a domestic dispute between one of the other waitresses and her b/f. Then David was rebuked by the bartender when trying to order a shot of tequila. I was not present for the rebukement, but I was told later a short summary.

We arrived at the house, and each picked out a bedroom. It was a giant house, complete with a lot of wood paneling, just like my grandmother’s house. The night included us out on the back patio recounting the awesome show and listening to Shadowlands via Zach’s Blackberry. I had never realized the beauty of that song until that night. It’s so simple and building and pretty, I’m surprised I had never listened to it more. I remedied that on the way home. The next morning David and I went over to the nearby IHOP to have breakfast. The area we were staying in was great, not much traffic, yet near the interstate. It was light years better than Houston. I’m not sure how it is on weekdays or anything, but a Saturday morning was pretty nice.

I made it home from Dallas in time to vote in the election that was going on that day (i vote at a mall, how cool is that?) and get home in time to watch the LSU/Auburn game. I highly recommend taking old US highways over interstates, esp on LSU gamedays. Not only is it a way to take the scenic route, but you avoid some traffic. Right on.