Rembolds on the Road: Rembold Concert Rendezvous in Salt Lake City!

Tuesday-Wednesday, August 5-6, 2014
Quick 'Jaunt' to Utah and Back!
550 miles each way!
(Are we crazy??)

So....back in April Rick discovered that the rock band Boston and the Doobie Brothers were playing a double-header concert in Salt Lake City. At the time, this was the furthest west Boston was traveling. (We now know they are coming to Boise in September, but we'll be gone anyway!) We booked four tickets (not that I am that big a fan, but I wasn't going to miss out on a family outing!) and gave them to the boys for their birthdays. Finally, spring turned to summer, and in a summer of surprises and change, this was ONE DATE we weren't going to miss!!!

Sunrise over Boise - eerie!

Jed left Socorro on Monday, breaking his 12 hour drive up into two shorter days. He stopped in Cortez Monday night, setting up his tent right before a major downpour! Dinner at Subway!
We arose at 4am on Tuesday morning, picked Luke up at 4:30am, and hit the road for SLC. We decided to drive maybe an hour more to avoid the traffic of the 100 mile stretch from Ogden to Provo. Our hotel is about 20 miles west of town off I-80, at the Tooele exit, so it made some sense to take the longer way through Wells and across the salt flats. Besides, Luke had never driven that way!
We hit rush hour traffic in Boise, but only had to stop a couple times. By 7:45 MT, we were through Boise and heading East!! (Time change!) Rick drove to the rest area just east of town where I took over driving. A stop in Mountain Home for gas. We veered from the interstate to take Hwy 30 backroads to the cutoff south of Twin Falls - through Buhl, etc. Nice because it gives you the chance to SEE the thousands of waterfalls tumbling from the edge of the Snake River canyon. You never see that from the freeway.

Metaphor: Tree of Utah Sculpture

I drove about 150 miles to Jackpot, NV, where Luke took over for the rest of the day. The skies have not dumped rain on us....yet, but we are definitely passing through clouds and storm formations! Stopped in Wells for a quick bite at a Subway for lunch and then across the Salt Desert. You can't even see the Wasatch Mts. in the distance due to thunderclouds. We did point out the beautiful Tree of Utah sculpture east of Wendover to Luke. So strange....a bunch of colored tennis balls like things 87 feet in the air! It is well known only because it is the ONLY vertical structure for 100 miles! According to the internet there should be 17 half balls lying on the ground, but we could only see 4 of them. Vandals? Thieves? I didn't take a picture, but will post an internet photo.
We pulled into Toelle around 2:45pm, surrounded by obvious rainstorms, but nothing ON US so far! Jed arrived at 3:15!

Does this portend a dissertation
done by October???

Jed

Luke was treating for dinner (our arrangement since we took care of the hotel and gas - Luke bought lunch and dinner!) We tried to find some place really exotic, but he can off cheap because we went to a little Asian Rice Wok place. We were the only diners! Not bad, but obvious most of their business is take-off since everything was served on styrofoam and we used plastic utensils! A little different! However, Jed's fortune said 'Your goal will be achieved in two months!" Does that mean he will defend his thesis then? Doctorate finished?

Amphitheater prior to show

The USANA amphitheater is really nicely located on the west hills - sun at our back, Wasatch mountains behind the stage. We had pretty good seats. The crowd was definitely full of baby boomers - old rock band aficianados with plenty of gray beards, tie dye shirts, etc!! We listened to the son of one of the Doobie Bros. as an opening act, then his dad came out and they did a duet prior to the Doobies themselves. They played for about 70 minutes. Right at the beginning I looked up to see a beautiful rainbow start to appear. I thought, "God is telling us not to worry about the weather - it won't rain!" But....with the rainbow comes the rain!

Rainbow during the Doobie Brothers

Nothing too major - it only rained for about 10 minutes, and then cleared off for the most part. That rainbow, however, became a full double arch, and parts of it were still visible 45 minutes later! I have NEVER seen a rainbow last that long!
There was about a half hour break between the Doobies and Boston. Good thing because the line at the bathrooms was LONG. Fortunately we got there early and didn't have to wait for our turn.

Pre-concert picture!!

Boston played from about 9:20 until shortly after 11! I enjoyed watching Rick especially - he was thoroughly enjoying himself! I didn't exactly like all the up and down - people stand up alot at concerts and then everyone has to stand in order to see anything! I enjoyed the Boston visual effects - the back of the stage looked like the three windows in the front of a space ship - typical from Boston's album covers. Lots of bright lights, colors, and the illusion that the space ship was moving over the land. I can't comment on the various intricacies of musicians, songs, etc., because I don't know Boston music THAT well. But it was fun! It was loud! (I confess, I was wearing some ear-plugs during Boston!)

Waiting for Boston to start!

Back to the hotel by 11:40....this has been a long day! Jed and Luke got started shortly after trying to boot up the new little computer Luke received from Davis - it has to run Linux and Jed was working on that. I think I finally fell asleep around 1:30am. It has been awhile since I have stayed up - without nap - for 21 1/2 hours!
We are up again between 7 and 8. The hotel serves a full hot breakfast of choices and we all eat together. Blueberry waffles, egg omelets, bacon, etc. Good!
At 9:15am, we part company. Jed heads south on I-80 and I-15 back to New Mexico, and we head east. I opted to drive first which proved to be very smart. Easy sailing across the desert. We stop in Wells to switch drivers and Rick takes over. Rick drove almost the entire time in rainstorm after rainstorm. Heavy rainfall! I felt bad for him, but sure glad it wasn't me! Especially since that entire stretch is two-lane! We stopped in Buhl for a quick bite to eat at McDonalds, and then again at the Pilot in Mountain Home to gas up. Luke took us home from Mountain Home. (No more rain then!)
A crazy two days of driving over a thousand miles, but a fun family meeting!! And Rick needs a Boston 'FIX' every now and then!

Rick sums it all up:
"Thousand miles, five hundred dollars, incredible concert, family time - PRICELESS!"