Eight Nights without Air Conditioning

It's August. I live in Houston. And I've just spent eight straight nights sleeping without air conditioning. How did I do it? I left Houston. Problem mostly solved. The first four nights were spent in Wilmington, DE. Delaware may not get national pub about it, but August in Delaware is usually a hot & humid affair. I caught four great evenings - starting on August 24th. It was down right chilly for August standards. I was crashing at Toad's condo and I was happy to see the windows open. Sleeping with windows open has not been a reality for quite a while down here in Texas.

Of course, I was pretty darn giddy to be back in Delaware. But I was leaving Houston just when it became cool for a minute to be from Delaware. I didn't get to answer one Joe Biden question. Oh well. I had bigger fish to fry - and I did. I got to see Brad & Denise's new (to them) home; eat ribs out the new Turner smoker; caught up with my cousin JamesT; ate some Korean bulgogi in Newark, DE; and finally got to reconnect a bit of Wilmington.

But that was all before I Wednesday night. That is when I got to attend a proper Wednesday Night Crew (WNC) outing at the WNC International headquarters: the Washington Street Ale House. I was joined by el P, Bugs, Agent J, the Admiral, and the official hairstylist* of the Song of the Summer. How could life have been nicer? I was in Wilmington, DE; enjoying a Dogfish 90-minute** Pale Ale; and hanging out with some good friends. It was 11pm & I had a flight to catch at 7am in Philly - so I was now ready for bed.

*It should be noted that I don't actually use the official hairstylist of the SoS to cut my hair. She's much to expensive and talented for that trivial of an endeavor. However, if you need a proper quaff near the 19806 zip code, let me know.

**90-minute is simply my favorite beer. Delaware's little Dogfish Brewery has been getting pretty darn big. I know that their 60-minute Pale Ale is on draft all over the place here in Houston. But 90-minute is harder to come by. It'll be available in a 4-pack at your favorite place to buy beer (I suspect). And the 90-minute is the official beer of the WNC. But that's a tale for another time.

That is always when the Big Fizz* will say, "Let's get cheesesteaks. Mike doesn't have access to cheesesteaks. Let's go" So up I-95 North I went with Jayesh & Fizz. Straight to Pat's "King of the Cheesesteak". Turns out; the kid living in Texas is the best one for directions. Turns out I was also the only one waking up at 5am. And after the cheese whiz goodness, I was starting to stare at 1am.

*The Big Fizz is the most nickname-able of all my friends. Maybe of anyone ever**. His real name is Larry, but you'll hardly ever hear that. He's known as Toad & The Big Fizz*** primarily. But you'll also hear him called Two Hands, Mom-mom little fat boy, Lil Thome, and a few others. But I stick with Toad & Fizz and have no reason for skipping between the two. It just happens.

**Maybe that title should go to Idi Amin or Shaq; but aren't most of those titles/nicknames self-prescribed for shameless self-promotion. That cannot count. But I did get Toad, Idi Amin, & Shaq into the same thought - and that's got to count for something.

***If you ever get a chance to greet Big Fizz, the proper way to greet him is to say "Big Fizz" and then follow that immediately with a louder "Big Fizz". Like this: "Big Fizz, BIG FIZZ!" You'd be surprised how much fun this is.

And I did wake up at 5am. OK. I didn't. I got up at 5:20am -- and now I was late. Getting showered and throwing the PJs into the suitcase took me to a little before 5:40am. I was about 20+ minutes to the Philly airport. I needed to drop off the rental* car. Somehow I made it through security and onto my Continental flight.

*Never rent a car from Thrifty in Philadelphia. They are not "on airport" as they claim. They are nice 10 minute ride away. I didn't need that.

I don't recall taxi-ing or take off or a beverage service. I woke up on the descent. The girl next to me had just spilled hand lotion on my pants. Maybe it was turbulence. I don't know. All I knew is that she had a look of horror. I'm assuming she thought I'd take my pants off and throw them at her. I didn't. That didn't even occur to me at the time. I scooped the lotion and now possessed moisturized hands & pants - in a good way.

I needed 'em. I was off to Houston; to stay for about 4 hours. Then I went straight back to the airport bound for Denver & my next four nights of air conditioner free sleeping. Dry Denver. Moisturized pants were key. If you haven't been, Denver, CO is a great town. It seems there are few people that share this opinion, but as far as I know it didn't become a cool place to live until about 14 months ago. That's when my friend Katie Gaston moved there. I'd never been to Denver before: mainly because there was never a Katie there before. So I believe it may have just become relevant.

Katie & I & Katie's carnival of WNC-Denver* groupies tripped up to Steamboat Springs for a couple of nights of camping and soaking in hot tubs. The exact joint was Strawberry Park Hot Springs. The epitome of luxury camping. I was a luxuriously priced anyhow. My share for two nights was $70 -- and there were six of us! But the campsites were great. Really fantastic.

*Katie is straight kicking my butt by starting a wildly popular branch of the WNC in Denver. Good form Post Master General.

However, I had been lead to believe I was car camping. So had Katie. We were car camping, except the car was a solid 1/4 mile hike up an 80° gradient. (It may have also been only about 5%.) That may not have been that big a deal, except we had the car packed with about the same amount of stuff I had when I moved into my freshman dorm room*. It was car camping. You are supposed to bring luxuries. We did.

*My freshman door room number was 000. How cool is that? Answer: its cool. The best part is that the school's directory could not comprehend a 000 room number. So my name was listed in the directory with the number for the pay phone in Cannon Hall. I was incognito. If you can get your hands on 91/92 UoD campus directory you'll find "Mike Lennon / Cannon Hall". That's right. I owned Cannon Hall. I wouldn't mind having it back - I could walk to the ACE Delaware office.

However, there was a considerable payoff: lake sized, natural hot springs. Lake might be a bit on the embellished side of things, but the pools were big. And they were oh so nice. Plenty of temperature settings to choose from. There were hot water falls. It was a pretty fantastic experience. And the upshot to camping there, is that you were only a 5 minute stroll from camp to the pools. On top of that, campers were allowed to hang out in the pools until midnight. It didn't stink. It didn't stink one bit.

And we enjoyed those hot springs until about 3pm on Sunday when Katie & I took the 3+ hour drive back towards Denver and the Red Rocks amphitheater. We took a little brief stop to admire the Continental Divide*. And then we found our way to Morrison, CO. Parked the Golf and walked up the 836 steps to get into the amphitheater. Red Rocks is a must see venue - that's my official stance anyhow. When Katie moved to Denver, I decreed that I would make it to a show this summer. We settled** on Gov't Mule.

*This was my second trip to Denver, but I did not get the Rockies properly the first time. So this was actually my first time ever in the American Rockies. It wasn't my first time in the Rockies though. Somehow I made it to the Canadian Rockies before I saw the home grown version.

**Other contenders were Willie Nelson, Yonder Mountain, and Mark Knopfler.

Gov't Mule put on an insane concert. This being Warren Haynes that much was expected. But this being Red Rocks, Mule was up for having a lot of fun. So I got to hear great Gov't Mule tunes {"Soul Shine", "Beautifully Broken"} and they played ridiculous covers: The Beatles "Dear Prudence", Black Sabbath "War Pigs", Doors "When the Music's Over", and Buffalo Springfield's "For What its Worth". It all added up to a show that was easily worthy of being one's first Red Rocks experience. Oh, and Umphrey's McGee kicked some serious fanny as well.

That's where I've been. Now I'm headed off to bed in air conditioned bliss. Good night Denver. Good night Delaware. See you soon.