Today is the start of two days off so that we can get from Seattle to our next show in Boulder, CO, which is 1300 miles and about a 21-hour drive away. The tour, you’ll be relieved to read, is past the halfway mark, and, having run out of US territory that we can drive to, turns east on its way back to Boston.
Stacey drops me off in the hotel parking lot where the band is waiting for me. As you could imagine, I’m not overjoyed that I have to leave this really cool woman that I’ve had a great time with and get back in the rig with the guys for a long drive across the Rockies. The night away from the band was just what I needed to get out from underneath the cloud I had been walking under for the last few weeks.
I swap phone numbers and addresses with Stacey and get in the RV and we start heading east on I-90. There’s some small reason to be excited today as we are going to drive right through the heart of Twin Peaks country, a TV show that everyone in the band is obsessed with. Since we’ve got two whole days to make the trip to Colorado, we take the exit at North Bend and drive around a little bit, soaking up the PNW vibe of the place. The first season had ended just before the tour started and we are on the edge of our seats waiting for the next installments.
Back on the highway, we are climbing the Cascades and the Tioga is not happy about this at all. We struggle to make it to the 3,100-foot Snoqualmie Pass and pull off at the exit as the truck gives a final backfire and dies in a parking lot. We are used to this by now, of course, and expect to wait it out, restart, and get back on the road. But Schroeder is not responding this time and the minutes drag on. We place a call to the RV place back in Boston and they dispatch a tow truck to bring it off the mountain to a service station on the Seattle side. It’s going to be a long wait though, and we sit dejectedly in a coffee shop for the wrecker to show up.
I’m digging in my pocket for some money to pay for the coffee and I find a piece of paper with a phone number on it. Hmmm, I think; we’re obviously going to be stuck here for a while since the repair place won’t open until tomorrow (Monday) morning so I have two choices: I could hang out here with a bunch of guys who are sick and tired of me or, I could call Stacey and see if she’s up for another night of Trivial Pursuit and Checkers. Luckily, she’s thrilled to hear from me and agrees to drive up to the pass and pick me up. It’s hard to suppress a smile as I say goodbye to the band and head back into Seattle in her yellow Fiat X1/9, quietly hoping that the mechanics take their time to find the problem. Tomorrow: I’m not thinking about tomorrow.
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