Went to the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas yesterday… that’s the place where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the rifle that assassinated JFK. It was moving… sort of an eerie feeling that history took place right here. Photos were not allowed so I don’t have any to show, but I looked out the supposed window where he fired from, and there was a big “X” on the spot where JFK was hit. Photo below is of Dallas Municipal Building, taken from my hotel room, where Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Like I said, kinda eerie.

Spent an hour and a half on the phone with SBC, my ISP. My mailbox had gotten filled up and I couldn’t receive e-mail, a difficult situation when you’re on the road and can’t keep in touch with business and personal contacts. We finally got my old account migrated over to the new servers, and wow, what a difference. I’m now a Yahoo! Pretty good format for remote retrieval of e-mail, and a very good Spam blocker. Feel like I have re-joined the digital age!

Other than that, it has been cold and almost snowing/raining in Dallas. They have had more than their share of wintry weather and today is no different. Very gray and raw, breath visible in the air kind of day. Yesterday Pete, our VERY dependable and thorough company manager, drove us out to two music stores to get repairs made to Vito’s baritone sax and Steve’s guitar. I went along to buy batteries, and then forgot to buy them! Pretty quick help and service at both places. Last night watched the Mavericks demolish the Lakers on TV. Nice flat-screen TV in the room…

Today we will drive 180 miles east to Nacogdoches for a gig at Austin State University. It’ll be good to get back to playing after two nights off!

Dateline 1/17/07 – The town of Roswell, NM, is famous for its proximity to a supposed 1947 crash site of a UFO and subsequent recovery by the US military of bodies of the aliens. Whether you choose to believe that it happened that way or as the government says, that it was a high altitude weather balloon, the town of Roswell is gung-ho on the side of the aliens. (see pic below)

As we drove in this morning, images of little green men and flying saucers were evident everywhere you looked. We ate breakfast at the Cover Up Café, where there was a continuous loop on HDTV showing vintage film coverage of the “event”. Right next door, and indeed on every street corner were tourist shops filled with the paraphernalia of UFO-logy: T-shirts, coffee mugs, inflatable alien bodies, books, jewelry, candles, etc. All real authentic stuff!

Meanwhile outside of town as we entered and now leaving, there is just miles and miles of open prairie land stretching as far as the eye can see in all directions. Nice place for a flying saucer to land… And we haven’t even gotten close to Texas yet! Speaking of which, we might encounter some of this horrible wintry mix of weather that is sweeping through the southern part of the country. Hopefully we can just skirt to the north of it today, and leave Dallas Friday just ahead of another storm approaching from the NW.

It seems that touring on a bus in 2007 is a bit more, well, technological than touring may have been in the past. The following is a list of all the electronic equipment I brought with me from home:
Laptop computer, with power cable, adapter, remote control, Flash drive and Ethernet cable
Digital atomic clock, digital wristwatch
Noise reducing headset with extension cable
Electric razor
Cell phone and charger
Spare batteries
My my my… I am certainly hooked up! Among the other passengers, the most popular item seems to be a portable DVD player.

Random thought: you know the road is a hard place to be when everyone sees a Denny’s and says, “Oh yeah! Let’s eat there!” (See pic below)

Well, today was a day off... not much to do except make a big deal about sending some stuff home, gettin' lunch and a coffee. Tomorrow we leave at 7 am -- first stop: Roswell, NM, where I hear some of the musicians have (alien) relatives!

Oops, I was wrong about the Spencer Theater. Not rustic. It is a gigantic modern structure built on 1997 in the middle of a wide open space, poulated by low scrub trees and mule deer. Nothing else around it, so it is a shock to drive up and see what looks like a science lab in the middle of nowhere. The concert was our best yet, and people were really in tune with Steve and his father's music. The stage was modern, fully equipped, staffed by excellent crew.

Other than that, nothing new to report... Butterscotch (aka Muriel) is very well looked after, a tad lonely but that is to be expected. The other day I had a vivid daydream in which she jumped up in my lap! She finally located me, being the astral traveler she is... (theme music from Twilight Zone)

Ruidoso translates to “noisy” in Spanish – but the town is anything but that. A remarkable, quiet, hip (read NY style delis, gourmet coffee with WiFi,and local art galleries) little tourist town near the big ski area and 12,000’ mountain of the same name. We’re here for 3 nights, experiencing just a bit of shortness of breath (6,900’ at the hotel) on MLK Day.

Tonght’s concert is at the Spencer Theater, which everyone says is a beautiful old house, kinda rustic I guess. We’ll see. Steve’s poster is plastered all over town, and he has three pages in the local entertainment weekly! Guess we’re the big attraction.

Hafta do laundry and hafta try the indoor pool and sauna… see ya.

Some pics: Steve and new puppy friend; Jeff and the Bear; Vito & Steve climbing Sierra Blanca (yeah,right!) …

Last nights concert in Chandler AZ was special to me because my little brother, Chris, was able to make it. (see pic below: seated, Chris Fuller and Sylvester Tate; standing, Jeff and Steve March Tormé). Had a great time hooking up with Chris, whom I haven’t seen in quite some time. He lives in Arizona, trying to become a professional golfer.

Today we are driving through southern New Mexico, and as I write this we are passing through the White Sands Missile Range, a VASSSTT expanse of flat land, ringed by the Las Cruces (?) Mountains... little scientific outposts scattered as far as the eye can see, from horizon to horizon, no kidding. In a coupla days we will pass through Roswell – site of the infamous UFO crash.

Gonna keep it short tonight, after 10 hours on the bus I am exhausted… g’night.