They say that you travel to learn about your home, and I guess now that our European travels have concluded (or, more hopefully, adjourned) I can finally understand what that means. The various people we met and places we drove through, often barely stopping for enough time to fill up our stomaches and gas tank, reflected a light back upon me that made everything look a little different once I got home. How much more I appreciate the relative stillness of my quiet life in the valley.
I apologize for not reporting more fully from the motherland as events unfurled. Sometimes you are too busy doing or not doing to talk about what you’re doing or not doing. And long drives and impatient waiting in backstage closets merely dull your ability to converse normally anyhow. Needless to say I had an amazing time, a good friend of mine might have called it “life affirming”: a once in a lifetime, memories racking up like the miles blowing by, millions and millions served, bull-ring, shot-gunning, no sleep, leg drop sort of occasion. And everyone shouting out “GARY” when you spill your beer on yourself for the hundredth time.
Here are some more European memories . . .