August 2001 -- Portland, Oregon

There truly is nothing like a road trip for souls that live for travel. This time out, it was Gay and Arigon's turn to travel to the Pacific Northwest to visit with new friends and old. Both of the gals were lucky enough to be invited to Gary Bennett's friends and family gathering in Cougar, Washington on Sunday, August 5, 2001. Arigon Comments:

We'd love to share pictures of that with ya...but we didn't TAKE ANY. The trusty camera was on the fritz....and we didn't get a camera until we got back to civilization! Cougar is a great place to take in the beautiful forests of Washington State -- and get a good view of the southern side of Mount St. Helens. You haven't lived til' you've seen cold, grey lava up close -- or thought about visiting the Ape Caves! Don't forget to bring your hiking boots and hard hat with flashlight next time, Gay! (wink!) If you're ever in the area, it's worth the drive up there. You'll not want to miss the cool fiberglass statue of a cougar, the Cougar Store and Jack's Restaurant. They've got good fish & chips and stuff made out of lava. Really!

For those of you wanting to recreate the party experience, you can book yourself a chalet at the Anderson Lodge. It's a swell place -- and lends itself to gatherings of many friends and family. Some of the best stories told were from Gary's friends from the Yale Elementary School and Arvid Anderson, who owns the Anderson Lodge. If you're faint of heart, do NOT ask to hear the story about the Haunted Sawmill. You could well be traumatized for LIFE!

Other cool things were listening to Gary play country classics with Jollie's regulars, Kevin and Ray. You see, Ray plays the bass and the drums at the SAME time. They played everything from Hank Williams covers to Charley Prides tunes. We even got to hear Faron Young's "Hello Walls" and the Johnny Horton classic "Ole Slewfoot." Nice of him to sing those! Gary also performed at Jollie's again a few nights later. Leslie Jollie and I asked Gary to play "Enter Sandman" for us -- but we were DENIED! Yes, I played a few songs there -- including some songs from my new record like "Mountain Windsong." Everyone in Cougar just loves "Junior Frybread!"

Okay, enough yakking -- here are some of the few photos that were taken on the road!

We saw Smilin' Jay shopping before the show and he was not at all surprised to see us there. Shaw's look of disbelief that we had been visiting in Cougar was a classic!

Gay reported that all of the guys loaded up on CDs while they were there.

Here's Chuck at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. Right on!!

They played lots of cool songs -- and the tunes from the latest CD, "This is BR549" sounded really dandy!

I called Gay....and she was raring to go! We rented a car and drove from San Diego to Tucson. What a great time we had at the New West club. It was possibly the best dang BR show I've ever seen. You can read my review of the show on the band's website. These photos don't even do justice!

That's Jay rocking onstage in Tucson, Arizona. I also KNOW Jay would want you to know ALL the songs he played at the New West show. Here's the complete LIST!

In the meantime, what color brown is that suit? Raw Sienna? Milk chocolate? Cedar? Hmm....

The Mayles Brothers left out this vintage footage of drummer Shaw Wilson from their groundbreaking documentary of the meltdown at Altamont. Just before the Stones took the stage, Shaw decided he would try his hand at stand-up bass...and abruptly called a halt to the performance when some unruly bikers dragged Smilin' Jay off the stage to get them sno-cones. Yep, I swear it's true!

Chuckie!

Chuckie!

He means business!

Fans have been jamming the phone lines at their local cable and satellite companies to order the new service.