I'm the man from the mountain....

Just as we do every day, we awoke early and headed out. First stop, some breakfast in Keystone at Haywood's. Jeremy met up with us and when we stepped outside we realized that the crazy weather had given us quite the treat, a rainbow right across Rte. 6. A good omen for the weekend ahead of us for sure, so we beat a hasty retreat back to say good bye to the Q's and then headed down to Morrison to drop some bags off and then off to Denver for lunch with some old friends, Jodi and Matt. The drive to and from lunch gave us almost every weather we could have thought of. Hail, rain, sun, gray skis, you name it we had it.
It was nice to see Jodi and Matt. Jill we be back here next month for their wedding, bound to be a fantastic affair. We arrived back at the Horton House, our home for our time in Morrison and began to marvel at the eccentricity of the place. A normal person with fifty years time could not collect enough chatchkis to fill this house. Don't tell that to Lila the owner of the home. Nothing slows down this lady; besides dealing with tenants like us she also teaches ballroom dancing and in fact has a studio at the bed and breakfast. Always vibrant and always helpful she took great care of us for the weekend.
Jeremy was ruling the roost when we came back and the tenants of the weekend slowly started to trickle in. Don and Savannah were the first two to arrive. This father-daughter team had driven up from Kansas City to join us up on the Mountain. The music of Phish can bring generations together and can be something that a parent and child can both appreciate and share together. As luck would have it, Don happened to be wearing a shirt that we could all appreciate. Next to come on down the line was Heather and Shawn. I had met them earlier in the year at Hampton and was excited to take in the next round of shows with them. Always bursting with positive energy and quite possibly some of the nicest people on the planet they were a welcome addition to the Horton House family. They arrived relieved to be done with their hellish day of travel from Albany.
The location of the Horton House makes it ideal for preshow and post show gatherings, so we invited our friends Gabe and Ken to come on down from Golden and ride on up the mountain with us.
We grabbed the coolers, piled into Don and Heather's cars and headed out to the venue. A quarter mile later, we had turned up the entrance into Red Rocks. A slow windy way up the mountain to the parking lot and then a schlep up the hill to the gate. With all the excitement in the air, it became clear that we had made it. All this traveling and driving was for this, and after we entered the venue it was all worth it. Such a small venue with such a large presence. We set up camp in the middle of the 31st row, smack dab in the middle of the whole venue. A great place to watch a show except for when you need to use the bathroom. It is very difficult to climb a mountain either before or after having to use the bathroom.
It was all worth it though.
Those who braved the walk, the drive, and the cool air were rewarded with a great opener to a four night run. Wasting no time with a big beautiful Divided Sky, Phish ripped through a safe first set, but the good news was they were tight. Everything looked up for the weekend. A dark, funky second set highlighted with a beautiful Billy Breathes and Squirming coil. And of course the closer had to be Loving Cup. Bathed in lights, armed outstretched to the nearby sky, an enraptured mass screamed "Oh, what a beautiful buzz!!!!" No better way to end the first chapter of shows.