The last gig off our tour came after Andy drove us six days straight from Fairbanks to Minnesota, which in comparison with its sunny skies, humidity and heat felt like the Caribbean. We played for Lois Donnay’s milonguita at her studio in downtown Minneapolis and had a great jamming our second set with Bob and Mateo from the Mandragora quartet.
Thanks to Mateo, Bob, and Lois for the hospitality at the end of our tour!
We had a busy and all too short four days at the University of Alaska for the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. We taught two, hour and a half lessons on tango from a musical perspective. Here we are playing Cumparsita Cats during one of the classes.
Packed dance floor for our gig at the Westmark Hotel in downtown Fairbanks. Thanks to Kurt Byers for setting this up!
We also put a trio together with violinist Caitlin Warbelow.
Some of the dancers warming up on the carpet! They danced with us for the noon hour appearance we did featuring our tango compositions accompanied by dancers.
Andy and Carmen dancing to Jamas Retornaras on the big stage!
Our final performance on the World Music and Dance concert at the festival.
Thanks to dancers Barb and Nam who took us out for more dancing, food, and drinks after the concert!
Miles Driven: 5366
Miles Driven by Andy: 5366
Time in the car: 86 hours
Times Carmen did a full pack of the car: 13
Days without driving: 1
States visited: 13
Average driving per day: 6.6 hours
Average sleep per night: 6 hours
Total hours in the car with 5 people: 22
Profit made: decent
Different pieces performed: 30 (27 original arrangements, 3 original pieces)
Total social dance pieces we performed at milongas: 163
Cords in our gear: 24
Other musicians we performed with: 6
Opera singers we performed with: 1
Meals we cooked: 14
Out to eat meals: 9
Meals cooked for us: 6
Meals we assembled in the car: 5
Number of fast food stops: 0
Total avocados eaten: 13 (plus all the guacamole we ate in restaurants)
Bowls of oatmeal eaten: 22
Meals eaten with green chilies: 4
Bags of chilies purchases: 3 dried, 1 fresh
Number of coffees: uncountable
Different kinds of beer consumed: 15
Bottles of wine: 2
Home stays: 5
Camping nights: 5
Hotel stays: 2 nights at Hotel Andaluz
Highest point: 11,100 feet near Loveland Pass
Lowest point: Pacific Ocean
Highest temperature: 106 degrees in Yuma, Arizona
Lowest temperature: 45 degrees in Golden Gate Canyon State Park, CO
State parks visited: 5
Oceanside picnics: 1
Pika sightings: 1
Live skunk sightings: 3
Miles hiked: 18
Pillows Dave lost: 2
Times Luke changed his clothes in public behind the car: 4
Monkeys on horses: 1
Chilies eaten raw in car: 10
Awards:
Best Out to Eat: Church St. Café; Albuquerque, NM
Best Beer: Cali-Belgique on tap(!) from Stone Brewery (a must stop for beer lovers!!)
Best Performance: Hotel Andaluz; Albuquerque, NM
Most Enthusiastic Crowd: Cowboy Monkey; Champaign, IL
Best Attendance: Mercury Café; Denver, CO
Most Unique Venue: Candlelight Bar; Ventura, CA
Best Place to Dance, Drink, and Play Music on Sunday: Green Street Social Club, Salt Lake City
Warmest Crowd: Eagles Club; Glenwood Springs, CO
Worst Traffic: Driving north to south through L.A. at 11am on a Wednesday
Most Packed Venue: Ciao Bella; San Diego, CA
Most Picturesque Venue: Corrales Mission Church; Corrales, NM
Best View From the Car: PCH into Malibu tied with the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson overlooking the city
Best Coffee: Mercury Café Lattes in Denver, CO
One of the best parts of the tour was performing original tango music for dancing. Here is recording we captured of Carmen’s composition Cumparsita Cats performed live in San Diego. Click on the bottom left of the score to turn the pages along with the music!
Cumparsita Cats
Click on the lower left of the score for a full page view.
It has been difficult keeping up with the blog during the last five days of the tour. We have been driving an average of 6.6 hours a day and sleeping only 6 in addition to playing gigs, camping, and cooking along the way.
After our gig in Ventura, CA we drove through the parking lot that is L.A. and continued down into San Diego where we played (and ate!) at a lovely Italian café named Ciao Bella.
From there we drove with saguaros to an awesome campground called Rose Canyon 20 miles north of Tucson in the Santa Catalina Mountains where we camped for the night.
Our drive to Albuquerque began with a lunch stop and chili shopping spree in Hatch followed by two nights of gigs with lodging at Hotel Andaluz, an awesome luxury hotel that supports regular tango events with live music.
We also played at a historic mission church in Corrales, NM and had a great time playing with members of QTango Albuquerque’s local tango band led by Erskine Maytorena.
To get home, we spent two 10-12 hours days in the car! The highlights included nibbling on the loot from Hatch (fresh jalapenos, dried chipotle, guajillo, de arbol peppers) and a last food stop for barbecue in St. Louis, MO.
