Folias Music

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

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Luke said that he ate better “roughing it” on the tour than he does at home. Between our own car and camp cooking and home stays we were graced with delicious food for the past two weeks.

We certainly know musicians who include a detailed description of food requirements in their performance agreements, however this tour’s sustenance rode on the generosity of many hosts and hostesses who saw that we are well taken care of; many of them who got up early to make us full breakfasts by 8am.

Jackie in Champaign
veggie egg casserole, fresh homemade bread, whole wheat pancakes, fruit salad, polish sausage, bacon, juice, tea, coffee

Cheryl in Glenwood Springs (afternoon snack)
whole roasted chicken with good bread, homemade corkscrew pasta with kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and Parmesan, cranberry San Pellegrino spritzers on ice

Leslie in Glenwood Springs
homemade biscuits and gravy, fresh strawberries, blackberries and raspberries with honey Greek yogurt, coffee — she also made us 7 sandwiches for the road with provolone smoked turkey, proscuitto, salami, and roast beef!

Renne in Salt Lake (who woke up with us at 5:30am!)
cereal with soy milk, coffee, tea, fruit, juice, toast with good hummus for Andy (to prepare him for the drive to L.A)

Stephen in Ventura
two broccoli, zucchini green onion frittatas with feta (made lovingly in cast iron), homemade granola (!) with yogurt and fresh peaches, killer oolong tea

Gabi and Linda in San Diego
fresh baked croissants with homemade dulce de leche(!) and coffee

Erskine and Hotel Andaluz
Lunch at the Lucia (4 start restaurant in the hotel!)

And for eating meals in the car…

With five of us crammed in the car, the seven hour drive from San Diego to the mountains outside Tucson went surprisingly well. One of the highlights was coordinating and preparing a car lunch buffet of baguette slices, longhorn cheese, guacamole, and kalamata olives. There is nothing quite like thinly slicing a baguette with a buck knife with three in the back seat.

And here is another recipe from the trip made from ingredients we found quickly in a Tucson grocery store.

Zona Cactus Beans

The Beans

1. Roast the following on the fire: 1 red bell pepper, 1 head of garlic, 4 cherry bomb peppers, 4 ears of corn, 2 tomatoes

2. Chop everything and put in a cast iron pan on the fire with 1 tsp cumin, 3 TBS olive oil, and 1 can of nopalitos (rinsed)

The Tortillas

1. 1 cup each masa and whole wheat flour mixed with 1 1/4 cup water. Include 1tsp each of coriander and cumin powder in dough before pressing them on the tortilla press and then roasting them on the fire.

We ate the tortillas and beans with homemade guacamole (made by the guac-master Avik) a wheel of queso fresco, Greek yogurt, radish sprouts, canned salsa verde and chips.

We washed it down with some Kilt Lifter Ale, a scotch style ale from Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe, Arizona.

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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.

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We decided this was the best way to warm up at the California campsite. Imagine the 1st lute suite, the 3rd cello suite and the solo flute partita here…

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Andy is a professional driver. He made it from Salt Lake to downtown L.A. in ten hours flat!

Once we arrived we picked up Avik in Santa Monica and made our way to Malibu Creek State Park for the night.

The day of our gig at the Candlelight Bar in Ventura we spent hiking, visiting a swimming hole and eating a great lunch at Mugu Beach State Park.

Avik made the most awesome swordfish for lunch!

Swordfish Marinade

2 TBS minced ginger

1 cherry bomb pepper, minced

1 shallot, mined

½ tsp mustard seeds

3TBS braggs

½ tsp salt

1 TBS honey

We accompanied the meal with escarole and green onions tossed with olive, salt and lemon; herbed zucchini couscous; and a heirloom tomato-avocado-fennel-dill salad.

At the Candlelight that night we gave a pre-milonga talk on tango music that was well received and played for a really nice milonga.

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