Day 25

Chrissie here-

So, I know we haven't been updating the blog these past few days, and we're sorry :( We've been traveling a lot and trying to get internet access.

SO, let's try this again.

Mike here-

Dan was up and at work by the time we awoke, so we got dressed and headed out to find a VW service depot to get Alf's oil changed again. The place wasn't too far away, and they had a free shuttle service. We utilized the driver and made our way to Chipotle to grab some burritos. When we got back, not only had they changed Alf's oil, but they also replaced a dimming brake light (and the matching bulb on the other side, of course) and gave him a good washing. We drove our newly clean buddy out to Red Rocks to celebrate.

When we arrived, we walked up the twenty-odd steps to the top of the seating area, and gazed down the gigantic slope to the tiny stage. There were maybe a hundred people milling around the area, taking pictures and gazing up at the parachutist that was making his way to the ground in no hurry at all. We decided to walk down to the stage, no mean feat. Going down was a lot of fun, and we jumped up on the stage to get our bodies under the shade. The sun in Denver is absolutely brutal. There was a guy with an Irish flag draped across his shoulders being photographed by a couple of ladies he had arrived with, and we were amused by his over-the-top poses. He was being very "rock god." Then we noticed that he had a microphone in his hand, and was pretending to be singing on the stage in his photographs... then he actually started singing. He belted out a few lines of U2's hit song "Sunday Bloody Sunday," and we realized that he was actually trying to be Bono, the lead singer of the biggest band ever from Ireland, and possibly the biggest current rock band in the world. Nobody but us seemed to notice him, and when I heard his Irish accent, and Chrissie heard one of his friends call him "Bono," we started thinking we may be in the presence of a real star. You don't see Bono too often without his sunglasses, and we weren't entirely sure that our mental picture of Bono was precise enough to make a comparison, so we let it go and headed towards the museum and visitor's center.

In order to do so, we had to climb back up the stairs, which was dizzying and almost nap-inducing. The museum was really just a hallway that had memorabilia and a giant list of every show that had ever been played there, dating back to the '40s. They had interactive TV screens with video clips from the most famous of these, and a large room in the back was filled with a small theater showing a documentary about the venue, and many oil and canvas paintings made by a hippie with his register by the door. Bono had somehow beat us into the museum, and we noticed U2 merchandise by the entrance. Evidence was building that this really was the Irish singer, but nobody in the museum seemed to know or care. At one point, he was in the small hallway at the same time we were, and standing next to pictures of the real Bono performing on the stage just above our heads. We spent a good ten minutes trying to sneakily compare the two. To be fair, the pictures on the wall were from almost thirty years ago. We remained unconvinced. Then he rushed by us in the hall saying "I can't believe they'd have a bloody grille here and not open it, it's focking stupid!" I had decided this really was Bono. And left him the hell alone.

After Chrissie called her friends and told the story, we headed to the mall on 16th St. We didn't really look at any of the stores, but we were entertained anyway by the countless street people and runaways that inhabit the few blocks of the mall. We decided to head home in time to meet Dan coming home from work. We checked online to find U2's schedule, and discovered that supposedly the whole band had arrived in Italy a day before, so our story may have been completely untrue. It turns out there are countless Bono impersonators, and we had possibly just seen one taking promo pictures at the site of one of U2's most famous performances. Great!

Dan made us some of the best enchiladas we've had on our trip (which went through the southwest, if you don't remember) and the drinks were poured for the second night in a row. We stayed in watching TV and telling more stories, although it's hard to believe there were any left after Sunday night. We finally crashed around 1:30am.