Desert Angels II, Tucson, AZ

After a short but very hot two hour drive to Tucson, Arizona, we arrived at the Voyager RV Park and Resort. This park came highly recommended by "Frommers Best RV and Tent Campgrounds of the U.S.A.". Since our air conditioning only works with an electric hookup, this phone book size volume has proved indispensable to us as we try to figure out where we can sleep in the desert heat. But Voyager was more than just a place to plug in. The book described it as a self-contained city for retirees and vacationers. We pulled into the gate and I hopped out to make arrangements for our stay. As I gave our license and personal information, I mentioned, "We are in a bluegrass band. We are on our first tour of the southwest and we are playing in downtown Tucson tonight. I was wondering if you could tell me how far away that is?". The security officer, a tanned and handsome permanent resident of Voyager, Don Meyer, cracked a grin and said "Where are you playing? My wife and I LOVE bluegrass music, we'll come see you." I was embarrassed to say that I didn't have any idea where we were playing but I would find out and let him know. With the registration completed, he asked us to follow him in a golf cart to our spot. This place was gigantic. It consisted of pull-through sites for RV's which stretched in every direction. At the center was a grocery store, restaurant, computer room, showers, basketball, tennis, shuffleboard and bocce' courts, two swimming pools, meeting rooms, and a whole wing of classrooms where the residents work on stained glass, ceramics, quilting etc. etc. It had the feel of a sun baked college campus for seniors. It was after noon now and the temperature was up around 108. Don got us hooked up but our air conditioner had been freezing up all day and was just blowing hot air. I chatted RV life and music with him for awhile and then took off to the grocery store for ice. The band made a plan to cool off in the pool before the gig when Don came back and knocked on our door. "I want to help you guys out, " he said. "Do you suppose you could fit all your instruments into a Lincoln Town Car?". Not quite understanding his intention, I said that I doubted that Nate's bass would fit. He said, " If it doesn't fit in the Town Car, we have a Saturn station wagon that you could borrow. All we ask is that you give us a couple of tickets to the show. We want to come see you play." Now this is an example of how people react to a bluegrass band in need. What? you need a muffler welded, no problem- come by and we'll weld it right up. How about some laundromat action? Hop in to the minivan and I'll make dinner while your there. Need a car to go downtown to your gig? no problem- we'll loan you our Town Car. Basically, I was floored by Don's generous offer and I made arrangements with him to get the car in an hour or so. We sort of cooled off with a lukewarm dip in the sun heated pool and when we got back to the RV, Don and his wife, Kay, were waiting for us with the car. He told me we could use it for our entire stay and it had plenty of gas. He gave us directions to an RV parts dealer nearby and the nearest Wal Mart. I still hadn't given them any details on the show and was actually afraid they might be disappointed since we were only playing in the lobby of a hotel as an intermission attraction between rock and roll acts . I gave them directions to the hotel and explained what we were going to do there, but they didn't seem to mind. We told them we would see them downtown and thanked them about a million times. We put all the instruments in the vast trunk of the Town Car and Nate and Ike got up close and personal with the bass in the back seat. This gig was going to be a little unusual. Our agent, Mary, had somehow jammed her toe into the door enough to get us a freebie in-between set at a sold out country rock show starring Tortoise and Calexico. I know that many who are reading this just scratched their heads, but I assure you folks, these bands are VERY popular amongst the tattooed necks and pierced faces of the desert southwest honky tonkers and hipsters. The lobby of the turn-of-the-century Hotel Congress has been converted to a multi-stage rock club and we quickly set up our stuff in the lobby in anticipation of the first set break. Don and Kay arrived soon after and took a seat on a comfortable leather couch immediately in front of us. I chatted with them for awhile and pretty soon, the first act was over and we got to it. Now we have had a fair amount of commando hotel lobby jamming experience in our time as a band and we know how to make a spectacle of ourselves in that situation. The Tucson tattooed responded in kind and started screaming, clapping along and generally freaking out. Betse and I dusted off all of our old rock star moves and I even played a mandolin solo kneeling on the floor right in the face of a surprised but thrilled new fan sitting on the floor. by the time we finished the first set, we had transformed ourselves from "time killer" to "Tucson killer". At the beginning of the second set, we were only able to get through one fiddle tune before the hotel security asked us to move out of the lobby and into one of the indoor clubs because the crowd around us was blocking the exits . We relocated and only got through one more tune before the promoter asked us to take the stage so more people could see us. The sound man had to quickly try to get us miked up and Betse talked to the rowdy crowd while the poor guy got a makeshift set up going. By the time we finished about 40 minutes later, we had siphoned off most of Tortoise's crowd from outside. Don and Kay had stood on the front row the entire time and even opened up our CD suitcase and started selling our stuff while we played. I talked to them after the show and they were thrilled. We both agreed that it was very lucky that Don had been on guard duty when we came in. They offered to take Nate's bass back to the park in their station wagon. I objected but knew it was no use as Don snatched up Nate's bass and said goodnight before disappearing out the door into the hot Tucson night.