Sat., Nov. 15, 1997, Glenwood Springs, CO, Buffalo Valley -- Bad luck at last behind us, we were relieved to get out of Breckenridge. Tony was hilarious describing the yuppified, L.L. Bean catalog wearing, mobile-phone toting resident-tourists of Breckenridge. The drive was beautiful and we arrived at the Buffalo Valley nightclub in Glenwood Springs shortly after the sound truck had. We all loaded our stuff in and it became brutally apparent that this gig was going to be the direct opposite of the hell we had experienced higher up the day before. The management was positively glowing with goodwill, and the sound people were unbelievably competent and service oriented. We were housed in very neat, clean, warm rooms and invited to pig out to our hearts' content on the house after the 4:30 sound check. Since that was almost four hours away, I decided to take a trek into town (about 2.5 miles) in search of a phone card and Gatorade. The day was positively postcard, as I walked along the picturesque highway. The temp was about 45 and the sun seemed to glint off the red-rock mini-mountains all around--I was having a moment... I arrived back in time to take a short nap before the sound check. Back in the club, the handsome 40-something lady who booked and promoted the show proudly presented Joanna with news clippings of press about the show, and news of radio play for the latest album. We were elated and relieved. Tony confessed to his innate fear of "horned animals" of all kinds, which was unfortunate because several were decorating the walls in all their horned splendor within the club. We pigged out as allowed by the club. I had a scrumptous half-pound slab of salmon and a lovely salad bar heap, and Darnell was in heaven with his buffalo wings. Joanna--who keeps reminding us she's eating for two (although it seems like four sometimes)--had a special moment with some chocolate mousse. Satiated, we lumbered back to our rooms, and Tony and I watched the Kenny Loggins "By Request" special on A&E, noting that my man Kenny's band was all brothers... At 8:30 we headed down to the club (about 50 yards away), and noted the full parking lot. We strolled in to a filling house (at $12 a head), and back to a makeshift green room behind the kitchen with various libations and two staff assigned to take care of our every need. The crowd was mostly 40-something, and many of them seemed to be big Joanna fans, which made the show go just great. We were kickin' and the sound was thumpin'. It took about four songs to get everyone out on the nice hardwood dancefloor, but once they were there, we had them. At the break Joanna and Darnell did brisk CD sales while Tony and I listened to Gatemouth Brown over the PA. The second set was the hottest with Tony laying down a soul-wrenching performance on a B.B. King classic. Vic did a tremendous job on his solo, and Joanna was positively genius. It helps to be loved, let's face it. We did an encore and then were offered a huge plate of food and plenty of drink after the show. Ahhh... Tommorrow we head to Salt Lake.