Easy Rider 2006: Day Four -- SLC

Last night, just before bed, we were downstairs with Mom and Ron watching television when we heard the rain start. By the time we came upstairs to take a look at the rain, it had changed from rain to hail stones. Coupled with some thunder and lightening, it made for an interesting way to end our first night in Salt Lake City.

Surprisingly, we awoke to a beautiful morning and had breakfast before heading over to the Harley Davidson dealer to drop the bikes off for a tune up. Since we were dropping the bikes off at 9am and had no plans until later tonight, I bought tickets to a 10:30am showing of “Superman Returns” at a local movie theatre. Mom and Ron followed us to the dealership and then the four of us stopped by Kinko’s to make 700 copies of the SLC Mayor’s proclamation announcing that Saturday July 8th was to be “Seattle Men’s Chorus and Seattle Women’s Chorus Day” in honor of our last tour stop before heading to the movie.

“Superman Returns” was a good movie and we didn’t realize that it was 2 hours and 45 minutes long. So after the film, we were READY for lunch. We ate at an Applebee’s at the Gateway Mall where we saw the movie and half way through our meal I noticed Dennis Coleman walking by outside. I ran out and we talked and when I mentioned we were inside having lunch with Gary’s parents, he wanted to come in and say hello.

We saw a few other chorus folks in the restaurant and around at the mall before we headed back to the dealership to pick up the bikes. After we did that, Gary and I headed back to the mall where I bought a new watch (I lost my watch after laying it on my luggage to put on some sunscreen in Clifton Idaho -- but then I headed off on the motorcycle without putting the watch back on). While at the mall, I found the PERFECT shirt for the Reception hosted by Salt Lake Men’s Choir tonight. The shirt says simply “I (Heart) LOVE Mormon Boys”.

After a short afternoon nap, Gary and I hopped in Mom and Ron’s Range Rover and headed for the reception at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. It was a very nice evening where the SL Men’s Choir performed 5 or 6 songs for us, and then SWC, Sensible Shoes and SMC each sang one song before we joined together to perform “This Land is OUR Land” for the guys in Salt Lake.

While all this was going on, Gary worked with the local gay and lesbian bars along with the ACFEA guides and bus drivers to coordinate an after reception bar crawl. Gary was able to arrange free admission for any member of SMC and SWC at both the Trapp and Trapp Door and $2 admission into the women’s bar “Paper Moon” where Sensible Shoes performed “Sweet Dreams” for the people at the bar.

Gary and I got back to his parents house around 11:00pm and I started our last batch of laundry and packed so we can be ready to go in the morning. While the choruses head off to two churches to perform a small selection of songs, Gary and I will be heading back to Pocatello on the back roads through Northern Utah and Southern Idaho. Tomorrow night at 7:30pm, we open our tour with our performance in Pocatello.

From our bedroom in Gary’s parents house…

Tony and Gary