Mounting a Challenge

BURLINGTON, VT: I conquered Mt. Mansfield this morning, for the second year in a row. :-)

(OK, 'conquered' is a relative term; there's a toll road that goes crisscrossing up through the ski trails and does about all but 500-something feet of the climb for you...but hey, it's way more rugged terrain than we're used to in Dallas. And also, I managed to drive the rental van up the toll road without falling off the side of the mountain--even though we encountered oncoming traffic at many of the turns--so I consider that a positive accomplishment.)

We play in about two hours. On my website, I promised any of my friends from Dallas a Chipotle burrito if they drove up here and heard us play...but I'll fall over from shock if anyone actually did. That's a long way to go, even for a burrito.

Oh yeah, and Sonny Rollins was phenomenal last night. The guy's nearly 73 years old and he played for around two hours: on one tune, he took approximately 30 choruses of blues. Truly amazing. The Dave Holland Big Band is tonight, and I'm sure I'll have a report before we fly back to Dallas tomorrow.