Eric 2010/03/26 5:12pm

As we drove into the San Diego area, we couldn't resist breaking into Will Ferrell impressions, trying our best to sound like Ron Burgundy in "Anchorman." "San Diego...drink it in. It goes down smooth every time!" I can see why everybody wants to live there and why it's so expensive. We joked with one another that we were definitely the poorest people in Del Mar. The promoters, as was the case in Morgan Hill, really treated us well. The food was great and the accommodations were too good to be true. We got to stay on the beach in Del Mar, a stone's throw from T. Boone Pickens' compound. Joe Walsh said it best. "Do we really get to do this stuff?" Yep. The same guys that played a sidewalk sale in Malone, NY, in the 80's in 90 degree heat for doughnuts get to do this stuff.

Spirits were high as we played to a packed room, the Power House. The audience again was extremely receptive and I've never had a show go by as fast as this one. Leigh started to announce our last song, and I felt a flash of anger. No, I'm having too much fun, I thought. I am not taking this group of guys for granted. I am blessed to share the stage with every one of them and hope these five guys can do this for a long, long time. I find myself thinking this on stage at times. No wonder I forget words occasionally! We finished our show, met a bunch of nice people, and headed 'home' for the evening. Betty Wheeler, one of the kind people who brought us to Del Mar, brought us delicious muffins and jam in the morning that she bought from a farm run by people who have been farming since they were released from a Japanese internment camp. Development is all around them, all kinds of money has been offered for the land, but they keep doing what they've always done. I love that.

We dropped our cars at Enterprise on Monday morning and had an interesting trip to the airport. A man, wife, and their two little kids, probably three and four years old, rode with us in the shuttle. The kids were looking at our cases, and Joe and Clayton took out their instruments and played fiddle tunes for them. I've never seen faces with more happiness. They just could not get enough. The driver radioed in to headquarters, pushed a button, and said, "I have a bluegrass concert going on here." The joy Clayton and Joe brought to those kids should have been recorded, but my camera was packed away. I'll remember it though. I'll remember a lot about California, as I always do. I can't get enough of the West, and I hope to return often.

Eric