This March the Aires saddled up and flew west to the sunny slopes of Colorado four our annual spring tour, organized this year by seniors Caz "Bo" Liske and Daren "Hijo" Simkin, with enormous help from Katy and John Shaw. A couple days before departure time, Bo packed up the Aires' indispensable tour bus with skis, sound equipment and what proved to be a totally useless First Aid kit, and drove himself to Denver to meet the Aires at the airport. Meanwhile, at hell o'clock in the morning on March 17th, the rest of the Aires* slammed down some squash-flavored baby food and headed to Manchester for their 7:30 am flight.
Tour begins.
After nearly dying in a blizzard somewhere in the middle of Indiana, and napping for an hour under the eerie observation of a large man driving a hearse, Bo met the rest of the boys at Denver International Airport. After a quick snack at Bo's house in Denver, we stopped by Boulder High School for an afternoon student assembly show. Overwhelmed by the presence of hippie drumming circles and the thick fog of incense that permeates the town, we loaded up and made way to our next engagement, a pre-dinner show at the Timber Hearth Grille, one of the fine dining establishments at Vail's marvelous Cordillera Lodge and Spa. After the show, we retired to our modest living quarters, an immaculate, beautifully furnished, completely undeserved 8,000 square-foot home in the crest of a hill overlooking Eagle and Beaver Creek.
Initially, the house smelled very nice, but the Mexican food in town quickly
changed that. Not to worry, though, health and hygiene not far away--among the
amenities of our humble abode were: a steam shower, a jet bath, gas fireplaces
everywhere, lots of little bottles of shampoo and soap, slippers and bathrobes for
everyone, and a dirt bike for those late-night urges to go out and kill yourself on
the prairie. For the next few days we wined, dined and skied in Vail, thanks to the
generous hospitality of the Cordillera and the Vail Valley Foundation, who sponsored
our recreation and dining for four fantastic sunny days in the mountains. We spent
the afternoons either gliding down the slushy Vail slopes or kibitzing with Barry
Sanders, Owen Wilson, Billy Kidd and other distinguished guests of the American Ski
Classic. In the evenings, we enjoyed the companionship of several bottles of amber
liquid at our huge alpine mansion. Our encounters with the locals were generally
wonderful, though some spawned embarrassing butt-shaking contests between younger
Aires and even younger Aire-admirers, who would stay up late creating awkward energy
by the kitchen sink. Some older, more grizzled Aires just wanted a goodnight hug,
but all they got was more tired and more grizzled and more bitter. Needless to say,
CT5 is alive and kicking, and still politely declining.
We did it all--snowboarding, skiing, tanning, deer-pellet throwing, fattening--but
what would an Aires Tour be without our traditional visit to the local hospital? We
certainly weren't going to leave out such an integral part of tour, and we were so
enthusiastic about this that we ended up making three trips in 72 hours, and managed
to come up with some good excuses: Ino stopped breathing, Pluto folded his forearm,
and Mello rolled his ankle. Fun! When we'd had our share of hospital beds and eggs
benedict, we said goodbye to Nancy and the rest of our new friends and coasted back
down Vail Pass to Denver.
Back in the Mile High City, we spent a few relaxing days eating Bo's family out of
house and home, playing Aires futbol in City Park, and entertaining at the University
Club, the Children's Hospital, and at an exciting pre-game performance of the National
Anthem at the NBA Nuggets' home court, the Pepsi Center. Nights were spent stealing
mics and hearts in Denver's Lower Downtown district, singing for beer and kisses at
the many microbreweries in Larimer Square. Our time in Denver also welcomed in our
new director, Pete "Krbo" Simpson, and marked the re-election of Sean "Hilo" MacMannis
in his position as business manager. After such momentous decisions, we needed some
time to just get away from it all to clear our heads. Fortunately, Bo's family has a
cabin in south-central Colorado, just north of Cotopaxi and the Sangre de Cristo
Mountains, where we could exorcise our demons. With no one to supervise and tell us
how dangerously irrational we were behaving, we immediately began running through the
mountains spraying each other with paintballs (thanks to John Frayer for the guns and
the camo!), grilling a metric ton of meat, (brief) stargazing,
and the creation of
life-endangering explosions. Oh, and some lame-os played a lot of Warcraft. At long
last, we had to haul our (now battered and bruised) behinds back to Denver and, the
next morning, Bo drove to New Hampshire, Cazzo got a tattoo, and tour was over. It
was an extraordinary tour with extraordinary weather and an extraordinarily low number
of shows. Special thanks to: John and Katy Shaw, Bart Berger, Tina Dozauer, Alison
Wadey, John Frayer, Arte Davies, Shawn Martinez and many others. We'd love to come
back soon, so be in touch!
*Note: "rest of the Aires" does not include Plinko, Vino, Cino, Rollo, Jojo, or Hilo, because they weren't there. The first two were dying of unidentified diseases that caused puss to show up in unlikely places; Cino is taming snakes in exchange for camel hair in Morocco; Rollo is too cool for the Aires; Jojo had to supervise the biggest furniture-moving operation in the history of the Western World; and Hilo was training with bullfighters in Barcelona. But they're all really committed to the Aires otherwise.
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