Day One – The Journey
Soon bags are packed into the car and we are off on our trip! Destination Denver Colorado! Items of notice along the first several hundred miles is that New Mexico is a desert. Probably learned that in grade school, but hell that was decades ago. We watched miles of rolling hills of sand fly by (speed limit is 75 mph) with steep rocky mountains in the distance. A very striking landscape indeed.
Anyway, we are speeding up I-25 with the desert flying by and the Def Leppard tunes are cranking. First stop we make is at a gas station in Las Vegas. Make that Las Vegas, New Mexico. Home to some large psychiatric facility Lisa S explains and we soon see that for ourselves. Lisa S goes pay for the gas and on her way back she almost gets a bath in gasoline as this really drunk man (it’s only like 2pm I think) stumbles trying to get gas into his truck. The look on her face was priceless as gas spilled everywhere. Needless to say, we hurry quite quickly out of Las Vegas.
This part of the trip is basically filled with gossiping, laughing and just having a great time. The three of us get along really well. Sometimes when you meet people in real life, they aren’t what you expect and the friendship doesn’t work out. Not in this case! We all got along just great!
The hours pass and we make only a very small amount of stops. Lors’ bladder is put to the test! Lisa P doesn’t have one or it’s iron clad. We stop about two hours out of Denver and Lisa S finally releases her SUV to Lors’ hands. We are in a huge truck stop/gas station and Lisa S and Lors go inside to do what else…go to the bathroom. As we literally walk in the door, this guy who’s walking out acts like he’s never seen two females and immediately asks our names. Without missing a beat Lisa answers “None of your business.” A guy behind this dude laughs and we just keep walking. Lors congratulates Lisa on her quick and appropriate retort. After we ‘take care of bizness’ we tell the lady at the counter that we are filling up, but paying cash. She then asks if Lors can stay inside while Lisa fills up. I guess we looked shady? So Lisa goes to pump gas and Lors is held hostage in some strange gas station. A minute goes by, five minutes, ten minutes…damn is she filling up every truck in the lot? Finally Lors takes a chance and opens the door and hollers out “What are you doing????” It seems that the windshield was a dead bug disaster and that was taking a long time to clean. Finally Lisa S returns to claim Lors. Before we pay up, we grab an 800 speed disposable camera for Lisa P (one can never have too much film when going to a Lepp concert) and one other item that we were joking about earlier. We pop back into the bathroom and there is a condom machine on the wall. Now this is a truck stop full of men and we haven't seen a female except us and the lady behind the counter, but just our luck that as Lisa is putting the quarters in the machine the door opens. First a young girl walks in. Then another. And as Lisa is turning the handle and Lors is cracking up on the counter, Mom walks in. We grab our “colorful” condoms and run! We pay for gas and the camera and giggle our way out to the car. We tell Lisa P that she is never to leave home without the Two C’s…a camera and condoms!
Laughing our way out of the lot, we head toward the wonderful City of Denver that loves one way streets and blocking off roads for no reason at all. With Lors at the wheel, we finally hit Denver. The sun has set, it’s dark and the road it really busy since it’s around 11pm on a Friday. Lisa S calls and we make a reservation at the Westin and she gets directions. Well the guy never tells us an exit number, and we drive on and on, wondering if we will end up in Wyoming before we hit Speer Street. Finally much to our relief we see it and get off I-25 after over 400 miles.
We actually do really well until we hit 17th Street and the road is blocked with a detour sign and an arrow. However, we also see a detour sign for the hotel and we plunge ahead hitting every single traffic light red. We keep following the signs and get back onto 17th, but never see the hotel. The road comes to a T stop and Lors pulls over conveniently in front of a Fire House. Since three of Denver’s ‘hot’ (pun intended) firemen are sitting outside on lawn chairs Lisa S calls them over to help three tired damsels in distress.
After they gentlemanly give us directions and Lors is sure we will catch them on the next trip around the block, we head off. Miraculously we make it back to 17th Street and once again are following the detour signs. The Lisa’s are looking for where we went wrong, as Lors is happily expecting to see our firemen any minute. We get back to the 17th Street intersection again and we are in the far left lane out of four lanes. One of the Lisa’s finally see the sign to get to the Westin, but it’s on the opposite side of the road. Praying to the Rock Gods, we wait until traffic slows and quickly cut across traffic and end up at the front door to the Westin! Happily we valet park the car (we also miss the sign saying how expensive it is) and head inside.
Solid ground! A soft bed! A bathroom!! We get to the room with the great southwest view (a view of the side of another building) and just when sleep was so close…we decided that a drink was more important. Hell who needs sleep! Not us! Funny how that ended up being so true.
Not daring to drive again in Denver until daylight, we have the Bellman hail us a cab. We have no destination in mind, except alcohol (soda for Lisa P) and we are discussing our choices of bars with the taxi driver. After staying in the immediate area but turning down what felt like a million one way streets, Lisa S starts screaming and beating on poor Lisa P’s boob. Well the boob part was unintentional, but it was just there when Lisa S when to grab her. Everyone else is wondering what the hell is going on with her. Until she starts demanding the taxi driver to tell us what hotel was on the next street over. First he says none. But Lisa is a woman on a mission, and says in a very stern voice. “Over there, by the buses. What hotel is over there?” Buses? Did she say buses? Buses as in tour buses? Sure as hell there are the tour buses!
So the confused taxi driver takes us over there and is probably thinking he has three crazy ladies ladies in his back seat. We have him drive slowly past the front of the hotel that shall remain nameless. If we told ya, we’d have to kill ya. It wasn’t quite what we expected for the Lepps, but hey…to each their own. We’re just having fun being there. Well Lors isn’t paying as much attention as the Lisas are. They start talking about this guy in a cowboy hat that is walking past the the right side of the cab. Geez…guys in cowboy hats in Denver are a dime a dozen! Nothing special there.
Finally actually decide now to go back to the hotel as we are really tired. The urge for the drink vanished under a haze of fatigue that has hit us. It’s sleep time! It’s been twenty-four hours we have all been awake and it’s been a long day, so we get ready. Lisa and Lisa are talking about the guy in the cowboy hat again and Lors is wondering why until she hears the name Rick. Rick? “Rick was where?” she asks. With the guy in the cowboy hat, they answer. “WHAT!” How on earth can Lors miss Rick Allen! How did she miss noticing that the guy next to the guy in the hat had only one arm! Once again she ponders why she continually dyes her hair blonde.
The night closes with the Leppsketeers sound asleep in the same city as their Lepps. Day one is coming to a close and concert number one is looming over the Mountainous horizon. Sleep is immediate.
In no time at all we are back on I-25 headed north. Did we mention the Rockies yet? I don’t think so. On the left side of the car, excuse me … SUV are these majestic incredible mountains. The plains lead right up to them and boom! Up go these huge walls of rock that are so damn tall that they are snow capped. One day we are in the desert and the next we see snow, how cool is that? Anyway, back to Lep bizness.
We try to follow mapquest directions into Greeley, but it isn’t as easy as it sounds. It seems we have the reverse directions home, but not the ones to actually get there. Hey after Denver, this was a piece of cake and with zero wrong turns, we make it to the Stampede! We are there! The adrenaline starts to flow a bit and there’s an undercurrent of excitement as we get closer to the show! And bathrooms too! We wander down the main aisle of the fairgrounds and Lors points out a booth for airbrush tattoos to the Lisas. Try traveling with two chicks with the same name, it ain’t easy! They had been talking about getting real ones and instantly they zoom over to the booth. We only look as we need to find the Standing Room Only (SRO) section. We head into the arena area and ask a security person who gives us directions. However, first we hit the bathroom, much to Lors’s happiness. Remember this ladies, over 40 the vision isn't the first thing to go, it’s the bladder! Lisa S and Lors are waiting just outside the bathroom for Lisa P. It comes to Lors attention that walking by us are cowboys. Not Rhinestone fake cowboys, but honest to God bronc riding, calf roping, steer wrestling cowboys. Cowboys with creased jeans, white hats, tight butts and big….umm, belt buckles? LOL And every single one of them was drop dead gorgeous. Lors definitely pondered following the rodeo trail…just briefly as Lisa S wonders if we can get one or two of them home with us. Lors also pondered Sav wearing one of those cowboy hats, then decided…naw.
Once Lisa P joins us and we point out the virtues of the ‘local talent’ before we head to find ‘chute 99’ which is where the SRO is. It only takes about ten hot minutes and we find our home for the next 6 hours, a hot dusty patch of dirt behind about twenty other people who had the brains to bring chairs and umbrellas. Needless to say, Colorado was the last place we expected to get a tan, but did. In some cases like Lisa P…a sunburn. Thank God after about two hours, the sun moves and we gain shade. We take turns getting drinks, stretching our legs and talk Lep. Not to mention the two same named ones go back for an airbrushed tattoo.
After a couple of hours Lisa S starts chatting with this woman next to her. First it’s talking Lep, then it’s talking concerts and then it somehow goes to her pointing out her crank dealer? Where the hell did that come from? She assures Lisa that she’s sober since October when she met her girlfriend. This girlfriend finally shows up to join Becky (ex-crank chick) and Lisa S somehow becomes their ‘sister.’ We were all worried for the longest time about that! It ended up just them being friendly. We nickname them the ‘Bruiser Sisters.” That’s Becky and Rhonda, not Lisa! Two large tough women, we’d want on our side of a fight for sure!
Fast forward a few million hours and we are still in line. More people have ‘joined’ those in front of us, so the 20 people are now like 40, plus kids. Who on earth brings their kids to a SRO show? The smart one with chairs bring them back to their cars, so the line is finally able to move forward a bit. A new patch of dirt to stand on! Things start to happen now. The rodeo is over! Yeehaw!! And we can see over the top of the fence the stage being brought in.
After a bit we hear a guitar here and a drum beat there. Then we hear music! The guys are doing soundcheck! First they do Promises and then they do … well none of us remember (God we are such bad fans!). Then all is quiet for a bit. We’re not really paying attention as the Bruiser Sisters are giving us the low down on Greeley. Then a few bars of music begin. Familiar, but not Lep. Then the vocals start and the three of us literally scream out ‘RICKY!’ Lisa S hops up on the gate trying to get a peak. Lisa P and Lors are to short to even try, so we don’t try to wrestle her down for our own look see. Ricky is singing Mysterioso. We are shocked! We are ecstatic! We are wondering why he’s sound checking?? We had already checked with Soph his webmaster, and Ricky was not scheduled to perform in Greeley. The Leps had this local blues band called the Groove Hawgs opening for them. We prayed that the Hawgs were toast and we had Ricky instead. Then we give the people around us get Lesson 101 in Ricky Warwick.
Now comes the scary part. The Greeley Independence Stampede is just that… a stampede. We asked security and they said that it was okay and controlled, but it was anything but. It was a free for all, pushing, shoving fearing for your life run for the stage. It honestly left the three of us shaken and split up. Lisa P was down by Phil, Lisa S was by Sav and Lors was dead center to Joe. We all would have preferred to be by each other, but this was gonna have to do.
We were all packed in like Sardines. Some sardines were being pickled in beer and were becoming obnoxious. SRO or General Admission shows suck! There is no other way to say it! We’ll skip the elbows that jab, the hair that gets accidentally pulled and just concentrate on the show. It was due to start at 8pm. Ricky actually came out to play around 7:30. So instead of having a cheering section, since we were spread out, so were his more vocal fans! LOL Lors is butting in here for a sec. “It was the coolest thing. There I am singing away to Ricky’s songs. First he did Church of the Paranoia, then he did a new song and then my favorite song Mysterioso. I’m singing away (offkey as usual) and Ricky actually opens his eyes (something he rarely does while singing) and looks directly at me and smiles! He saw me singing to his song! Both Lisas saw it and told me later that it did actually happen. That made the drunks more bearable.” Side Note from Lisa S: Ditto for me Lors. He looked at me and smiled as I sang along right after he looked at you. I was still reeling from him smiling at you when he did the same to me! sigh
One more song and Ricky was done much to our dismay. Lisa P was looking forward to hearing Three Sides to Every Story, but it looked like she was going to have to till Albuquerque for that. We then suffered through the Groove Hawgs, before we finally got to our Leps.
After the Hawgs played one set too many, sorry folks but when we're at a Rock concert we don't want to hear blues, especially one with an obnoxious cocky singer. Who's promoting drug use with 5 year olds in the crowd as he sings with a big stinky cigar in his mouth! Floorwax! What a name!
The music is playing in between bands and the minutes are crawling by. Did we tell you about the tornado warning that we were in the middle of? This was not the first time this trip that we put our lives in jeopardy for this band! More on that in the next part though.
Before the show even starts one drunk idiot gets himself and his wife booted out. Why would you wait half the day in line, to drink yourself stupid and miss the show? Then we had a family full of drunk kids and it was Mom who was passing around the vodka. How they got served beer is beyond us as they were all too young, but kept leaving and coming back with more. They took up the space between Lisa S and Lors. Then they had the nerve to push into the space one too many times before we all started rebelling. But it was when one of the girls almost burned Lisa for the second time did Lisa’s ‘protectors’ in the form of The Bruiser Sisters take over. Lisa S explains: my "sistas" were fighting with them and telling me, "Don't worry, we'll protect you." Real comforting when they've already told you they're ex-cons and recovering drug addicts, not to mention covered in tattoos (the real ones)! LOL
It's show time! The lights go down and Disintergrate comes on the speakers and the sold out crowd of 15,000 people go crazy!!!!! The guys are running across the stage playing Let It Go and we were treated to another one of their fantastic shows. This however was a shorter show bordering on being a little over 90 minutes long. We basically got the greatest hits set with Four Letter Word thrown in. Joe did say that this was the best crowd they had all tour. He really didn't have to encourage us to make any noise at all.
Another highlight during the show was early on right after Hysteria. Joe is chatting away with the crowd and then he starts with “… and … This … is” but before he can get the words out Lisa S screams out SLANG! Poor Joe! He was shocked! Lisa beat him to it! It was so funny!
The cutest part of the show was when Joe came out at the very end, it was just before the Let's Get Rocked encore. He plops a white cowboy hat on his head and looks just so cute! He tries a southern accent but it just doesn't work with his Yorkshire one. He sings the whole song with the hat on his head (Damn Lors wanted him to loan it to Sav to see how that fantasy looked) but he kept it to himself. We got a few pics of that with a disposable so I hope they turn out.
Speaking of pics, both venues we went to during this trip allowed cameras. We all went thru SO much film it was incredible. By the end of the show Lisa S had moved up from our third and half row to a solid second. It seems that her ‘sisters/bodyguards’ saved her a place in front of them in exchange for copies of her pics. So she ended up closer than Lisa P and Lors.
Anyway, between our three websites (Savage Attitude, Def Leppard Rocks My World and The Almighty One) we have more incredible pics than we know what to do with. Keep your eyes posted for them!
The shows over and we finally meet up again. Our feet hurt so bad that we were about to die right there on the spot! It took forever to get out of the arena, then Lors had to go to the bathroom again and we eventually make our way out of the Stampede Fairgrounds. Then we kinda get lost. We try to follow directions from the "Bruiser Sisters" and ultimately make it back to Route 34, but miss the gas stations we were trying to find. Then we get back to the 34/25 intersection to start our long way back to Albuquerque when we spot a gas station dead ahead. Lisa cuts across traffic and we make it there. She fills up on gas and decides that she now needs to use the bathroom, so Lors goes to keep her company.
When we are done, we pull over to the side and grab the drinks and snacks that are stored in the back and chat about the show while eating. We are probably there maybe 15 minutes before we head out and onto I-25. A trip that we all have been dreading the whole day...eight hours of driving in the dead of night. Three lonely, vulnerable women.
We have been on the road for maybe 30 minutes, maybe more when a large bus passes us as we start to approach Denver. Once again the Rock Gods are smiling down on us! It's a Lep Tour Bus, in fact its the Wuss/Veggie bus! And right behind them come the Attack bus! They pull over in front of us and we are laughing and enjoying the coincidence of it. We had eight hours of tale lights. Twice we got off for either gas or bathrooms, and each time we caught up to them. Once the bus even got off and then they caught up to us. It was comforting in two ways, one we weren't driving on this deserted highway all by ourselves and two 'our Leps' where with us, even though we cursed them for being able to sleep while we couldn't.
So the miles flew by, the hour got later and later and we followed the tale lights...all the way into Albuquerque, as a new Lep day dawned.
Lors being easily sidetracked by thoughts of Sav sleeping on the bus, misses the turn to the Hilton. Oh well. We drive a bit further and pull into a parking lot to turn around. After a slight debate about the direction to go, Lisa S hands Lors the map. While trying to find anything on the map, someone all of sudden says something like "Oh Shit." We look up and low and behold our brethren all night bus drivers have the tour buses going right past us. Maybe they missed us? More likely maybe they missed their turn. Sure hope it wasn't because they were daydreaming of Sav sleeping like Lors was. ?
Back on the road we go and easily find the Hilton. We half hoped that we would find the buses too, but no such luck. We call the Hilton from the parking lot and ask if there's a chance we can check in early… like now. Thank God they say yes or we have no idea what we would do. Three exhausted Lep fans check in and head to our room as fast as our tired bodies allow us.
We end up getting about four to five hours of sleep getting up at 2pm. We shower and get ready. Grab a quick bit to eat at a local Mexican restaurant and then head out to pick up Vy and Karen at their hotel. The Journal Pavilion is next on our agenda. This is the show we have been waiting for! Second row Center, but more toward Sav's side. Lisa S and Lors are in Savage Heaven, while Lisa P is hoping Phil comes to this side of the stage a lot.
The Pavilion is in the middle of nowhere. Desert and sand is surrounding us. We park in a huge hot lot, but none of us remember to take note of exactly where that is. We then start a fairly long trek down hill to the venue. Lors takes immediate notice that the uphill trip back will be a bitch. We come to a vendor that is selling the Albuquerque Journal newspaper. Except his is like a special edition copy, with a huge separate section exclusively on the Leps, their discography and even a section on Ricky Warwick. Immediately we start shelling out $2.00 for copies. Right next to us is a HUGE sign stating what the venue allows in and what it doesn't. Cameras according to this sign is a No No. Well, it better be a Yes, Yes, as we called the Pavilion just a short bit before and they guaranteed us that cameras were okay. Now we make it down to the searchers. We ask them about cameras and they say no problem. So we let them search our purses and then head to the ticket taker dudes, then we are in! Cameras, film and all!! After more downhill walking in the very hot desert sun, we hit the merchandise booth (gotta support Sav’s constantly changing stage duds) and much to Lisa S's despair they aren't selling Ricky Warwick's CD. The merchandise guy thinks some CD will be there shortly, but Lisa's gonna have to try later or find another better informed booth… which she does.
We head down to our seats and thanking God for the shifting sun, they are now in the shade making the temperature quite pleasant. The location of our seats is incredible. We have an easy wait for the show and spend time getting our film and cameras organized. Then we ask Vy to take our pictures with the stage behind us. We love ya Vy!!
It was probably after 7pm when the wind started to pick up. It was coming down into the venue and coming back out from the stage, just like the stage a had a huge fan blowing out at us. At first it only bothered the dark backdrop that separated the front of the stage from the section that held the drum riser. The backdrop was blowing out towards us and it took Ricky's mic stand out twice, so the crew knew that they had to do something. Down came the lights that held the backdrop and we got to see all of the stage, which included catching glimpses of various Leps at different times.
We saw Ricky standing over to our left and Lisa P called out to him and he looked over and had three cameras go CLICK! That should have given the poor guy a clue of what he was in for. We were once again his personal cheering section…screaming his name, singing his songs and snapping rolls of film. The Lisas stood during his set, while Lors rocked on the edge of her seat. Vivian came out (in sunglasses) and did a great job helping Ricky with Three Sides to Every Story. We loved their dueling guitar bit. And needless to say, when Ricky was done and had thanked DL and their crew for their help during this leg of the tour, Ricky had a huge smile on his face and a definite strut to his walk. He had put on a great set and HE HAS FANS! LOL
Now we get to wait a bit more for Def Leppard to come out. Only then in our temporary boredom do we finally look up and much to our immediate worries are the lights and speakers. They are swinging with the wind and since they are directly above our heads, it does become a big concern. It even concerns the crew so much that the speakers are lowered so that they can get a cable on them to try to steady them. It helps some but not completely. There is nothing they can do about the lights, so we pray that these guys really know what they are doing and they don’t come crashing down on us. Again we put our lives in jeopardy just to see our favorite band!
Now since the backdrop is down, once they turn down the stage lights for the band to come on stage, we can still see back there a bit. Baby It’s Showtime! They burst onstage doing Let It Go and proceed into their ‘High n Dry” set. We three are having a blast! We do notice that the band doesn’t flirt as much with the front row as usual. There were too many young kids there, but they did have fun with them. They were also having fun with the wind. First it was Sav who was pretending the wind wasn’t letting him get across the stage, then Phil and of course Vivian. Sav’s hair was in his face most of the night too. Put it to you this way folks, the wind was so strong that the guys weren’t even sweating at all! Not even a drop! I bet they didn’t expect that playing a desert venue in the middle of summer.
We forgot to mention the video screens! There was a guy with a video camera and Lisa S asked him what he was videoing for. He told us it was for the big video screens and we realized that they were in the upper corners of the stage. By the time DL comes out, the right video screen was literally gone. Ripped right off the stage! Then maybe it was halfway through the set the left screen blew away too! When was the last time you saw that happen!!
We also adopted a little boy. His Dad and brother were directly behind us and they were doing the three people in two seats trick. Since we had the extra seat, we let him sit with us, until Vy was ready to join us. He was so cute that Viv threw a pic to the girl in front of us and the wind blew it back at him. Then he tried again and she got it, but she was so sweet and gave it to the little boy.
We also suspected that Paige and family were in attendance to. We saw someone who looked like her and a girl Jordan’s age, but no young Savage men. Anita was there too. In fact Phil asked one of the girls in the front row how old she was and she told him 14. He mouthed back to so was his son, and used his thumb to indicate that Rory was backstage. We had seen Anita on the sidelines.
Vy joined us with our extra seat toward the end of the show and took the seat next to Lisa S. Then our little boy moved between Lisa P and Lors. Lisa S explains: when Vy came down to stand next to me, she said, "Here comes my favorite song" (Armageddon It) and it was like deja vu! OMG, she was going to start dancing! In San Antonio she was dancing next to me during that song and she grabbed my arm and was flinging me around like a rag doll! I realized I was in for more of that if I got too close, which I did! She grabbed my arm about half way through and Ricky saw us and was laughing his butt off, as was Viv at the look of sheer terror on my face! I love ya Vy, but man you really like that song toooooo much! LOL
Ricky Warwick has spent most of the show on the sidelines singing along with the songs. I guess if Joe ever has voice trouble, Ricky is ready to take over! LOL We rocked through the way too short show. Yes, it was two hours, but two hours of Lep just isn’t enough! Soon it’s encore time and we are sad as this incredible show is almost over. One thing we forgot to mention about Greeley. When they come out for the encore, Sav always tells the crowd that we’ve been ‘fucking awesome’ which of course we always are. In Greeley, even though that Joe said that we were the best crowd they had, Sav said that we were “awesome.” Awesome, just awesome? Why not fucking awesome? We didn’t deal with getting trampled, annoying drunks, jabbing elbows to be just awesome! Then he blew it (pun intended) in Albuquerque. He called us great. He said that we were a great crowd. Doesn’t he realize that great sucks? We wanted to be fucking awesome! We in fact were a fuckingly awesome BRAVE crowd for almost having the equipment fall on our heads! We’ll let it ride this once Sav, only cause we love ya!
The show ends as does all of our film. We have pictures galore! The walk back uphill ended being much easier than we anticipated except for the sand that constantly blew in our eyes. It was really hard to see which didn’t help the fact that we had a hard enough time finding the car to begin with. We followed a long, long line of Lep fans in their cars as we had a long, long way to go ? to get back to civilization. And yes we can attend to the fact that tumbleweeds actually do exist and roll down roads!
With Vy and Karen safely back to their hotel and the Hilton safely in site, another nightly adventure in Lepland comes to a close. Tomorrow we all go back to the real world… sunburned, wind blown and in Leppard Heaven
Lors plane doesn’t leave until 1:30pm and Lisa S being the great friend she is volunteers to hang out until then, even though she has a 4 hour drive ahead of her. While we are getting ready, Lisa has a brilliant idea. Let’s find a one hour developing photo place and get our film developed while we wait! She finds one in the phone book and asks if the job is possible. We have eleven rolls of film and we need quadruple prints and them put on CD. It’s 9:30am and if we get them there by 10am, it can be done.
So we pack in a hurry and head down to check out. Lisa handles the cash transaction as Lors does this (hotel front desk) everyday and doesn’t want to be bothered. Meanwhile there is a white shuttle van out front of the hotel. The driver is chatting with the girls at the next counter. Lors is half-paying attention to Lisa and half this guy. Until she hears the two words all Lep fans are trained to zoom in on… Def Leppard. Lors then attempts to call out to him about the band but all she can do is squeak as she has lost her voice. Instead she tells Lisa that she thinks she heard the guy say he took Def Leppard to the airport, when the driver now says “Yeah Joe Elliott and some of the others where in the van. They were twenty minutes late…” But he doesn’t say more as Lisa (who still has her voice) calls over to get his attention. Yes’ he indeed took some of the guys and a ton of luggage to the airport at 9am. They stayed at the Hyatt. We can let that slip as they are known to frequent Hyatt’s.
Now the trip is complete. Without even trying we followed them during the last few days. Call it luck, as we sure had no clue on where to find them this time around. With that prize piece of info we head off to find the most accommodating and incredible photo-developing woman God put in New Mexico! We hand over our precious film and go have breakfast. Just before 12 noon we sneak back into the shop to see how she is doing. Lisa still has a roll to be developed but she did Lors film first as she had to catch the plane. WoW! We didn’t even ask her to do that, but it worked out perfectly! Lors hands over her still yet unborn firstborn to pay for the developing, and we quickly separate out a set for Lisa to take with her. At a brief glance they are incredible!
Lisa then rushes Lors to the airport and after a brief but sad hug, we separate. The three Lepsketeers have finally parted ways after an incredible quick journey through the American southwest. We braved tornado warnings, windstorms, and dangerously swinging lighting rigs all for the sole purpose of supporting the best band on the planet. Def Leppard, we love you guys!!
