Mister Bob Dylan

 Oh hi Joe!

So, another week. This one was interesting enough. Jacob was in his second week of his job, and he had to prep for a test, so I got to go to see Bob Dylan in Idaho with Ben.   Idaho is a different place man. As we got started we needed to get Ben’s car inspected and the registration paid, then we stopped at McDonald’s, every trip needs to start at McDonald’s. We took Ben’s car to save gas, that thing gets almost 20 mpg better mileage than my 4Runner, 10 mpg better than mom’s car. It rides well enough too. We got to Boise about two and Ben found a sandwich place to try. Downtown Boise is pretty nice. We went to the venue that was about 15 miles away from town. 

We didn’t know that it was going to be an outdoor concert. The tix your brothers bought were general admission, on the grass. We were not prepared with chairs or blankets, luckily the gras was soft and dry enough. The actual concert was called the Willie Nelson Outlaw tour. There were five bands scheduled. The first three were bluegrass/country. They were good, but that’s not really my style. Bob Dylan was next. By the time he had started we were three hours into the concert, and I’m not great at sitting on the ground. 

Bob was good, he was on keyboard. I actually recognized three or four of the songs but he seems to play completely different arrangements on the songs. It’s cool to say I’ve seen a legend like that, and I loved being with Ben, but I don’t need to go to another concert like that any time soon. By the time Dylan was done it was coming up on nine, and we had a five and a half hour drive to get home. Neither of us were dying to see Willie Nelson, and Ben had work in the morning so we decided to head home.

Now I need to spend a few sentences on the crowd that goes to a concert like that in Nampa, Idaho. Obviously the crowd was old, though not as old as The Rolling Stones crowd. The were also really white, even more than Utah crowd would be. The most interesting part was that they seemed to be an odd mix of MAGA, redneck, and hippie. People watching was very interesting there, but I wouldn’t want to move there.

We headed home and Ben drove a pretty long way. I finished the trip and we were in bed by three. 

Friday mom got home from work early and took me to this bar and grill in Harriman that she had gotten a gift certificate for. Mom got this big bbq burger and I had the fish and chips. I enjoyed them both but preferred the fish and chip’s. Mom was sad that they didn’t card us, I guess there’s no hiding that we are slightly above 21 years old. Oh, and  just to reassure you, we only ordered water to drink. After that we went to Costco and brought a pizza home for your brothers. Then we watched Rogue One as a follow up to the awesome Andor series finale. Then we stayed up to watch A New Hope after that. I’ve always loved the original movie, but compared to Andor and Rogue One, it looked pretty primitive.

Saturday morning mom made us breakfast, then grandma called and wanted to plant some flowers in her front yard, so your brothers took straight off to go help, I love that about you boys. We had planned to go to the cemetery for our traditional Memorial Day visit, so mom and I went ahead without them, we served the dead while your brothers served the living. Pretty good mix I’d say. We only went to the one where my parents, bother, and grandma on my dad’s side are. We met a lady who remembered my mom talking to her mom about the sons they lost while they were visiting their graves. It was a neat memory. The gravestones have a lot of sap on them from the old pine tree, so it was a bit of a challenge to get them clean this year.

We went to go meet grandma and your brothers at Crown Burger for lunch, but mom had committed to substitute at the temple so I took her home and came back for lunch.

While she was gone I hung the record rails up in the movie room. I chose some random albums to display and I think they look pretty good. After mom came home we went to go see Mission Impossible at the Fat Cat theater by our house. Mom got a popcorn bucket from there so we decided to try it. Its a pretty nice theater and the movie was entertaining too. We’re starting to get more stuff near us which is nice. There’s a Little Caesar’s there now, a big Smiths grocery store is going up next door, and a new McDonald’s is going up across the street next to the Maverick. We’re big time now Joe.

Today was Rivera day at church. Benjamin gave an incredible talk on charity in sacrament meeting, and Jacob gave a great lesson in elders quorum. To say I’m proud of you boys is an understatement. We had the missionaries over for dinner, mom made Alfredo and Parmesan chicken like grandma’s, it was really good.

That’s all for this email my boy, I look forward to chatting with you tomorrow.

Pops