Our Vapor Trails pilgrimage included traveling over 6,000 miles by air and probably 500 by car and stopped in Chicago, Ill., Hartford, CT., drove through New York over the Hudson River, stayed at Howard Johnson's in Scranton, PA., stayed with my uncle in Willington, CT., and flew back to San Diego via Hartford, Nashville, TN. and Phoenix, AZ. Needless to say, we covered a lot of ground, from sea level to 35,000 feet, in five days. The whole cost of the trip, including airfare and meals and travel and car and hotels was about $700.00. Talk about a budget operation!

Other facinating factoids of the trip:

- Don't ever fly through Midway Airport in Chicago. We were verbally assaulted by a senior citizen's ass in front of us while we tried to eat pizza in the food court and it took a half hour just to get outside to the curb.

- Remember to drink lots of fluids if you aren't going to eat anything for 15 hours and stand at the venue in the blazing sun and humidity, then see a three hour show. We got seriously dehydrated on opening night.

- Wierdest place I've ever brushed my teeth: The parking lot at Montage Mountain at 6:30 p.m.. The urge just struck me there.

- This trip was the lightest I've ever packed. Nothing but a backpack and a little carry bag. It was great. Made me feel like the complete groupie/fanatic. And if I got mad at Charles, I could hitch hike back across country, no problem.

- I didn't need or use ear plugs for the concerts, but needed them to fall asleep because someone snores like a wooly mammoth hibernating for six months (no names please). Sorry Charles! Ooops.

- Fan furthest from home we met: Christobal, from Chile, South America, for the opener at Hartford. There's a photo of him in the fans' photo section.

- With the exception of Christobal, I think we were the fans pretty much coming from the farthest away, from Southern California.

- I printed up 1,000 business cards and handed them all out, 500 at Hartford and 500 at Scranton. I met a lot of great fans this way and also met people who have seen my website.

We scored when it came to seats. Sixth row for the opener and eighth row for Scranton. Ticketbastard and Tickets.com can go to hell. And no, I'm not telling anyone how we scored them at face value 'Nuff said.

- A 12 ounce bottle of water at the CTNow Meadows.com Amphitheater in Hartford cost $4.50. Maybe that's why we got dehydrated.

- Buying all the film and getting it developed and putting the images onto a CD cost more than an orchestra section seat for any show on the tour.

- It took over 60 labor hours to produce the Vapor Trails content pages here at the site, including editing and selecting all the photos, scanning, writing, coding, producing and uploading. That's a lot of time in front of the computer and typing, moin frionds. But it's a labor of love.

- "Sunrise on the road behind me, Sunset on the road ahead...."

- jman2112