Totally forgot......

........to mention my fabulous Thursday. Jim treated me to an afternoon ALL TO MYSELF, and how did I spend it? By getting in the car and driving for 5 hours listening to what music I wanted to listen to, singing at the top of my lungs, and driving to where I wanted to drive to. It was SUBLIME!!!



There have been some little mountain towns I've been wanting to visit since we moved here but with kids, naps and work schedules......it just never was the right time. So I took this opportunity to let my adventurous side go nuts. I followed this crooked little road along the Yuba River that cuts right through the Sierra Mtns and came upon some of the coolest places. This one town I visited, Downieville, is just top on my list. Only has a population of about 350 and the main drag (scenic Hwy 49) actually turns into this super skinny 1 lane bridge that crosses the river. CRAZY!



Imagine very large mountains......the a river cutting a very deep gorge.........then building a little town in the deepest part of that gorge. Makes sense, huh? The little streets were nuts and the houses were built on the side of the mountains, right on the bank of the river. And the little main street was just picturesque with it's little art galleries and cute places to eat. I'm in love. Not to mention it's completely surrounded by Tahoe Nat'l Forest so there are ENDLESS hiking trails w/in view of the city. Sounds like paradise to me!



But this is the reason why I'm blogging about this side trip......during my drive I was listening to my XM Satellite radio (not much radio in those parts) and I'll be the first to admit I'm a bit of an 80's big hair band fan. Truthfully, I'm just a big haired girl naturally........especially when the humidity is just right. Gotta love naturally curly hair. ANYWAYS......so I was listening to Boneyard XL which one of XM's hard rock channels and they were broadcasting Def Leppards Hysteria soundtrack (which is AWESOME - my favorite)........however, it was the acoustic version. I never knew they made an acoustic version....and I think I know why. Not my favorite!! There's a reason why big-haired 80's bands had a bunch of equiptment......b/c they NEEDED it. I discovered during my drive that if they had relied solely on raw talent, then that era of music may have never existed!



So.........word to the wise........stick to the orginial version!! I'm still a fan.....just not veering off course! In fact, this is how much of a fan I am, I'm including a picture from August of last year when Jim and I joined my brother Chris and his wife Lisa to the Def Leppard / Journey concert. Sad to say, but we had SUCH a great time!! I'm sure things would have been different if they had done the concert acoustically!! :-)