Salt Lake City became known as the crossroads of the west at the time of the great mining booms a century ago but more famously was the location chosen by Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers of 1847 who sought an isolated area to practice their religion, away from the hostility they had faced in the East. Salt Lake is also the home of the Mormon Tabernacle choir founded in that same year. The famed Utah Symphony Orchestra, which was founded in 1940 by Maurice Abravanel has become widely renowned, and whilst the orchestra's original home was the Salt Lake Tabernacle, since the 1990s has performed at the Abravenal Hall.

We flew in from Denver across the Rockie mountains on our first flight aboard our US jet of choice, another superb Embraer Legacy. One thing I notice about aviation in the US. is that it's just so...professional, for want of a better expression. Nothing ever seems to be a problem for these guys and as soon as our pilot (who I'm sure we will get to know later) closes the door, he leaps into the cockpit and fires up the twin Rolls Royce AE3007/A1P turbofans, producing 8,810 lbs of thrust each; we're taxiing to the runway within a minute. A short wait for a titchy little single-engined Cessna to take to the air and we're off. An hour later we're on approach into this intriguing city with the great Salt Lake to our port side and thoughts of land speed record attempts in our heads. We stepped off the plane and into our three black Lincoln Town cars waiting airside  and couldn't wait to get into another air conditioned envirionment as the outside air temperature was around a hundred degrees. Unfortunately, the Lincolns aren't Mercedes and our poor vehicle's air-con just couldn't deal with the workload and Danny, Mark and myself sweated our way to the venue, thankfully only 30 minutes away. This has become known as the 'S-Class blues'.

The gleaming US crew buses sitting outside are begging to be viewed and I will choose an opportune moment to do another little video tour, not today though as has been so often the case on this tour we found the crew still setting up due to the massive overnight drive they've had. It was astonishing we managed to have any sound check at all as they didn't even load in the back-line until 3:00pm. I remember this venue from the last time we visited as being rather beautiful and after a couple of hours luxuriating in the band dressing room we took to the stage for a few brief moments. 

Now here's something I've never seen before, an emergency eye wash. It begs the question, just what do those orchestras get up to during their performances?

Our second show without John and whilst we miss everything he brings to the band terribly, we're all enjoying the challenge of filling his shoes. It's quite a while since we've been the six-piece we have become once again. Another blinding audience, whilst there weren't that many of them, (it's a small hall) they made one hell of a din as we took our final bows.

 An after-show runner and 1 hour 45 minute flight to LA during which we fly over tomorrow's show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Soon we're coming into the San Fernado valley from the North. I always get huge pangs of nostalgia whenever we fly into Van Nuys airport as thats where I spent so much time with my wife Laurie-Ann when we visited her parents who lived within a stone's throw from the airport. (Believe it or not Van Nuys is the third busiest General Aviation airport in the world and the 25th busiest airport in the world) I spent many hours laying by their pool watching the never ending procession of jets take off wandering if I'd ever be in one of those planes. Well here I am!

After the high altitude, dry air and extreme temperatures in Denver and Salt Lake, it was a very welcome relief to feel the ocean air as we arrived at the Santa Monica hotel. The sound of the ocean and the cool moist air means only one thing, full jet-lag recovery.