God, the Roof Garden is a club now? It used to be a venue that was called a ballroom by upper midwesterners. Kinda like the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, where Buddy Holly did his last gig.
I played the Roof Garden a long, long time ago with BJ Thomas, and it was my first of 5 gigs with him. I was just a kid (really-16 years old). He comes walking into the venue for a pre-show rehearsal,and says "boys, I'm gonnna be a big star. I just got in from New York and signed a deal to sing the title song from this movie comin out this fall-some western with Paul Newman and some guy by the name of Robert Redford. called Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
"And I want to do the song tonight".
He opened a briefcase and tossed out some sheet music, and we rehearsed "Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head". But the thing that blew me away was the fact that the sheet music was in Burt Bachrach's own handwriting. That night at the Roof Garden we played it, and, as far as I know, I was the first bass player to ever play that song live.

A little useless trivia fact.








:)

Didn't Okibogi used to have some sort of mythical critter?

One of those seldom seen things like a Loch Ness Monster, or a Yeti/Sasquatch mythical type things?

IIRC, Lake Okiboji is one of only a few true blue water lakes in the world. I mean true blue water, not chemically ehhanced. I don't remember what natural phenomenon causes it, but then again I don't remember what I did last night after 11:00. :rolleyes:

Hoov, I'm going there for RAGBRAI, good friends say the Lighthouse is a good feedbag. Been to the Ritz, decent bar on the water.

Its blue b/c its one of only 5 spring fed lakes in the world... IIRC... or at least of its size or something, i forget... anyone... ? !?

I think the Ritz has been replaced by some fancy steakhouse, but I might be mistaken.