More Missouri

I suppose that by now I should be acclimatized to Missouri.  I am definitely learning a bit.  We spent a bit of time in Kansas City but it was very contained time.  We were quite obsessed with the International Folk Alliance Conference having paid registration fees, and for a booth in the exhibit hall.  It was really great.  I attended panels on booking in the UK, booking in the US, and several others.  Gen went to music camp, and Kristi went to a panel on folk music of the 60s where she met some of her heroes. 

The day before we left Kansas City we went to the art museum there.  It was our only day of tourism there.  It is a really nice museum with art stolen from all over the world.  I’ll be sure to insert some pictures here.  We went with our hosts.  We stayed with them all the time we were in Kansas City.  I believe I discussed them in my previous blog.  They took us out for the obligatory “barbeque” after the museum.  I have never been a big fan of barbeque.  It was OK.  I told our host at one point that as a “claim to fame” having barbeque is a pretty low bar to reach.  The city is actually quite lovely and doesn’t really need bbq at all to claim fame.

Rebecca, Gen’s wife, joined us in Kansas City just a few days before we left.  It was always a real question whether we were going to have room in the car for Rebecca and all her stuff as well as all of our stuff.  I refer to Gen as spatially gifted because he seems to really have a knack for getting more stuff in the car than from a visual standpoint would seem to be able to fit.  They were squeezed in pretty tightly by the time we got all packed, but all of our stuff and all of us got in the car to make the trip to St. Louis where we are now.

Now we are in St. Louis, Missouri but on the way we stopped in Columbia, Missouri for lunch and to stretch our legs.  Lunch was at a coffee shop and was the kind of food you’d expect.  Prices seem to be pretty level for restaurant fare here.  They had a good menu.  I don’t remember what I had other than a cup of coffee, which was pretty good.  It is a college town and the other customers looked like they were probably from the college.  We didn’t go very far from out automobile.  We stopped in a couple of gift shops which I thought were very good for inexpensive goo gahs,  and the staff had made very nice displays of the goods making them more  entertaining than they would  have been otherwise.

Walking along the street suddenly we came upon a shop front that had progressive signs in the windows.  I was immediately intrigued with what I saw.  I knew I was going into this one.  When we opened the door we were looking down a staircase.  At the bottom there was a sales counter and a clerk.  She asked me for my camera bag as this was their store policy.  She hung it on a peg for pickup on my way out.  I asked her about the store and she said it was a nonprofit business that promoted social justice and peace events.  Then she steered me to a little older woman who explained the store in more depth.  They have a peace vigil on Wednesday nights just like we do.  They have dinners to raise funds, and in the summer some concerts.  If we were coming through town we might be able to hook into their events to help them raise some money.  She pointed out an older guy (older still than the older woman) who she pegged as their fearless leader.  I didn’t talk to him as he looked like he was rushing around on a mission.  We all bought something there and it turned out that their prices were ridiculously low.  They had a lot of fair trade items, handmade hats etc.  It actually was a pretty good store.  For me that store was the high point of my visit to Columbia.

We then drove to St. Louis and we are now on our 5^th and last day here.  Tonight we play at the Focal Point, probably the most concert-y of our concerts although we don’t know that for sure yet.  We have been staying with Gen’s friend and former band mate Chris.  Chris’s wife is out-of-town so we didn’t get to meet her.  Chris also has a dog that is a character and quite lovable.  His name is Chester.

Most of the housing we have seen is of brick construction.  It would seem to be built late 19^th century into the 1930s perhaps.  I’m not sure but that’s what it looks like.  A lot of these buildings are multiplex but the one we stayed in has been converted to single family.  There are miles and miles of neighborhoods like this.  They often have balconies on the 2^nd floor where their residents can hang out in the summertime and watch the world roll by.

The neighborhood here is apparently the progressive part of town.  Rebecca took us to University City today and I didn’t see much in the way of obvious progressive attitudes there.  Here most of the shops have “Stop Profiling Muslim” signs in their windows.  I have seen quite a few " Black Lives Matter" signs in yards as well as in the display windows of businesses.  Their grocery store in this neighborhood in a demographic sense has a clientele very similar to our Safeway store in our neighborhood at home.  It is a similar store as well in terms of prices and goods.  If you take a left when you get to Grand Avenue you will find a large row of restaurants with a few other businesses thrown in between.  The first time we went out with Gen and Rebecca we stopped in a free trade store and the clerk asked us about progressive attitudes in the Pacific Northwest.  I feel very comfortable in this neighborhood and I’m sure that if I lived in St. Louis I would live here.  Today we took a drive with Gen and Rebecca through a better-heeled neighborhood. 

Tomorrow we are leaving for Boulder.  It will likely be a 12 to 14 hour drive.  It probably won’t be any big deal with three drivers.  We have turkey sandwiches, and ham sandwiches, cookies, oranges, bananas and I think Kristi has enough diet Pepsi to make it to Colorado.  We’ll be driving across Kansas.  It’s been awhile since I’ve visited Kansas.

Now I’m writing from Boulder, CO.  We drove through both Missouri and Kansas yesterday to get here.  We drove across the Great Plains.  I slept through some of it as Gen drove most of it.  Kristi and I did spell him for the driving, but it was amazing that he drove so much.  There is so much rural, and hardly any urban on highway 70.  In Missouri we drove out of St. Louis and through Kansas City.  Once we hit Kansas I think Topeka was the only urban location on the route.  It somehow seems impersonal to drive through such a large expanse of territory in one day and not really see anything closeup.  There were a lot of little towns where the prominent feature was a church steeple. It seemed to me that there were a number of housing developments that were quite a ways outside of Kansas City.  They appeared ludicrous to me from the highway as I remember that these kinds of developments usually spawn businesses the sprawl eventually into megalopolis.  We tried to listen to CDs picked up at the Folk Alliance Conference  but at 80 mph the sound of the road is so loud that it's difficult to listen to any kind of audio detail.  Let's say it's impossible, or if it is possible it isn't possible with my ears.

Our night at the Focal Point in St. Louis was magical.  Rebecca invited many of their hometown friends and quite a few came. Of course almost everyone in the audience knew Gen from his days of being a musician in St. Louis.  They were incredibly supportive with many rounds of thunderous applause and a standing ovation at the end, an encore, free dinner, free beer, and a great sound guy and staff.  It is our goal to play rooms like this, or excellent house concerts exclusively. 

We are staying with an old family friend of Gen’s here in Boulder and playing at the Laughing Goat Coffee House tonight.  Tomorrow we will drive to Pocatello, Idaho to stay with Kristi’s old friend Becky, and her husband David.  After that it is on to Cascade, Idaho to visit David and Susan Gilmour.   We’ll be playing a concert, and we will be participating in their “Valley Home Companion” show.  After that it is home to Tacoma.  I’m sure you’ll hear more from me before then.