Home, Home on the Home . . . Driving and Palouse Falls - Rear View Mirror

I've had that Paul Simon song that starts, "Gee but it's great to be back home. Home is where I want to beeee.  I've been on the road so long my friend and if you came along I know you wouldn't disagree." going through my head.  We drove home from Cascade, Idaho yesterday.  I always feel like I need to qualify the "we" because Gen did all the driving and was as stoic about it as ever.  He definitely had a rush of joy when we pulled up to the Obata residence in Tacoma.

Our last night was a performance in a theater, and in spite of the fact that the performance was part of a community event where children are performing, we were received as excellence in entertainment, and performance.  The MC was the organizer of the entire thing.  It was a takeoff of "A Prairie Home Companion".  The community turned out in good force to support the event.  There were two more performances planned after our departure, one on Saturday, and one on Sunday (today).

It actually is a thrill to play in a theater where there is professional lighting, and a sound man with a room full of people eager to hear what you have to sing about.  I think that all of us enjoyed being there in spite of the fact that the last set was squeezed between a set for marionette puppets and the wall.  I didn't realize it until I asked Gen the next day, but he said he was partially obscured by the set.  I hate that.  I should have been partially obscured.

Neighborhood Transportation

Valley Home Companion

Gilmour Ranch

The night was full of narrative regarding the occupational spread of the "Long Valley", which is where Cascade is situated.  We were in the show as music while people were arriving, music at the intermission, and two spots in the show.  We played a song that I learned from my father, "The Frozen Logger", which many of you will recognize as it is fairly old and has been recorded by a number of artists, including Johnny Cash.  I very rarely play that song so I had recovered it from my long term memory, and Gen put in a mandolin intro and outro.  I would have had Kristi sing it but in the interest of efficiency I sang it as I already knew all the verses.

The other song, which serendipitously immediately preceded the logger skit was a railroad song.  We performed my song "Great Grandfather" which is introduced by me playing an instrumental version of "Freight Train" by Elizabeth Cotton.  Once again Gen accompanied Kristi and me with the mandolin. I had to embrace my folkiness in this circumstance.  I'm not a very hardcore folky at all, and often feel like I'm undressing in public when I perform hardcore "folk" music.  I really prefer to be considered "Americana", which is just a step away from folk music. This was appropriate for the venue, and the circumstance so . . . there ya go.

The MC sang "Cows with Guns" and there was a stop action video that went with it that was pretty good.  Someone put a lot of work into that.  The marionettes were pretty good too.  They were very fun.  We all enjoyed the evening and were grateful for the opportunity to play in a theater full of people who truly appreciated us.

The next morning we all got out of bed early enough to be on the road by 8 am.  Kristi and I had our alarm set for 7 am.  Gen was, not surprisingly, up by the time we trundled out of bed and down the stairs.  I've been wearing black T-shirts for a month.  This morning I put on my "Wildwood Guitars" T-shirt that I got from Jimmy Monteith-Towler.

We stopped to be tourists a few times on our way home.  We have been blowing through this country like we are on a quest that requires us to keep on movin', and in fact, that has been the case.  We have been on a tight schedule a lot of the time and we have only been stopping for gas and a restroom, maybe a little food now and again.  We have been "hard traveling".  Our friends from Cascade/Tacoma David and Susan told us we must see Palouse Falls, and so we did.

Kristi doing her best impression of a tourist in Idaho

It was really worth it.  We also stopped at the Nez Perce information center on their recommendation. That also was worth the stop.  We even stopped in the hills after we went through Riggins, Idaho to take pictures of the hills as the light was right, and the hills looked really cool.

We got going the wrong way coming into Lewiston, ID.  Our GPS, Kirsti, wanted to take us through Pullman, and Spokane.  Kirsti sometimes doesn't really know what she is doing.  On the other hand, we ended up on the overlook of Lewiston which is pretty spectacular as views go.

After that we turned around and went into Lewiston to a grocery store for something to eat.  After the grocery store we headed out for Palouse Falls.  We knew nothing about it except a brief description of how it got to be the way it is, and that it was worth a stop.  Gen was determined, and I decided that maybe I would learn something if I listened to him.

When we left the grocery store we drove out of town over the Snake River and headed out into the wilderness of South Eastern Washington.  I have often thought that it's kind of a magical place.  The hills seem so evenly rounded there it reminds me of a scene from the Hobbit.  Of course it isn't spring yet but it has been warm and wet where the elevation is low enough and you can see some signs of green returning to the landscape.  It is mostly rural there and especially scenic along the river.  There is one spot where you can see two railroad bridges crossing the snake before you come to the automobile bridge across the river.

It's an interesting landscape there with the rocks coming right down into the river.  The bridge crosses the river and heads straight up the side of a hill.

Then we are headed for Palouse Falls Park.  Our GPS, Kirsti, knows where it is.  It's just off the road so it's no challenge to follow the road to our turnoff.  It is well marked.  It is a muddy road and we are following another car.  I'm surprised as we see another car leaving.  I have driven past this location a few times and never paid any attention to it until we got a cue from our friend's the Gilmours.  We finally arrive at our destination.  It is a state park.  Once we get a look at what's there I realize it could easily be a national park/monument whatever.  It is really a spectacular natural landscape and the waterfall is one of the most scenic I've seen.

It was, however, a long drive from Palouse Falls to Tacoma.  I was totally done in by the time we dropped Gen off and got the car unloaded.  On the other hand, all of us are looking forward to more touring.  All of our audiences on this trip were enthusiastic about us.  We have had a successful tour, and at least for the last 12 hours of our tour we were tourists.  Truthfully though, Kristi gave Gen a tour of Spokane and it was turn around in his hometown of St. Louis.  Gen, and his wife Rebecca took us all around St. Louis, or at least we saw a good bit of the city.  Keep in touch and we'll give a taste of some more of the world at another time.  It is great to be back home.

Driving, driving, arriving, driving, performing, etc.

Driving, Driving, Driving

Becky, Gen, Kristi, David on David and Becky's front porch

We have arrived in Pocatello, Idaho once again the home of Becky Hardy Van Hemert Kristi’s old friend from the University of Idaho and her sorority sister.  It was a long drive from Boulder, Co.  The drive to Boulder was incredibly long.  Amazingly it was February when we left Tacoma, and now it is March.  I guess that’s the way things happen every year.  First you have February, then you have March and I suppose that all things considered it will be April eventually and then May.

It is “super Tuesday” today and the USA once again demonstrates how generally stupid it’s population is.  I don’t believe I said that, but that’s the way it feels.   I know better than that, but really folks.  There are real problems to solve and you are choosing people who categorically will refuse to solve them.  They will tell you that they are working on it, that they want to solve them but it’s too difficult.  All that will really be missing is the will to solve the problems but the difficulty lies in the fact that the human race may truly not survive having its’ head stuck in the sand, or in this case some other dark place.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about I don’t have the space here to explain. 

Colorado Sunset

It was over 800 miles from St. Louis to Boulder.  It was approximately a 14 hour drive.  I still wonder if Kristi and I would have made the drive by ourselves.  We only drove 4 out of the 14 hours.  Gen drove the other 10.  He is very stoic about it.  I believe he even said that he kind of enjoys driving, which is something that I could have said but I get sleepy these days.  I did make some long drives coming out east.  I drove from Spokane to Missoula, but that was not nearly St. Louis to Boulder.  There are not trees like we have in Western Washington.  You can see for miles, and miles all the way.  There were some hills,  but no real mountains.  Even the mountains around Boulder are pretty tame hills that are near.  Of course there are some big mountains off in the distance once you get there. 

Colorado Wind Farm

The drive across Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado was telling.  There were way too many Christian billboards, and signs that were anti-abortion.  There was just way too much right wing propaganda.  It was pretty much all in your face and downright offensive to anyone who would not agree with the opinions expressed.   We drove through a lot of little towns that had a church steeple as its’ prominent visual feature.   Just out of Kansas City there were a number of housing developments in the middle of nowhere.  I have thought for some time that these kinds of housing developments are a mistake.  I think a lot of the houses are sold as “rural” living, but with a motif of urban housing.  People who move to such a development will soon want strip malls and will continue to populate the empty landscape while the urban environment, which has housing that has passed its’ expiration date and empty lots will continue to decay as populations flee to populate an automobile driven illusion.

The drive on Monday from Boulder to Pocatello was different.  For one thing we had 50 mph winds to drive through and soon after crossing the border from Colorado into Wyoming we hit snow.  The snow was windblown and not sticking on the road.  It was actually a little scenic as there wasn’t enough of it to even obscure vision much.  Very soon we were driving on highway that had elevation of over 8000 feet.

We stayed with Gen’s old family friends Idie and Tim.  As usual his friends are very interesting, thoughtful, kind and conversational.  I was truly exhausted by the time we arrived.  We played the night before in St. Louis.  I have a hard time being sociable when exhausted.  I simply lack some social grace at those times and probably would do better if I simply went to my room and didn’t try to be sociable.  It was truly strange to perform at 2 am in Kansas City and try to be credible when really, really tired.  I suppose that the people who were listening to us were in similar condition.

Idie, Tim, and Gen in Boulder, CO

 I hope you all read the review that we got from what is a new fan in St. Louis.  It was obvious that our high opinion of Gen Obata is also true in St. Louis.  It was great fun to have everyone applauding every time Gen played a solo.  It was just great to play for an audience that felt like we were meeting their high expectations.  It was a small theater and the staff were very positive and gave us the feeling that we were stars, a feeling that I very seldom feel on my own.  It was great to have a good sound guy mixing us although there was a problem with a direct box and Gen’s mandolin got cut off in the 2^nd set.  I found it incredibly easy to ignore the audio problems, which is great for me.  Once again I think that it’s Gen’s influence in the band.  I don’t always ignore the audio, and I don’t trust anyone who is doing sound for me.  I guess I have sound man PTSD.  The sound guy was very credible, and the room was not very large so he didn’t have a very difficult job as far as sound goes.  He actually had two direct boxes that crapped out on him.  I brought a couple of direct boxes but have had no use for them so far.   Had I been prescient I would have had use for them that night.  I did have them with me.

People asked me about my songs on our break.  It was great that they were such a discerning audience.  Meanwhile . . . somewhere in Pocatello, Idaho we are mentally preparing for our next journey to Cascade, Idaho.

We are in Cascade, Idaho.  We have been here since Wednesday afternoon.  There is a considerable amount of snow on the ground here, but the weather has been good and it is all old snow.  This morning you can see that it has been cold outside.  The mornings find all the outside water frozen and sparkles on ice crystals on the porch.  By afternoon water is running off of the roof and everything is in a state of intense thaw.  It actually was pretty warm by the time Kristi and I took an afternoon walk yesterday. 

The drive across Wyoming was spectacular.  The drive across Idaho was pretty interesting as well.  There were snow capped peaks in the distance in both directions to our left and right as we drove.  Highways, however, are highways and rushing through a landscape, past the towns over the rivers and through the woods tends to have the same effect.  It seems unreal in a certain respect.  You get to your destination and it’s all in your past.  All you did was sit in your seat in the car and look out the window.  It is the same experience with different pictures.  Gen and Kristi had both been down these roads before.  I hadn’t so it was all new to me.  Gen pointed out the sign that led the way to a Japanese internment camp site.  Kristi pointed out the mountains, gave me elevations and names of the highest peaks.  I took bad pictures and nibbled on snacks.

We are all looking forward to getting home.  It has been a long journey.  I hope we have learned some lessons along the way one of which is: we can do this.  I will have to laugh in the face of anyone who tells me that they are no good at the business of music unlike us.  Our strength is not being good at it, but taking the time and making the effort to do it at all.  Maybe I’ll explain in greater detail later, but suffice to say that doing the road seems to consume all of our efforts just getting to a performance space and doing the nuts and bolts of that.  What is really required is that you have your promotional ducks in a line and get them all quacking or else you really are not accomplishing what needs to be done.  Quack, quack.

Last night in Cascade we had a pretty good crowd and I must say we made them pretty happy.  We sold quite a few CDs given the size of the audience.  Tonight we are going to participate in a community event which has the potential for either building our stock, or tearing it down.  At any rate we are doing it for free.  It will be “Valley Home Companion”, a takeoff on “A Prairie Home Companion” with local people putting on a performance.  We will play at the intro, the intermission, and at least one place in the show as well.  I will be soooo happy to have this behind me and even happier to be on the road back to Tacoma tomorrow.