Not in Kansas Anymore?

Well Toto, apparently we aren’t in Kansas anymore. The grocery stores are just not the same are they boy? And well, speaking of wells we haven’t seen an oil well anywhere have we boy? Where do you suppose they get all that oil? They are driving all over the place in their cute little cars. They rented one to me that gets 50 miles on a gallon of their gasoline. Maybe it’s special fuel? Huh boy? What’s that you’re saying? A lot of the dogs look a lot like you? I can see that. Hey boy, how about that cigarette package? I haven’t seen one like that since we smuggled our CDs across the Canadian border and bought a big bottle of Dramboui in the duty free store on the way back. I guess when you get free health care they are more concerned if someone is poisoning you to death.

 Really though Toto, we do enjoy the grocery stores, the scenery, the people. It’s great to be someplace where everything is exciting. Here in Yorkshire there are some places, like right outside our window that look a little bit like Kansas if you imagine an oilwell, or a fracking station on the horizon.

On the other hand Toto, don’t behave in such a naïve fashion. They have done mining here in the UK for a very long time, and have in fact done fracking here as well. It isn’t Wyoming Toto, but it does speak to a certain commercial mentality that isn’t unique to Kansas. You know Toto, it isn’t too surprising that the tornado put us down here either. England is a very windy place and tornados, though not commonplace here, are far from unheard of.

 Cosmo’s Dream was in North Shields last Friday. We went for a very successful sing-a-round where we were accused of being quite too professional and asked to apologize for the same. The venue was Belden’s at the Exchange and was run by the family of Gerry Belden. Gerry turned out to be a real prince which makes a gig ever so much easier and fretless. We also had our good friend Val Montieth-Towler there to keep us company, always a real pleasure. Gerry took Val, Kristi and me to lunch for fish n chips. We sat in a parking lot on the Tyne River and watched the water, saw a very large ferry head off for Amsterdam and chatted.

Sing-A-Round

 Gerry is a musician and it turned out that his children are quite talented as well. He had lights, a PA and, as I recall, we had a fine time filling that room with sound. There were a few folks who had been at the afternoon sing-a-round who turned up to cheer us on. Kristi tells me we actually have some fans as a result of our adventure there. When we took our break Gerry and his daughter played what is called “a floor spot”. He invited others to do the same but had no takers. His daughter and his son both have lovely voices and family harmonies filled the room with North American songs that you might expect to hear from Neil Young (“After the Gold Rush”), and Leonard Cohen (“Alleleuia”) + more. When the evening was over Gerry assured us that he would be more than happy to book us back. The next day (Saturday) we had the day off from playing.

Gerry  Belden having a chat

We all drove to Yorkshire to check into an Air B and B. Those of you who know Kristi and I well have probably suffered through our little chat about what Air B&B really means to a marketplace, and the people who are participating throughout the world. I won’t put you through that here. I may actually be wrong about how I see this paradigm. That aside, the B&B turns out to be the single most deluxe accommodation we have ever had in the UK. We have two bedrooms with separate bathrooms, a large fully equipped kitchen, parking across the road, a large screen color TV with a DVD player. The kitchen has laundry facilities built-in as well. We would generally think this was more than we could afford, but we are sharing it with the other members of our party and it isn’t that much. It is in the pleasant Yorkshire countryside with stores just a walk away. Great. It is a very restful place to be.

Our B n B in Shepley, Yorkshire

We played at a place called “Joule’s Yard” in Market Harborough, Leicestershire on Sunday.

Kristi talkin' to the boss man

Here is the guy talking to Kristi, Gen, and Rebecca. He is apparently the owner of this establishment. We actually had a good time playing here as the PA was pretty good and nobody gave us any grief about being too loud, or not playing “Free Bird”. We even got a few tips and we didn't even play their favorite songs. They just plain and simply liked us.

Dave - front house manager

 This is Dave and he put up with my initial grumpiness, even taking time to cultivate a relaxed feel in our working relationship. He is the “front of house” manager. I think that’s the title he gave himself. I went away thinking he’s a pretty nice guy who made a sincere effort to make us feel at home. He said they would have us back if we come back to the UK.  There was a jazz guitarist who came on after us. His name is Steve Fearon. He’s a very nice guy and an excellent guitarist.

Joules Yard is something of a complex. There is an indoor restaurant and then the place where we played which has a window at the back to order drinks. What is really amazing is the back room where they have wood stoves for sale.

 Here’s a picture of the stage where we played at Joules. Like I say, they had a very reasonable PA system and people were polite on the Sunday afternoon when we played. We even sold a few CDs. The drive to Market Harborough was easy and reasonably uneventful. We were all exhausted by the time we got back to the B&B in Shepley. More about that later. Keep the home fires burning.

New Day

It is a new day.  We have played a couple of times now.  They were both all acoustic which is not by my estimation the best way to experience Cosmo's Dream.  We did have a good night at the Iron Horse. There were some old friends which was bittersweet as it reminded us of the friends who have passed on.  It was a good crowd though.

As I have mentioned before, jet-lag has been a concern but is now tapering off and not so much a problem.  We were concerned enough that we made sure we arrived at John Snowball's house early enough that we could take a nap before playing.  John and his wife Janet fed us and entertained us before and after we played.  We enjoyed them immensely.  They let us stay until after noon on Tuesday.

We didn't have far to go on Tuesday, just up to Washington where we have rented a hotel room for a few days.  On the way we stopped at Tesco and purchased some groceries and things to help us with our modest lifestyle on the road.  Gen and Rebecca are staying at an Air BnB in Darlington.

Yesterday we played outdoors at a park.  A friend, Jim Wigfield, had arranged it. Jim and his wife Allison made us feel welcomed and appreciated.  I don't really like to play outdoors where people are talking, not close and there is a lot of other ambient sound in the area but we did play.  We got about 15 pounds in tips.  Jim played a couple of his very funny novelty songs that were both set in a rural setting.  We made chicken sounds along with him on the solo part of the song about chickens.

 Kristi and I spent our share of the tips on dinner that night.  We went to Darlington and spent some time with Gen, Rebecca, and their lively Air BnB host Martin.  We wandered around the very pretty Victorian town center.  He wanted to take us to a pub which had an event going on and lacked seating for us to stay comfortably.  We went to a very good Indian and Bangladesh restaurant for dinner.

Darlington B n B

Kristi had looked up places for us to attend sing-a-rounds etc. and had found Tynefolk in Blaydon for Thursday night.

These days getting ready for bed has become very procedural in that we have a lot of digital devices that use rechargeable batteries. That means that we spend some time finding electrical outlets, figuring out how to get everything plugged in so we have a working computer, phone, camera, movie camera etc.  It can take up to ten minutes extra to get ready for bed.

Kristi @ the Washeteria in Chester Le Street

Some days we just have to get varied errands done.  That's part of what we did yesterday.  We went to Chester le Street (odd name for a town?) to use the Washeteria, do some grocery shopping, and go to a bank.  Visiting a town high street is always interesting to me.

It was a busy time of day, kind of warm.  Our first chore was the grocery store.  Our GPS didn't find the Tesco there so we had a postal code for Morrison's which is where we did our shopping.  We found everything that we were looking for.  If you have never been to a UK grocery store I can tell you that a few things are different.  For one thing when you get a grocery cart you shove a pound coin in a coupling to get the cart.  The pound is returned when you bring the cart back.  You get someone else's pound when you shove the coupling back into the socket on the next cart in line.  I'll have to take a picture next time so I can show you.  

We bought laundry detergent at Morrison's.  The way they package laundry detergent here keeps changing.  Now it comes in little plastic capsules that dissolve in the wash.  It used to come in solid tablets.  They still dispense powder at the machines in the laundromat. 

After the laundromat we returned to Washington and prepared ourselves for a trip to Blaydon.  We had heard from Gen via text message that he would meet us in Blaydon.  The time on the text was 1:14 am.

We rely on our GPS these days to get us from one place to another.  It usually works well but can occasionally have some glitches.  We are also glitchable.  In this case it was a combo.  We didn't follow the directions of the GPS exactly, and it couldn't find our new location.  We were only lost for about 5 minutes, but it seemed much longer as we were on a deadline.  As it turned out I need not have fretted.  Gen and Rebecca were waiting at the Black Bull when we arrived.  The four of us were alone.  Kristi had called ahead and so we were sure the sing-a-round was happening.  We just were not in tune with the personal rythyms of the Tynefolk FC.  We were expecting to start at 8 and sure enough just a little after eight people started arriving.

It was a lovely night.  Gen and Rebecca left at the break.  We had played three songs, one sung by each of us.  The club is a very traditional singers club so we got to hear a lot of songs relating to life and culture in the Northeast.  There were at least two songs about being "made redundant", or in American vernacular being laid off.  There was the "national anthem" of the Northeast written in 1862 about a trip to the "Blaydon Races".  I hope that they felt that we shared some of our culture with them as well.  Kristi and I sang four songs at the end of the night.  We felt very well received.

Tonight we play in North Shields.  It should be a very good night.  I'll let you know.  In the meantime keep the home fires burning.  

Where we are?

Monday morning and jet-lag remains.  Jet-lag is an insidious thing if you are expected to do anything. That's even if you expect to do anything for the first couple of days after 

arriving at your destination.  As a tourist expectations in this regard may be relatively modest.  Therefore we temporarily lapsed into tourist mode last evening.  It got us out of our room, into the sun, and exercising, however modest that may have been.

Kristi planned well for us, having been in this rodeo a few times before.  When I started driving yesterday things seemed to be going well for the first bit.  Jetlag hits me like someone threw a rock at me and hit me in the head.  I'll be innocently firing a rocket down the local motorway, alive with the moment, ready to take on the world when suddenly this rock hits me in the side of my head and I want desperately to go to sleep.  I'm in my rocket, in control and know that if I don't remain conscious I will fall out of orbit and find myself wandering in space for eternity.  "Steve to mission control - I am fading, afraid that I've taken too many Gs.  Please take remote control of my ship.  Mission Control, Mission Control I am falling out of orbit.  We are headed for the planet.  Someone help me!  Mayday!  Mayday! We are out of control."  Suddenly.

I have discovered energy drinks, but it would seem that they are only good for one round.  The next one doesn't have the same affect.  The first one, however - first 

"Monster" drink brought me around only to find that the thugs had me tied to my seat and were giving me a break from beating me into unconsciousness and soon enough they were hitting me again and the race car I was driving was suddenly shaking and threatening to spin out of control in the long curves as my competitor came up on me and threatened to take my winning spot in the lineup.

The last time we stopped before reaching our destination I would swear I fell asleep on the exit ramp.  I managed to bring the car to a stop in a reasonable parking place and knew that if I just held out for awhile longer the thugs would tire of their game, untie me and let me rest for awhile.  It does hold some serious danger for those who believe that they can operate a motor vehicle.  So far I have survived.  Like I say, it isn't my first rodeo.

Not a pretty sight to see

When we first visited the UK in 2001 we had read Rick Steves and made an effort to not stand out from the crowd.  With every return to this country the world becomes smaller and similarities in dress and mannerisms are notable.  As the mega corporations gain a larger, and larger foothold in world society we become a picture of the same person everywhere we go.  Like the visual homogenation of

America you see the same McDonald's, Burger King, and in the UK Marks and Spencer signs everywhere you go.  I have to admit that Mark's and Spencer is a breath of fresh air compared to their American brethren.  It reminds me a bit of Trader Joe's only classier. I've been watching this metamorphosis here since 2001 now.  I loved coming into a town that was still uncorrupted by the big corporation in the sky.  There would be a high street with the "butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker".  There was a charm and as an American you knew that you were someplace foreign, strange, and beautiful within that strange.  I sometimes wonder if people see the changes happening around them.  Does the caterpillar know that he will sometime be a butterfly?  Does it just happen and then one day the lifespan of the butterfly is over, used up, and the creature vanishes from the planet?  Is that where we are headed?

I've been communicating with my UK friends and I'm anticipating catching up. Soon.  People ask us why we make these journeys.  If we look closely we see the grim reaper slowly walking in our shadow waiting for his moment.  I whistle as I walk, ignoring him, trying to be as disdainful of him as I can, hoping to offend him and send him off to follow someone else.  I am alive and I am doing my best to remain vital in this life.  Tonight will be our first performance here.  Our phone woke us up with a text from our phone provider.  Kristi told me she had only slept for two hours.  She has gone back to sleep and I'm hoping that she isn't jet-lagged like a drunken sailor tonight.  Hell, I feel pretty good and slept through the night but I know that the gremlins of a clock turned on it's head will take their toll as they please and I may not be able to fight them off.  

The truth is that the UK is still very much a foreign country to me.  You'll never find an American bragging that he is still living on land that has been in his family has for 600 years.  Whether that person is being entirely truthful or not is pretty much irrelevant.  The point is that people who look like me have been living here for thousands of years.  There is some psychological connectivity that goes on and I feel like I have a better awareness of just what it means to be human just by being in this different place.

Kristi is up now and it is checkout time here.  I am in a foreign country.  Life is good.
You have a simple task.  Keep the home fires burning. 

Anticipation

    Kristi and I spent yesterday packing for the U.K.  We leave tomorrow night.  In the meantime it seems there are a lot of loose ends to tie up.  Wish us luck on that.  I just remembered something to put on my "to do" list.  OK.  That's done.
    We've been talking to friends in the UK.  I am looking forward to seeing them.  It has been a couple of years and mostly what I've seen of them in that time has been on Facebook.  At the same time that I'm embarking on a new expedition, I am abandoning ship on projects at home for the time we'll be gone.  I have given myself permission to do this.
    It is the next day and we are in the airport.  We haven't been flying for awhile and we are not used to the procedures.  It turns out that we are a good deal more efficient than is necessary to get on board an airplane.  It is only 6:50 pm and the plane doesn't board until 8:20 pm.  I don't think I've ever been this early for a flight, but as I say, I haven't been flying much.
     Kristi managed to get us seats that are together.  She just went up to the guy at the gate and he helped her out.  That will be nice as we were placed quite a distance from each other in our original seat assignments.

      This kind of travel is somewhat surreal as we were there, and now we are half a world away in the UK.  We haven't had any real sleep yet, but are safely in our hotel room.  We ran into "Fools Gold",who we know from north of here.  They just spotted us as we were checking into the room.  I was so surprised and didn't recognize them for a bit.  I think we'll see them tomorrow morning.  By sometime tomorrow we should have a phone that works as well.  The network that we are signed up for doesn't reach to this particular location.  

     We haven't seen any news today which is totally out of character for us.  Maybe I should say for "me" as I'm not sure Kristi would see as much news as she does if I were not around.  Driving to this hotel was fine.  I'm slightly surprised that I'm not already asleep though.  It is about time for that.

There was a memorable incident on the airplane before it took off yesterday.  Kristi and I have been discussing all day what we saw and what it meant.   I'll tell you about it in the morning when I am more awake.  Suffice to say that it involved a woman and her baby being kicked off of the plane.

for now say good night.  We'll blog you in the morning.

     About the woman on the airplane I can only say what I saw and heard.  She and the staff gave enough information to discern that she was Nigerian.  The staff on the plane were trying to tell her exactly what facilities were available for her and her baby.  She didn't like what they were telling her and it sounded like she had some experience carrying a child on an aircraft, certainly had some expectations which were not being met.  As the staff explained, showed her another woman who had a baby onboard she became more and more agitated.  We didn't know whether she was used to getting some kind of special treatment for being a mother, whether her demands were reasonable, or if she was simply trying to intimidate the staff into meeting her demands.  It seemed to me that there was some kind of disconnect going on, that she didn't understand what the staff were telling her, or they didn't understand what her needs were.  At one point a large authoritative man came up to her and told her to calm down or she would be removed from the aircraft.  She became even more agitated and they removed the woman and her baby from the plane.

     We are at a Travelodge near Bishop's Stortford.  We are getting ready to head off to 

near Sheffield today.  We are taking our jet lagged time about doing anything right now. We had a nice visit with Steve and Carol of Fool's Gold Acoustic at breakfast.  We have seen them perform a number of times on other trips.  It was good to have a chat with them, and so serendipitous that we would actually connect with them.  They are here visiting with Carol's parents.

     So it is a small world.  It doesn't seem that way to me most of the time as we travel across the planet for this reason or that.  We have a phone that is working, and we are back into our old ways.  We are looking forward to playing for people here, and experiencing them.  Keep the home fires burning..  Steve Nebel

Comso's Dream at Anelia's Kitchen and Stage, La Conner, WA

We had a busy Saturday this last weekend.  We played at the Proctor Farmer's Market in the morning from 9am to 11am.  We played a straight 2 hour set there.  It was very enjoyable as we had a lot of friends who stopped in to hear us.  I really enjoy singing with Kristi and Gen.  Gen is a wonderful guitar player, songwriter and gets such a nice blend with our voices.  We have such a great time playing his songs because we know everyone will love them.

Kristi and I got to the market early.  For a change we drove in and unloaded at the entertainment canopy like we were regular vendors.  That was kinda nice as it is often a bit stressful carrying all of our gear for a block or two.  It doesn't seem like much gear as long as you don't have to carry it too far.  It has been an overcast July this year so far.  Saturday was no exception, but it was just warm enough to be comfortable outdoors.  It has been just wet enough that the entire state is pretty, and green now.

We played my new song "California" at the market.  It was only the second time we had played it.  It went down well.  I think it has a nice sound, and people who are from California just like hearing the name of their home state repeated in a song.  Although the song is a fiction it has a slight ring of truth to it.

After our two hour set we packed up and went home.    Gen and (his wife) Rebecca schmoozed with one of our fans after we finished playing.  That is good as I'm not really sociable in these situations. The truth is that I sometimes cannot imagine having fans as I just enjoy making that sound and I'm often oblivious of whether someone else is interested in the sound we are making. It is good to be playing with someone who is good with the people who come to see us.  Kristi has been good with that too.  It's good that those two are good with  that.  Frankly, I always have a job to do getting things broken down and packed up.

We followed Gen and Rebecca through the market on our way out.  By now we know a few of the vendors.  It is a really comfortable situation for us.  There were people who actually stayed for most of the two hours listening to us play.  That is very gratifying, and I think it is a bit unusual.  Put it this way.  I don't think that Kristi and I ever had anyone stand for the complete two hours listening to us sing at a farmer's market.  There was at least one guy who did that, and there were an exceptional number of people who stood and listened for an hour or maybe more.

After the farmer's market Kristi and I went home, had a little bit of leftovers for lunch and we took a nap.  That was a good thing to do because our Saturday wasn't over yet.  It was a good long nap.  We had booked a party in the Olympia area for Saturday starting at 6 pm.  We picked Gen up from his house.  He brought his QFC powered speakers.  I brought a mixer, cables, mic stands etc.

The first part of the drive there was uneventful freeway driving.  We got off of the freeway at exit 111 which is pre-Lacy/Olympia.  We had our GPS running and I didn't think that it would be far from the freeway, but as it turned out there was another 10 miles to drive after getting off of I-5.  The first part of Marvin Road is  fairly new development.  We have been there many times as there are a couple of businesses out that way that we use now and again.  I was also reminded of an adult community out that way that we played a few years ago.

The development just keeps getting more developed all the time and as houses grow, so do businesses.  That always bothers me as it seems like a little bit of hypocrisy when someone moves out into the countryside having been sold on country living and then finds they don't like the inconvenience of being 10 miles from businesses who sell them groceries etc.  Then the businesses move out into the countryside and you no longer have only houses, but you now have miles and miles of strip malls, and concrete.  Ah well, such is life.  I guess.

The latter part of the drive was gorgeous.  It was green, lush, and the houses are zoned to be on very large lots (five acres).  There was a river we drove by for awhile, and there was forest everywhere. The  lots filled with Douglas Fir seemed like a fantasy to me.  It was all so green, bright, and alive.
We spend too much of our time in the city, and where we live is something of a desert.  It seems like more of a desert after that drive on Saturday.

The place where we were playing had a long driveway and obviously was on a pretty large property.  We drove past pens with chickens, and turkeys all under the shade of giant Douglas Fir trees.  As we got further up the driveway you could see a large workshop kind of building looming in the near distance.  There was a house that obviously a bit new and a pen with floppy eared goats.  There was a person working on a chicken house who introduced herself as the sister-in-law from Oklahoma.  We soon met Seth, the man of the house and we backed the car over the lawn to the porch where we were give a space to play under a shelter.  There were canopies set up on the lawn and there was a gazebo.  There was a mother duck with ducklings that we saw traversing the property for one reason or another all evening.  There was a black and white short haired dog named Charlie who was friendly and left the ducks alone.

Once we were set up to play we were pretty much all business except when we had a break.  We played one hour then took a fifteen minute break.  After that we played two more 45 minute sets with a 15 minute break before the last set.  At break time we munched on the food which was pretty good.  They had bbq ribs, bbq salmon, bbq chicken, potato salad, chips, and marshmallow covered brownies.  They had beer too but we did not partake anticipating a drive home and a long day on Sunday.

Kristi and I had a great time playing with Gen.  We feel like we are much more than we are as a duo, or as single performers.  I hope that Gen feels the same way.  On Sunday Kristi and I had a dance to play in Wenatchee and Gen played in a bar down in Oregon.   Gen took the pictures of the goat(s).
We had a good gig in Wenatchee and I'm sure that folks in Oregon enjoyed hearing Gen play his songs.  You can check out our schedule at http://www.cosmosdream.sknebel.com

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.