Post by billhammond on Nov 16, 2011 16:28:32 GMT -5
Fifteen nights spent on the road, 3,600 miles added to the odometer, guitars played almost every day, very little junk food, amazing sights and great friendships enjoyed throughout.
Black Beauty was parked overnight at these locations, in order:
Hartford, WI
Muskego, WI
Arlington Heights, IL
Harrison, OH
Pigeon Forge, TN
Tryon, NC
Greensboro, NC
New Market, VA (2 nights)
Near Harrisburg, PA
Washington, DC (2 nights)
Grove City, OH
Plainfield, IN
Dubuque, IA
Eight of the 15 nights were spent at the homes of gracious forumites and typically involved food, drink and musik-making, as well. Such fun was had! Thanks so much to all who extended invitations to lower, at least temporarily, the value of their homes.
I stayed off freeways as much as possible (sometimes inadvertently!) ... and was almost always rewarded with beauty, or at least interest. Most of the SE region I traveled is hilly or downright mountainous, and much of it was spectacular. Standouts included the incredible drive through Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Gatlinburg, TN, to Dillsboro, NC. Then there was Greensboro, NC, to New Market, VA, via Hwy. 29, wow. Even more gorgeous was my side trip from New Market through Luray (where 72-year-old barber Bob Johnson told me he had lived in town all his life, but had never set foot in Luray's famous caverns because he's claustrophobic) and into stunning Rappahannock County via Hwys. 211 and 522, with a stop at the wonderful Rappahannock Cellars vineyard for a pre-noon tasting!
I also loved much of the interstate route through Maryland and West Virginia. After that, things got a little flat until I got into the Quad Cities and the gorgeous Iowa towns of Dubuque and Guttenberg, some breathtaking river views there. Oh, and Hwy. 52 out of Dubuque is twisty and arched overhead with trees at its beginning, following the Little Maquoketa River with lush, mossy expanses of pastoral quietude seemingly everywhere.
The people
All my music friends seem to have much in common -- they are smart and funny as hell and all are way better looking than me: JohnLG, Our Mizz Resolve and her duo partner Ken, Marshall Alphabet, John/Dar/Breeze/Ariel, the Stereofidelics, Peter "Aquaduct" Prout, Camalex and Martin Gangl, Commodore Don Smith and his charming spouse, plus RobH and JohnB. All just outstanding people and generous to a fault.
The trip started super-well in pretty little Hartford, WI, where John Goldbach (whom I know originally from AG fora, but who I have met up with in Eau Claire and Milwaukee on previous occasions) has a 40-acre estate that is amazing -- it abuts a farm whose owner raises elk, and the trumpeting of them amid the rutting season is something I will never forget.
Then a short drive south to Muskego, where I had the honor/privilege of not only hearing Cyndy and Ken run through much of their material -- with a sound system, to boot -- but got to play with them, too! Just super fun, and the homemade lasagne was excellent!
I took Hwy. 45 to Marshall's place the next day, a slow but undemanding route that avoids the insanity of Chicagoland freeways. Marshall had laid in a VERY nice bottle of red wine, which we sipped and enjoyed super-muchly. The open mike was great, too, and it was wonderful to see Fingerplucked and Kari again (but distressing to learn of her injury that same week).
I wish I had video of Dillsboro, the pottery fair, John's booth, the sun, the mountains, the still colorful trees, the slow pace and charming ways of the people there, both the customers and the vendors. Dillsboro was also one of many towns in which I thoroughly enjoyed some hometown BBQ pork -- dayum, they know how to cook piggies down there...
The gig with the Stereofidelics in Saluda, NC, was great fun -- they wedged me into their seamless show and I did three tunes, one solo, one with Melissa playing along on fiddle and one with her playing fiddle and Chris playing guitar, as well. Very appreciative and attentive crowd. Before the gig, I walked around the little downtown district and had bittersweet memories of the two or three times that Knobtwister and I met there when I was out visiting my girls in Hendersonville and he would drive up from Spartanburg. On one occasion, he even got me a gig in Greenville -- sure do miss that wonderful man.
My time with Elderdottir was short but we made the most of it, and had a great time on a warm and sunny day hiking around a lake and having a tasty picnic of goods picked up from an organic-type grocery store. Later that day we splurged on a big restaurant meal, too. One almost constant topic of discussion was her beau Rob -- it's a very serious relationship and wedding bells are likely in the next couple of years. Will the Father of the Bride have to sell his house? Stay tuned! I will get to see the two lovebirds late next month when they join Yungerdottir in a six-day visit here.
The Shenandoah Valley exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were high. Damn, that is just beautiful country -- Peter was right that even I-81 is a heartstopper for scenery. When I return, I want to explore Roanoke and a lot more of the wine country. It's so hard to believe that such bucolic, timeless beauty is only an hour west of the Beltway! Wow, wow, wow.
Great to finally meet Peter in person, too, although we were both busy (me playing, him running sound) for most of the time we were at the club together. Next time will be different and next time I will meet Christal, I hope. Peter is funny, very capable on the gear front and taller than I knew! Day-um!
Seeing Tim and Martin again was fantastic, and we passed around guitars like crazy in the acoustic wonderfulness of the Front Street mansion that houses Tim's office in Harrisburg, PA. It was all fingerstyle, lots of Celtic, and no one fell asleep! Tim lives in a very pretty and heavily wooded region about half an hour out of town, and it was great to stay there and to meet his lovely and gracious wife, Polly.
Harrisburg has a dramatic beauty and charm that totally caught me off guard -- I look forward to going back and just walking Front Street from end to end, all along the Susquehanna with steep wooded bluffs on one side and lovely historic buildings on the other. Strong sense of old and historic amid the new in Harrisburg.
Once I solved the Beltway maze and finally got into DC and to Commodore Smith's amazing B&B, it was good night's rest and then a sunny day for a walkabout. Veterans Day was the perfect occasion to sightsee in DC. The B&B that Don and his bride Pat operate has an impressive provenance AND location -- just a bit over a mile to the White House and itself in a very historic location, Logan Circle. A book in the parlor was very insightful with tons of B&W photos of the neighborhood from the 1800s and earlier.
On foot, I concentrated on two attractions: The National Gallery of Art and the Newseum. I spent almost two hours at each. but could have easily doubled that, but I didn't want to overdose. That evening the Commodore served one of the most delicious stews I have ever et, and we drank and told lies and plucked and sang our hearts out. It was fabulous. My new best buddy Don Smith, whose work history, BTW, would turn any of you green with envy.
My original plan was to spend two nights in Indy with Mister Hanesworth, but he and JohnB and I had so much fun on Sunday that I doubt I could have survived a second night there, and I was running out of resources and the road miles were starting to become a little less fun and a little more tedious, so home started to sound pretty good. Our little Pickup Comparo Test was great fun, and John told some very entertaining tales of life inside the Guitar Center cosmos -- like how they handle loud shredders in the store.
Rob's house and family and hospitality were all grand, yet it was also great fun for just the two of us to head off to the Speedway the following morning. It was warm (70 F.), windy and sunny that morning and there was practically no one in the museum, which was nice. I knew that the track was big, but seeing it in person is mind-boggling. We actually could only see the short chute section between Turns One and Two, and even that seemed to stretch on forever. Rob has seen several Indy 500 races, and it was intriguing to hear about them firsthand.
BTW, Rob cracked me up innumerable times at IdiotJam, and he was even funner on his home turf -- wotta hoot! JohnB is very witty, too -- and generous! GEEZ, SantaB brought us strings galore and a Snark tuner, plus Rob musta felt sorry for me as I recounted how I had lost my Planet Waves capo at I-Jam, and he made me take his home with me (he just got a lighter, cheaper plastic version of that capo and likes it fine).
I had started my trip by heading along the Mississippi to Hastings, into and across Wisconsin on two-laners to JohnLG's place, and that slow and connected pace was what I closed out with, too. I can't quite explain the power of re-crossing the Mississippi at the Quad Cities, and flirting with it as I headed through Iowa and back into Minnesota. It's "our" river up here, it starts here and it runs in our veins, I guess. I saw a lot of impressive rivers on this journey, but I still get a lump in my throat whenever I think of this overlook outside Guttenberg, Iowa:
www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://home.mchsi.com/~upper_miss_river/s74.jpg&imgrefurl=http://home.mchsi.com/~upper_miss_river/MR_Pictures_Table.htm&usg=__MNiCc_3lD5wSc4D4KHsKapT9f5w=&h=378&w=576&sz=35&hl=en&start=13&zoom=1&tbnid=S0rJVhq5JmO_xM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=134&ei=xyPETrrUJOae2wWwyczcDg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Doverlook%2Bat%2Bguttenberg%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1
All in all, an amazing trip, something I had never done before on such a scale. Nothing dreadful happened, unless you count the one time I thought I had locked my keys in the car or the two times I thought I had lost my phone.
I was reminded that two years ago I could not even play a C chord, and today I am playing almost as capably as I was before my Felix Ulnar nerve went south. So I am very grateful about that and even more grateful for all you terrific folks who helped me get through that nasty period and remain a collective core to my humble existence. A super-gihugic thank-you to those who opened their homes and hearts as I traveled about -- could not have done it without you, literally.
At the risk of sounding materialistic, I am also very grateful for my guitars and my car. G2 and Mizz Martina made me and others smile often on this roadtrip, and I am so fortunate to have them in my life.
Black Beauty was a true mensch -- almost an appendage. On this trip, I needed a car that was roomy, safe, quiet, reliable and comfortable, plus there were times when power was desirable, but not at the expense of fuel economy. My overall MPG was around 29, and with a 20-gallon tank I could do some looooooong stretches. But when the roads got super hilly or super twisty or I needed to pass a semi in a hurry, it was nice to have 250 horsies in a 3,200-pound car. In other words, I had a lot of fun.
I also ran into a T-storm that dropped so much rain that I worried that I would get run into because the freeway became invisible. Thank goodness for those new tires -- my old ones wudda aquaplaned big-time.
I would also like to thank the Chief Cosmic Muffin for not causing a merger between Black Beauty and any of the dozens and dozens of late deer I saw along the roadways. So many red highway stains, just very sad.
Black Beauty was parked overnight at these locations, in order:
Hartford, WI
Muskego, WI
Arlington Heights, IL
Harrison, OH
Pigeon Forge, TN
Tryon, NC
Greensboro, NC
New Market, VA (2 nights)
Near Harrisburg, PA
Washington, DC (2 nights)
Grove City, OH
Plainfield, IN
Dubuque, IA
Eight of the 15 nights were spent at the homes of gracious forumites and typically involved food, drink and musik-making, as well. Such fun was had! Thanks so much to all who extended invitations to lower, at least temporarily, the value of their homes.
I stayed off freeways as much as possible (sometimes inadvertently!) ... and was almost always rewarded with beauty, or at least interest. Most of the SE region I traveled is hilly or downright mountainous, and much of it was spectacular. Standouts included the incredible drive through Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Gatlinburg, TN, to Dillsboro, NC. Then there was Greensboro, NC, to New Market, VA, via Hwy. 29, wow. Even more gorgeous was my side trip from New Market through Luray (where 72-year-old barber Bob Johnson told me he had lived in town all his life, but had never set foot in Luray's famous caverns because he's claustrophobic) and into stunning Rappahannock County via Hwys. 211 and 522, with a stop at the wonderful Rappahannock Cellars vineyard for a pre-noon tasting!
I also loved much of the interstate route through Maryland and West Virginia. After that, things got a little flat until I got into the Quad Cities and the gorgeous Iowa towns of Dubuque and Guttenberg, some breathtaking river views there. Oh, and Hwy. 52 out of Dubuque is twisty and arched overhead with trees at its beginning, following the Little Maquoketa River with lush, mossy expanses of pastoral quietude seemingly everywhere.
The people
All my music friends seem to have much in common -- they are smart and funny as hell and all are way better looking than me: JohnLG, Our Mizz Resolve and her duo partner Ken, Marshall Alphabet, John/Dar/Breeze/Ariel, the Stereofidelics, Peter "Aquaduct" Prout, Camalex and Martin Gangl, Commodore Don Smith and his charming spouse, plus RobH and JohnB. All just outstanding people and generous to a fault.
The trip started super-well in pretty little Hartford, WI, where John Goldbach (whom I know originally from AG fora, but who I have met up with in Eau Claire and Milwaukee on previous occasions) has a 40-acre estate that is amazing -- it abuts a farm whose owner raises elk, and the trumpeting of them amid the rutting season is something I will never forget.
Then a short drive south to Muskego, where I had the honor/privilege of not only hearing Cyndy and Ken run through much of their material -- with a sound system, to boot -- but got to play with them, too! Just super fun, and the homemade lasagne was excellent!
I took Hwy. 45 to Marshall's place the next day, a slow but undemanding route that avoids the insanity of Chicagoland freeways. Marshall had laid in a VERY nice bottle of red wine, which we sipped and enjoyed super-muchly. The open mike was great, too, and it was wonderful to see Fingerplucked and Kari again (but distressing to learn of her injury that same week).
I wish I had video of Dillsboro, the pottery fair, John's booth, the sun, the mountains, the still colorful trees, the slow pace and charming ways of the people there, both the customers and the vendors. Dillsboro was also one of many towns in which I thoroughly enjoyed some hometown BBQ pork -- dayum, they know how to cook piggies down there...
The gig with the Stereofidelics in Saluda, NC, was great fun -- they wedged me into their seamless show and I did three tunes, one solo, one with Melissa playing along on fiddle and one with her playing fiddle and Chris playing guitar, as well. Very appreciative and attentive crowd. Before the gig, I walked around the little downtown district and had bittersweet memories of the two or three times that Knobtwister and I met there when I was out visiting my girls in Hendersonville and he would drive up from Spartanburg. On one occasion, he even got me a gig in Greenville -- sure do miss that wonderful man.
My time with Elderdottir was short but we made the most of it, and had a great time on a warm and sunny day hiking around a lake and having a tasty picnic of goods picked up from an organic-type grocery store. Later that day we splurged on a big restaurant meal, too. One almost constant topic of discussion was her beau Rob -- it's a very serious relationship and wedding bells are likely in the next couple of years. Will the Father of the Bride have to sell his house? Stay tuned! I will get to see the two lovebirds late next month when they join Yungerdottir in a six-day visit here.
The Shenandoah Valley exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were high. Damn, that is just beautiful country -- Peter was right that even I-81 is a heartstopper for scenery. When I return, I want to explore Roanoke and a lot more of the wine country. It's so hard to believe that such bucolic, timeless beauty is only an hour west of the Beltway! Wow, wow, wow.
Great to finally meet Peter in person, too, although we were both busy (me playing, him running sound) for most of the time we were at the club together. Next time will be different and next time I will meet Christal, I hope. Peter is funny, very capable on the gear front and taller than I knew! Day-um!
Seeing Tim and Martin again was fantastic, and we passed around guitars like crazy in the acoustic wonderfulness of the Front Street mansion that houses Tim's office in Harrisburg, PA. It was all fingerstyle, lots of Celtic, and no one fell asleep! Tim lives in a very pretty and heavily wooded region about half an hour out of town, and it was great to stay there and to meet his lovely and gracious wife, Polly.
Harrisburg has a dramatic beauty and charm that totally caught me off guard -- I look forward to going back and just walking Front Street from end to end, all along the Susquehanna with steep wooded bluffs on one side and lovely historic buildings on the other. Strong sense of old and historic amid the new in Harrisburg.
Once I solved the Beltway maze and finally got into DC and to Commodore Smith's amazing B&B, it was good night's rest and then a sunny day for a walkabout. Veterans Day was the perfect occasion to sightsee in DC. The B&B that Don and his bride Pat operate has an impressive provenance AND location -- just a bit over a mile to the White House and itself in a very historic location, Logan Circle. A book in the parlor was very insightful with tons of B&W photos of the neighborhood from the 1800s and earlier.
On foot, I concentrated on two attractions: The National Gallery of Art and the Newseum. I spent almost two hours at each. but could have easily doubled that, but I didn't want to overdose. That evening the Commodore served one of the most delicious stews I have ever et, and we drank and told lies and plucked and sang our hearts out. It was fabulous. My new best buddy Don Smith, whose work history, BTW, would turn any of you green with envy.
My original plan was to spend two nights in Indy with Mister Hanesworth, but he and JohnB and I had so much fun on Sunday that I doubt I could have survived a second night there, and I was running out of resources and the road miles were starting to become a little less fun and a little more tedious, so home started to sound pretty good. Our little Pickup Comparo Test was great fun, and John told some very entertaining tales of life inside the Guitar Center cosmos -- like how they handle loud shredders in the store.
Rob's house and family and hospitality were all grand, yet it was also great fun for just the two of us to head off to the Speedway the following morning. It was warm (70 F.), windy and sunny that morning and there was practically no one in the museum, which was nice. I knew that the track was big, but seeing it in person is mind-boggling. We actually could only see the short chute section between Turns One and Two, and even that seemed to stretch on forever. Rob has seen several Indy 500 races, and it was intriguing to hear about them firsthand.
BTW, Rob cracked me up innumerable times at IdiotJam, and he was even funner on his home turf -- wotta hoot! JohnB is very witty, too -- and generous! GEEZ, SantaB brought us strings galore and a Snark tuner, plus Rob musta felt sorry for me as I recounted how I had lost my Planet Waves capo at I-Jam, and he made me take his home with me (he just got a lighter, cheaper plastic version of that capo and likes it fine).
I had started my trip by heading along the Mississippi to Hastings, into and across Wisconsin on two-laners to JohnLG's place, and that slow and connected pace was what I closed out with, too. I can't quite explain the power of re-crossing the Mississippi at the Quad Cities, and flirting with it as I headed through Iowa and back into Minnesota. It's "our" river up here, it starts here and it runs in our veins, I guess. I saw a lot of impressive rivers on this journey, but I still get a lump in my throat whenever I think of this overlook outside Guttenberg, Iowa:
www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://home.mchsi.com/~upper_miss_river/s74.jpg&imgrefurl=http://home.mchsi.com/~upper_miss_river/MR_Pictures_Table.htm&usg=__MNiCc_3lD5wSc4D4KHsKapT9f5w=&h=378&w=576&sz=35&hl=en&start=13&zoom=1&tbnid=S0rJVhq5JmO_xM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=134&ei=xyPETrrUJOae2wWwyczcDg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Doverlook%2Bat%2Bguttenberg%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1
All in all, an amazing trip, something I had never done before on such a scale. Nothing dreadful happened, unless you count the one time I thought I had locked my keys in the car or the two times I thought I had lost my phone.
I was reminded that two years ago I could not even play a C chord, and today I am playing almost as capably as I was before my Felix Ulnar nerve went south. So I am very grateful about that and even more grateful for all you terrific folks who helped me get through that nasty period and remain a collective core to my humble existence. A super-gihugic thank-you to those who opened their homes and hearts as I traveled about -- could not have done it without you, literally.
At the risk of sounding materialistic, I am also very grateful for my guitars and my car. G2 and Mizz Martina made me and others smile often on this roadtrip, and I am so fortunate to have them in my life.
Black Beauty was a true mensch -- almost an appendage. On this trip, I needed a car that was roomy, safe, quiet, reliable and comfortable, plus there were times when power was desirable, but not at the expense of fuel economy. My overall MPG was around 29, and with a 20-gallon tank I could do some looooooong stretches. But when the roads got super hilly or super twisty or I needed to pass a semi in a hurry, it was nice to have 250 horsies in a 3,200-pound car. In other words, I had a lot of fun.
I also ran into a T-storm that dropped so much rain that I worried that I would get run into because the freeway became invisible. Thank goodness for those new tires -- my old ones wudda aquaplaned big-time.
I would also like to thank the Chief Cosmic Muffin for not causing a merger between Black Beauty and any of the dozens and dozens of late deer I saw along the roadways. So many red highway stains, just very sad.
