Seattle

Ok, so for those of you read the blog (and consistently remember the address ;-) ) you will realize that I haven't written for awhile, that is due to the sheer fact that I've been busy.........busy travelling, busy celebrating various events, bust performing, busy practicing. So, now I will try to catch up. last time you tuned in to my musings I was leaving bozeman MT and was heading to Spokane. So we got to Spokane which took the better part of a monday. It was a beautiful drive, but there were lots of hills, which translates to slowing going and more strain on the engine parts, BUT, the stop midway at a Cracker Barrell for lunch made the second leg a breeze. How can you not enjoy your drive after a meal with southern gravy over everyhting...mmmmmmmm So we got to Spokane, they weren't ready for us, so we held up traffic until they devised putting us in a holding parking lot until they were ready. So, like any avid emailer person in the 21st century, I climbed atop my RV to sit and surf the web, and I have to say, it was a pretty fast connection. After a bit, we were finally parked and able to set up electric water and such, which I've finally started to get the rountine under my hands. It's amazing how a thing as simple as efficiency makes me ecstatic these days. I guess it's the little things that mold your lifestyle that you learn to appreciate. In any case, the week at Spokane flew by. Went out to eat a couple of times at the season ticket, once for a birthday and another time for Josh, our sound guy's going away party. Not the grestest food or drinks in the world, but their "pitcher's mound" nachos is one of the biggest plates of nachos I've seen on the planet. Anyway, the shows flew by, but the highlight of the week was my aunt and uncle driving all the way from Seattle to see the Fri. night show. Plus, I got to trapse around the city with them all day fri. We quickly dicovered that Spokane is a nice little town with no shortage of coffee shops or gourmet food joints. So, aftrer some exploring and some eating, we happened upon the groundskeeper for the hotel they were staying at. The conversation started out with our desire to find Gonzaga university but, we ended up with friendly and expert advice...turns out that he not only was the groundskeeper but moonlights as an organist at the local cathedral, and he recommended that we check it out as well as the Manatoe park. So went up the hill to this enormous building which turned out to be an episcopal cathedral that was the largest west of the missippi when it was constructed. As you can see from my Pbase pics, it was just beautiful inside, and the thing that set it apart from all of the cathedrals I've experienced in Europe was that it had a wood ceiling instead of the usual stone vaulting that one sees in typical gothic and post-gothic cathedral architecture (I only know this because I did a report on it once, although I got an F on it because the teacher thought I had plagiarized it, when in fact I had just never written down the page numbers of my sources, and was too lazy to go back and find them; yet, with out any proof she still F'd the paper and forever damaged my view of her character) Ok, so after meeting the janitor and discussing what I do, he invited me to come and play in cathedral the next morning.......well, what trumpet player in their right mind would turn down the chance to have such an acoustic and beautiful space all to themselves. So, the sat. morning (even though I had 3 shows to do that day) I rode my motorbike up the south hill, and had an awesome mocha and Italian crepe at the Bittersweet Bistro (I'll elaborate on this fine establishment at another time, also special thanks to Jennifer Olsen for the pic) and then went and played in the church for about an hour. What an experience, the only music I had there was the hymnal, although it was episcopal, I played the ones that I knew, and it all just seemed to fit, one of those moments where, if possible, everything is in harmony, everything working together, making sense, not knowing why, but it just does and appreciating that fact. In case you didn't know, cathedrals are generally in the shape of a cross, so I just stood in the middle and played......what a way to start a sat. morning. So, the rest of the day went by quickly, it was a little painful for my lips, you see I had bit my lip on thurs. night after the show when I grilling and smokingsome meat outside my RV after the show. But, on mon. it started feeling better and healing up. But one big positive thing that happened on sat. is that I finally, finally invested in a winter leather riding jacket, it it had to be providencial, you see I was leaving for seattle on mon, so the bike shops would be closed sun. and mon. and I had a very small time frame and limited funds. So, I found a jacket that fit, was the right style, AND it was on sale. ding ding ding, I had a winner. Anyhow, that night we celebrated Josh's leaving us, and then sun. morning was my normal rountine of waking and listening to the previous week's WCC 10:45AM service. We had our two shows, the lips were a little swollen, but much much better than last weekend. The shows flew by, and I wrapped my cables and hoses, put my bike on the back, and make the shoert 2 1/2 trip to Kennewick. Well, it was supposed to be short, but when you're stupid like me and didn't follow anyone or get directions to the venue, well then you have to stop and ask for directions. Well, after 2 gas stations attendants (and different gas stations mind you) and a la quinta front desk clerk (we ended up talking for about 45min) Ok, it's late and my battery is almost dead......more tomorrow