Fw: home again

 

This is an excerpt from a email to a friend

Well we got back alive, not without a few close calls but that comes with the interstate. I 40 is almost a world unto it's self with the truck stops and motels and fast food. Very hard to get good food on the road but after driving for hours you don't care.

The jazz fest in Watertown was an amazing thing, some really fine music, for free in a town with out a stoplight. Some people there work hard at getting grants and promoting events. They also have a mile long swap every year and something else, another event. I didn't find out what it is. But it is real life there and people are poor for the most part.

I got a CD by Bob Curnow. His was the last show and headlined and it is some great big band music. The band was called the Nashville Stars and they would make you want to dig out your horns and play. What a sound. I will send you a dub of the co which is the music of Pat Methney and Lyel Mayes arranged for the acoustic band. If your not aware of Pat Methney's music let me know and I'll send a few CD's. I am a fan of his, so the show was a special treat for me.

You might want to google Bob Curnow and Pat, also Rock Williams and Ellis Marsalis were high points of the fest.

It was a long drive. This is a big country. Hope you visited the web site and saw some of the pictures(mostly bad). I had hoped the journal would be better with some impressions of the country and people and places but by the end of a day I was too tired to be creative and online access was sometimes hard to find.

All in all it was a positive experience for us despite car problems that kept us from going further and seeing more places. I'll never drive that much again for a vacation. After all we have airplanes and rent a cars. But it was a TRIP.