Day 3 - Lamar CO to Lubbock TX

June 16th

Today we headed south to Texas. On the way out of Lamar, we made a quick stop at the Petrified Wood Building.  Terry goes to great lengths to find things that Ed has never seen before.  He succeed with this one.

Once again, we encountered strong winds out of the west.  As Terry said in the concert, "our bus driver should have received combat pay" for fighting the winds all day.

Today was a long bus day - 5 1/2 hours, plus we lost an hour going into the Central Time Zone. I'm sure you're wondering what we do on a long bus ride.

We sleep...

play video games...

read, keep in touch, do needlepoint...

 do each other's hair...

play music...

and even mix music...

After lunch in Dumas TX, we headed towards Lubbock.  But no trip to the Texas Panhandle would be complete without a visit to the Cadillac Ranch - a line of vintage Cadillacs planted in a field right off the highway.

 

You can even add your own mark...

After visiting the planted (and painted) Cadillacs, we stopped at the nearby gift store where you can see John Wayne, Willie Nelson, and Elvis Presley driving Cadillacs that are a little bit nicer.

Along with this guy...

Yep, we're in Texas.

The concert tonight was at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Lubbock TX.

It was arranged by Larni's aunt Laurie McCabe, sister of Patty (and Marcy Walzel).

Buff Hearn and his wife Sandy drove down from Amarillo.  Buff was the interim Pastor at CUMC right before Jean.

The sanctuary at St. Luke's is beautiful and the choir sounded great in the room.

Tomorrow we head out early for the big city - Dallas.

Day 2 - Lakewood CO to Lamar CO

June 15th

Happy Father's Day!  

The choir played in the church service at Green Mountain UMC this morning.  We all made lunches for later and gathered in the multipurpose room before the service:

Terry told the choir how well they played last night and gave them a little pep talk before the church service started:

They played very well again this morning.  

After the service, Jean took us to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre to enjoy the place and eat our sack lunches.  

When we got to Red Rocks, we saw a lot of cars in the parking lot at Red Rocks.  I assumed everyone was there just to enjoy the place, like us,  but it turns out they were there for another reason - working out!  The place was loaded with people running the stairs, jumping from row to row, doing yoga, and even doing pull-ups on the walls and railings.   

We ate lunch, climbed the stairs, then said good bye to Jean and headed to Lamar, CO.

Lamar is a small town in South Eastern Colorado.  It was a 4 hour drive from Red Rocks to Lamar.  Our bus driver, Don, did a great job battling the prairie winds and we arrived in Lamar right on time - 5:00 PM (although based on the time on the photo, it looks like Kevin got there an hour before we did).

The Lamar United Methodist Church is very beautiful with lots of stained glass.

Stained glass skylight in the sanctuary

We had another delicious dinner; tonight it was tacos with cheese, sour cream, lettuce, salsa, and FRESH tomatoes!  Oh, and a variety of amazing desserts.  I didn't try them all, but I was sorely tempted.

It was another good concert tonight.  The crowd was small, but very generous and extremely appreciative.  

Day 1 - Green Mountain UMC, Lakewood, CO

June 14th

We hit some traffic when we got to Denver, so we arrived at the church about 20 minutes later than we planned (at about 5:20).  We knew were were in the right place when we saw the church from the street:

The kids, ever the professionals, wasted no time in getting everything set up and ready to go. 

We had a delicious lasagne dinner with about six or more different kinds of lasagne (most or all home-made), including a gluten-free variety.  

By the time I finished getting dressed, Kevin had already used a good portion of the first package of 200 programs.  Almost all the rows in the Sanctuary were full and there were people in chairs in a few places.  I counted about 250 people, which is a GREAT turnout.

We had some special guests at the concert, including:

Ron and Pat Hodges

Michelle (White) and Pat Brown (both WBR alumni) and family

Susan (Gabert) McIntosh and her mom Caroll Gabert (not pictured)

Dagney (Gold) and Christian Kelsey (both WBR alumni) and family (including Cassie)

Of course, I can't forget Pastor Jean (not pictured), who was the senior pastor at Green Mountain UMC for 10 years before she came to CUMC.

The choir will be playing for the church service tomorrow morning, so they didn't have to take everything down before going home with their host families.

Day 1 - SLC to Lakewood CO

June 14th

Tour is finally here! Today we loaded up the bus and drove to Lakewood Colorado.  It took a little while to get the bus loaded, but the loading crews figured out how to make everything fit.  Everyone took lots of pictures and we were on the road by 7:30 AM.

The parents are sad to see the kids go...

Darlene and Gina help Trudy prepare for the trip

The seniors and super-seniors

The WBR ready to leave on the 2014 tour

On the way to Lakewood, we stopped at the Summit rest stop and saw the Giant Head of Abraham Lincoln.

In the next post, I'll put up some pictures from the concert (which was great). 

Day 0 - Salt Lake City UT

June 13th

This is the first post for the 2014 Tour. Tomorrow is the big day. The choir will be leaving for Lakewood, Colorado bright and early (way too early). 

Keep watching for more posts!

Here is a picture of the 2014 choir from the Rose Dinner on Wednesday night: