Nebraska the good life

Time does travel quickly when your on tour!  I fully intended to finish this post by last Monday.  Oh well :) Our travel to Nebraska was ideal.  Even Wyoming had good weather and not much wind. Here's a picture of Wyoming.

When we did enter Nebraska and especially in Holdrege, it was as if we had come home away from home.  There is something very wholesome about the life in this state.  For one thing people and their lifestyles don't change quickly.  Even after being away from Holdrege for five years, nothing major had changed in the and surrounding area.  The other lifestyle that I like is the Christian openness.  It is not uncommon to meet a total stranger and have a gospel conversation.  They are also very welcoming and laid back.  When you make a friend in Nebraska, most likely it will be a longlasting friendship.

Our hosts are such friends.  For the first few nights we stayed with the Herringtons.  They not only blessed us with a place to stay but also wonderful conversations.  I have learned much from them. Our second host, Neil, housed us in Lincoln.  He was a great host.  We had fun spending time with him, even playing chess with him. His girlfriend made us dinner and we had a great time playing with her children, standing around bonfire, singing together, eating popcorn, and roasting scotcheroos over the fire!? We did try popping popcorn over the fire, but we did not quite get it right....our tinfoil container somehow ripped and fell apart. Some kernels popped but were immediately lost to the flames. Note to self, do not use tinfoil to roast popcorn :)

One fun activity we did was racquetball! When we used to live in Nebraska, we would go to the YMCA every morning.  Well now that we were back we started going again.  Graham, David and I played and had a good time.  Yes, I did play with bare feet and yes, we were sore for a few days.  Thankfully I did not get any blisters.

We had three gigs during our stay.  Our first was in Kearney at the A NOTE-worthy studio.  It was fun to see many of our good friends show up.  We also had a good time sharing our music with them.  It reminds me of the times we would perform as a family throughout Nebraska.  Boy we used to travel so much around in our big Red van.  I almost wish we still had that van for this tour.  Imagine, four people in a twelve passenger van.  Each person could lay out and sleep.  I may have been very luxurious, but I'm grateful for our truck and I have been pleased at how well it has been doing.

Our second gig was on Friday after a delicious meal with our adopted grandparents, the Clarks.  It was also fun to hear all about some of their adventures and travels.  They also showed us one of the Edison cylinder phonograph.  It was nice to step back in time for a second.  After the meal we left to Riverdale for the special jam (not fruit jam).  Many of our friends showed up for the jam and it was fun sharing music and laughter.  One of our friends drove several hours to be at the jam.  It was touching to see him again.  One of the musicians saranaded to Betsy.  What good friends we have.

On Saturday, we said good bye to our wonderful hosts in Holdrege and headed out to Omaha to go to the temple before we backtracked to Lincoln for the contra dance.  Thankfully we arrived early so we could spend time with Curt and Debbie Pfeil. It was nice to have Curt there because he helped with setting up our sound equipment.  He even played bass with us on some of the songs.  The dance hall was nice and big.  Our caller Kate was nice to work with.  I learned that in this area she does most if not all the calling every contra dance.  I take my hat off to her for that kind of dedication.  The dancers seemed to be pretty experienced and even the new dancers picked up the dances pretty quickly.  In such situations, three hours pass very quickly.

Our host, Neil was very nice.  He had two spare bedrooms and four beds.  One had silk sheets, called the Diva Bed.....that one went to Graham :)  After several attempts, Graham finally was able to stay in the Diva Bed.  (For further detail look up https://youtu.be/utF3Pwd-Zw4).  On Sunday evening Nina, Neil's girlfriend and one of the contra dancers, invited us over to her house to eat supper.  It was fun to spend time with her and her three children.  We even had a bonfire, ate popcorn and roasted scotcheroos....the scotcheroos got really soft and warm but they did not really roast.  Oh yes, we also sang around the fire.  It was good that we had this break because we had a long trip ahead of us. 

Thank you to all our friends in Nebraska for making our stay fun and well worth it. 

Until next time,

Seth

Forgetfulness and a Miracle

So I thought I would share a special experience we had when we were leaving Utah last week on Wednesday.  The day started out great as we pulled in the truck and headed out.  We had to do go downtown to buy some water and saurkraut.  I was surprised at how difficult it was to find saurkraut, but after searching the whole store we found it near the meat section, which is not an area where I usually search.  Well, we did find it and finally we were off on the road heading down seventh street towards I-80.  About a mile or two from the interstate and not quite ten miles from our starting point, a car came up alongside us.

"I think she's trying to tell us something." David had noticed the lady in the neighboring car and indeed she was waving her arms and signing to us about something.  I'm not sure if she was even holding her steering wheel.  She would point at the back of the truck and make a motion...she even showed us her wallet.  Not wanting her to have an accident and curious to find out what was wrong behind us we pulled over on a side street and David found this.....

Yup it is our lovely pink polka dot purse! Oh dear, I had put it there when we left the grocery store.  It contained all our spending funds for our trip to Nebraska.  We thank God for His tender mercy and David took this picture.  The funniest part happened when David came back in the car.  "Where's the purse?" I asked.  David gave me a blank look and then smiled.  "Oops I forgot it."

Moral of the story is.....I forgot what is :) Thankfully Someone is watching over us.

Until next time
Seth

InTentCity at a Glance

So now that we have safely arrived in our old home town of Holdrege Nebraska, I thought it would be a good time to introduce the band, my fellow travellers, and my siblings.  I know that no matter how much I write about everyone, it would not be enough.

All of the images you are about to see are from the early Monday morning photo shoot on the shore of Lake Pend d'Oreille (which is one reason we left late on Monday).  Thank you to Katie for taking time to take these photos. 

 Let me  see....let's start with Betsy.

Here she is! Betz is our lead musician.  She has worked hard at perfecting her violin skills in many different genres.  I've heard her play classical, Irish, old time, Rodney Miller style, bluegrass, redgrass, Greengrass, drygrass....you name it she can learn it!  I've been very impressed at how quickly she learns new tunes.  Betz has also worked at expanding her musical gifts to include singing.  In this too, she has learned many styles.  Her latest achievement has been to pick up clawhammer banjo....don't worry she does put it back down.  I think it is part of her exercise program :)

 Putting joking aside, I am so grateful for Betsy and her sweet spirit.  She has been a wonderful example to me throughout my life.  Her faith in and love for the Lord and desires for truth is very evident.  I am so glad that for these next six weeks I will be able to learn more from her.  One word (there are many other words) to describe her is "self-improving". 

Ahhh! Isn't he handsome!? This is Graham and I could almost stop there.  Graham is our music leader and he is growing into the position.  He is also our most popular guitar player!  I admire the skills he has developed on the guitar as he brings tasteful rythym and lead solos to the music.  He has a love to create music on anything and everything....even spoons.  He also has a great singing voice. Graham has been working on our new CD and he does a great job. I love his humor and hilarious comments.  Oh my, how we laugh and laugh when he gets started!  Just in the last couple days it has been joy to be with him.  He also has a wonderful desire to do God's will and I admire his love towards everyone.  It is easy to feel comfortable in his presence.  I look forward to spend this tour with him.  My one word for Graham is "bouyant".

This is David.  He is our percussion master.  You may say he hits it off very well.   I never thought we would ever have a drummer in the family, but I'm glad to say that David fills that role perfectly.  He has a nice sense of rythym and has developed the coordination of tapping the bass with his right foot, the hihat with his left, while using his arms in a sophisticated manner on the box or the snare top. You should see him dance....I think he uses the same complicated coordination :)  David has also been filling the role of chaplain for the band and brings us many thought provoking spiritual messages.  He loves words, conversation and philosophy.  With his pondering and discussions, he has discovered and shared many truths with us.  My word for him is "philosophical".

Then there's me.  I am privileged to be the piano and bass player.  My role is mainly background and backup with occasional leads.  I really enjoy this role as it gives me the chance to learn different instruments and to sing harmonies.  Being close to everyone has built up my skills and repertoire.  There is so much to learn and develop.  Another role that I enjoy is choosing the music to match the dances.  What fun it is to make the right choice!  The result is felt by the dancers and musicians.  It is a work in progress and it is progressing steadily.  I guess if I was to choose a word for myself it would be "steady".

So that is InTentCity in a nutshell.  Here are some remaining pictures of the band. Enjoy!

Until next time,

Seth

Starting of an Epic Journey

I can't believe we have started this tour.  When we first set up the tour, it seemed so far away.  Now it has come and I can't wait to see the hand of God made manifest in our journeyings.  He has even helped us prepare by giving us the whole month of March off.  We were able to focus on the spiritual well being and other interests (like building the house).  Also, we were blessed with the presence of Mom and Dad throughout March.  Because of them, we were well fed both spiritually and physically.  Dad even gave a few courses on Fizzix (physics).  But I will always be grateful to them for their help on the house.  They helped so much by deciding what to do for the bathrooms and kitchen, making trips to town many times every week to pick up supplies, and encouraging us in our work.   I can not imagine where we would have been, had we not been given the month of March.

So, now we have come to the start of a new era, another adventure! You may ask if I'm excited....well, yes I am.  The excitement started on Saturday evening when all the loose ends were finally tied up.  It was also exciting during Sunday when we had our planning meeting. It turned out to be a very spiritual experience and I know it was necessary for my preparation.  It is an exciting experience to be on the Lord's errand.  You never know what is up His sleeve :) I do know that it will be exactly what we need because He is a perfect Father and Provider.

Let it be known that when planning on traveling a twelve hours trip, make sure you get some sleep!  Starting from Friday night until Monday morning, I don't think I got more then 15 hrs of sleep.  I don't recommend it at all.  Thankfully, we have four drivers and we certainly used it a lot on the way to Utah.  Because we started late, we left Spokane around 2:00 pm and arrived in Salt Lake City around 4:30 am.  We did stop at Five on Black in Missoula for dinner.  It is a Brazilian salad bar and very delicious.  I highly recommend it.   By the time we arrived at our aunt's house, we sat there for a few minutes and then went straight to bed....we did not pass Go and we did not collect $200.

I think the miracle of the trip was that even after such a long trip, my spirit was not exhausted like my body.  Even with all the delays and stops, I found that God has blessed me with patience and contentment.  I sure hope this continues because we have many more hours to go. Yay!

Until I post again,
Seth