DAY 20: Feb.8, 2008 Johnson City, Kansas

It looks like we’re traveling more like 300 miles today. We also loose an hour going east over a time zone. I’m in the passenger seat watching telephone polls go by. We go many miles without seeing another vehicle, or any signs of life at all. There’s plenty of tumbleweed, though. We’ve also seen an assortment of enormous birds. Maybe they’re eagles, or chicken hawks, or owls. Every 10 or 15th pole, there sits one.

We have a concert tonight. Being tired is not an option today. Frank is driving, steady as she goes.
We’ve got Jack Benny on XM radio. He’s been the inspiration for so many comedians! I got a chance to see him when I was a kid at the Shoreham Blue Room in Washington, D.C. His timing, and his relaxed style took me. I think I’ve listened to and seen almost everything he’s ever done.
While I’m on the subject, I should say I grew up in the D.C. area with culture and the arts abound. My parents took me to everything, including the ballet, the opera, every Broadway musical that came to town, and weekly trips to the museums. My biggest memory was of seeing Victor Borges when I was about nine or so. I never laughed so hard in my life! I learned that it was OK to joke around at the piano, as well as play like a Maestro. I think classical composers joked around sometimes too, because on occasion they made fun of each other in their compositions.
I have to thank my parents for the amazing opportunities they gave me, as well as world travel from a young age. Even now, when they aren’t on some sort of world travel adventure, they’re going to concerts in the D.C. area several times a week.
All of a sudden, I’m not tired anymore. I get jazzed about subjects like that. The telephone poles are still whizzing by, maybe I should rest a little now.
Frank has actually done all of the driving for this tour so far. He meditates sometimes for rest. It’s amazing. He never complains. The fuel that keeps us going and in good spirits is the enormous positive feedback and encouragement we’re getting from everyone. Thank you all so much for your emails, applause, and kind words.

Johnson City is a town of about 1,200. It’s the smallest town so far on our journey. The one motel, The Rest Well, is a small brick building with old-style adequate comforts. We strolled down Main street, (about three blocks), and found a charming place called The Old Store. It had genuine old Coca Cola memorabilia and a wall of beautiful cabinets holding things like an old-fashioned milkshake maker that we saw being used for this yummy home made shake. For us, instead, the ladies made two chef salads generously piled high with everything they had in their kitchen. We were being good today.
We felt like characters in Thornton Wielder’s “Our Town.” A little bell rang on the swinging door as people came and went, and everyone knew each other. We were obviously not from there, but people recognized us from the flyer and were planning to come to our concert that night. One young woman even decided at that point to bring her five-year-old daughter.

There she was, a little girl named Sky sitting in the front row. We were about to play her favorite song, “Linus and Lucy.” I could see her legs bopping up and down, as she crinkled her snacks bag. There were more families than usual at our concert tonight, and even though this big High School auditorium was far from filled, the people there had a wonderful energy. Frank estimated the audience to be about a hundred. Sometimes hall capacities don’t really reflect the size of these concert organizations. We’ve grown used to that. For this small town, we had a pretty good turnout. Some people drove for quite a distance to be there. The piano was a very well kept Baldwin nine-footer. Frank usually sits in the wings and watches me when he’s not playing. I can see him back there, through the piano, tapping his foot or smiling. This time, however, he did a really goofy dance during one of my pieces! I could hardly contain myself, and if I dared glance at him I was in trouble!
The people in this town couldn’t have been nicer. They lingered for quite a while afterwards, and I signed lots of CDs.

There’s no Internet at our little place here, so you’ll have to get this tomorrow.

There’s no place like HOME.
There’s no place like HOME.
There’s no place like HOME,
at the Rest Well motel.