DAY THIRTY-SEVEN: February 25, 2008 Valley City, North Dakota

Continuation of Wadena Blog
Oh, what a beautiful morning! There’s icy rime all over the delicate tree branches and long blades of grass. The firs have each and every needle covered as if hand-dipped by a gourmet chef. I’ve never seen anything like it! The horizon fades into muted greens and purples with occasional accents of classic red barns as we head northwest towards North Dakota. It’s clear sailing today. People told me yesterday that rime is what Minnesota winters are famous for, and it’s also called “Hoar Frost.” Oh dear!

Wow, we just passed by The Lodge at Lake Detroit. What a beautiful place! Too bad we have to roll on through. We’re definitely coming back here in the summer.

Yesterday’s concert was a landmark. We rolled up to The Memorial Auditorium and were greeted by a Minnesota-friendly face. Bonnie showed us in to a gigantic gym and basketball court with shiny wooden floors. Well, that was different! I suddenly wanted to shoot some hoops and run around for a while! To the left of the court was a 100ft. velvet curtain, slightly open to reveal a gorgeous nine-foot Steinway. Behind that graced a 700-seat Art Deco auditorium. I tried the piano and got goose bumps. I didn’t want to part with it even long enough to get dressed.

The “backstage” was the big open gym. Our dressing rooms were on the opposite side. As I emerged all dressed in my gown with my high heals clicking across the basketball court; a wall of sound came from behind that big curtain. It was huge and deep. Frank said it was maybe our biggest audience ever. We love Sunday Matinees! I suddenly got butterflies. I could hear men, women laughing and even children out there. This was the perfect mix: Dreamy piano, beautiful place, and large, excited audience.

Then we both heard a slight tinkling on the piano. It sounded rather random, kind of soft and blotchy. It couldn’t have been the tuner. There was now rumbling from the audience and slight laughter. Frank peaked around the curtain to see what was going on. He told me that a little boy had climbed on the piano bench! There was bigger laughter, applause, and then silence. We could hardly contain ourselves!

After a great introduction by Bonnie, I walked out to greet a full house. The size made me a bit nervous at first, but it’s almost as if I was being coddled by this audience. They were so responsive; they even laughed and applauded at things we weren’t expecting. As I played, I kept looking down into the piano at the multitude of long, copper strings. They seemed to go on forever as they glistened in the spotlight. With a thrust of my left hand down for a low C octave, and all I could think was ”Yea, Baby!” This piano performed!

We got our own special taste of “Minnesota friendly” after the show. So many people stayed around to visit; we felt as if we already lived there. I was furiously taking wrappers off of CDs; both of us signing them, when a nice woman came up with her two boys. The younger one, Brandon, was our new budding star. I had thanked him on stage for being our opening act, not having actually seen him. Here he was, this four-year-old little kid with glasses and a big smile. His mother said that before the show she was outside and frantic because he had gone off and disappeared. She searched everywhere around the lobby, then the next thing she saw was her little boy in the spotlight, all the way up there on stage! Apparently, he had first tried Frank’s bass guitar, then moved on to the piano. She tore through the auditorium, leaped up on stage and grabbed her son. We could hear the commotion at the time, but now we got the picture!

Little Brandon has now experienced the joys of the stage and those big toys up there. I will be closely watching his musical career.

We later ended up dining at a local spot with good home-cooked food. It seemed that many of the patrons there had been to see us that day. What a friendly bunch! We laughed a lot and really enjoyed talking to everybody.