Day Nine: March 6, 2010 Montevideo, Minnesota

Day Nine: March 6, 2010 Montevideo, Minnesota

We have room to roller skate in our one bedroom suite here at The Crossings Inn and Suites. When we finally pulled in here close to 9:00 last night, the nice girl behind the desk must have taken pity on us. We wearily rolled our stuff down the hallway, swiped the keycard, stumbled in, flicked on the light, and there might as well have been angels singing! It’s an enormous brand new place with separate bedroom, including king-sized bed with a million pillows and a fluffy comforter, a separate living room, kitchen, lounge chairs, you name it. Boy, did we get an upgrade!

This morning another nice girl at the front desk helped me fax some of this blog to my parents, who live elegantly, but more simply. They have no computer, no cell phones, no answering machine, and only have a microwave and fax machine because we gave it to them many years ago. It’s strange; with Allie, I have to keep learning new forms of communication, and with my parents, I have to go back in time and relearn the old. Also, this is not AT&T country. There is no service here. We have to figure out what we did before iPhones. Verizon is everywhere, however, which is what we had on tour the last time. In the throes of winter and on those desolate roads, that could have been a lifesaver.

So far as I see it, we’ve dogged three bullets:

1. The stray wheel rolling at 65 mph, hitting our car during rush hour on the interstate in Nebraska. Someone upstairs was watching out for us.

2. My sore throat didn’t develop into anything. Twice in the past year I’ve been hit with some pretty bad stuff that has kept me down for weeks. I am truly thankful this time.

3. The weather. We’ve had sunny days, some even at 60 degrees and dry road conditions. Today snow is melting and people are at the ice cream parlor. It’s a balmy 36 degrees for Minnesota right now. The girl at the front desk said that the past winter here has been one of the most severe on record. In this southern part of the state, it was -40 degrees, not including the wind chill. The northern part got it worse. Also snow accumulation closed schools and businesses in a part of the country where they almost never do so. That makes our experience here two years ago here seem like a frolic in the Bahamas!

We have our fourth concert in a few hours at Montevideo’s Fine Arts Center. Frank says it’s a beautiful venue, probably built in the thirties. Tomorrow we drive 250 miles to our last destination and concert, Clear Lake, Iowa. That’s two concerts in two days, back-to-back. It’s going fast!

We’re back. There’s plenty to tell about tonight’s show. We’re celebrating here in the room by eating candy from the vending machine. Frank also treated me to my favorite wine at this cool place afterwards. The Chardonnay was so nice and classy. I asked the waitress what it was, and she showed me the screw-top bottle: Gallo. It’s ALL-GOOD!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s drive to Clear Lake, Iowa when I’ll fill you in on tonight.

Crunch crunch, krinkle, toss,

ZZzzzzzzzzzz