Some Stuff, but not Rants

Finally, the long awaited trip to 'Up North to play music' happened. We followed Ken and Judy North to Ken's homestead Saturday morning. Michigan was doing it's typically Michigan weather thing again, so the drive featured wet roads and rainy skies, and chill temperatures. It was, thankfully, a completely uneventful trip for us. Ken almost got sideswiped at one point by a driver who for some reason could not see that big SUV. A near miss, but a miss just the same. That event did become the topic of some conversation during the weekend.

We did play music! Ken and I changed off playing Dobro and guitar. The guitar player did the singing, by the way. Judy played the bass and Lori fiddled her heart out. We sounded terrific! This remark is made, of course, by a completely impartial observer, me. Ken called the pastor of the church around the corner to see if he would be available to play piano with us. It turned out that he could and would.

Now we were five, and to the mix was added the piano as well as a whole bunch of 'new' songs, songs unfamiliar to all four of us. What fun! The five of us played music and talked until after midnight. Cy (piano) had to get up by 5:30 to get ready to preach, so we reluctantly stopped playing music and bedded down.

Sunday we four went to Cy's church...a little country church with very few members. We were 'special music'. Neat! We did three numbers...Judy and Ken sang a song about a 'Stairway', Lori did 'I'll Fly Away' and I sang 'Mountain Railroad'. Ken and I played 'each other's' instruments on the 'Stairway' song. Always before Ken played guitar and I played Dobro when we have done that song (in Bflat!) So we were both traveling down a new path. Butterfly time. But we all the music went well. Both Lori's number and mine were quite a bit more uptempo than that little church was expecting. So later, Cy's accompaniment to the next hymn was as well. That brought a comment from the song leader...I guess she thought it was too fast. But in my opinion, it was like it should be done. Happy! We were praising God so why not be happy?

We drove around the area for a couple of hours after church. We showed Ken a place up there where cars back Up the hill, which he had never even heard about before. We discovered it about 5 years ago when we accompanied my brother and his wife "up North'. I called my brother on the cell to get directions.

Then! More music! Only about 4 hours worth this time...but Monday morning arrived before we went to bed Saturday night. Monday morning we played music after breakfast (and a lot of talking) for an hour or so...then we walked Ken's property. What a beautiful sunny day for that, and what a beautiful spot also. God's country.

Then about 4 PM we left to come back South to Barry Co. Once again a completely uneventful drive, just like we wanted. For some reason, bedtime was not as late as it had been all weekend. Could it be we needed some rest?

What a great time we all had. Thanks Ken and Judy for including us in your plans. It was wonderful!

PS...Princess (Ken's cow) did not make the trip even though Ken had purchased a 'chariot' for her transportation. An earlier planned trip did not happen because Ken had no one to milk Princess, so now there is a horse trailer to 'bring Princess along'. This time however, a milker was available...