Photo by Scott Shephard
We have been on tour for two weeks now, the beginning of our huge
spring tour that takes us from Victoria BC to St. John's
Newfoundland, via California, Texas and Virginia.... Five months
of living in RV parks and people's driveways! We'll be home again
at the end of June.
The tour has been great so far. We spent a week in Oregon where
we met with Mary Bywater Cross. She's a quilt historian who wrote
the book (Treasures in the Trunk) which I used
to write one of my quilting songs: "A Quilt and a
Kettle", about the Oregon Trail. She arranged to
have me meet Billijean Hill, a member of the Allen and Rachel
Bond family, and from there we've actually found the copper
kettle I sing about in the song! Here's a picture of it:
Photo by Scott Shephard
Through Washington
and Oregon we saw rain, rain, rain. But marvellous scenery all
the same, and lots of snow geese and swans dotting incredibly
green fields on their way north. As soon as we could, we headed
out to the coast and hugged it all the way to our next gig in
California. Happily, the tires hugged the road well too, because
the road is quite twisty and turny, overlooking steep cliffs to
the sea. We
wished for our house-truck to transform itself into a little
sports car so we could put the top down and really enjoy it! I'm
glad we weren't in a hurry.
We drove through the redwoods which are always awe-inspiring.
We've seen clumps of them periodically down the coast, depending
on how much fog is in the area. But the really big ones are in
the north, in southern Oregon.
This is the season of migrating grey whales on their way down to
the Baja. We've seen many many spouts off the shore, and
occasional flukes as they dive. We've also seen lots of sea
otters and elephant seals. This is the time of year of the
birthing and mating of elephant seals and one of the best places
to see them is just off Highway 1 near Hearst Castle at San
Simeon. We found this out last year on our trip here, and made it
a point to visit there again.
Bull Elephant Seal calling
While we were in the
San Francisco Bay area we also spent an afternoon at the salt
marshes watching birds, trying to identify the ducks.
We got to spend an afternoon in the Sonoma Valley - one of the
best wine areas in California. On the recommendation of our
friend, Don Coolidge, we headed up to the "Dry Country"
and Russian River area of the valley, his favourite. The evening
before, we had met Tomi Speed at the Moonlight Quilters guild in
Santa Rosa, who invited us out to the winery she works at, Gary
Farrel Winery. She gave us a wonderful private tour of their
facilities, followed by a wine tasting of his best. Fantastic! We
broke the bank a bit on a couple of bottles of their red - a
Zinfandel to die for, and a Cabernet Sauvignon (still awaiting
our
palates!) Too bad we live so far away....
It may sound like we're just having fun on this trip, and you'd be right, but
there have also been a few gigs so far (7). The quilters are really enjoying the new
songs from the second CD (how could they not love John's
rendition of "Quilter's Husband's Lament"?)
I haven't been buying MUCH fabric so far, although yesterday I
did pick up a pattern and fabric for a new quilty stage outfit at
Fabrics 'n' Fun in Milpitas CA, which I'll make when we get home.
I do have my sewing machine with us this time, and I've started a
bit of work already. Hopefully by the end of the tour, I'll have
it all done!
So, that's the scoop on the Miller-Bunge front. We're here in
California for another week and a bit. Then we're on our way to
Las Vegas and Arizona. More adventures to come!
Greetings from Arizona!
So much has happened since our last travelogue, this will
probably be a long one...
We left you in Morro Bay California, about to do the last of our
California gigs. In Modesto, we stayed with Linda Cover, whom we
met last year. Linda lives on a walnut farm, and has invited us
back during walnut harvest season to help out. She also has a row
of orange trees, and we left with a large box of freshly picked
oranges (alas, they're all gone now - but they were fantastic).
On our way down to Simi Valley (pronounce that "See
Me") just north of Los Angeles, we had to divert because of
a mud slide on the interstate highway, so we went back along the
coast. It was the longest drive on the tour so far, adding about
4 windy and rainy hours to our trip because of the detour. We
stayed in the hills with Bill and Judy Ragan, who are RVers too
(much bigger rig than ours). They have lived there for 30 years,
in an area with sand bridle paths intertwined through an
otherwise "normal" residential section. The developer
believed that horse owners should be able to keep their horses on
their own property, so made his subdivision "horse
friendly"! It was neat to wake up in the morning and see
horses go by outside the window.
We had a day off after our Fresno gig, and headed up to Kings
Canyon and Sequoia National Park. This is where the biggest trees
(in mass) in the world reside. It was a misty day - quite high,
and we were in the middle of a cloud when we arrived at the
grove. As we approached the General Grant tree, the third largest
tree in the world, it was very spooky and mysterious. It was
somehow appropriate, considering the age of the trees, but we
bought postcards so we could really see it!
Last Monday was the first time my "Simply Quilts"
episode on HGTV was broadcast (episode #833). It was very
exciting - a friend of Katherine Cavanaugh's in Merced taped it
for us and I was VERY happy that I hadn't embarrassed myself too
much on the program! There was a flurry of activity on the
website as well as on our telephone at home. Everyone said they
liked it! WHEW! I taped it with Alex Anderson last June in
Burbank CA. It was very stressful before I flew down to get
everything done, but once I was there, Alex and the crew made it
easy. It was especially great to be able to see it for the first
time with Kathy Cavanaugh - a good friend from last year's trip
to California (who now has a pepper grinder in her well-stocked
kitchen!!).
The last gig in California was in San Francisco. Last year John
and I spent a day doing the "touristy" stuff in SF,
including the cable car, the walk through Chinatown, lunch at
Fisherman's Wharf, etc. So this time, we headed for Fort Mason,
and a show of Australian Immigrant Quilts, featuring our friend
Jenny Bowker from Australia. It was a lovely show, especially the
Artists' Statements and especially Jenny's powerful quilt.
Thanks to our next appearance, we can now say "We've done
Vegas" (surely that's gotta count for SOMETHING on the
resume?). Nancy's Quilt Shop sponsored a show for us, and took
very good care of us while we were there. We had an extra night
in town, and managed to catch some "Strip" action,
including the Cirque du Soleil show "Mystere", a combination of circus,
Chinese acrobatic troupe excellence, drama, great music, and all the staging
that money can buy. We lost $4 at the slot machines (John had more fun with his
loss than I did - one punch of my button, and it was gone... He at
least won a bit before he lost it!) Then, at midnight, we walked
along the Strip a bit. What amazing constructions! At the Venezia
Hotel, you can actually take gondola rides through a reproduction
of Piazza San Marco in Venice. At the Mirage, there is an
"active" volcano that "erupts" every once in
a while. It is absolutely amazing what money has bought in this
desert city of 1.2 million. We were very happy to also get an
idea of how everyone else lives in Las Vegas - away from the
bright lights. Our friends there (hi, Nancy Astle!) said it's a
great place to raise your kids... Our cab driver taking us to the
Strip said he was from Wisconsin (his mother runs a quilt shop
there....) and has never seen any of the shows there, despite
living there for years.
Before we drove over the Hoover Dam on our way to Arizona, we
were stopped by security, who searched the house truck. The dam
would be prime target for terrorists, I guess, and they aren't
taking any chances. No trucks or buses allowed, either. I didn't
seem to prevent people from going to gawk - lots were there for a
Saturday drive.
Our day at the Grand Canyon was perfect. Cool, but clear and
sunny. The first view of the canyon was dizzyingly overwhelming.
It takes a bit of time to get used to the vastness of the view.
Like in the mountains, the light is changing all the time,
highlighting various aspects of the red rock, the cliffs, the
depths, with occasional views of the river - W-A-A-A-Y down at
the bottom. We got our bicycles out and rode along the rim road,
stopping as often as possible at lookout points. Then we walked
back right along the rim trail. There were ants further down that
we could see through our binoculars - people doing the full-day
hike. Clusters of donkeys. The pathways were clearly visible, switchbacking their way down the cliff. One day we'll pre-plan
our visit so that we can do the full hike to the bottom, stay
overnight and hike back up the next day. But we'll have to do
some high-altitude workouts before that!
Cathy and John at the Grand Canyon
A day later, we were in Sedona Arizona to meet friends from
Thunder Bay. Carol and Carl Rose are very familiar with the area,
spending a part of the year in Mesa. They were our tour guides in
a very interesting part of the state. After rolling hills and
flat sage-covered plains, we emerged from the Oak Creek Canyon to
towering red rock spires, carved by the wind. There are four
energy vortexes there, and, consequently, a huge number of New Agers have moved there, in addition to a large number of the
Golden Agers!!. We went for a great hike around the base of Bell
Rock, with a bit of scrambling over the rocks to find our way (no
trail around the whole thing). It was fun, even if a cactus got
me....
Our next gig was in Flagstaff yesterday (two days later), but the
weather forecast called for 2 feet of snow, so we went up the
road right away, hoping to beat the storm. We ended up getting
maybe 5 inches in all, over three days. It was a bit dicey on the
roads last night, so we only got 20 stalwarts from the Coconico
guild last night. We did get the treat of staying with a new
friend, Wendy Wetzel, though, and I got 5 hours of quilting in
while we were there!
Now we're heading to Texas. Once we got below 5500 feet en route
to Phoenix, the snow disappeared, and it's time to put our shorts
on again! We are back in the land of saguaro cactus, limbs
reaching for the sky, looking like lonely sentinels (stick 'em
up, Bud) of the desert. My favourite kind of cactus!
It continues to be a wonderful adventure we're on. And we've only
been away from home for 5 weeks! More again in a couple of weeks!
Howdy y'all! From the wilds (?) of northern Georgia, here is
another instalment in the tale of John & Cathy's wanderings,
taking us from Arizona across Texas into the Eastern time zone!
At last report we were headed down the hill from Flagstaff, into
warmer and drier weather, after a show for the Coconino quilters,
somewhat reduced in numbers by the blizzard. Well, heading south
solved the weather problem and we managed to get as far as
Lordsburg NM to finish off the month of February. On through hot
and sunny El Paso TX to Midland in the heart of the Texas oil
patch. Not a very thrilling landscape, but Midland is the
birthplace of the current President of the USofA. (This must be
the presidential tour: we've overnighted in Simi Valley CA, home
of Ronald Reagan, driven through Crawford TX, spent a night in
Little Rock AR, and a couple of nights in Nashville, not far from
the home of Andrew Jackson, US president in the early 1830's!)
We reconnected with the Luke family in Weatherford for a night
before continuing on to Houston, to spend a leisurely evening
with Gary Holmes and Anne Reekmann, our hosts during the
International Quilt Festival in Oct/Nov. Our next gig for the Bay
Area Quilt Guild brought back the remembrance of the Columbia
space shuttle accident as the big NASA complex is nearby. The
guild there is making a quilt for each of the families. It will
mean more, I think, made by neighbours than anything from far
away. Before the show we drove down to Galveston where one of us
dipped a toe in the Bay of Mexico! From sea to sea (to sea)! And
why were we humming Glen Campbell songs all day..???
Our time in Texas involved a bit of to-ing and fro-ing between
north and south, so we took the opportunity to drive on as many
two lane roads as we could. This enabled us to get a better sense
of the country than
being hemmed in by 18-wheelers on the Interstates!! On the way
north to Dallas we stopped overnight with Peggy & Kyle
Freeman near Henderson TX. Peggy is a fan and had written us a
letter, so we made the acquaintance of her and her herd of
donkeys on their 100 acre property.
From Dallas and Weatherford south we motored down Hwy 281 to San
Antonio for a Saturday morning show. While there we wandered
along the Riverwalk and happened on a re-enactment of the fall of
the Alamo, complete with guys in costumes and cowering women and
children and guns smoking and making loud noises! You may
remember that the Texans seeking independence from Mexico had
holed up in the Alamo and were over-run by the Mexican army, but
at a subsequent battle 6 weeks later the rallying cry of
"Remember the Alamo" spurred the Texans on to victory
and the eventual establishment of the largest state in the Union.
Back to Weatherford and a couple of shows in Gainesville and
Arlington before we attended the preview night of the Dallas
Quilt Show. We met Ken and Carol Bryer Fallert there (Cathy was
thrilled), and saw some very impressive quilts under the tutelage
of Gay Boston, our host from Arlington. Prior to this event we
visited the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas's Westend, from where
President Kennedy was shot in 1963. A very tasteful display of
his impact on domestic and world events.
South again on Hwy 16 to Kerrville and Fredericksburg for another
Saturday morning show, and then a wander back north past Texas'
version of Australia's Uluru (Ayers Rock)! The Enchanted Rock
when viewed from the southern approach appears somewhat like
Ayers Rock with the Olgas tacked on either end. Unfortunately
this weekend was the end of the school break and we were turned
away as they had too many visitors scrambling over the site!!
That night we camped next to a lake on Texas's Colorado River
(not to be confused with the one which has excavated the Grand
Canyon), in between a number of fishermen from Wisconsin and
their quilter wives! The gals spend their winters there quilting
and doing weekly "shop hops" together. We even paid for
our campsite in CD's!!
After shows in Waco and Temple we returned to Weatherford on
Wednesday, under instructions to be there by 1:00 o'clock! Pam
Luke's weekly quilting bee was at her place and we wondered what
was in store. On entering we were introduced to the ladies, and
the last one was Jenny Lanham (and her husband Rod), Pam's
quilting buddy from Brisbane!!! This had been cooked up last year
when Jenny heard that we were going to be at Pam's in March.
Cathy wrote a song "Healing Hearts" on
her latest CD about Jenny, but had never met her. The surprise
was perfect: Cathy was "gob-smacked"!!!! We had
wondered why Pam had been somewhat stressed on our previous stops
at her place. Not a word from anyone who had known, including
Pam's children Brendan and Erin!!
Pam, Jenny and Cathy
being hugged by Jenny's Healing Heart quilt
The surprises kept coming: at
the Parker County guild meeting the next night we had both Erin
and Jenny and their quilts on stage as we performed the songs in
which they featured! Not a dry eye in the place! This was
certainly the emotional high of the trip thus far. Our last show
in Texas was at the Trinity Valley guild in Fort Worth. We
attended a Rodeo at the Fort Worth Stockyards, with bull-riding,
bucking broncos and ladies barrel racing. Something we never did
get around to in Calgary!
At one point Cathy wrote in her journal: "Texas is: black vultures
wheeling overhead, Mickey Mouse cactus, Oil wells, mesquite, dead
skunks, blue bonnets (the state flower was blooming EVERYWHERE in
the hill country), "Y'all", town centres built around
large imposing court houses, armadillos (flat, mostly), Tex-Mex
food. (tho' we did have a wonderful chicken fried steak at the
Blue Bonnet Cafe in Temple TX)".
With some reluctance we headed east from Texas, where we had
renewed and made friendships, but the east coast beckoned! On, on
to Little Rock AR (another presidential spot) and then to Memphis
TN. After a brief impromptu performance at the Uncommon Threads
guild in Memphis (where we met Nancy Jackson - who used to be
president of the guild we sang at last fall in Cornwall
Ontario!!), we paid a visit to the old home of "The
King". Graceland is now one major tourist trap. Lots of
memorabilia collected over Elvis's career. And he and his parents
and grandmother are buried in the backyard. Well, it's a huge
yard, with a horse paddock, racquetball court, and trophy room
behind the huge main house which is set well back from the road.
Across the road is his automobile collection, and his airplanes,
and a long line of souvenir shops. Just a bit tacky, IMHO.
On east to Nashville, "Music City". We tracked down the
gravesite of Capt William Driver, who flew the "Old
Glory" around the world at the stern of his ship in the
early 1800's and retired to Nashville (Cathy's song "Old
Glory" from "A Quilter's Embrace" cd).
William Driver's grave in Nashville TN
We spent an afternoon visiting
RCA's Studio B where Chet Atkins created the Nashville Sound and
in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Now that is a great place to
spend a day or two!! The studio is where most of Elvis' hits were
recorded and a great many more too. The university is
refurbishing it to its original greatness, and the stars are
lining up to be the first to record with the three track,
live-to-tape studio. They created an echo effect with a little
room up in the corner, a speaker to send the voice and a
microphone to catch it when it came back. We even saw the Red
Chair where Elvis sat. At the Hall of Fame the three storey
building traces the history of country music with tons of
memorabilia and music playing, and on the weekends it features
songwriters, and country performers, in small program spaces. We
could have stayed on but they were closing place and we had to
find a campsite!
Yesterday we tromped through the Gaylord Opry Resort with its 3
huge climate-controlled atriums and the adjoining Opry Mills, a
big shopping mall with a Gibson mando, banjo and dobro factory
(alas, no ukeleles) as a part of the development. Then last night
we attended Friday night at the Grand Old Opry, two and a half
hours of a country music variety radio show which went out live
on WSM! A great collection of old and new performers, with some
bluegrass thrown in!! If you're ever in Nashville try to get
tickets. I think we're all country music fans - W-a-a-a-y down
deep.
What a month it's been! It would be difficult to hope for more
joy in our adventures of the upcoming days, after our incredible
time so far, but we're only just half way through the tour now,
and Virginia and Newfoundland await. It has been quite
fascinating to travel through especially Texas with the onset of
the war in Iraq. We've met many people who have sons and
grandchildren over there in the military. They seem to have a
much less philosophical perspective than the rest of us: their
job is to support their children, no matter what. There have been
many prayers sent out at the guild meetings for their safe
return. Our program seems to be a much needed relief to the worry
and uncertainty surrounding their lives, which is good. The only
other comment about the war was when Sandi in Temple offered
someone her Dixie Chicks CD (previously her favourite) because
one of the Chicks said she was ashamed that George W Bush is from
Texas.... Sandi figures this is the end of the Dixie Chicks'
popularity in Texas. (Grafitti seen in the grime on the back of
an 18-wheeler: "Dixie Chicks = Bagdad Broads" - not our
opinion!)
We have another few days of "vacation" before our first
gig in Virginia. We'll collect the stories again and send another
missive when we get a moment. Tonight, it's a rainy night in
Georgia (but they're forecasting snow for N Carolina!!) Hope the
weather is better where YOU are!
love, John & Cathy
Hello from (Almost Heaven) West Virginia!,
heading for Paducah KY.
We've just finished the Virginia part of our spring tour, and
what a time we've had! You might think from all these travelogues
we've been sending you that we're having fun. You'd be right.
We left you in Nashville on March 29th. We still had a week to go
before our next gig in Norge, Virginia. We heard that North
Carolina had received 6 inches of snow, so we headed SOUTH - to
Savannah Georgia. A bit out of our way, but the right decision.
We went via Chattanooga, where we toured Chickamauga Battlefield
(Civil War site), and learned about the battles fought in the
area as well as an overview of the whole Civil War - handy for
our travels around Virginia.
From there, we continued on down through Georgia, following
somewhat the trail of the Union General Sherman in his march to
the sea, towards the close of the American Civil War. He sacked
and burned Atlanta, and spared Savannah, so the early old
buildings there are very much in evidence. It's a charming city,
laid out by an early English settler, Oglethorpe, with many
community squares surrounded by magnificent private homes from
the 1700s that have been restored. This is where "Midnight
in the Garden of Good and Evil" is set, and it is filled
with the grace and elegance - and ghosts - that pervade the book.
There are trolley tours around the city - one of which we took -
and after-dark ghost tours - which we didn't. Have to save
something for next time. Savannah was full of blooming azaleas,
Spanish moss, liveoak trees, and Greek columns. Lovely.
After a couple of nights here, we started north, hugging the
shore and watching birds. In Myrtle Beach SC (happily quiet
during the off-season) we stayed right on the Atlantic Ocean in
the largest campground to date - over 1,200 sites! and saw huge
numbers of miniature golf courses, each one of them featuring
bright BLUE waterfalls (do they get a cheap rate on blue dye or
what?)
We camped in Manteo NC the next night - home of Andy Griffith. For those of you who are TV fans of a certain age, this is the
town Mr Griffith modelled Mayberry after. The campground park
owner had wanted to sell his property to a shopping mall (he says
it's zoned for a shopping centre), but Mr Griffith mounted a
campaign to stymie the plan, and succeeded. It would sully his
idyllic Mayberry! We didn't meet Andy, alas, but it was a near
brush...
Every day is an adventure when you're travelling like this, and
the next day, after driving down the Outer Banks to the Pea
Island wildlife refuge (quite a few migratory birds), we went to
Kill Devil Hills (well, there's actually only one big sand dune
there and fairly constant winds), where Wilbur and Orville Wright
made their first flights. And you thought it was in Kitty Hawk?
Perhaps "Kitty Hawk" sounded better than the real
place. It was 81 degrees F that day, and the redbud trees and
wisteria vines were painting the forests purple. Getting warmer!
It has been great following spring northward from Texas, through
Tennessee, Georgia and up the east coast!
Our first performance in Virginia was for the Colonial
Piecemakers guild in Norge, just north of Williamsburg. We had a
great time with them, and then spent a day and a half at Colonial
Williamsburg. Most places you go, someone has taken an historic
location and restored a building, or maybe two. There might be a
few interpreters around and some artifacts. But in Colonial
Williamsburg, through the beneficence of the Rockefeller family,
a large area within an existing community with over 800
buildings, has been purchased and restored as if it was still
1774. And hundreds of costumed interpreters to explain what life
was like. It was fascinating. This was the time that the US was
facing up to colonial rule from England, and just about to write
its own Declaration of Independence. The Boston Tea Party had
just happened. We ate supper (lamb, and "game pie")
there that night by candlelight in a restored tavern, drinking
ale from pottery tankards and being serenaded by a colonial
troubadour. We emerged into the night and wandered down to the
church to hear a concert of music on English horn, oboe and
church organ.
Then we were into the bulk of the performing in Virginia.
Norfolk, Hampton, Centreville, Grafton, Rockville (MD),
Springfield, King of Prussia (PA, Fredericksburg, Falls Church,
Smith Mountain Lake, Reston, and Burke. Everyone was enthusiastic
and wonderful. Our home base for the Virginia shows was the
driveway of our good friends Barb and Bill Tricarico in Vienna,
who were unbelievably great hosts. We did quite a bit of
sightseeing in the DC area, walking around on the Mall and
through some of the various Smithsonian museums. At the American
Museum of National History, we managed to see the original
"Old Glory" flag (remember we visited William Driver's
grave site in Nashville?). This was his flag and I wrote a song
about it. They are also working on restoration of the original
Stars and Stripes ("Oh, Say Can You See" - someone
else's song!), cleaning and strengthening it. We were surprised
that there are large chunks of it missing - including a whole
star! It seems that at least one of the previous owners of this
flag decided to allow "deserving" people to take pieces
of it for themselves. So it's certainly looking more than a bit
tattered!
We also visited the Canadian Embassy on a Saturday - when it
wasn't open for business). It's a striking building, in keeping
with the grand architecture of downtown Washington. On the
outside is a lovely Bill Reid sculpture and an apparently useless
rotunda, flanked by tall Greek columns and a continuous burbling
waterfall. We saw three people lingering there for a bit, and
decided to check it out. It turns out that the rotunda is
actually an acoustic bell, where you can experience natural
reverb while standing in the centre! We stood there and sang a
Gumboots song (Long Johns), marvelling at the sounds. The other
three visitors appreciated our impromptu "show".
However, we were struck by the
large number of concrete barriers and traffic prohibitions there
are in place in Washington these days. You can't drive in front
of the White House, nor up to many of the monuments. The annual
White House Easter Egg Roll was restricted for the first time in
history to military families; the general public was not allowed.
There was a sizable demonstration at the World Bank offices the
first day we went and many of the streets were blocked off - even
though the police by far outnumbered the protesters. But kids are
still climbing on the Albert Einstein sculpture and eating ice
cream on the Mall, and there are still cricket and baseball games
on the lawns.
Our last touristy visit in Washington to the Arlington National
Cemetery provides another good story: After 9-11, our friend (and
Cathy's Australian quilting teacher) Jenny Armour put out a call
to SCQuilter friends for small quilts to be made to a pattern she
designed which commemorate the victims and be sent to New York
and Washington. After attending the Changing of the Guard at the
Tomb of the Unknowns, visiting Robert E Lee's pre-Civil War home
and the gravesites of the Kennedy brothers, we went to see a
quilt show at the Military Women's Memorial. Fifty or sixty
quilts made by lots of people - including some by schoolchildren.
There, we saw 13 of Jenny's little quilts made by Australian
quilters! There were about 100 Aussie quilts in all sent to
Washington, and those not in the show were distributed to the
families of victims of the Pentagon crash. Cherie Clum (from the
Burke quilt guild, who was instrumental in organising the
display) said they were really appreciated by the families. Way
to go, Jenny!
We had a great time at all of the quilt guilds we visited. There
were even a few "groupies" who attended more than one
of the guild shows in Virginia!! At the Springfield meeting, they
actually put together a choir to sing for us at the end! Two
songs: quilty versions of "12 Days of Christmas", and
"Happy Quilts to You" (Roy Rogers, eat your heart
out!).
So, the bulk of the performances are now over on this tour, even
though we still have two more months till we return home. We are
heading to Paducah KY for the final day of one of the largest
quilt shows in the US. There, Eleanor Burns will be celebrating
25 years of quilting teaching in a big tent, and featuring two of
Cathy's songs. Gotta see that! Then, we'll be on our way to
Newfoundland, via a touristy visit to NYC, and a show for a guild
in upstate New York, near Albany.
More later! love, cathy and john
Well, here we are at the most easterly
point on our tour: Newfoundland. From here, it's
all westward and homeward!!
Last message ended as we were headed to Paducah KY,
to attend the second largest quilt show in the US. Paducah is a
quiet little town at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio
Rivers, which at the end of April, attracts quilters from around
the world and transforms itself into a major centre. Every bit of
accommodation is taken up and even the campgrounds for miles
around are full of quilters!! We drove into a KOA campground about
25 miles east of Paducah to find that it was full! However, we
were allowed to park outside the activity centre where there was
a plug-in and a hose. As it happened, that evening the owners
were hosting a show-and-tell of quilts of the attending campers,
and asked if we would join in and perhaps sing a song or two. So,
under the pouring rain on the tin roof, we did. The Paducah quilt
show has been in business for 19 years, and some of the returning
camper folks had been to every show! There was a woman there from
San Antonio Texas who had seen our performance there in March.
It's the first time we've been able to combine RV-ing and
quilting together. We thought we were the only ones!
The quilt show itself is spread around the town, with the main
concentration in the hotel/convention centre on the waterfront.
Nearby is the American Quilt Society's Museum of
the best of show quilts over the years as well as special
displays. This year's was "Man Made" featuring quilts
made by MEN!! Some very interesting quilts. But one of the
primary attractions in Paducah for us was the Eleanor
Burns tent. She has been in the quilting business for
twenty-five years and had put together a commemorative show of
the passage of time in her quilting life. One of the items in the
show was a music video based on my song "One Hundred Ways to Hide
Your Stash". The video featured her son finding fabric
everywhere in the house, it having been squirreled away by her
assistant. Very funny!! In fact the whole show was a hoot! She is
a very funny woman. Here's a picture of us on stage at Paducah:
Photo by Diane Shink
From Paducah, we drove east to Lexington in
the heart of bluegrass country, and up to Columbus OH to spend an
evening with Cathy's cousin. We then pointed the housetruck east
through Pennsylvania to Red Bank NJ, where we reconnected with
John's former babysitter from Cornwall Ontario for a couple of
days. So he had to mind his P's & Q's!!
The Big Apple was our next destination. We met
Barb and Bill Tricarico at his father's home in Brooklyn, and
managed to squeeze our housetruck into the driveway. There is not
a lot of free parking, especially for house trucks, in NYC! A
trip to Rockefeller Centre, the top of the Empire State Building (once again the tallest in New York), the
Guggenheim (showing its
age somewhat) and then to Ground Zero. The World Trade Centre
site now looks like a construction site, but there are still a
couple of neighbouring high-rises shrouded in black plastic and
undergoing restoration as a reminder of what took place there on
11 Sept 2001. But New York is a BIG city, and in a lot of ways
like other big cities. We are small town people, and can only
stand so much excitement and stimulation!! 8-))
So we were happy to move on north up the Hudson River to our next
gig outside Albany for the Quilt North guild in Clifton Park.
East across Vermont and New Hampshire (through the Green and the
White Mountains) to Maine. Here we finally caught up with the
leading edge of spring's northward march. A rainy night and
distinct lack of leaves and blossoms!! It had been a great trip
north from Savannah GA, in the company of spring - new green
leaves and the ubiquitous redbud tree with its reddish purple
flowers. But as we moved north along the Maine coast, it was
clear that we were the advance harbinger of spring! Ah well, the
furnace in the housetruck has been equal to the task!!
We crossed back into Canada (land of Tim Hortons
and truly national banks) at St Stephen NB on the 7th May. It was
good to be back in our ain countree! We had our first lobster
dinner there, and then spent the night at a cottage on 8 acres
overlooking the St Croix River. Cathy got out her sewing machine
at their place and, while John did some banking and shopping the
next day, continued to hone her machine quilting technique on a
Bear's Paw quilt she's working on. It was the best view of any
sewing room to date! With any luck and a bit more time, it could
be completed by the time we get home at the end of June!!
We took the ferry across to Digby was the next day. We crossed to
Lunenburg where we saw the Bluenose II undergoing
its annual refit for the summer season (young strapping deckhands
hanging from ropes to smear goo on the mast - not a bad view
there, either!). Then on through Mahone Bay and Chester to a
campground just north of Peggy's Cove. While in Chester we parked
the housetruck to call in at the Fo'c'sle Tavern and exchanged
greetings with the occupant of another similar rig. He spied our
license plate asked if we were from BC. It turns out that he was
from Yellowknife, touring the Maritimes with his wife and her
parents. When Jane returned, having attempted to open the door of
our rig (thinking it was hers), she and John recognised each
other. She works for the Dept of Education in the building where
John used to work!! We are certain that we have passed other Yellowknifers along the way but we haven't actually met any
before this!! Another small world story....
The following day we drove out to Cape Breton. We spent the night
near Baddeck and then circumnavigated the Cabot Trail
in a clockwise direction. A stop in Cheticamp to pick up some
Acadian folk art, and then into the fog. Happily, over the top
and down the east side we were in sunshine, though the drifts of
snow alongside the road bore testimony to the hard winter.
That evening we connected with Diane Shink, a
quilt appraiser from Montreal whom we had met in Houston last
year, and again in Paducah! Another lobster dinner, in Baddeck!!
The Alexander Graham Bell interpretive centre
there is well worth a few hours. He was quite a fellow, and
devoted himself to inventing things, having guaranteed his living
well from the sale of his patent of the telephone. He moved his
family to Baddeck from Washington DC around the turn of the last
century, and his family still owns the property where he
developed his ideas.
We had a little extra time in Baddeck, as we heard on the news
that the ferry to Newfoundland had experienced a
fire about half an hour out of Channel-Port-aux-Basques. When we
checked with Marine Atlantic, they said the sailing we had booked
on was cancelled, but we were guaranteed passage on the next boat
at 5:30 pm. In recognition of the disruption to our schedule,
they gave us free passage (but not the housetruck) and a
complimentary dinner!! Hopefully by this coming Wednesday the
schedule will be back to normal from the "load and go"
scheme they initiated to cope with the backed up traffic. The
Smallwood was replaced by the smaller Lief Erikson.
The ferry crossing was calm and uneventful, apart from the port
generator giving out around 10:00 pm. This meant we bobbed about
on the Gulf of St Lawrence for about half an hour, and without
lights or PA system for a little while. No drama!! The purser
came round and announced that we would be under way again
shortly. And the complimentary dinner was good!
We "broke trail" for the rest of the tourists in
Newfoundland, since it was still very early for them. It was
pouring rain when we disembarked around midnight, so we pulled
into the Visitor Centre and dry camped (no electrical or water).
In the morning we went in to the kiosk, and obtained some
information and maps. This was their first day and all they had
was the 2002 Tourist Guide and Map. No worries - things don't
change that rapidly on the Rock! Anyway, the 2003 Map had
eliminated 9 community names and replaced them with New Wes
Valley. The residents were not amused and their plight was a news
item on the CBC! Where is Newtown and Wesleyville now???
On to Pasadena, where we parked in the yard of Jackie and Glenn
Philpott. Jackie, a former president of Canadian Quilters
Association, had heard us at Quilts Canada in Edmonton last May
and was an enthusiastic booster for our performance at the Long
Range guild in Corner Brook. The following day we chugged up to Gros
Morne National Park, and were amazed at the fjord-like
coastline. We stopped at the warden's office in Glenburnie and
were encouraged to have a climb up behind the Discovery Centre
(not open until the next day) for a view of the Tablelands and
Bonne Bay. This we did until the rotten snow and lowering cloud
convinced us to retrace our steps rather than forge on to the
lookout. The geology here is really unique - so much so that the
park is on the UNESCO's World Heritage list. Some of the oldest
rocks on the surface of the earth can be found here!! We saw five
moose on the drive along the northern shore of Bonne
Bay, and checked out the Gros Morne Interpretive Centre near
Rocky Harbour (which was open - Day 1!). We were the only campers
at the Gros Morne RV Park that night.
One of the benefits of travelling early in the spring, is that
there are no crowds. The downside is that a good number of the
information places are not open. But that doesn't matter when the
sights are natural. At Cape Bonavista we saw ICEBERGS!!!
A large number of medium sized bergs were floating in the bay and
around the Cape. And the road links together a lot of smallish
fishing villages, each with a waterfront location and aspect to
die for! Unfortunately the cod fishery has been closed so many of
these communities have a tenuous future. The crab and lobster
fishery keeps most of them going.
Icebergs off Cape Bonavista NF
In Bonavista there is a gem of a display at Ryan Premises
National Historic Site, which outlines the history of the
Newfoundland fishery over the last 500 years. Very enlightening
and well put together! From Bonavista we headed south to Cape
St Mary's to visit the Ecological Reserve with its sea
stack "Bird Rock". Thousands and thousands of gannets, murres, kittiwakes, herring gulls and cormorants come here to
nest, on sites protected by separation from the mainland and very
steep cliffs. The gannets being the largest, take the open sites
on the top of the rock, while the other species nest on the
ledges and crevices lower down. The entire rock appears white
from a distance, covered with birds! And keeping watch over the
scene we also saw a bald eagle, and a sharpshinned hawk. Looking
for lunch?
Our next stop was Bay Bulls, where the O'Brien family runs a boat
out to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. Loyola O'Brien
provided a well-informed and humourous (sometimes even musical)
commentary as we cruised by the island which provides nesting
sites for thousands of Atlantic puffins. The
puffin is the provincial bird of Newfoundland, coming back to
land in the summer months only to nest and raise the young,
before heading off to winter in the open North Atlantic. We saw
lots of them flying by, and lots of burrows, awaiting tenants. A
second island, more rocky, is the summer nesting site of murres.
And hove to in the harbour at Bay Bulls was one of the giant
offshore drilling rigs in for a refit. Huge!!
Today we turned around at the most easterly point in North
America: Cape Spear, and spotted another sizable
berg floating off the entrance to St John's harbour. They call
house-sized hunks of ice "icebergs", anything smaller
is called "bergy bits". We saw lots of both.
So, now it's all westward ho! The visit to Newfoundland is
certainly one of our highlights on this trip. The quilters we
met, especially in St. John's, were highly accomplished and are
doing world-class work. We started talking "funny"
("I likes to camp in de gravel pits, b'y!"), tried
bakeapple jam and fish and brewis (salt cod and hard bread). We
thoroughly enjoyed our too-short time there. Next time, we'll try
to get there in the summer!
Well here we are, home in Victoria, after 5
months on the road! We finished the tour with a performance for
the Lions Gate Quilters Guild in North Vancouver, and then on to
the ferry the next morning! After this long away, one muses (from
time to time) why we need the house and all that stuff in
Victoria, when everything we've needed since the end of January
has been with us in the "housetruck". However, we don't
think we're quite ready to sell it all up and take to the road
permanently!! 8-)) It's great to be off the road, and not have to
drive anywhere for a bit.
Our last report was sent to you from the most easterly point of
Canada in mid-May. After a day poking around St John's NF and the
evening show for the Cabot Quilters Guild, we said au revoir to
Pippy Park campground and raced (?) back across Newfoundland
to Channel Port-aux-Basques to catch the night ferry to North
Sydney. We had a grand day, with light winds and full sunshine
across the province, only to drive in under a fog bank at the
port. However, after a supper in the van in the loading area, we
boarded the MV Leif Erikson, piled into our bunks and slept until
breakfast the next morning.
A fairly longish drive that day to Halifax for a show for the Mayflower Quilt Guild's windup banquet. We spent a couple of days
with friends in Chester, and then caught the ferry over to Prince
Edward Island. This was John's first time to the
"potato" isle, and we celebrated with a
"Cows" ice cream on the boat! Yummm! Our campsite that
night looked out on Murray Harbour where we could see a number of
mussel farms, one of the other primary products of this province.
Charlottetown is a charming city, with a good display about the
beginnings of Canadian confederation. We caught up with an old
friend, Craig Mackie, at CBC Charlottetown, and through his
efforts, another friend of John's from Yellowknife, Winnie Fraser
Mackay. The day before our performance for the Kindred Spirits
quilters we explored the north shore dunes in the National Park
at Greenwich and moseyed along the shore of St Peters Bay. The
railway which used to run the entire length of the island is now
a hiking/cycling track. This is quite a popular excursion for
visitors in the summer and it would be fun to plan a trip around
it. Before we left PEI we journeyed out to O'Leary, famous for
its Potato Museum and the Guardian Drugs quilt shop. Both of
these establishments merited a visit, including lunch at G&E
Restaurant, where their "Fries and the Works" (fries,
hamburger, peas and gravy) has been made famous by Wayne Rostad,
who has a CBC television program. The McAusland Woollen Mill
nearby is one of the few wool processors in Canada still catering
to the individual, and you can bring your own sheep's wool to
them for dyeing and spinning. They make blankets too. Cathy is
not a knitter (yet!) but couldn't resist buying a couple of
skeins of their fabulous wool. Our last evening on PEI saw us
sampling their famous blue mussels at a restaurant in Summerside.
We chose to take the Confederation bridge back to New
Brunswick. It was foggy and mysterious, and a long
drive! In New Brunswick we stopped to find out more about the
Acadians at Monument Lefebvre in Memramcook. Although the museum
wasn't officially open yet, they allowed us to look around and
find out the tragic history of these early French settlers. We
also stopped by the Flowerpot Islands at low tide and walked on
the ocean floor.
A performance in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea finished off our Atlantic
Canadian jaunt, and we headed for Quebec. But not before we
popped in to the Canadian Quilters Association juried
show in Fredericton to see Cathy's "Buddy &
Strider Around Australia" quilt hanging there!! Spring had
caught up with us again, and there were flowers and leaves again.
We had a rainy day in Vieux Quebec, wandering through the old
town and walking on the Plains of Abraham. History everywhere. Quebec
City is not a great place to try to find a parking spot
for a house-truck, but we managed to find one and walked for
hours, even down to Lower Town. The shops were charming, and the
cobblestone streets very beautiful. The sun came out again as we
approached Montreal.
Before we released the first quilting CD, we visited the Beaconsfield Quilt show (just west of Montreal) and admired the work from that
guild. It was a delight to finally sing for them. And their Show
and Tell was very impressive too.
After another performance in Mississauga Ontario, we had 11 days
off before Pittsburgh. We have lots of friends and family in
southern Ontario, and had no trouble filling up the days. One
notable meeting was with Joyce Watson in Port Dover. We have been
in contact about the Changi Quilts story (on the
first CD; the song is called "Time Flies"). It turns
out that Joyce met Freddy Bloom (from whose perspective I wrote
the song) before she died, and also has done extensive work on
finding out about Ethel Mulvaney (whose idea it was to make the
quilts in the first place). Joyce came upon this story thanks to
finding a cookbook at a garage sale in Port Dover, called
"Prisoner of War Cookbook" written by "starving
women". She tracked down information about the author -
Ethel Mulvaney herself, from Manitoulin Island, Ontario - and
continued her research, although Mrs. Mulvaney had died by then.
Joyce has a lot of information that has helped fill in the story
for us, and was kind enough to allow me to photocopy what I
wanted. She's also become a new friend, through the process.
While we were in Ontario, we were able to see a
couple of shows at Stratford, take in a horse show near
Magnetawan with John's brother and sister-in-law (oh! those black
flies!!!), attend a party for Cathy's new grand-niece (hey,
Quinn!), see The Quilt show for breast cancer research in
Stratford and generally have a wonderful time.
We crossed into the US again for a performance for the Three
Rivers Quilt Guild in Pittsburgh, we high-tailed it for Alberta.
We were to sing four days later at a retreat in Sylvan
Lake. Three lo-o-o-ng driving days (and a short 7 hour
drive on the fourth day), and we made it. The gang of 55+ gals
have been getting together once a year for three years now. They
came from California and Texas, but mostly from Western Canada.
What a hoot! Their work was very inspiring, and they were clearly
having a great time. We saw some old friends from our visit to
the retreat two years ago (in Strathmore AB) and it was good to
get caught up with them. Shirley Paterson had appliquéd a jean
shirt with Australian parrots on it. It was a real surprise and
delight when she gave it to me.
We were down to three more performances, and only 5 days to go
before we got home. It was a little difficult to concentrate, but
we made it. The enthusiasm from the audiences in Kimberley, Fernie and North Vancouver made it all easy. We finished off with
a radio interview for the CBC with Sheryl MacKay, who runs a
BC-wide weekend radio show. It was great to tell her about our
travels, and show her the map, all highlighted with our route.
We can't believe it's over! It has been the most amazing trip, as
you can probably tell. We racked up 39,000 km on the house truck
through 26 states and 9 provinces. We were able to combine the
concerts with some serious sightseeing, some extensive learning
about history and geography, almost enough time for quilting, and
a lot of meeting new friends. We've heard at least a hundred
stories from quilters everywhere, and have a lot of new guild
pins and fabric (not all of which Cathy bought...). John has even
started his own stash....... We have memories that will last for
years.
If you see us in the next little while, you will be required to
take the guided tour of our photo album with all the pictures of
the tour. Be prepared! Now, we are home, and working slowly
through the mountain of mail (and the thatch of weeds in the
garden...) and getting ready to spend summer in one place
(mostly!). We'll be heading out again in September for a shorter
jaunt of two months to Ontario and back.
We hope you all have enjoyed our travelogues and we wish you a
wonderful
summer. See you in the fall!