That unanticipated schedule change that resulted in our visit to Palo Duro Canyon SP on our way to the blues jam in Albuquerque also changed our route. Getting to the park in TX took us straight across OK, instead of heading north to Colorado as we’d planned. Now, my jamming partner Gary and I had been exchanging emails and we had a few phone conversations to decide on a list of songs to do at the jam, but we’d never met and we’d never played together. Well, Gary lives in Weatherford OK and it turned out that we’d be driving through there on I-40, so I asked him if we might stop by (for a few hours at least) so we could run through the songs we’d talked about. He said sure, and his wife Gayle suggested we stay for dinner to have more time to play. I asked if there was room to park the motorhome, which there was, and it was a done deal.
So we arrived, pulled into the driveway, met Gary and Gayle and their dog Sophie, and we noticed they seemed kind of interested in the motorhome, so Sue gave them a quick tour of the rig as I grabbed my gear to bring inside.
As musicians, Gary and I hit it off right away. Also, more generally, we found that we have compatible senses of humor, we have a range of common interests, and we’re the same age. As he and I got set up in the music room and started running through our setlist, Sue and Gayle also found lots to talk about – including Gary & Gayle’s dog Sophie, careers, travels, and that RV parked out in the driveway.
The rehearsal went well. Gary and I were both happy with the sounds we were making and pretty confident that we’d get through the jam without either one of us looking too foolish, and probably even sounding good much of the time. Pizza for dinner, more talking (including quite a few more questions about the motorhome), finally a few more songs, and Sue and I headed out to the driveway for the night. Coffee in the morning, a round of hugs and ‘so long, see you soon’s with our new friends, and we headed on down the road.
A little later that day, Sue received a photo in a text message from Gayle – just a photo, no text. Hmm… looking closely, we realized it was Gary in the driver’s seat of… is that a Travato? They were at the Winnebago dealer, shopping for an RV. Holy cow! What havoc have we wreaked here? Long story short – they’d been thinking that traveling in an RV might be fun, and our visit kind of pushed them over the edge. By the time we left Texas (2 days later!), they’d found and acquired a Winnebago Travato, Gary was fast-tracking through the RV dealer’s RV school, and they were going to be our next-door neighbors at the campground we’d be staying at in Albuquerque.
We had a great time with Gary and Gayle (and Sophie!). We had some advice to share from our experience on the road (9 years!) and, inevitably, a few trouble-shooting tips (state-of-the-art power management systems are a lot more capable than our ancient rig, but they’re still confusing as heck…). We found time for a few more songs, too, which was really fun since Gary and I could pull from our full repertoires without being limited to “blues or blues-y” songs.
On our last day in Albuquerque, the day after the BGU jam ended, we headed off to see friends in AZ, and Gary and Gayle continued on to CA to visit family members there. Awesome!