sue – Page 2 – The Destinators

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX

Our change in plans afforded us 4 more days in which to choose a new adventure en route to Albuquerque. We spent three of them in Palo Duro Canyon State Park and loved every minute.

Palo Duro Canyon is the 2nd largest canyon system in the US, after (what else?) the Grand Canyon. Really? In the Texas Panhandle? Yup! It’s 40 miles long, averages 6 miles wide and drops 600 feet from the rim to the canyon floor.* The Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River cut the canyon over millions of year leaving behind caves, hoodoos and colorful rock and sandstone formations. Unlike the Grand Canyon, most of the action at Palo Duro takes place on the canyon floor.

Tulsa, part 1 – music appreciation

Painting of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie by John Mellancamp

We had a couple of free days between St Louis and our next destination in Colorado. We were trying to decide between a couple rest days – just hang, read, play piano/guitar – or swing through Tulsa, OK to visit the Bob Dylan Center we’d read about. When Suzy told us that the Woodie Guthrie Center is adjacent to the BDC and those rest days evaporated!

St Louis

When we get close to St Louis, we feel a magnetic pull to our regular RV parking spot where we’ve visited a few times with my father’s brother Jerry and his wife Suzy. Much closer to my age than to my parents, these were my cool and fun aunt and uncle who lived away from the family homestead in New England (though they visited often). They hold the distinction of being the first of my extra large family that Doug ever met, back in 1984.

Cincinnati

One of the reasons for this fall trip is that another Blues Guitar Unleashed member jam will be in Albuquerque, NM, early in October. Now, the shortest, most direct route between our home and Albuquerque goes through Cincinnati, OH. Regular readers are aware of our reluctance to take the shortest, most direct route to anywhere. Well, sometimes we make exceptions to that rule and we did for Cincinnati, because that’s where my piano-playing buddy Honghong lives!

Home! And on the road again…

In the years past, we’ve traveled during the warmer seasons and wintered back home in VT. This year, following 2 short-ish trips to Maine and Toronto, we spent the rest of the summer at home, and we’re heading out now on a fall trip to the Southwest. This is definitely a part of the country we can’t visit in the summer as we’re heat wimps. Also for the first time, the trip is open-ended. We’re not sure when we’re coming back – presumably, we’ll know when it’s time.

Of course, what’s not changing is seeking out adventure, friends, and music along the way. But first, we needed to get a few things in order…

Hamilton, ON – Drumeo live meetup

Andrew, Bram, Joe, Tracy, Doug, Sue F, Matt E, Christine A (photo courtesy of Joy B)

We had so much fun at the last Drumeo live meetup we attended in 2022 in Toronto, we knew we’d be back for another. We were disappointed to miss last year’s in Tennessee. This year’s meetup was held in Hamilton, ON, not far from Toronto. We were glad to see so many familiar faces – half the group attended the meetup in 2022 – and meet new Drumeo friends live. There’s something about all getting together in one place that strengthens those relationships we form online and heightens the sense of the Musora community.

Toronto – III

We were on our way to Hamilton, ON which is about an hour from Toronto. And whenever we’re near Toronto, we check in with Iris about getting together to jam.

Rangeley, ME

Rick and Doug were work colleagues at the Sugarbush Ski School in the early aughts. I joined them on a chairlift ride one day back then and Doug introduced us. When I mentioned that I had grown up in Berlin, NH, Rick’s eyes lit up. He had been a competitive Nordic skier (cross country and ski jumping) and had competed at the legendary and historic Nansen Ski Jump in Berlin. I thought I was riding the lift with royalty…

Home

Warren, VT, 4th of July Capital of the Universe!

We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our travels to Maine, and loved seeing so many friends and family. And the exploring and jams were awesome. And our timing was spot on – we needed to be home for the 4th of July.

Simsbury picnic jam

We’ve known Mark and Linda for over 30 years. They’re master gardeners, dancing chefs and fun conversationalists. They’re fellow RV’ers with lots of travel tales to tell and TWO campsites at their home – the garden site and the treehouse site. They’re also crafty instigators, having planted the irresistible kernel that caused our exploration of Maine to include this stop in Simsbury, Connecticut.

First, the back story…