Month: July 2010

Ivcalula and the Wallowa Woodwinds

Today we picked up Ivi from her weeklong stint with the Woodwinds @ Wallowa Lake music camp.  The grand finale was a three-hour concert at Joseph High, where Ivi’s sax quartet — Ivcalula — performed a wholly unique, sassy, jazzy number which had each member stroll in while playing, then exit in the same way.

Later on, all of the saxophones (30 or so of them) played a killer piece that blew the roof off the place.  Ivi was selected to play second soprano saxophone on that one.

Finally, it was all over with a massed performance by all 80-odd woodwind players, where Ivi became invisible.

Day 07 – Iowa Or Bust

Today we travel from Des Moines, Iowa state capital, to 1.5 hour distant tiny Lamoni, directly south on the Missouri border, where Thelma lives in her retirement community’s assisted living center. This, on the occasion of Thelma’s 89th birthday — July 17.

We also meet Roy, Thelma’s irrepressible and highly musical 96-year-old paramour. And we visit Graceland University in Lamoni, where Lawrence spent a couple of educational years.

Day 06 – Iowa Or Bust

Sioux Falls SD to Des Moines IA

Arising early, we break camp just outside of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. For breakfast, we visit Falls Park in mid-city Sioux Falls, a wonderful small city. Then we drive on into Iowa to Sioux City for lunch, then south along extreme western Iowa to Onawa and beyond.

Via Onawa (birthplace; population 2700), Turin (junior high), and Castana (elementary and freshman high). We meet Paul Benjamin, Onawa street person; Brett Spaulding, Onawa tractor-truck-car dealer and Internet entrepreneur; and a boomer biker couple from Omaha returning from their Sturgis SD (site of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally every August) test run with a new bike. Visits to the site of the grand-paternal farm in Turin which was acquired by the State as a wildlife and habitat preserve and Loess Hill geologic site. We check out the Onawa Public Library, Lawrence’s favorite haunt as a child on Saturday shopping days to read material not available at home.

Finally, Nik drives us into Des Moines.

Photos are available but captions and narrative will have to wait; too much to do, too little time. Will probably transfer all to Flikr or Picasa, as it is getting out of control with 1,047 photos so far.