POSTCARD FROM OKLAHOMA CITY

Friday, June 29, 2007

What a day!  What a day!  (worth repeating!)

We had wonderful goodbyes again bidding farewell to our new and wonderful friends in Albuquerque.  As we drove to the church for our pickups, we counted 9 hot air balloons in the sky.  The locals say that they don't even "see" the balloons anymore.   They are, after all, the balloon capital of the world!  All Saints were great hosts and we thank them dearly!

We had one brief potty stop that turned out to be a bit longer since the 2 stalls available for the women only had one working.  Back onto the bus with one more stop on our 550 mile ride today – we HAD to get our feet onto Texas soil so we had a quick souvenir, snack and potty stop at Stuckey's!  What a cheesy stop, but even had a couple of hippy kids dancing in the parking lot – takes all kinds!

That was it for our stops.  It was straight away to Oklahoma City and even so, we pulled into Church of the Servant United Methodist Church about ½ hour late.  Welcome back to humidity!  But what a welcome and greeting!  Our hosts, including music director Michael, were ready with our dinner of spaghetti and chicken as well as some fantastic salads!  {WE MUST HAVE THE RECEIPE FOR THE CORN SALAD – PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!  Susan.meinholz@legis.wisconsin.gov.   It was DELICIOUS and the chaperones were in agreement that we must have it!  If anyone from Church of the Servant reads this, please pass it onto the cook!} 

Kids had a chance to warm up quickly in the Chapel of the Cross, which was a marvelous venue for the performance, complete with risers set up.  Next onto getting dressed in hyper speed, but the kids were fed, dressed, warmed up and ready for the 7:00 start!  This performance included We Are for the second time, and they did a great job processing into the Chapel.  We'd left behind the shaker egg that Aaron uses to accompany this piece, but thankfully Michael had one we could borrow – otherwise my bottle of Pepcid was going to be used……yikes!

We new there would be strong emotions tonight because of it being the closing tour concert and the last one for Ruthie and Laura as they move onto the next step in their lives – college!  But the kids, Margaret and Chris and I held on until the 2^nd to the last piece, the Senior last hurrah……then tears really started to flow.  But Ruthie and Laura were still able to sing the opening verse of The Lord Bless You & Keep You as they sang it with Chorale for the – sniff – last time……we'll miss you!!!!  What a fantastic leadership you have shown over your past years and especially this last one.  Thanks!  We'll look forward to our 2^nd annual alumni participation at next year's Brewer game!

Off with their last homestay on this great tour, and as the adults here on tour reminisced about the wonderful performances, we are in total agreement they were all solid performances, fantastic hosts EVERYWHERE!!, wonderful weather, and we feel indeed blessed by all that has been part of this whirlwind couple of weeks. 

Tomorrow we will be a bit more relaxed, not having to get to a performance by a certain time, and the kids will be thrilled to have CAFFEINE tomorrow, yet we'll miss the adrenalin that is produced in tour mode. 

Til next time,

Sue