Fishing with Grace

Grace Fischer, that is. But first, things were a little ahead of schedule, so I had the chance to scoot back to CT for a day and go to a picnic. It was fun to surprise everyone, but set the consiracy theorists off. The 'Did we really go to the moon?' crowd are now suspicious of the tour. Well, they and anyone can come join us and see for themselves.

Made it back in time to enjoy Lawrence, Kansas – an oasis in the middle of a very big state. (as big as you think it is, of course – also, according to numerous bumper stickers As Biggoted As You Think It Is). There’s a very interesting history to the city which you can read here, but in summary there were a lot of people that moved to the area primarily from New England to help prevent Kansas from becoming a slave state. It’s amazing the level of political activism back them when whole families would uproot themselves for a principle. It feels like much of that has survived to present day Lawrence. Kind of a Boulder/Northampton/Berkeley on the plains.

From there we pedaled out to the farm of Elise and John Fischer where we stayed two nights ago. Darryl plays a number of Dave Carter’s songs and was a great friend. He and Elise had the chance to reminisce about Dave’s music and his life. It was pretty special to see Darryl teaching chords to of Dave’s music to his niece Grace who is a pretty remarkable and musical young woman in her own right. She’s also very helpful at delivering baby goats that are breeched and out-fished me on the pond in the back of their house. Her brother Mesfin is a top student and was recently name the MVP of his soccer league – again. The youngest, Angela, rounded out the fun with a seemingly endless energy and managed to beat us all at every game played. Hmmmm. She and Mesfin also helped put stickers on the bottom of army guys for distribution at the upcoming concerts. It truly was a wonderful and relaxing visit and many, many thanks for the warmth and hospitality and the homemade peach ice cream to go!! Grace and Mesfin joined us on the first leg of the ride escorting us to a very good bike path that went out of the city.

Last night was the first ‘event’ held at the All Souls UU Church in Kansas City. Darryl was ably warmed up by folk singer Kasey Rausch and political rapper Joe Carr. It was a very warm reception and just a whole lot of fun. It was Darryl’s first performance since he recorded the Coalesce DVD/CD last March, but he sounded as great as ever. Maybe better. Elle and I took up the invitation to sample the local suds after the show and I also had the chance to try some fried pickles. They’re everything you think they would be. A thousand thank-you’s to Janet and Joel for everything and the staff of the church for the whole evening - also a special shout out to Scott for the fellowship and lugging me around the city.

As a side note, I’m in search of the perfect root beer float. I assumed that A&W was the be-all in that category, but I’ve been sorely disappointed and am on the hunt. So far the general store in Alton, KS gets the nod. Just the right ratio of pop to ice cream, but not quite there when it comes to a frothy head. The quest continues…