October
6th, 2005 |
October
7th, 2005 |
October
8th, 2005 |
October
9th, 2005 |
October
10th, 2005 |
October
11th, 2005 |
October
12th, 2005 |
October
13th, 2005 |
October
14th, 2005 |
October
15th, 2005 |
October
16th, 2005 |
October
17th, 2005 |
October
18th, 2005 |
October
19th, 2005 |
October
20th, 2005 |
October
21th, 2005 |
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Wow, talk about déjà vu,
it was another banner first day again. We woke up to bad weather,
and tons of traffic, tech melt downs and such, but after a fun
sendoff with Greg we headed south out of town. Route 66 winds
its way southwest of Chicago, it probably made a whole lot of
sense when it was planned but now it is a zig-zag through places
that time has unfortunately passed by. Relics still exist and
are kept alive, showing what is truly American, something we can
all be proud of and aspire to. (One of the people responsible
for keeping us on track will make an appearance later, so, pay
attention)
We stopped at the Launching Pad for lunch, swingin Bar B Que,
underneath the giant. “Take us to you leader…dude”
The weather and our schedule precluded any hits on the street,
but we were ready just in case. Then, we got to Funks Grove home
of the best maple sirup (sic) but they were sold out for the season,
just gotta hang around until the sap runs…uh uh, this sap
ran instead, I’ll cop on the internet.
We sped into Springfield, one of our best hits on the original
challenge, to the warm and generous greeting of Uncle Lew Grigsby,
a fine trumpet player ands country lawyer, who I know from hanging
out in Monterey, he comes and plays at the Dixieland Festival.
He put us up at the Route 66 Hotel, and set us up at Gabbatoni’s
a swingin pizza place that adopted quite well to Cow-lifornia
swing, and Lew and Kevin Cox made a few cameos. Our friend from
the last trip Dr. Jim Bonacum came by, hung like a champ and made
probably the quote of the tour while Greg was videoing: “I
always listen to Cow Bop while cloning DNA specimens, and my experiments
always turn out successful. I think all scientists should listen
to Cow Bop during their experiments…in fact, I think Cow
Bop should get the Nobel prize for their contribution to the field
of science,” or something like that…wow! It just goes
to show: 1 out of 1 doctors dig Cow Bop!
Palomino Patty came by, and she was the director of the Route
66 Heritage Project and very instrumental (pun intended) in making
sure the road is well marked, a number of times during the day
when we thought we might have been off course we found a sign
and said: Thanks Patty!” People like her, who love our heritage
and embrace the spirit of the road, which is about connecting
with new people, new places and our historical legacy make these
trips so special and why we continue to do them, along with supporting
JazzMasters Workshop.
Wanda, who heads the Springfield Jazz Society brought a whole
contingent by the gig and donated to the program, man, this is
so great, but I must remember last year, and don’t get too
cocky. Gotta keep it goin, but I promise you Springfield is a
town we’ll return to, and not soon enough!
Greg has been a most important element of our trip. Of coursed,
he represents our travel and tech sponsor SCO, and is documenting
a lot of the beginning of the voyage but he is doing so much more
than that, everything from front man, to support staff, to bodyguard
and guardian angel, they don’t come any better than him…thanks
Greg!…I don’t know how we’ll manage without
you!
Well, it’s getting late and we have a date at the Cozy
Dog Diner (where the corn dog was invented) so gotta get some
rest, stay tuned we’re just heatin up here. Got a gig out
in Dawson tomorrow then we continue south, to the world’s
biggest catsup bottle, and I thought every day was going to be
like this?!
A gentle reminder: We are doing this to support JazzMasters Workshop,
a no charge music-mentoring programs for kids. Please consider
a per mile pledge, we’d appreciate it. You can do it right
from this site! Thanks!
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