House Concerts #9 and #10 and ACTIVE ADULTS!!!

Thursday morning we started packing up our stuff so we could leave the Days Inn when my mom received an irate call from the hotel manager, who saw Sadie when my dad took her out in the morning (“You have a PET??? You did not DECLARE your pet??? You are not staying in a DESIGNATED PET ROOM!!!” ) After Mom smoothed that out, we ate at a sushi place next to the motel because everyone was sick of eggs and toast. Then there was a grueling six hour drive up to Ashland, Oregon, where my dad and I immediately made a beeline for two rock shops Dad knew of. One was closed, but the other we got a bunch of stuff at.

That night our friends Robin and Pam let us stay at their house. Their impossibly cute dog Mac (stay tuned for a picture of Mac on my upcoming DOG BLOG) immediately loved Sadie (the affections were not returned in the least.) Here's a picture of Robin and Pam:

In the morning Dad and I went to the rock shop that had been closed the day before, and got about six more rocks. We had to drive to Redmond, Oregon, about a four hour drive, and about two hours into it I got really hungry in one of those awful little towns that consist completely of fast food places and gas stations. I said, “ I need a taco truck or something!!!” and in about five seconds a gas station with a taco truck in the parking lot appeared. It was really creepy.


In Redmond, we went to the house we were doing the concert at. Ken and Pat’s piano was fantastic (FINALLY!!!). Sadie had a GREAT performance of her song "Circus Waltz" and we got the audience to sing my dad's highly contagious song, "Spread Joy". See Pictures.


By this time I had been in the car with my parents for 27 or so days and had basically NO SOCIAL INTERACTION with anyone under the age of 45. I started to lose it at the concert, which went great, and spent most of the time after the concert outside on the deck staring at a large moth. I REALLY started to lose it when we were ALMOST ready to go and then my darn parents discovered that Ken had great singing talent and did a couple songs with him. I was ready to start warding adults away from me with a cross and some garlic or something.

























































The final straw was when I saw a sign down the street on our way out. It read, “An Active Adult Community" ?? - Why don’t they just stick a big ole sign up there that says, “TEENAGERS BEWARE: ENTER AT OWN SOCIAL RISK.”

Here's a picture of me with some of those active adults - my parents and our hosts, Ken and Pat. Seriously though folks, we could not have asked for a more wonderful group of people to play for. It was a most magical night and the audience was amazing. A big thanks to our friend Jay for putting this together.

On Saturday our final concert was in Wamic, Oregon. We got completely lost on our way there (what do you expect when you try to find a place called “Wamic”?) Our hosts JoAnn and Chuck (see pic) had about twenty people for a little house concert and it was very fun, except that I started losing it being around too many adults again and had to go hide in my room for a while.
I gained about ten pounds on the fantastic desserts they had there (REAL whipped cream, mmmmm my favorite. I had a whole dang plate of just whipped cream.) JoAnn was so excited to have dad doing a concert in her home that she forgot that she had stored her amazing cake in the oven to keep it away from the ants. She started the oven to cook us supper and this is what happened to her cake!! It tastest VERY GOOD tho.

I slept in an airbed for the third night in a row and the next day was VERY happy we were finally going home. Right outside of Tacoma we hit that good ol’ Seattle traffic and got delayed for about an hour. I was very mad when we finally got to the cause and the ONLY thing you could see was a camper that had been pulled over by a cop. Based on the traffic mess, I had determined some motorist must have spun sideways and blocked at least three lanes of cars. I was really happy to get home and I slept in till noon.

STAY TUNED FOR THE DOG BLOG, THE 2006 HOUSE CONCERT HOST AWARDS, and final statisics!