I am very excited to be able to take 3 alumni from the Aquila Di Guerra ensemble to attend Conclave at Oxford, OH this summer. Its great to share this experience with them and meet other viol players around the country. Stephanie could not join us on this trip since she in England visiting her best friend. The Gamba Mother is missed by all.
Here begins the adventure…….
Friday morning we went to pick up the rental for our trip to Oxford, Ohio to Conclave. The vehicle they had wasn’t big enough for us to take but we were hoping by some miracle that it was all going to fit in the vehicle. Well lets do the math…..5 people, 4 bass viols, 3 tenors, 3 trebles and everyones suitcase…..yeah it didn’t happen. So we ended up renting another vehicle to take people and fill the bigger vehicle with instruments and luggage. Thanks to Ellis’ mother for the help in getting another rental…or everything would of been crammed into one vehicle and that would not be a pretty site. Also with two vehicles Ellis and I were the drivers on the trip….the original plan was to split that duty. I even brought magazines and puzzles to do but it wasn’t meant to be.
The first day for our trip to Conclave was 9 hours to arrive at Oxford, Mississippi. We are very grateful for Susan Marchant and Ron Vernon for allowing us to stay in their lovely home and getting a bit of relaxation before the next day. We met their lovely kitty…which i wanted to take with me. Jack, Alex-andria and Jonbeth got to in the swimming pool in the evening which i understand after being in a car for soooooo long it was time to do something else.
This morning we left around 7:30am heading to the next Oxford. For some reason it felt longer that yesterday and have we not heard of coffee in these parts of the world. Until about an hour away from our final destination a Starbucks appeared but it was too late. I was ready to get to Oxford, OH. It was great to have some decent coffee from Susan this morning….if it wasn’t for that I don’t know how I would of survived that drive.
Passing through Nashville
This drive was sort of rushed since we had a late start with the car rentals issue on Friday and we were trying to get a decent time to Conclave…before dinner. We will be stopping at every state sign like last trip with our viols on the way back to Texas. I will have Jack, Ellis, Alex-Andria and Jonbeth contribute to the blog during our week at Conclave.
On this trip we hit Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, 5 min of Indiana (according to Apple Maps it save me one minute if I changed routes to Indiana instead of heading to Cincinnati) and then Oxford, Ohio.
Stay tuned for more!
-Gamba Dad (Pedro)
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