Organick Khemistry
2001 Summer Tour
Our Summer 2001 Tour Adventures
Organick Khemistry's first annual summer tour was a huge success! We decided to combine a trip back east, visiting family, with a performing tour. We had a blast, although we did a LOT of driving. Once we hit the middle of Kansas, it became extremely hot and muggy. We must have lost about 5 pounds, just through sweating it off! We drove from Utah through Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and into North Carolina. We made one "tourist" stop in Nashville, Tennessee to look around Opryland. We left Monday, July 16th around 3:00 p.m. from West Jordan, Utah. We drove for two days through the aforementioned states, stopping at rest stops to sleep for a few hours, and arrived in Cary, North Carolina around 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 18th, where Tom's brother resides. We spent two days there. While in Cary, we went hiking in a state forest. Tom's brother told us to beware of tics. While we were hiking, we saw no evidence of tics, which made us think his brother was just over reacting. While driving back to the house, however, we began to see tiny little tics crawling all over us! Yikes! After some intense searching and clothes changing, we finally became secure with the fact that we got rid of the little creatures. The most noticeable difference about that area was that the trees were so tall you could only see the sky above you and no horizons. We left Cary, NC on Saturday, July 21st around 10:00 a.m. and headed north to Maryland, where Deanna's family lives. We drove up I-95 which was a nightmare. After many stops and slow-downs, we decided to get off that freeway and travel secondary roads the rest of the way, getting off at Fredericksburg, Virginia. We drove via Route 15 through Leesburg, Virginia, a much more picturesque route. We arrived at our campsite in Gambrill State Park, Frederick, Maryland around 6:00 p.m. that day. After setting up our camp, we traveled a few more miles to Deanna's parent's home in nearby Middletown. Middletown is a little historic Civil War town nestled between the Catoctin Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, very close to the Appalachian Trail. We stayed in the Frederick area until Saturday, July 28th. While there, we gave concerts in a church, 5 nursing homes, and a bar. The audience in each place indicated that they enjoyed our music so much they wanted us to return - possibly at Christmas! (Of course, this has us thinking....) We became really proficient in our playing too! In between performing we visited family and friends. Deanna celebrated her birthday on the 27th while in Maryland. Her parents treated us to a wonderful crab cake feast at a local prestigious restaurant. Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs are DELICIOUS! We rented a 6 x 12 U-haul trailer to haul back Deanna's belongings from her parents' garage. We picked up the trailer on Saturday morning and loaded it up with all the "stuff" by 11:00 a.m. The last things to be loaded were some of Deanna's brother's belongings, who lives in Oswego, New York - our next stop on our trip. We pulled out of Middletown around noon on Saturday, July 28th. We traveled via I-81 through Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York State. This route took us all the way to Oswego. After several stops, we finally arrived in this Lake Ontario town (western New York) around 10:00 p.m. We happened to visit this town at the same time the annual Harborfest was in full swing, which brings in around 60,000 people to this town of 20,000. We stayed at Deanna's brother's house until Monday morning. While in Oswego, we played in three nursing homes. In between we drove and walked around this beautiful little town. We found many friendly people, neat shops and local restaurants, beautiful surroundings (i.e., the Lake) and also learned that this town has the most bars per capita in the country. It is quite a music center, too! Needless to say, we have our eyes open for opportunities in this town. We left Oswego on Monday, July 30th. We were supposed to play in Gary, Indiana on Monday evening, but the venue cancelled the previous week, allowing us to stay in Oswego an extra night. We drove (and drove and drove) until we reached Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday in the late afternoon. While there we played at a rehabilitation center that evening. It is interesting to note that the plains states are, quite literally, one big cornfield. There were many interesting examples of old style combination barn/silos, of which we took photos. We joked about how we are going to compose a song about our travels, singing about the cornfields and barns of the plains states. We left Des Moines Wednesday morning and traveled 2 hours to Omaha, Nebraska where we played in 2 nursing homes. Omaha is also a neat town! It is right on the Missouri River. We ate in a Cajun restaurant, which had the most excellent food. We left Omaha Thursday morning and traveled one hour to Lincoln, Nebraska where we played in our final two nursing homes. We left Lincoln after our final performance and traveled into the night until we reached Laramie, Wyoming, where we pulled into a rest stop and slept for a few hours. We left our rest stop early Friday and traveled to a nearby truck stop to eat breakfast. After that we got in the truck and headed home - our last stretch of travel for this trip. We found joy in seeing the first hills in days and then, finally, the first mountains off in the distance. We pulled into our driveway around 12:30 p.m. Friday afternoon. Whew! Would we do it again??? YOU BETCHA!!!The reason that
people say there is no time like the present is because there really is no time
but the present. Be Here Now! - baba ram das
