Barbara & Tracy took Timbré's big black suitcase, which contains all of our mallets, our "bumpers" (more about them in another post), plus our wooden "wedges" (ditto). I think there are some table covers in there, too, plus anything else Barbara might have put in there to take with her to NYC.
That left Brian & I to take the other 3 cases Timbré needs to take on this trip: Big Golf (a hard-sided travel case designed for golf bags, but which contains the fold-for-travel-and-storage chime rack that Brian made for us), my big bell case (which usually holds bells C5-C8, but which now contains most of my bells, plus a few of Timbre's, plus has a few empty spaces this trip), and my small bell case (which usually holds bells G4-B4, plus D8 & E8, but which now has a few other small items in it, too). Then our large personal suitcase -- which ended up being overweight because we are taking a lot of stuff, and did you know go-go boots take up a lot of room in the suitcase??
Then, because we return late evening on Tuesday, June 30 & have an afternoon gig on Wednesday, July 1 in San Diego, we made arrangements to rent a storage space just south of Corona to store the bells, chimes, and other stuff we'll need for that concert (but that we didn't need to take with us on the cross-country trip). We left the house early & loaded up the storage unit with bells and chimes:
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| 6+ octaves of bells! 2 sets of chimes! |
After the storage facility, we went to Ontario airport where we breezed through security -- they didn't even ask about the electronic tamboura in my backpack! From there, we flew to Las Vegas where we had a 2 hour layover, just enough time for carnitas quesadillas and some Dos Equis Ambar. And now, we're on the plane to Philadelphia!
Yes, Barbara & Tracy flew to New York for their anniversary trip, and the rest of the group will meet them there on Monday morning, but Brian & I are flying to Philadelphia. Why? Because we have to gather all the instruments and equipment we need on this tour!
So, tomorrow morning, we will go pick up a rented cargo van, then head to Plumsteadville to pick up bells and chimes from the Malmark factory (thank you, Martha Alford!), plus a cajón and a bell tree stand. THEN we drive to Boyertown to pick up more bells, more bell tree stands, some tables, some foam, and a marimba (thank you, Brian Seeman!). THEN we drive to lower Manhattan to pick up the big black suitcase from Barbara's hotel. THEN we drive to Poughkeepsie to unload the van at the church for Monday's concert.
Brian & I will be spending Saturday making sure the bells & chimes are all voiced nicely together, plus doing some shopping to pick up some things that we still need such as duct tape, band aids, or anything else we discover we've forgotten. We hope to have time to visit a Massage Envy spa and get massages - ah!
But, enough for now. I'll post more tomorrow as we go so you can see all the work and logistics that go into a tour like this. Stay tuned!
TTFN,
-Michèle
It can be easy it wants to see more, more, more, but traveling around so quickly makes it hard to work and just live life. Great thanks for sharing it!
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