Monday, October 29, 2007

On Tour in Ohio with my baby girl!


This past weekend was my first time taking my 4-year old daughter Emma Lynn on tour with me. I had a couple house concerts in Ohio, and we had a wonderful time on the road together. We left Thursday afternoon, and drove halfway, stopping at a motel in Kentucky, with an indoor swimming pool and hot tub. My kids love swimming. I've also taught Emma Lynn to be a baseball fan, so we watched World Series Game 2 as we drifted off to sleep.

Friday morning, we headed towards Ohio, and I did a house concert in Johnstown, OH. The Duick's host house concerts on a pretty regular basis, and they have hosted some of my good friends and favorite artists in the past. They were great hosts, and they had 2 kids and 2 dogs for Emma Lynn to play with. It was a very nice intimate crowd, and a fun show. Saturday morning, Theresa even painted Emma Lynn's face for our Saturday adventure to the Columbus Zoo.


As we were driving to the zoo Saturday, the brakes in my Camry (250,000 miles and running strong) began to grind in a very ferocious manner. I had a house concert that night in Dayton, OH, with my old friends Jeff and Wendy Stands, and so we found a Big O Tires store near their house. It was nearly 4:00 when we got there, and the store closed at 6:00. They checked my front tires and brakes, and they were in bad shape, the callipers (I didn't know what those were either) had frozen, and the brake pads had worn so thin, the front rotors were getting mashed, causing the grinding noise. Long story short, that is all bad news, and we would not have made it back to Alabama in that condition. I told the manager Mark about my plight, and that we were planning to drive back home Sunday morning. He drove 45 minutes down to Cincinnati to get the needed parts, and kept the shop open an hour late to get my car fixed Sat night. Needless to say, I really appreciate what he did, and I officially recommend Big O Tires!

The Sat. night house concert was much more enjoyable with the car situation fixed, and even more enjoyable because of Jeff's famous cheesecake. Some of you may recall, Greg Adkins and I did a house concert at the Stands back in February and were raving about the food. They did not disappoint this time, along with the fantastic cheesecake, Jeff also made an apple pie along with several other desserts. Cheesecake and apple pie may sound like a lot, so I only had 2-3 pieces of each.


We had a small crowd for the concert, but they were very enjoyable to play for, and it was very nice to see old friends again, including Wendy's parents, who were like a second family to me back in Colorado in my elementary school days. Emma Lynn made a new best friend as well, their dog 'Tigger'.



It was wonderful to be able to take Emma Lynn on the road with me, and I look forward to more trips with my kids in the near future.




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