On tour-The Midwest

by Livia Vanaver
1/21/08

Several people have asked us to keep close touch while we’re on our 3 week tour in the Midwest with our Woody Guthrie show, to that end, we’ll try to keep a blog during our travels...Taking you on tour with us.

I have vivid memories of being little,  bicycle riding age, and sitting in my kitchen in Queens drawing a map at the formica table:  Go  4 blocks and make a right.   Then go 3 blocks and make a left,  10 blocks and go right, make the next left and go 13 blocks.  On and on I would draw my map, not having a clue where I would end up and excited by the prospect of great surprise.  I would then  pack a sandwich and a can of Mott’s apple juice, put it all in the basket in the fron tof my bike and away I  rode...with a plan.  This could have been a good staging for a Merce Cunningham piece.   Life hasn’t changed that much for me.  Somehow looking at the itinerary of this Woody Guthrie tour that we’ve just embarked upon,  the memory of my bicycle journeys keeps flashing strongly in my mind.  

We just arrived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and were met by  Herman Jones, our bus driver with Stagecoach Tours, and new traveling companion...or rather we’re his new entourage of gypies..  Flying in was so beautiful ...everytime I woke up, the cloud formations were morphing from perfect patterns to completely being engulfed by a snowcloud.  I’m so glad that Herman is driving and not us because we’re going through a wintry mix. on the highway heading towards Burlington, Iowa where we’ll do our first  2 concerts tomorrow.  The bus is brand,  spanking new complete with couch and card table in the back and a big space for grand battements holding onto the seat tops, or  stretching on a yoga mat...alternately.  I see that Herman is following a big sand truck...good move I say.   I hope I made the right decision to plow ahead to  our hotel eat dinner there, as opposed to eating now and having travel time later.  We’re all hungry but I think it would be so much nicer to have a relaxing dinner together and turn in for the night.   Aside from Amber’s luggage getting eaten by a conveyor belt, the trip was uneventful.    Meeting up with  Talli in the Chicago airport on his way back from San Francisco to join us on tour was heartening...so far everything is going well...We’re folllowing the plan.