Mineola, Texas to Portales, New Mexico
A "Little" Background Info...
This summer marked the 14th Biennial Alumni Band Reunion at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. I attended some of the earlier reunion bands, but circumstances prevented me from attending lately until the 2012 gathering. Barbara and I had such fun at that reunion that we decided to return for the next one.
With the dates of June 19 - 21 already blocked out on the calendar, we looked at different ways of traveling. The heat precluded any long trip on Taz, so our choices were narrowed to either the car or Big V. The Big V choice looked attractive at first, but since it would be a relatively short trip (we need at least two weeks on the road for motorhome expenses to begin to balance motel/meal expenses), and finally settled on just taking the car, driving down to Artesia for a couple of days when we finished in Portales, and then returning to Mineola.
Then, Barbara and granddaughter Jaycie began exchanging texts joking about a beach trip this summer. One thing led to another, and soon it wasn't a joke anymore. Jaycie discovered that she had a vacation window of a few days in late June, so we began serious talks with Cathey and Jaycie about the possibilities.
Once we determined that a summer trip in Big V to a South Texas beach was possible, we scrambled to find just the right place and settled on the Jamaica Beach R.V. Resort on Galveston Island, a place that we took Alexander and Abby a couple of years ago. Luckily, reservations were available for the dates we needed, so we made the necessary arrangements.
Then, Jaycie asked if it would be rude to invite Keaton, her boyfriend, to come along with us. We said we didn't mind, but she and Keaton would have to clear everything with Cathey and Stephanie, Keaton's mother. To make a long story short, everything worked out for Cathey to bring Jaycie and Keaton to meet us in Lamesa, Texas, on Saturday, the 28th to begin their short summer adventure.
The dates to take the kids opened up some other possibilities for us, so we blocked in some travel activities from the time we finished in Portales until we got the kids in Lamesa on the 28th.
And so, we found ourselves poised on the verge of our first pleasure trip in Big V in two years (not without incident, as we described in the previous post), ready to enjoy time in what had once been our home for 3 1/2 years immediately following our retirement from teaching.
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Tuesday, June 17: Mineola to Oak Creek R.V. Park
We knew that before we could go anywhere, we had to visit Leslie at Naturally Nails to get haircuts and, for Barbara, some serious mani/pedi work. I went first at 9:00 and as soon as Leslie was finished with me, she started on Barbara while I continued cleaning and loading Big V with all the supplies and clothing we would need for the trip.
When Barbara was finished around noon, we made one last sweep of the house, closed it up, went to Autumn Winds to visit Jenny and Elmer, had salads from McDonald's and then moved Big V and the car from the civic center to Brookshire's to gas up and attach the car to the motorhome for towing.
The first attempt at hooking Big V and the car probably went better than it could have, but it did have its interesting moments. Once we defined our terminology (and with a little help from our friends Gene and Carolyn, who just happened to be at Brookshire's at the same time we were), the process worked more easily than we expected, and we were soon moving (albeit slowly...just in case) out of the parking lot, around the street, and onto the highway for our first flat-towing experience.
We did make one stop between Mineola and Lindale just so I could make sure everything was working the way it was supposed to, but after that, it was clear sailing through Lindale and onto I-20.
A new addition to Big V is Miss Thingamajig, a good luck token sent to us by Gwen and Jeri Akin, some mission friends we met several years ago at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa, Georgia. We tried to find a permanent mounting place for Miss Thingamajig on the way to Dallas, but she seemed to have a mind of her own, moving wherever she would, so we spent a few miles showing her off and taking photos.
As seems to be our custom, we hit the Dallas/Fort Worth traffic right at 5:00 pm...not the optimum time for driving a motorhome and towing a car, but we had prayed for a hedge of protection, and God granted that to us. The upside of the slow and slower traffic flow was that Barbara had plenty of opportunities to take photos of flags, one of her favorite travel activities.
We had hoped to make it as far as Abilene this evening, but with the time lost while crawling through the Metroplex traffic, the hot and blinding afternoon sun, and our realization that we were far more exhausted from all our preparations than we thought, we decided to find the first available R.V. park after Weatherford. I knew that we had seen one in the area and we've remarked that it looked like a nice place to stay, but neither of us could remember the name. Barbara looked it up on Yelp, got the directions, and we soon found ourselves at Oak Creek R.V. Park...and it was even nicer that we expected. We got checked in, located our site, opened up Big V, and set out to enjoy our first RV experience in over a year.
After a cooling swim, we returned to Big V to enjoy supper and spend the evening catching up on email and Facebook before retiring for the night.
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Wednesday, June 18
We got up early this morning, had a light breakfast, got Big V ready for travel, and pulled away from our site.
Once on I-20, we found surprisingly light traffic and very comfortable cloudy conditions that made the travel easier. The picture below isn't particularly exciting but if you have good eyesight, you can read the right bottom corner of the NCP truck which says, "Caution! This vehicle makes ridiculously wide turns." Barbara and I, at the time, found this ridiculously funny! Now, not so much.
We stopped at the Flying J Truck Center in Abilene for fuel and a refreshment break, and then headed on toward Roscoe and the turnoff toward Lubbock. While I focused on the highway, Barbara kept a keen eye open for interesting photo ops. By taking pics of the road signs, she could keep Jaycie apprised of our progress by text.
We arrived in Lubbock shortly after noon and drove to the Genghis Kahn Restaurant to meet Cathey, Jaycie, Keaton, and Keaton's brother, Myles, to enjoy a meal and talk about the upcoming trip to Galveston. We were hoping to meet Stephanie, Keaton's mom, but work kept her from joining us.
This was our first visit to a Genghis Kahn, so we took lots of photos to capture the experience.
This was also Keaton's birthday and the staff went out of their way to give him appropriate recognition, including the flaming grill salute.
When we finished our meal and had answered all the questions about life in a motorhome, we climbed back into Big V and headed west toward Clovis, New Mexico via Shallowater, Littlefield, Muleshoe, and Farwell.
Shortly after leaving Littlefield, we spied some dark clouds boiling up in the northwest. It wasn't long before the clouds headed straight for us, with the wind kicking up the dust in the fields bordering the highway.
A couple of minutes later, lightning was striking, thunder was cracking, and the rain started falling.
And then we found ourselves in a hail of a storm, so to speak. Hail began coming down so fast and furious that it sounded like a bunch of guys beating on the roof of Big V with sledge hammers! All we could think of was having windows broken out in both Big V and the car.
As if that wasn't bad enough, traffic soon ground to a complete halt as everything turned dark around us and the hail intensified.
However, when we started back up, it didn't take us long to realize just how blessed we had been to stop. If we had been further along, we would have received much more hail than we did!
It appeared from the rearview camera on Big V that the windshield of the Equinox had been shattered, so when it was safe, I pulled over and we checked for damage and to decide whether we had to go to the nearest Chevrolet dealership to get a new windshield.
Luckily, there was no window damage to either vehicle, but the car was so covered in mud that we couldn't tell about any other damage.
Feeling a little better, we drove on to Clovis, refueled Big V (after looking forever for a station that had space for us...thank goodness for Stripes convenience stores and fuel stops)! Then it was on to our space for the night at Travelers World R.V. Park on U.S. 60 west of Clovis.
After we got set up for the night, Barbara fixed supper and then I went back to the bedroom to get in an hour of trumpet practice time. One thing I learned from the reunion band experience two years ago was that I needed to be in much better playing shape to handle the length and intensity of the rehearsals and final concert.
After supper and practice, we just kicked back to enjoy another night of life in Big V.
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Thursday, June 19: Clovis to Portales, New Mexico
We had plenty of time before leaving Clovis for Portales, so we just took it easy for the morning...enjoyed a simple breakfast and then sat back to check our email and Facebook pages.
Later, Barbara played Happy Homemaker and fixed up a batch of chicken salad so we could have some quick and easy noon meals the next couple of days.
We remembered from the reunion band experience of 2012 that time between the morning and afternoon rehearsals would be somewhat limited and didn't want to waste it driving around town looking for a place to eat.
Since we were going to be staying in a motel for the next three nights (no RV parks in Portales and we didn't want to have to commute between there and Clovis), we went ahead and began packing the clothes and other things that we would take to our room. We figured it would be a lot more comfortable to do that early, rather than waiting until the afternoon sun began heating up the place.
We left the RV park a little after noon and drove to the Super 8 in Portales. Luckily, they had a couple of spaces designated for big rigs, so we parked Big V and went inside to see if there was any chance they would have our room ready. Unfortunately, the room wasn't ready and wouldn't be for at least a couple of hours, so we quickly came up with Plan B...we disconnected the car from Big V (easier than we had expected), and drove the Equinox to a car wash that we saw when we came into town. Although we didn't get the complete washing the car needed, she looked much better with about a half ton of mud washed off. The red dirt of Eastern New Mexico and West Texas does not come off without a thorough scrubbing by hand, and there was neither the time nor place for that.
With the car looking much better, we drove back through town to locate a place for lunch. We found McCarty's, a restaurant owned and operated by one of my Sigma Chi brothers, Jeff McCarty, and decided to give it a try.
There was, of course, a line of folks waiting to place their orders. The man in front of us noticed that we had been taking photos outside and commented that we must not be from Portales. We told him we were from Mineola and he commented that we were from opposite ends of the state from each other. I asked him where he was from and he told us he was Mark Styles, girls' basketball coach from Perryton, which just happens to be a place where I taught band from 1980 - 1986. We introduced ourselves to each other and, having established the Perryton connection, we fell into an easy conversation about mutual acquaintances and teaching/coaching experiences.
The conversation continued throughout our meal (which was delicious...we highly recommend McCarty's to anyone passing through Portales).
Mark soon had to leave to return to Perryton from the basketball camp he had been attending at ENMU. We finished our meal and drove out to Walmart to get some necessaries for the next few days and then returned to the Super 8 to check in and transfer what we needed from Big V to our room.
We went to the Music Building at ENMU at 5:00 to register and see who might be around that I would know. To my surprise, Bob Stevens, who graduated from Rio Grande High School in Albuquerque and entered ENMU at the same time I did in 1962, was attending this year. We have stayed connected over all these years, so it was very easy to fall into a conversation about who we knew "back when," and who we had lost in the intervening years.
In the bottom photo, Bob Cunningham and I are talking to David Allen, who graduated from Hobbs High School in 1965 and entered the ENMU program when we were seniors.
The bottom photo of the next set shows Jim Barnard, who entered ENMU a couple of years after me.
After registration and visits with various participants, we returned to the motel, had a light supper, and then I went back to the music building for the first rehearsal, which lasted three hours and seriously tested our mettle...sure was glad that I stayed in good playing shape following the June concert of our community band in Mineola!
On a very sad note, we learned this evening that our good friend Elmer Bunn passed away in Mineola today. Elmer was Mother's oldest friend...they went to elementary school together in Mineola and their families were very close. I grew up hearing stories about Elmer and finally had the great privilege and pleasure of meeting Elmer and Jenny when we moved to Mineola to take care of Mother several years ago. Since that time, Barbara and I have come to love them as if they were family members. Elmer, a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II was a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, an upstanding Christian, and one of the all-around good guys in this world. Those who had the privilege of knowing Elmer are far better for the experience of sharing in his friendship.
The photo on the left below shows Elmer, Mother, and my grandmother in Mineola around 1934. There's a great story about the rabbit, but that will have to be shared at a later time.
The photo on the right is a more recent shot of Elmer and Jenny at East Texas Medical Center in Quitman during Elmer's recent illness.
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Friday, June 20
The story today was rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse some more. It was an amazing experience to work with so many folks of so many different ages (Class of 1951 - Class of 2014) with a common goal...to prepare in less than three days a concert that would normally take 4 - 6 weeks of rehearsal time. While there was some down time during our six hours of rehearsal time today to meet, greet, and reminisce, the actual rehearsal time was extremely intense, taking its toll both physically and mentally on all of us.
After getting ready for this evening's event, we decided to have a little photo fun to show off our more serious looks.
This evening it was time for food, friendship, and fellowship as participants and their families/guests gathered at the Student Union Building for the reunion banquet. The food was great, the fellowship wonderful, and a good time was had by all.
When the banquet was over and we had said the last of our goodbyes, we returned to the motel to just chill for the rest of the evening.
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Saturday, June 21
We had another full morning of rehearsal activities, then broke for lunch and returned to the recital hall at 1:30 to set up for the concert and do a run-through of all the music for the program. Mr. Seifert, the director of bands at ENMU, had thought we'd be through rehearsing around 3:30, but it was a few minutes after 4:00 when we took our final break before the 4:30 downbeat.
While I was at rehearsal, Barbara's sister Carol came in from Roswell to hear the concert and spend the night with us. Carol had such a good time at the concert two years ago that she decided to come back, so I had my two groupies in attendance to cheer me on and take photos.
Several weeks ago, I contacted Mr. Seifert to ask about having a few minutes to talk to the band about Bugles Across America and the need to recruit "live" musicians to sound Taps at the funerals of military and law enforcement veterans. It is estimated that approximately 400 WW II veterans pass away each day. With federal funding cuts that heavily impacted military musical organizations, the military is unable to send buglers to present final honors. Most of the time, the military will send a uniformed member of the service to hold a fake bugle that sounds Taps by way of a computer chip and a speaker system built into the bell.
I was not surprised that Mr. Seifert agreed to my request, but I was pleasantly surprised when he offered to add Taps to the program prior to the band playing the traditional closing number, America the Beautiful. And I was pleased and surprised even more when he asked if I wanted to take the podium and conduct Taps.
I brought the harmonized version of Taps that was sounded by 100 buglers at Arlington National Cemetery last November during the ceremonies surrounding the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I rehearsed the trumpets this afternoon during the final run-through, and then took the podium to direct the entire trumpet section of the alumni band sounding Taps. It was my first conducting experience in nearly ten years, and the first time I had stood on the podium in the Buchanan Recital Hall at ENMU since I did my student conducting in 1966. What a pleasure and honor it was to talk to my fellow musicians and the audience about the need for more young people to step up and share in honoring our nation's veterans! And what a great pleasure it was to hear the twelve fantastic trumpet players sounding our National Song of Remembrance.
And then, with the playing of America the Beautiful and our traditional encore, Anchors Aweigh (arranged by friend, fellow band director, and ENMU alumnus Van Ragsdale), the 14th Biennial Alumni Reunion Band went into the books...an amazing experience and one that will be remembered by all who participated!
When the concert was over, I found Barbara and Carol talking to a lady that I didn't know. The lady introduced herself as Betty Williamson, a columnist for the Portales Tribune newspaper, and said she wanted to talk to me about Taps and Bugles Across America. We spent several minutes talking and I promised to send her some material that might help her when she prepares her column on the topic.
With our business at ENMU finished, we packed my gear in the car, returned to the motel for a few minutes, and then Carol treated us to dinner at the Cattle Baron Restaurant. Imagine our surprise when the president of the university, Dr. Steven Gamble, came over to our table, commented on the great concert, and thanked me for directing Taps on the program. He said that he, too, was a veteran of the United States Air Force and then pointed out his father, a World War II veteran. What a kind and gracious gesture that was!
We finished our meal a while later, returned to the motel to visit for a bit, and then Carol went to her room, we went to ours, and we all called it a day...a long and busy day, with another long and busy day ahead of us, but that will have to wait for another chapter.
"A reunion is a gathering of folks who conveniently forget much of what actually happened in the past, but who remember with great clarity things that never were." Jim Little, Pontificator Emeritus
From Portales New Mexico, the Peanut Capital of the Southwest
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams/Gramsy
