The AHQ Tour Update #4
6-27-01
Written by Konrad Krabill
(Editor's note: We've been home for awhile by now, so obviously this final update is a bit late. As an editor, I have very little threatening power over my writers, if they feel like taking their time doing their writing assignments, I just have to put up with them. I can't threaten to fire them or cut their wages, all our work is pro bono. As you can tell, Konrad took his jolly old time completing the text for this update.
Hmm, if I charged a subscription fee for this thing....!!!
For a little review, look at Byran's ridiculous signature at the end of the last update.)
T.R.T.H. Tenors Rate Themselves Highly.
T.R.T.H.,W.T.H. Tenors Rate Themselves Highly, Way Too Highly.
My goodness, it's been several days since the last update was done, and I now see that I've got to cover the time from almost a week ago. Let's see if I can remember much of anything. (It seems that we were gone on our trip about two days, but it seems we've been home about three weeks.)
6/21
As By already stated, we left the Eberly's at "about 8:00" on Thursday morning. That's close enough, I guess. It was about 8:21 I think. That was pretty good for us. (Have you ever tried getting three guys going in the morning..........and then throw yourself into the mix too?!)
Our travel was going rather smoothly until..............we happened upon a Walmart. See, certain ones (well, one) of us have a hard time passing up a/any/all Walmart(s) because, "They've got Pringles for a dollar a can and everywhere else they're two!" The most common refrain every travelling day was, "Kon, kan we stop at a Super Center?". In fact, I heard it so often that I started pointing Walmarts out along the way. At first, he was eager to see the Walmart when I mentioned it, but soon he resorted to calling me a "nitwit" or some closely related term of endearment. (At least I took it to be a term of endearment, because heretofore I've never been referred too with so much passion.)
I don't think he appreciated my effort like he should have. It wasn't as simple as merely averring that there was a Walmart, my method was rather sophisticated; if it were two Walmart trucks that we'd pass on the road, I'd call it a Super Center!
Anyway, where were we.......oh ya, actually, we'd exited the freeway on account of our common pangs of hunger and sought to satiate that problem(?) at the local Applebee's. (Applebee's does a pretty good job of that.) Well, Applebee's wasn't going to open for another half hour and Wallyworld was just down the street, so I suggested going there first.
(See, I knew that we'd have to stop at one sometime that day anyway [You can't say no forever, have you ever seen these guys' pleading eyes?], so it might as well be then so we wouldn't have to make another stop and be further delayed. [It seemed I was the only one concerned with being anywhere on time.] In fact, if we travelled at some [or one] of their preferred rates, we'd have probably never gotten out of the state of Oregon in the whole week and a half. Get this, one of the guys [him] was PLANNING on being AT LEAST an hour late at our first service!) (Editor's note: I forgot to change my watch to the local time!!!!! Time zones confuse me.)
Okay, so the Walmart/Applebee's stop ONLY took us two hours, but it was rather enjoyed by all, especially the Applebee's. Back on the road, all went well and we arrived at our destination--Mt. View Mennonite Church--in Creston, Montana, only 10 or 15 minutes late. Fortunately, I always planned for us to be at our destinations an hour early, so the 10 or 15 minutes wasn't terribly terrible. This was one of the places that I didn't know a soul, though three of us have an aunt, Kris (Kauffman) Krabill, that was from the area. (There were three stops on our tour that we didn't know anyone before we got there.)
Mt. View Mennonite Church. There are many mountains within view around this church.
The service went well that night and we made some new friends! Our gracious and highly hospitable host and hostess were Norman and Margaret Kauffman. Norman is an uncle to our aunt who has some nieces, but we are not counted among them. Unfortunately, I mistakenly said during the service that we were her nieces. Fortunately, one of the guys caught it (Editor's note: Me.) and made the necessary correction so that the poor audience wouldn't have to sit, ponder, and wonder about our poor aunt and her three rather scary looking nieces.
I planned for a lot of sleepinage the next day------it was not met with much consternation. (Editor's note: the rest of us couldn't believe that our slave driver was finally easing up for once.)
In the morning, (6/22) since our host and hostess had left the house, a note was found indicating that someone we'd met the night before would like to go golfing with us. Ken Kauffman sings in a couple of quartets himself, and we'd enjoyed visiting with him the night before. (Editor's note: and singing tags!) So, we left in just enough time to go to the local burger joint to garner some sustenance before hitting the links. (I know technically an inland course is not termed "links", but I like the sound of it and besides, a lot of people are ignorant about that anyway.) (Editor's note: Boy, I'm confused now. I'm sure I speak on behalf of the majority of our large subscribership, please clearly define the term "links".)
We met Ken at the course and rather enjoyed nine holes of golf. I'd say good golf, but that wouldn't techincally be correct either. Well, the other guys did real good (In fact, By got his best score ever--a 67!), but that was not the case for me. Let's just say that out of five guys, I was like 7th. I'm just kidding about By's score, I believe he shot a 44. I think it was Tom's best nine too, he shot an 83! Just kidding, I think his was a 47. (Editor's note: Last week at Trysting Tree I shot a 45! Had to try to get that in somewhere.)
I think I'll go to bed now.
6/30
We arrived in plenty of time for the service in Eureka that evening and it was a good thing. I'm not too terribly sure why, but it must've been a good thing. At least we weren't late. They'd just installed a new sound system that day and thanks to a couple of Esh boys (there's no way I'm gonna remember their names), it worked very well. (Editor's note: I can remember their names: Eli....um, Eli and....I think there was an Eli anyway.)
I think there's even an Esh or two in this picture.
We sang a song or two after the service with Ken, who had come up from Creston. They had refreshments afterward as well! Then came the long and arduous task of getting a female group from the church there to sing for us. Talk about workin' hard.......my goodness, but thankfully, after much persuasion and a logical reasoning session, they did eventually sing for us and did a very nice job. "You get what you pay for" sure rings true in this case; I worked awful hard to get them to sing, and it was well worth it!
Several members of the group.
After that, we went to a local school gym and played volleyball and basketball with some of the youth there. It was great fun and we enjoyed getting out and running (some of our mouths were running too!) (Editor's note: He's speaking for himself.) and actually stretching our legs. Our benevolent host family that evening was John and Martha Chupp who live a few miles outside Eureka. They were most gracious; they even let us in after we got there pretty late from the volleyball game! (Editor's note: Pretty late is putting it mildly.) And wow, was that ever a fantastic breakfast they had prepared for us, I think all participants in that feast were well satisfied!
The Chupp family. I think there's an extra in there somewhere, one of the boys is a friend.
Our next stop was in Cataldo, Idaho, at the Marvin Struhbar family residence. On our way, we stopped in at Bonner's Ferry, ID, and visited briefly with Tom's old friend (Well, I guess all his friends are old!), Steve Kauffman.
My old buddy Steve. I may be even older than him, but he's married with offspring!
I told the Struhbar's that we'd be arriving at 1:00 or 1:30. We arrived at 1:33. Soon after arrival, we sat down to a fantabulous lunch of homemade pizza! It was great! If you're ever through there, I'm sure they'd love to have you stop and stay and my advice would be to make sure and eat some pizza. We've never eaten anything there we didn't like, but the pizza was exceptional!
After lunch, the men--Marvin, Brian, Darrin, Edwin and Howard--took us four-wheeling up some precipices (precipi?) in the mountains in Marvin's Explorer and Darrin's Blazer. I think they were called the Fishteeth Mtns. Just kidding, I have no idea. Though we didn't have a lot of time, we enjoyed it and the views were very good too.
Most of the mountainous pictures in this update are from our jaunt with the Strubhars.
Tell me, what guy climbs to the top of a mountain and leaves without rolling a few rocks down?!
That evening we enjoyed singing in their home for them and several other families that they'd invited.
See if you can find all the peeps (people) in this picture. I think there are 7. Let me know if you find more.
We stayed for church in the morning and sang a few songs before leaving on our expected nine hour trip home. They had a wonderful dinner of burritos with home-made tortillas, and huckleberry cheesecake for dessert.
The drive home was good except for that fact that the whole trip was getting over way too fast. I was ready to leave again before we even got back.
After dropping everyone else off, I pulled into the driveway at home at 11:09 p.m., having travelled 3,716 miles, given 7 full programs (about 9 accumulated), journeyed in 5 states, saw lots of friends and had the pleasure of making some new ones, viewed vast amounts of God's magnificent scenery, learned some new things about ourselves, and generally had a fantabulous trip all the way around! (Editor's note: You forgot, we also golfed 45 holes!)
Thank you so much for all your prayers and support during the trip, they were and are greatly appreciated. I believe the Lord was with us as we travelled and ministered in the various places along the way. I take for granted way too often the opportunity that the Lord has allowed me to have in being able to sing with these guys (sometimes it does amaze me that they let me sing with them though) and that we've been able to do it for 6+ years (that's like 1/3 of David and Byran's lives!). And the experience just gets better all the time!
Please continue to pray for us as we continue to work on our new album and consider what the future may bring; it is our desire to be sensitive to the Spirit's leading individually and as a group, and I don't think too much prayer is possible! We have nothing "big" planned at the moment, though there are a few weddings on the horizon. Oh brother *sigh* no, no, no, none of ours, we'll be SINGING at several weddings this summer.
Have a great summer, and God bless!
Oh ya, the car that I purchased for the trip is now for sale! Yes, you can purchase my car! Or, you can sponsor my car so that I can keep it for any future trips! I would prefer the latter, but just in case you'd be interested, it is a '91 Chevrolet Caprice Classic. It now has 131,000 miles, tilt wheel, cruise control and cold air conditioning. Oh ya, it's big. It is a rear wheel drive with a 4 speed automatic and has a 5.0 litre V8 that averaged a little over 25 mpg for the whole trip. It is grey with a maroon cloth interior. If you'd like some pictures, just mention what angle/lighting/distance you'd like and I'd be glad to e-mail them to you. It is advertised right now for $4200 or best offer. I will consider all offers, especially those higher than $4200! Anyway, have a great day!
For Sale.
(Editor's note: This is the final update for awhile. Thank you for all your comments, kind and otherwise. Actually, thank you just for the kind ones. Regardless, I enjoy putting these updates together and sending them out, I only wish I had reason and opportunity to do it more often! I really should take more vacation.)
Your still loyal and caring Editor.