Ponca City-Valparaiso, IN

Ponca City, OK was one of the more pleasant cities we visited. We enjoyed the city because of the investment that business leaders made in the city many years ago. Ponca City is an oil town. The foundation was built on oil. Because of the generosity of business leaders, the town is architecturally a pleasant site with all of its’ art deco mansions. Conoco Phillips was born in Ponca City. E. W. Marland was a wealthy tycoon who paid his employees well. Katherine and I toured Marland Estate Mansion, one of America's castles. It is a showplace containing approximately 48,000 square feet spread over four floors -- complete with leather-lined elevator, twelve bathrooms, three kitchens, an elegant ballroom with 24-karat gold leaf-covered ceiling worth over $1.4 million, and seven fireplaces. The workmanship and beauty provide an aura of simplicity in grandeur, impossible to reproduce today. The Mansion is a National Historical Landmark.
The concert was well attended even though there was a threat of thundershowers. The threat came to fruition and it poured!
We left Ponca City the next day to head north a short drive to our next destination for a concert; El Dorado, KS, near Wichita. There was an oil museum in town that we visited. The museum emphasized what it was like to live in an oil boomtown. The large outdoor exhibit contained a reconstructed Midwest town with stores and barbershops on display.
Since the travel distance was short from Ponca City, we had a chance on the 23rd after we set up our instruments to go into Wichita to tour the cattle town, have dinner and see a movie. Please be sure to see Amazing Grace.
The concert went well although it was one of our smallest crowds. Kansas’s folks are intense over basketball. Our concert was held on the same night as the Kansas-UCLA final 64-tournament game. Basketball is more of a hindrance to harp concerts than thunderstorms!
After the concert on the 24th, we treated ourselves to the Sonic drive-in, an institution in the Midwest. It was a delicious high caloric treat!
We headed to Missouri on the morning of the 25th to Bolivar via Fort Scott. Being a Sunday we thought for sure we could listen to a radio sermon but were surprised to not come across one in the outer ring of the Bible belt.
Fort Scott was built on the outer frontier and served many different functions in its history. From 1869-73, soldiers were stationed near Fort Scott to protect a railroad being built through this area. Soldiers fought squatters who had formed an armed resistance to the railroad. This was one of few times in U.S. history that the army took up arms against civilians. The military hospital was fascinating displaying its’ archaic medical implements of war. More people died because of infection than by the initial bullet.
We arrived in Bolivar, MO in the late afternoon, checked in to the hotel and drove 30 miles south to Springfield to attend a church service with close friends of Katherine’s (long story). We were invited to the pastor’s home (they are the close friends) after church for delicious soup and bread where we enjoyed a family evening together.
We set-up for our concert the next morning. The concert was held in the auditorium of Southwest Baptist University. The crowd was pleasant filled with college students, which I enjoyed.
We left for Georgia on the 27th traveling as far as Nashville, TN. We traveled on pretty roads decorated with trees of spring that meandered through the Ozarks of southern Missouri. We stayed at another Priceline hotel near the Opryland Hotel for $50.00 arriving quite late. We left Nashville in the morning with a goal of seeing the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and our anti climatic highlight of Pigeon Forge.
The Great Smokies was well worth the visit. I’d drive a long distance again just to visit the national park. We visited Cades Cove, inhabited many years ago by pioneers living in a harsh wilderness. There was a memorable cemetery that we wandered through. We were struck by how many children perished.
Friends don’t let friends go to Pigeon Forge, at least my friends should have warned me not to go. Talk about a tourist trap! Wax museums and all the other entrapments in the beautiful Smoky Mountains! With my diatribe, I don’t think I will be expecting an invitation to play my harp in Pigeon Forge, TN.
We arrived late in Tekoa, GA on the 28th, greeted by our good friends, Bill and Penny Rothrock. They traveled 2 hours north to be a tour guides to in north Georgia and to attend our concert. I met the Rothrocks in Seattle over 15 years ago when I played my harp at the Marriott Hotel. Bill and Penny drove us around to the sights of Georgia on the 29th. We visited Tallulah Gorge and state park. A couple of well-known high wire walkers tight roped across the gorge. Although barely 3 miles long and a quarter-mile wide the cliffs at one point drop 1200 feet to the bottom of the gorge. Twice men have ventured across the tear in the fabric of Mother Earth, both times successfully. Professor Leon made it across on July 24, 1886 and Karl Wallenda repeated the feat 84 years less one week later (July 18, 1970).
By coincidence, Bill and Penny met some friends of their’s at the state park who attended the concert. An acquaintance of mine Emile Pandolfi (yes the famous piano player) and his wife Judy also attended the concert. I consider them my friends now. It was an honor to have them at our concert in Tekoa. The concert was well attended. We had friends from Mebane, NC, Charles and Carol Fortner attend the concert as well. By coincidence, they stayed at the same hotel. We followed in the footsteps of Mickey Rooney as he was the entertainer the prior month for the Tekoa arts series.
The following day, Bill, Penny, Katherine and I drove north to have lunch and to visit Emile at his studio in Greensboro, SC to be amazed at his piano virtuosity (and his amazing card tricks)! We then left south for Bill and Penny’s home to stay a couple of days in Jonesboro, GA. It was a blessing to have them as hosts for us. It felt good to feel like we were at home. The Rothrocks took us to a gorgeous place called Callaway Gardens south of their home. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a place quite like Callaway Gardens. Go there!
We had the opportunity to attend church service on Palm Sunday with Bill and Penny and started heading north to Nashville. We had our first little scare with automobile trouble when the brake light came on. We discovered that we had a leak in our brake fluid line. Its uncomfortable when the brake peddle touches the floor. It seems that the lights turn red more often when brakes are bad. We purchased brake fluid at a gas station to solve the problem temporarily.
We found another Priceline in Nashville where we stayed a day. We visited “corporate headquarters” that has organized our wonderful concert tour. Lou and Stacy treated us to lunch and were given the good news that we have been asked to return for another concert trip in the 2008-2009 season.
On the morning of April 3rd we left Nashville to head to Valparaiso, IN. We stopped for a visit at Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. Mammoth Cave National Park preserves the cave system and a part of the Green River valley and hilly country of south central Kentucky. This is the world's longest cave system, with more than 365 miles explored. Early guide Stephen Bishop called the cave a "grand, gloomy and peculiar place," but its vast chambers and complex labyrinths have earned its name: Mammoth.
Thundershowers and tornado warnings were posted in Indiana. Wow…! We went through the front of black clouds. The van felt like it was lifted off the ground for a moment. I was flying a 747! We met an inovative man with his unique bicyle carrying his little dog at a gas station.
We were in Valparaiso by evening and were greeted by snow. Snow in April in the Chicago area is not unheard of but certainly it shouldn’t be happening in this day of greenhouse warming.
The morning of the concert, I had the brakes fixed and set up the instruments. The concert was not as well attended as usual because of the snow and it being Wednesday of Holy Week. The concert went well.
On Thursday the 5th we drove to Grand Rapids, MI to go to an evening Maundy Thursday service at a church where Katherine’s former music professor (and good friend) is the music conductor. He asked Katherine to sing in the choir while Mrs. Groetenhuis and sat in the congregation. It snowed most of the day.
On Good Friday we stayed around Valparaiso to go to the University Cathedral and listen to the Seven Last Words performed by the students at noon and then return to hear a sermon at 3:00. We hadn’t been able to attend church too much so we certainly made up for it during our time in Valparaiso.
We left on Saturday to be in Mesa, AZ by Friday April 13th to give a program. We were able to drive as far as Springfield, MO. We attended the same church for Easter that we attended two weeks prior on a Sunday night, our friends Phil and Joy Groetenhuis. Phil asked me to bring my harp in from the car and join in on a few songs. We stayed for the potluck and headed on our way again, arriving in Oklahoma City in the early evening.