Concert Choir Day Six: The Trouble with Trebles

Aloha!

How's it going!?!  Can I just say how awesome these boys are?  You're little munchkins were rock stars again today as they conducted a three-hour workshop and followed that by a concert.  No big deal, just another day with the Land of Lakes Choirboys.

So here is how it started!  Yours Truly got to sleep in an extra 20 minutes while Adam, Rodney, and Aaron went to the school to get all the boys.  We are in Hilliard for two days, so they had very little luggage and a few hours to kill in the morning.  We had a plan, but we needed to execute it properly if it was going to work.

We called ahead to the Best Western yesterday to see if the boys could come and go swimming in our motel, but they have a policy that you can only have as many boys swim as you have rooms rented.  Therefore, we were allowed to have exactly 16 boys swimming - no more.  To facilitate this, we split the boys into two groups.  The boys that are on the bus cleaning crew and riser crew worked on their jobs.  Adam put the riser boys through their paces while the bus crew made our awesome bus even more awesome smelling.  (That bus has been fantastic for us this year...)

Group two snuck in the back door of the motel and quickly changed into their swimsuits before hopping into the pool.  They had a blast throwing each other around and splashing their buddies in the face with water.  Oh to be a boy again.

After 25 minutes, the pool boys showered off and changed up in our rooms while the working crew changed and snuck in the back way to get to the pool.  We convinced them to be sneaky to make it a little more fun.  Those boys got their 25 minutes in the pool while the first group wrote in their journals and wrote letters to their girlfriends and mothers.  It was a good couple hours for them.

When both groups were done in the pool and the cologne was drying on the letters to the girlfriends, we ate our lunches in the rooms and took a great nap on the floor of three hotel rooms.  It was nice for a change to not be on a loud, moving bus while you are trying to sleep.  After a good hour and 15 minutes, we woke the boys from their slumber and boarded the bus for the school where we were scheduled to hold our workshop at 2:00.

The group that was hosting a boys singing camp for the week were members of the Hilliard School system that were looking into starting a boys choir program like our own.  They had 18 boys who were very eager to learn what we had to offer them.  The boys from Hilliard were apprehensive at first but our boys really got to know them and helped them along through the day. (To be perfectly honest, our boys did fantastic today helping them along in their exercises and showing them a good example of what a choirboy is.)

Adam started by leading them in an ice-breaker that had them going around and talking to each other to find out interesting facts about each boy.  Then, our Artistic Director brought the two groups through exercises that worked on posture, breathing, and tone production.  Our boys then performed "Heilig" for the group and demonstrated for them the pure tone of a boy's choir.  It was pretty sweet to see their expressions on their faces!

Throughout the day, the boys had breaks to run around outside and play on the playground.  I believe there was some ultimate Frisbee and basketball going on as well.  While they are in the workshop, Rodney and I took the bus to get her washed and stopped by a grocery store to stock-up on water and Windex.  After all the cleaning that bus got today, it is sure looking fine!

Dinner was at 5:00 and consisted of Sloppy Joes.  Yes, they were sloppy.  I would not be surprised if traces of them are still on the faces of our boys.  They were very good to eat as well.  We had the boys chill-out back stage for a few minutes before the show.  I also had the privilege of awarding two Level Two pins for the Leadership Development Program.  Steven Kelly and Noah Carpenter have been fantastic this first week and were certainly ready to move on to the next level in the program.  I was going to wait until we got home, but I need to reward some of our boys that consistently go above and beyond the call of duty, which they always do.  I hope to award many more pins as we go through the tour.

The concert went fairly well.  It was in the gym of the school, but it was quite well attended.  It seemed like several boys had extended family and friends in the audience as well.  Who knew Columbus had this many ties to the boys?  The only snag of the day came during the clean-up that took an unusually long amount of time.  For some reason, this year's choir can't seem to move with any sense of urgency when they need to.  They are very laid back and really like to talk to each other.  This is one of the closer groups I have ever worked with as well.  I think many of the past year's events have brought them close to each other and they are just genuinely good friends.  I still need to find the carrot that gets them to clean-up on time.  Once they figure that out, it's going to be as good as it gets.

The boys were able to get to their host families quite early today.  We passed several of them at the ice cream place next to our motel as we were pulling in.  (They get so spoiled on the road - seriously!)  Tomorrow we continue East to Maryland with a full concert for a former concert site of ours in Frostburg.  Repeat concerts are usually well attended, so we can expect a nice crowd tomorrow.

This guy needs to get to sleep and prepare his DVD finger and BINGO voice for the long journey ahead.  It could be a long day if I can't function in those two primary duties.

Until later,
 
P.J.

Concert Choir Day Five: It t'was a mammoth day!

Aloha!

Greetings from the great city of Columbus, Ohio!  I have a little more energy today to write this thing, so I am going to hit it hard before I hit the hay,

For starters:  The mostly doing fine and wonderful.  We have one boy who has a slightly sick tummy, but he thinks he will be fine by morning.  We have another boys who is unhappy because he found out he will be reimbursing his host home from last night for the personal belongings of his they now have to ship home.  Other than that, the boys are making fans at every single place we stop along the way.

We are starting to gain quite a lot of friends on this tour - more than usual.  Each choir has its own personality.  There are things they are really good at and things they still need to work on.  This year's choir can't clean-up quickly at the end of a concert to save their life, but they are very good with the manners and talking to adults.  (We are still working at improving both of them.)  Well, onto Sunday.

Today was our first "day-off" of the tour.  With no concert, but many miles to travel, it wasn't really a "day-off", but it was more relaxing as far as the boys are concerned.  We started-off this morning by meeting at the church and packing the bus as we usually do.  Today we also had the chance to make our own lunches in the church kitchen.  Our older boys packed the lunches while the rest of the boys loaded the bus and chatted with their host families.  The families seemed to really enjoy the boys.  It was a great stop with a great crowd.  I am sure the boys will have many fond memories of this stay.  By 8:05, we were on the road, headed for Mammoth Cave.

The boys were unusually chatty this morning too, probably in anticipation of the cave and the shopping trip afterwards.  The drive was nothing overly special, but there were moments on the back country roads of Kentucky that I felt like playing a banjo on someone's porch.  It was a little bit like you would think the back roads of Kentucky might look like.

Our bus driver, Rodney, is amazing.  He is the machine that keeps us mainly on time and safe throughout the day.  Now on his third tour with the LOLCB, he always makes sure the bus is ready to go when we need it and parked where we need it.  I don't know what we would do without such a reliable person at the helm.  If you get a second and want to write him a "thank you" note, I will be sure to pass it along.  I think he would really appreciate it.  You can send them to mail@lolcb.org.

We arrived at the cave right on time to take a quick bathroom break and board the buses for the short trip into the park to the entrance of the cave.  For the basic tour we were on, the entrance is actually the same one they have had since they started giving tours almost 100 years ago.  I shudder to think what the stairs and infrastructure must have been in there back then.  Today, it is your typical OSHA-style maze of ladders, stairs and lighting that you would expect in a federally-run national park.  It must've been a pretty crazy tour at the start of the century.

The boys had to go through an air-lock in the cave to keep too much fresh outside air from coming in and disturbing the cave to begin the tour.  After that, it was down a little more than 1,000 steps to the bottom where they had the opportunity to see some fossils and other cool things.  The temperature throughout the cave is 54 degrees year-round, so although we were doing a ton of walking, it was relatively comfortable.  We didn't sing in any of the caverns like we thought we might be able to do.  Surprisingly, in these caves the acoustics are not all that remarkable, unlike the salt mines in Poland or some of the other caves the boys have been at over the years.

Towards the end of the tour, the boys were brought to a spot and they turned all the lights out for a minute or so to show what total darkness and silence is.  (If there was just a way to recreate this on the bus...)  It was pretty good for some of these boys to be able to experience.  After this stop, we headed a few more minutes to the "Frozen Niagara", a special spot in the park that has some incredible stalagmites, stalactites, and other interesting formations created over 1000's of years.  The boys thoroughly enjoyed this part of the tour and will have many darkened pictures of it for you to see. 

Unfortunately, due to the lighting conditions down there, photography was difficult today.  You sorta have to take my word for it that they had a good time because we can't exactly show you like we would want to.  Kenny was able to take these photos, but I will check and see if any of mine turned-out tomorrow.

After exiting the cave, we split the boys into two groups.  Half of them shopped while the other half had lunch.  Since the gift stores are generally smaller, we have to get creative sometimes with getting them all through there in a reasonable amount of time.  I did allow the boys to buy some pretty cool pocket knives, but I made them turn them back in when they got to the bus.  Didn't need a repeat of the Bullwhip Incident of 2003!  :-)  Those few boys will be getting them when we get home...

On the rest of the trip to Hilliard (Columbus), we went through a few notable cities.  The first was Louisville, where we stopped at the airport to pick-up Isaac and Adam Saxton, who were meeting up with us.  (Isaac's brother got married this past weekend and Adam was mentoring some young speech competition participants.)  While they were waiting for us to pick them up, they managed to get to a Kentucky Fried Chicken while in the state of Kentucky.  They thought that was pretty cool.

The days drive also brought us through Cincinnati, where our very own Twins happened to be playing today as well.  We didn't stop, but we did feel a little smug as we drove through the town while they Twins were wrapping-up their victory today.  Take that, Cincinnati!

When we arrived to the school tonight in Hilliard, the boys quickly unloaded the bus and were off to their host families for the night.  We got in about 9:00 pm, so they didn't have a long time with them today, but we are here two nights.  Tomorrow is a pretty neat workshop we are hosting for 18 young men at the school that are looking into starting their own boy' choir here.  I think this is so awesome!  I hope we can help them however they might need it.

We are now also an hour ahead of most of you folks, so I need to end this 23-hour day and hit the hay.  The boys are going swimming in the morning at our hotel, cleaning the bus, and voting for the first round of Choirboy of the Year tomorrow.  I hope we can get some pictures of those for you all to see.

If you like what you are seeing in this program, I encourage you to go to Givemn.org and financially support the tour we are currently taking these boys on.  It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance for many of these great guys, and we cannot do it without the help of people like you.  Every single dollar helps!

Until tomorrow,

P.J.

Concert Choir Day Four: Nobody met us in St. Louis

Aloha!

Sorry about the lateness of this post.  I needed to get a good night’s rest last night after a couple grueling days in a row.  Here’s what you missed.

Yesterday was a very early start for us.  We woke-up the boys around 6:25 am and ran them through the continental breakfast before boarding the bus for Evansville, Indiana.  Since we were virtually on the other side of Missouri by Kansas City, we had a long day ahead of us in the bus.  410+ miles.  The boys did a great job getting ready and we were on the road by 7:15.

 

By 9:30 we were ready for our first rest area, which turned-out to be a little more rustic than we were hoping for.  It actually was just a few permanent out-houses attached to a parking lot.  Not a big deal when you carry around hand sanitizer by the gallon.

As we were coming in to St. Louis, we played a History Channel documentary on the building of the Gateway Arch.  The freeway in St. Louis goes right by the Arch, so the boys were able to get a good look at it from their seats.  It was quite eye-opening to see just how many boys had already been in it with the LOLCB.  We sure do get around the country well – especially the Midwest.

For lunch we had the choice of McDonald’s or The Cracker Barrel.  Cracker Barrels are typically very good to us and the boys get a good meal to boot.  (I like it because they have the little games the boys can play at the table to keep them entertained.)  When we pulled into the Cracker Barrel parking lot, I pretty much gave-up on the idea of us being able to eat there because of all the cars.  A breast cancer walk was happening in the area and the place was packed.  I ran in to get a map of all the other Cracker Barrels however and one of the hostesses talked me into talking with a manager before I gave-up on us eating there.  The manager promised he would have us in and out in an hour, which I balked at, but he reassured me.

So I took him at his word and brought the boys into the sea of pink walkers.  One hour and 50 minutes later, we emerged full, but well behind schedule.  This pretty much made me crabby for the rest of the day.  The afternoon rest period was a longer one since the boys didn’t get quite as much sleep the night before as I would’ve liked.  

We were scheduled to arrive at the church at 3:30 to prepare for mass, but thanks to our lunch, we didn’t actually make it until 4:00 – giving us only 30 minutes to prepare.  The boys are champs though, and they handled it very well.  The Cathedral in Evansville, Indiana is amazing, as you can see from the photos.  The people are equally as nice.  Following Mass, the church hosted a chicken dinner for us.  It was very good!

The concert was another very solid performance from the Rockstar Boys Choir.                 

As they have done the three nights before, they entertained the audience and brought them on a musical journey through the concert.  So many members have been commenting on how much they love “Minnesota Morning”.  It is without a doubt the favorite amongst the audience.

After the concert, the boys cleaned-up and met their host families.  This is one of the areas in which we need to improve yet.  Typically, I like to shoot for a 15 minute clean-up time for the boys, but we are still in the 20’s for time.  It really just comes with practice, and the more we can rehearse it, the better. 

The boys are doing very well for Day Five. Health wise, they are all in great condition, drinking plenty of water and getting plenty of sleep.  Tomorrow is onto Mammoth Cave in Kentucky before driving to Hilliard, Ohio in the Columbus area.

Until then,

P.J.

Concert Choir Day Three – No, we are actually not in Kansas anymore.

What an awesome day!  This could be a record length blog post, so I will see if I can tone it down a little for the sake of your eyes and free time.

I always love mornings like this one.  The weather was perfect.  The birds were singing.  But perhaps the best part was the glowing reports from the host families about the boys.  I saw a few teary-eyes as the boys loaded the bus and said their goodbyes.  This is a wonderful church community and I really hope we are able to make it back this way in the near future.  (To my knowledge, nothing was left behind in a host home either!  Key words:  to my knowledge.)

After counting-off and going over a few details of the day, the boys had the opportunity to work with Mr. Charles Bruffy, whom I spoke about yesterday.  What a great treat this was for the boys!  Mr. Bruffy worked with the boys for about an hour and really helped to reinforce so many of the things Aaron is working to teach the boys.  Mr. Bruffy mentioned how much he enjoyed our choir and how good we were.  It was a great experience for all of us and it is one of the many things we hope the boys take from their time here in the organization.  (I hope to upload a video of our clinic with him, to our Facebook page.  I apologize for those of you that do not have Facebook, but I cannot seem to figure-out how to get the video from my phone to the blog, so I figure this is better than nothing.  This particular video actually has him playing the top part on the piano with Lisa, just at the conclusion of our workshop.)

After saying our goodbyes to Mr. Bruffy and the rest of the Rolling Hills Presbyterian Community, we hit the road for a nice “relaxing” day at the Arboretum in Overland Park.  It is an amazing complex, complete with wonderfully manicured grounds and miles of walking trails.  The boys first ate lunch outdoors amongst the birds.  Our lunch was provided by the church and each boy had a hand-decorated lunch bag for their enjoyment.  You could tell a lot of work went into making just the bags for the boys, let alone the actual food inside that was equally deserving of mentioning.  After we destroyed two cases of water like it was nothing, we hit the trails.

Over the next two hours, the boys hit numerous trails and exhibits along the way.  I am sure they will have thousands of pictures of show you in a few short weeks when they get home.  I apologize in advance for having to act interested while you watch all those photos of random trees, rocks, and Koi Fish.  (Sp?)

Today’s rest period was a great one.  I estimate that just about every boy was sleeping today for a good 45 minutes – they were exhausted.  When they woke, we were in the parking lot of the hotel at about 3:15 in the afternoon.  We quickly unloaded the bus, checked into the hotel and had every boy shower and change into a clean set of travel uniforms.  By 3:58, we had 34 fresh smelling boys loaded on the bus headed for dinner reservations.  It was one of my prouder Prefecting moments.  (By 4:19, we had just about all of their journals checked and a letter was turned in from just about every boy as well.  I hope to get them out on tomorrow’s mail, so expect them mid next week.)

Dinner was outstanding.  The boys were treated to authentic Italian at V’s Ristorante, just a few blocks from the church.  A plethora of different dishes were tried, and quite a few salads too, I might add.  Of course we had the “challenging eaters” to contend with, but I think it was relatively lower at around three for this meal.  We had our first lost tooth of the tour from Tristan.  He wiggled that thing until it came-out.  We don’t really have a policy on losing teeth at the dinner table, and since he wasn’t really able to eat anything because of it we let it slide this one time.  By 6:00, we were back on the bus, headed for the church.

Warm-ups were rushed a little more than usual due to our decision to check into the hotel and shower the boys.  It was the right call to make though.  The rushed warm-ups didn’t seem to bother the boys one bit though.  They gave one of the finer performances I have ever witnessed from the Land of Lakes Choirboys!  They had energy.  They sounded great.  They were entertaining.  It was everything we expect from them and some – you really need to get everyone you know to that Homecoming Concert on July 6 – it is going to be special!

In the crowd was Mr. Ah’Lee E. Robinson, who is the CEO of the Board of Directors, Founder, and Musical Director of the Kansas City Boys Choir/Kansas City Girls Choir.  He seemed to be quite delighted with the boys performance when we were able to talk with him during intermission.  He had members of the Kansas City Boys Choir with him to take-in our performance as well.  We love being able to meet other musicians, particularly from other boy choirs when we have the chance on tour.

Also in the crowd were a few other people.  An elderly couple was celebrating their 66^th wedding anniversary.  They told Aaron “they will remember this night forever!”  Landon Owen’s grandparents live somewhere in the area and were able to make the short trip to see the boys.  Our good friend and LOLCB Associate Director Taylor Quinn was also here, visiting old friends and bringing several of them to see the boys.  Some of you may know that Taylor lived in the Kansas City area before joining the LOLCB.  The boys really seemed excited to see him.  (We kept it somewhat of a secret from them.)

The only real low point of the day was the end when we had to break some hearts that were set on swimming at the motel.  In all the rush of getting the boys cleaned-up and moved into their hotel, I may have promised them a dip in the pool if they were able to get finished with the concert at a reasonable time.  They did a good job at the concert and we had plenty of time afterwards.  Only problem is, we didn’t realize there wasn’t a pool at this motel.  #prefectfail

To make up for it, we went across the street and bought them out of Dilly Bars – literally.  That seemed to make most of the boys forget.  It’s probably for the best though, as we have a very early start in the morning. Tomorrow is 410+ miles on the bus before a 4:30 Mass and 7:00 Concert in Evansville, Indiana.

Until then,

P.J.

Concert Choir Day Two: The best thing to come out of Iowa all day (Part Duex)

Aloha – 

My apologies for not getting the blog finished last night.  That happens sometimes.  Here is what you missed.

When we last left our polo’d heroes, they were just waking-up for their “nappy-wappy”.  We were still well ahead of schedule, but we just didn’t come across any real great souvenir stores.  Instead, we called ahead to the church and asked if we could stop by early, which is rarely an issue and wasn’t this day either.

Rolling Hills Presbyterian is a wonderful church.  The people are amazing, the facilities are amazing, and the food they serve is outstanding.  We came here last year with the Voyager Choir and they asked us to come back this year with our Concert Choir.  We were very happy to be able to make this work out!

So after getting our things settled and our jobs completed at the church, the boys were treated to a chicken nugget dinner –perfect!  We then proceeded to warm-ups and prepared for the concert.

 

In the midst of all the preparations, Aaron met with their director of music for the church, Mr. Charles Bruffy.  He is a wonderfully talented musician for several organizations:. He currently conducts the Kansas City Chorale, the Kansas City Symphony Chorus and the Phoenix Chorale, and is Director of Music at Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church.  You can read more about him here: http://www.kcchorale.org/conductor.html .  He wasn’t able to make our concert because of symphony practice, but agreed to come on Friday morning and conduct a short workshop with the boys.  What an opportunity to work with this two-time Grammy Award winning conductor!  (Be sure to watch for more in tomorrow’s blog!)

The concert went great!  Because there wasn’t really a great spot to record from, I didn’t, and now I regret it.  Right from the get-go, the boys had energy and really entertained the audience.  It was a fun show to be at.  In the crowd was Mr. Pete DeMars, one of the original 18 choirboys of the LOLCB from 1976.  He was a real treat to talk to and share where our organization is headed.  He seemed very impressed with the boys and program.  We were able to take a quick picture with him before saying our goodbyes for the evening and heading to our host families.

I am happy to report that all of the boys are in good health, great spirits, and the odor level is still at tolerable levels in the bus…but that will be changing in the next 48 hours.  Keep those emails and letters coming!

 One final note - we had another donation towards our tour from former Land of Lakes Choirboy and Prefect Cullen Graner.  Thank you, Cullen!  If you would like to donate towards our tour, please visit http://givemn.razoo.com/story/2012concerttour.  Thank you!

-P.J.

Concert Choir Day Two: The best thing to come out of Iowa all day

Aloha!

The boys are resting right now so I have a few minutes to update you all.  (Prefects don’t take naps – it’s a sign of weakness.  Prefects never show weakness.) 

 

The rain pushed through and left us with beautiful puffy clouds floating amongst the sun and blue sky.  The temperature is on the warmer side, about 86 degrees or so, but the bus AC is working okay so far.  From the looks of things, it’s going to get a good work-out on this tour.  Later in the week when we get to Evansville, it is supposed to be pushing 100 or so.  That will be a real test for us.

This morning went very well.  The host families in West Des Moines were very good to these boys and I think they really enjoyed having them in their homes.  Lots of hugs and email exchanges were going on before we boarded the bus.  Our Tour Jobs are starting to come along better as well.  Landon has his crew figuring things out with the suitcases and Jeffrey is handling the cooler crew efficiently as well.  As the tour goes along, we invent new jobs for the boys to do as well.  This morning, Camden added “GPS Setter-upper Guy” to his list of accomplishments.

Another new job is something we have been dreaming-up for a few years now.  You’d probably be surprised to know how little some of these boys retain when we go through the itinerary with them.  Generally, in the morning only a handful of the older boys actually could even tell us what direction we are traveling during the day.  To help combat this, (in theory), we are now tasking a boy to give a general run-down of the day ahead, including temperature, concerts, sight-seeing plans, and any other information that may be helpful to the boys.  This *should* help to alleviate some of the 14,298 questions we get in a typical day.  (Last year’s “Question King” was Joey…James is making a good, solid run at claiming that title through the first 29 hours.)  Jack was our first victim to give the spiel.  He did really well and set a good example for what we are looking for with this job.

So after some announcements and reflection on the previous 24 hours, we made our first stop at a Wal-Mart so we could replenish a few last minute items we weren’t able to get back home.  (One young lad bought a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and some deodorant with his spending money to replace the ones he left in his host home last night.  That is a $4.97 lesson that is sure to be remembered.  The LOLCB can buy a ticket for a boy at a cost of $20 and they won’t blink, but the second they have to “throw-away” money out of their personal account…that is when you really get their attention!)

Kenny handed-out the mail from the day before.  I must apologize about the email problem.  We are now receiving emails from parents to boys through mail@lolcb.org.  For some reason, that account stopped syncing to my phone, but it is fixed now.  The past day’s letters will be printed this evening and handed-out today for the boys.

A few miles down the road near the Iowa/Missouri border we stopped for lunch.  The boys had a chance to stretch their legs and relax.  It was an awesome rest area, complete with automatic doors!  (That’s a big deal in our world.)  After we finished lunch, we went through the state facts and Aaron gave the boys some local weird laws to know so they didn’t get arrested while in Missouri.  The last thing we need is some boy going to jail for putting a bathtub in his home that has four feet that resemble an animal – that will not be tolerated in the “Show-Me” State.

Well, the boys are probably ready to get-up now.  We are about an hour ahead of schedule, so chances are fairly high we are going to find a big old truck stop and do some souvenir shopping.  Before the boys wake-up though, I need to research “How many calories does typing burn”.

-          P.J.

Concert Choir Tour - Day One: We came, we saw, we got rained on.

Aloha!

The boys should all be snuggled into their beds after an awesome first day of tour!  I can't ever remember having a first day go as smoothly as this did.  Let me tell you about it!

This morning went by so fast.  After the hugs and pictures at the building, the boys boarded the bus and we made our way south.  Aaron and I had the feeling that we forgot something, in part because we always feel that way, but also in part because despite the fact that we have 6 boys more than we usually travel with, the bus had oodles of spare room in the bays and above.  So far, we can't think of anything (or anybody) we forgot.

Our first stop was for lunch in the rest stop near Elko.  The rain held-off the entire time we were there, so that was nice.  Ethan was pretty proud of his sardines he brought for lunch.  (The deal was, as long as I didn't have to smell them, see them, or taste them, he could bring them.)  To the best of my knowledge, he actually ate them and was able to keep them down.  Go Ethan!

After lunch, we tried something a little new for rest period.  Since Day One is always a bad day for getting the boys to actually nap, we let them put their headphones in and fall asleep that way.  I am fairly certain a higher percentage of boys slept this way compared to the other.  As we crossed the border into Iowa, we woke the boys to the sound of the state facts of Iowa and took potty break #3 at a cool barn-style visitor center just inside the border.  (It took a little while to explain to the boys that in Minnesota, we adopted a state tree as a symbol - in Iowa, they really just have one tree to call "The State Tree".)

Before last year's tour, I bought "An American Tail" for the boys to watch, but we never got around to it.  I took the shrink-wrap off of it and we watched that while boys played games and checked-out the incredible scenery outside the window.  (Just kidding - not many boys spent much time looking out the windows.)

Before we knew it, we were coasting into Des Moines!  We changed the boys into their spiffy travel uniforms and met with the members of the Heartland Youth Choir.  They treated us to a wonderful dinner at St. Mark's and told us about their choir and where they tour/are touring.  (They will be headed to the World Choir Games next month.)  The concert was a shorter joint concert between our two groups to a mostly full house.  It was a great crowd, (especially for a Wednesday).

Just as the concert was finishing-up, a decent band of rain came through and messed-up our routine.  The boys managed to only get mostly wet while gathering their things, loading the bus, and going home for the evening.  There was a lot of smiles in the process, so I think they had a good time, given the circumstances.  Tomorrow is another relaxed trip down the freeway to Kansas City.  In the morning, we have some time to kill, so we might see if we can get a letter done.  (FYI - nobody sent me any emails to print-off today, so I am getting worried the process is not working correctly.  It's mail@lolcb.org if you get bored and want to send a letter - you cannot possibly send too many!  I promise!)

Well - Be sure to share this with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, or anything else you would like.  We have great boys doing great things on this tour and we want the world to know about it!  (Especially send this to your rich uncles!)

Shameless plug:  We are trying to raise some extra funds to help offset some of the costs of the tour.  If you support what we are doing for these boys, please Click here to donate!  Our goal is to raise about $4,000 by the end of the tour - the approximate number of miles we are traveling.  We are up to $11!

Adios - Fanberg, Out.