We are at Day 4 and just barely warmed up.  Well the weather has actually cooled off.  We were at George Eastman House for a couple of hours yesterday and as we prepared to walk the rest of the way to the Festival (GEH is about a third of the way from our townhouse to the Festival) it started to rain.  We turned around and headed for the house to get the car while calling our friends the Goldman’s who live inside the Festival area for permission to park in their driveway.  Permission received and we had our car as close to the venues as it is possible to park.  Although it rained again, it happened while we were in Max listening to Brandi Disterheft and it cleared before we left to walk to the car.

Last night we heard Ninety Miles at Kilbourn and had no desire to leave even when they ran 20 minutes over.  Great performance and wonderful sound.  Look for the disk by that name if you are interested.  The name refers to the distance from the US to Cuba where the disk was recorded.  On from there to Hatch where Kristian Blak played a straight through set on the solo piano, drawing on Faero Island hymns and folk tunes as well as his compositions for Yggdrasil.  Had he taken a break, we might have left, but we were sitting front row center maybe 10 feet from him.  We enjoyed the music and the performance,  but it was a bit esoteric (that is saying a lot coming from me).  On from there to Christ Church and Breach.  After the guitar player got to twiddling his knobs and playing with his delay lines and loops we had had enough.  There was not much music in what he was doing to keep us interested.  On to Max, finally!  We arrived about 40 minuted before the show and they had already let people in.  There was no line and we were able to walk right in and find seats to hear Brandi Disterheft give the bass a real workout.  The jazz was pretty straight and the performances were a pleasure to listen to.

Only four shows and only two that were really a joy to listen to, but hey where else can you get to make so many choices in an evening and get two of them right?

Tonight looks like a bit of a mixed bag.  We are going to start at Harro with Jeff Lorber Fusion and maybe jump to either Kilbourn, Terrence Blanchard Quintet or Rochester Club – we are bringing winter clothes to stay warm there – Mike Cottone Quartet.  After that Lutheran Church, Sunna Gunnlaugs, Christ Church, Fraser Fifeld (he plays bag pipes and saxophone among other instruments) and we are still undecided whether to go to Kilbourn, see above, or Abilene for Kim Lenz & the Jaguars.  We might end up doing all of the above, in which case we may try to sleep in tomorrow – until 7 – really late for us.

On to day 3!  Last night we tracked our plan pretty well.  Started at Harro East with Mike Stern Group and never left until the last note stopped ringing. We enjoyed sitting with Marla and Frank.  Ran over to Kilbourn for Tom Harrell Chamber Ensemble.  He is a nut (really) never looked at the audience and had his head down until he picked up his trumpet and then oh boy! We only stayed for one number, thought it was the last because he was over time and were out the door when the he started the last number.  We stopped for food on the street and went into Kodak Hall for Esperanza Spalding Radio Music society.  We were enthralled at her performance of a major work she wrote and performed with the very large group.  She talked, sang, played both string bass and bass guitar (not at the same time) for close to 90 minutes.  After she resolved that work, she continued on with work by others for another 30 minutes or so.  We wanted to hear Gerald Clayton Trio at Max, but the line, after they had let everyone in, seemed like too long a wait so we went to the Big Tent for Sultans of Swing a Canadian Quintet who were very good.  Had not heard a 6 string violin before, that we could remember.  He was able to reach down to Viola range with his lower strings.  Plenty of gypsy style and other styles mixed in.  It was great fun and did not require the level of concentration on our part that Spalding’s work had.

Tonight’s plan 90 Miles at Kilbourn, Eivr Paldottir, at Lutheran Church, Breach Trio at Christ Church and maybe finally Max where Brandi Disterhoff is playing.  Of course as always there are plenty of other performances that are interesting including Kristian Blak in Hatch and even Ha Ha Tonka at Abilene.  I think we will give the Big Tent a miss as it is yet another Canadian Group playing Gypsy style folk.

I cannot list all the people we stopped to chat with along the way, too many and I fear my memory will fail me anyhow.  I do not keep notes.

OK, so the best laid plans . . . etc  Christian McBride’s plane never left the ground in NYC so we waited in line from 4:20 until 5:00 only to have the news that the show was off.  Our next first choice at Max had a line that was two full shows worth by the time we got there.  No way were we getting in to hear Karrin Allyson, for that matter with her show half over both then and at 10:30 PM the line was formidable.  We got in line for Don Thompson & Neil Swainson at Hatch Hall, great new venue as part of the Eastman School expansion.  They were excellent, but a bit mellow for the mood of opening performance of the 9 days so after 40 minutes we left and found our way to Montage to hear Tessa Souter working interesting Jazz variants on classical music themes. After a stop for dinner, sandwiches preordered from Java Joe, we moved on to our preplanned schedule at Lutheran Church, Goran Kaifes, Subtropic Arkestra which turned up the volume and inventiveness a whole notch.  We stayed for the entire show and then went to Christ Church, yeah I know what a way to celebrate Shabbat from church to church, where UK groups are featured.  We heard most of Get the Blessing (the groups name) trumpet, sax, guitar and DRUMS.  They offered just a bit of humor mixed in with their performance, the intro to Pentopia was a story about five legged hyenas in Europe, naturally the music was in 5/4 time.  Finally, well not quite finally we went to the Big Tent to hear L’Orkestre Des Pas Perdus, it was more feeling then hearing, even with earplugs and moving to the back of the tent the bass was felt in the chest and the ears were ringing, time to move away.  Still couldn’t get into Max so we went to The Rochester Club, Italian Jazz! Lucio Ferrara Trio performing very straight ahead Jazz.  Nice way to round out the evening even though they have the A/C way too cold for us.  If my count is correct, we got to 6 performances.


Tonight we will hear headliner Esperanza Spalding in Kodak Hall at 8.  We plan to start out at Harro East Mike Stern Group at 5:30 with a possible jump to Kilbourn for the Tom Harrell Chamber Ensemble or Max for Mathias Eick before picking up dinner and heading to Kodak Hall. The main link for more information about the groups and links to some of their music is http://www.rochesterjazz.com/artist_lineup/?option=view_by_date

If anyone reading this is in Rochester and knows someone who would like a single ticket to Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, 4 PM show, I have one available.  It is listed on Craigslist and I am carrying it with me to sell to the first person with $62 cash (box office price plus box office charge) to ask.  You can reach me by email, by commenting here or use my phone if you have it.

We are in Rochester for the duration of the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Fest, here after XRIJF.  we have Club Passes that will gain us entry, first come first served to eleven venues each of the coming nine nights.  Each night each venue will host an artist or group for two hour long performances.  The timing is such that it is possible to take in four to six performances each night if you are prepared to leave early and arrive late for several performances.  In addition there are 5 free stages and 6 headliner shows in Kodak Hall of Eastman Theater.  For the complete lineup click here

We have looked over tonight’s offerings and have chosen to start with Christian McBride Inside Straight in Kilbourn Hall at 6 PM, we will be in line before 5 for that.  The route we have laid out takes us to Lutheran Church at 7:30 for Goran Arkestra and Christ Church at 8:45 for Get the Blessing and finishing at the Big Tent at 10 with L’orkestra Des Pas Perdus.  It is very unlikely that this is what will actually happen, but you never know.  Tomorrow I will try to post the actual route along with tomorrow’s plan.  But tomorrow’s plan includes Esperanza Spaulding in Kodak Hall from 8 until?

Dinner is picked up on the fly and all is mixed with interesting people and the occasional beer, depending on the venue.  Since we are walking, we will leave the house by 4, only 45 minutes from now so time to sign off and get into Jazz Fest mode.

We traveled back to the Buffalo area in GWhiz (the temporary name until it finds its own name) to address several  items that were not working as expected.  A couple we knew about before we left the Colton RV in early May, such as the dryer not drying and the DVD player not opening its tray.  The need for other minor adjustments became apparent in our first weekend camping.  


Although the work was scheduled for Monday, we arrived mid afternoon on Saturday with the idea of being tourists in the area.  The first thing any tourist coming to the area would do is go to Niagara Falls.  We did and we went immediately to the Canadian side which has the best views of the Falls.  Having our Nexus passes made crossing the border using the Whirlpool Street Bridge a snap, no wait, no questions, no traffic.  We drove through the Falls area and paid an exorbitant sum to park and then walked from the power house almost to the Rainbow Bridge.  We got soaked by the mist as we passed the brink of the Horseshoe Falls and we saw people in all manner of dress speaking many languages.  The area was a mob scene, we suspect many leftover from the Nick Wallenda tightrope walk of the previous night.  It was clear we were not going to make it back to the coach for dinner and we decided to eat at the Buffet at the Skylon Tower.  This tower was opened in 1965 and in all our many visits to the Falls area we do not remember ever paying to ride to the top.  It was worth the wait.  The buffet was pretty good and the view from our table at a window facing directly over the Falls was incredible.  We were enjoying ourselves and soon made acquaintance with the people at the next table, who it turned out were from Buffalo! and who had not been to the tower in years.  


Sunday we worked around the coach re reorganizing our stuff to make life more comfortable.  An unfortunate side affect of this continuous reorganizing is that we find ourselves not knowing where anything is and looking where it was two reogs ago.  If life on G-2 is any predictor, this will slow down to a cycle or two a year.  Note, it will not stop as there are always new ideas how to make life comfortable in tight quarters.


Monday we knew we would not have the coach available to us while it was in the service bay.  We have wanted to get to Gray Cliff one of the many Frank Lloyd Wright homes in the area, but it is a bit off the path that is readily reachable in a coach and not on the route to anyplace.  It is on the shore of Lake Erie about 20 miles west of Buffalo.  We arrived early for the Extended Tour which includes all the rooms in the house and an extensive outdoor tour as well.  Rather than spend hours to try to make my pictures do the place justice, follow this link. Check out the history and how the Larkin Company made  its money,   Carol and I were laughing and all we could think of was Soapy Smith in Skagway Alaska in the 1890’s.  His con was selling soap and convincing people that there were some bars with $100 bills wrapped around them.  The docent lead tour was quite good although it was sad to see the condition the house is in.  Clearly this house needs lots of money for restoration both from time and weather and the not so careful remodeling by Piarist Fathers, an order of Roman Catholic Priests from Hungary who bought the house from the Martin family.   There are other FLW buildings to see should we find the need to play tourist in Buffalo again.  


We received the coach back late afternoon and I must say that most of the work appeared to have been done well.  The issue with the DVD player/Surround sound system turned out to be problematic.  My complaint was that the tray would not open.  During installation of the new unit the tray opened!  End of story the complaint is resolved.  Actually that was the only time it opened and that was not in response to the “open” button on the unit.  The next morning I sought out our service writer, Colin, and asked to have the tech, Paul, (great name) come to the coach and show us how it worked.  Three hours later, having sought out the master AV hub in the coach, hidden in a cabinet behind a screwed in wall panel, Paul had located an HDMI cable end that appeared to be distorted from installation.  with that cable unplugged everything began to work according to the instructions.  Paul straightened the connector and tried it again and everything continued and continues to work.  We had lunch and left for Four Mile Creek State Park.


Four Mile Creek is, . . . wait for it, . . .  four miles from where the Niagara River enters into Lake Ontario.  The park is mostly campground with close to 300 sites many with 30 and 50 amp electric, none with water or sanitary dump on site.  It was probably a quarter occupied on the Tuesday night we were there.  We walked the circumference after setting up and again in the morning before breakfast.  It would be an ideal spot to stay for a visit to the Falls or to Niagara on the Lake.


In the morning we set out for Rochester with the aim of stopping at a winery or two along Route 18, Lakeshore Drive.  At Black Willow winery we found a mediocre red and a couple of decent whites as well as a mead that we bought a bottle of.  We trundled on down the road looking for the next winery, Marjim Manor, and a place to stop to eat lunch.  We got to Olcutt Beach and turned into Krull Park only to find Main Street closed leaving us to drive down the dead end along the lake where we found a parking lot large enough to swing the rig around without disconnecting the car.  This task is not hard, but it is annoying and this day it would have been particularly annoying as the temperatures were in the high 80’s and the humidity was even higher.  We parked along the entrance road and prepared our lunch.  As we carried our meal to a picnic bench on a prominence overlooking the lake, we noted many people were gather at the far edge of the park.  Then we heard a cacophony of sirens, whistles and other emergency vehicle noises approaching.  It turns out Olcutt Beach had been named the Fishing Capital of the United States and this was the day the recognition on WFN was happening.  In case you didn’t know – we sure didn’t – WFN is World Fishing Network, all Fishing,  nothing but Fishing 24/7 on a cable and or satellite service someplace near you.  This is really big time for Olcutt Beach even their NY Assembly Representative managed to show up and speak, try and stop one of them.


Enough excitement for a weekend that extended into Wednesday.  We followed 78 to I 90 and put GWhiz to bed at Victor Ministore.  for a while.

Well that is one of the proposed names, another might be Golly G, or Gee 2 Too.  It is too soon, it has not shown its personality yet.  For that matter we haven’t driven it a mile since we own it.  We are sitting in Colton RV’s “campground” along side Gee 2, door to door.  I know they are the same length but somehow we thought it was bigger.  Today was moving day, another word might have been paralysis.  We moved the contents of the kitchen first and as I carried another bin full of stuff in from Gee 2 I found Carol “dithering” “I don’t know where to put anything” “it won’t fit” even now 8 hours later she is saying she is “so disoriented.”  And so it has gone.

It is astounding how much stuff we had in Gee 2.  It really will fit into the new coach, or most of it.  I didn’t know I was such a pack rat.  There are parts, left over from repairs that I have forgotten about.  There are stones, we picked up I know not where.  There are more sealants and lubricants and such than I can remember buying.  Although we haven’t finished, we are close and in the morning they are going to drive the coach into the service bay to set up the supplemental brake circuit and install the “extend-a-stay” manifold into the propane line. Then we will finish off the move and maybe drive off into the sunset to a nearby campground to play at camping until Sunday or Monday.  I have to be back for medical catchup, er checkups, and such.

We will not be able to take the new coach out for anything serious until after Jazz Fest at the end of June.  Carol has her sights set on overseas travel which may leave the new coach in storage even longer.  All remains to be seen.

In between the purchase contract and the closing, we had the whole family together or the unveiling of Mom’s headstone, 51 weeks after she died.  We also participated in some of Percussion Rochester which was a two wonderful concerts and many other events.  In the midst of that we had to go to a funeral for Zvi Zeitlin who we visited with in February for his 90th birthday.  He played a great all Schubert concert which he announced was is last recital, none of us believed him, but . . .If you don’t know him, just Google Zvi Zeitlin.  Way too much to ingest in four days.

We stayed at North Fork RV just outside Front Royal, VA. David and Terry met us there and after time on the coach chatting we went to dinner at the Stonewall Jackson Tavern which was pretty average, although it seemed better than most of the alternatives.  We had a great visit with David and Terry, although the beginning was not hopeful as the GPS mislead us and sent us on a wild goose chase that cost almost 30 minutes in getting  to the campground.  Terry and David were patient, waiting for us and convincing the gate person that we had made a plan with someone on the phone to reserve a space.  We would need to see the place in better weather as the site was wet, not quite underwater and quite unlevel.  Being in a hurry to set up I left the right front tire hanging in the air with several inches between it and the ground.  This made for some sway, even with Carol walking around.

We moved on to Roamers Retreat Campground in Lancaster County for a couple of nights.  Dinner at Millers after walking through Roots Market and Auction provided the entertainment as did watching Michael Clayton from Netflix.  We were in touch with Mike at Camping World in Churchville and Ron at Colton’s RV in Niagara Falls.  Ron won as he had the Phaeton we were interested in on the lot.  Mike was still waiting for the Journey to arrive from someplace.  We are camping in Colton’s lot for a couple of nights.  We spent an hour or so walking through the Phaeton when we arrived and then had dinner on Gee 2.  We arranged to meet Ron at 9:30 to tour the exterior and get down to business.  At 8:30 AM he showed up at our door with Tim Horton’s Bagels and coffee for me and tea for Carol.  Nice touch! The next morning we expect champagne and lox (vegetarian for Carol)!  He spent several hours with us including a driving experience on the coach.  Finally, after a late lunch we sat down to the classic car/RV salesmen’s closing experience in the subject coach at our soon to be kitchen table.  By then it  was clear that the only question left was how much.  The answer was, as always, too much from our standpoint and . . .  well Ron was smiling when all was said and done and so were we.  In about ten days we will exchange money and Gee 2 for Gee 2 V 2.0 or what ever name it earns for itself.

We are elated, we are a bit sad, we have mixed emotions.  Gee 2 has given us a wonderful 8 years and although you have read of our exploits self caused, mechanical, and bad luck, for the most part Gee 2 has not failed us nor have we lost any significant time or money to any serious failure.  Certainly it has provided us with secure, comfortable travel for 100,000 miles, crossing the continent 8 times round trip and traveling to Alaska, Nova Scotia and the other corners of this continent reachable by road.  And yet, and yet it has been well used and needs to be put into service by people with less need to roll up the miles or who have as great a need as ours but fewer resources.

We are elated because the new coach is a Phaeton QSH 36 with stuff we thought we never wanted.  It has a Washer/Dryer (sorry Pat) and a table and chairs instead of a booth.  It has too many TVs for people who seldom watch – four! – and two sofas and no easy chair.  It is a diesel pusher which means the engine is 30 feet behind us, not under our feet and so seems very quiet.  We will have to add solar panels when we get to the desert.  But there is not much else it needs.  We look forward to several short exploratory trips this summer to get to know it and to shake out the kinks.  Then come the Fall we plan to resume our usual travels.

I suspect this will be the last post from “Gee 2 on the Road”  well, I will keep the blog name anyhow.  Since many continue to refer to Goliath, which has been gone for 8 years, I expect the name will go on into family history.

Tomorrow is Tax Day for 2011 taxes.  It is also my “age change” day.  After many years in the insurance business I am all to aware of halfway point when the nearest birthday is the one ahead not the one behind.  Also I am exactly one year away from Required Minimum Distributions from my IRAs.  The last birthday that fazed me was 39.  This coming one suggests that I may have to stop claiming to be “late middle age”.  I will not go willingly into old or elderly or . . . although we both know that we are no longer kids – our “kids” are in their mid 40’s – we don’t feel particularly old.  We still drive the coach comfortably, if more slowly than we used to.  We still love to hike and swim (well I like to swim) and getting out in a small boat with paddles is lots of fun.

I am looking forward to finally getting a diesel pusher to replace Gee 2.  Gee 2 is also getting on.  There are plenty of miles left in it and everything works just fine.  The front cap bears the signs of many rocks and pebbles thrown up by passing trucks and cars over the 99,500 miles so far and the reminders of some of our learning experiences show on the corners, most recently a traffic cone that was badly placed left a rub mark on the right front, I’ll rub that out when I feel like it.  The carpet and upholstery shows the expected wear of eight years of use (well 4 or 5 years if you allow for the fact that we average about six months use each year).  Time for us to move on.

The weather has been weird this year.  We have had more warm weather than we are used to and yesterday, south of Charlottesville in the mountains, the temperatures were in the 80’s and today it could get as high as 90. Then it will go back down to normal temperatures – mid 60’s later this week and there will probably be a frost by the weekend (I made that up, but you never know these days).  We will take the hot while can get it.  People around here would appreciate some rain, as would those in Texas.

My construction projects on the farm have been minimal this visit.  Most of the building is done and the time devoted to the boys baseball really cuts into time for much of anything else.  Fortunately the field is only 15  minutes away including the drive to the highway.  I have done a fair amount of cleaning and maintenance on the coach while others are doing other projects.  This upkeep is habitual, I really do not like seeing things less than perfect.  The car has had new brakes and front disks installed to recover from the damage the Meyers Lemon caused –  that was one expensive lemon.  The clutch was adjusted and that cost us the cruise control so it is in the process of being readjusted so we can use the clutch AND have cruise control.  Dan’s mechanic Robert Hunt is really great and I do appreciate his expertise.  If you are ever south of Charlottesville and have a car that needs service give me a call and I will provide the contact information.  He operates out of his farm yard and is a retired Toyota Service Engineer, very knowledgeable and skilled.

I am off to see Robert one more time for a final clutch adjustment.  Tomorrow we visit Malena’s dad and on sunday we will drive up the Skyline Drive and camp in Front Royal to have some time with David Lovenheim and Terry.  Then we think we will change plans and stop in the Lancaster PA area for a day or two before going into New York.

We had an easy 80 mile drive from Natural Bridge to Malena and Dan’s home.  We timed our arrival while Dan was at work and Malena was just getting ready to take the boys into town for a lesson and later for baseball practice.  With a minimum of pain we got Gee2 set up in its usual place in the driveway, electric and sewer connected and plenty of fresh water in the tank and available at the spigot when needed.  We expect to stay about three weeks.  Carol and I are still negotiating the route to Rochester.  I want to stop by Falling Water, the house FLWright built for Kaufmann outside Pittsburgh.  Carol agrees but she also wants to stop in the Lancaster PA area.  We also want to make a stop in Niagara Falls to see a coach at Colton RV.  Not sure how we make all that happen.

Activity at the house is intense.  Both boys are playing baseball at Cove Creek, an amazing facility with at least 7 fields ranging from a “T-ball” field for the youngest players to a regulation field with 90 foot base paths.  Most of the fields are little league standard.  I have not referred to this a Little League facility since it isn’t formally affiliated.  When the county wanted to build a baseball facility in the area there was a lot of objection because they insisted on lighting the fields and there is an astronomical observatory nearby and the light pollution  would have blinded them.  John Grisham lives in the area and he agreed to build the facility with no lights on his own property at his own expense.  I do not know why it is not affiliated, but it may have something to do with his independence streak.  It sure costs less than participating in the Charlottesville Little league which runs $250 per child.  This is only $40 and the travel teams are paid for as well, parents are expected to pay their own expenses.  It’s nice to have money and spend it on something you love that benefits the entire community.

All of that is to explain that every spare minute is devoted to practices and scrimmages at the park, which fortunately is only 15 minutes from the house, including getting out to the highway down the long gravel road.  We have gone to the park several times each already and I expect there will be more trips during our stay as practice ends and season play begins with each boy in a couple of games a week.  Naturally they are not on the same team so do not have the same schedule. I did say spare minute.  They don’t have many with music lessons and other activities such as Alexander’s volunteering at the library.

Seder was at Latifa and Peter’s home.  She is a leader of the Renewal Chavurah that Dan participates in and  also Alexander’s Hebrew teacher.  The time slipped by unnoticed as we followed the Order (Seder).  From sitting down a 5:45 I first noticed the time at 10 PM as the meal was cleared.  To dwell on the Seder is considered meritorious, but I won’t do that here other than to acknowledge that the first question we were addressed before the formal beginning was “who is not here that we could wish were by our side?”  I realized that although she had not been present at any Seder of ours in many years, this was the first Seder since my mother died and all of sudden I missed her terribly.  Strange how that sneaks up on me when I least expect it.

Somehow we got ahead of ourselves as we moved towards Virginia.  In my usual manner, when we have many miles to cover I set up a basic route using DeLorme Street Atlas.  The trip planning section lets me set up basic parameters such as miles per day, expected fueling requirements, and I can insert “vias” and “stops” with expected times for the stop such as “overnight” or “2 hours.”  This gives us an idea of the number of days of driving it will take to cover the distance from say Phoenix to Covesville.  At the end of each travel day – or the next morning – I reset the start point to our current location, giving us the remaining drive time to our ultimate destination.  we had planned to spend time along the Blue Ridge Parkway after we left the Asheville area, but we forgot that at this time of year the campgrounds are closed because there is still a likelihood of a hard freeze.  We have joined the many flowering plants in being fooled into thinking it is late Spring rather than barely Spring, after all,  today is April Fool’s Day not May Day.  With the National Parks campgrounds closed and the National Forest Service Campgrounds closed we spent a night in the Salem, VA Super Walmart, not the worst place, but not the best either.  After reviewing all of the options along the way we remembered that the Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Natural Bridge Park is not as bad as the name would have one think, at least off season.  It has the further blessing of being Passport America, half off on weekdays.  When we checked in on Saturday they gave us half off for the two night stay, not sure if it was a mistake, but we took it.  The place was far from full, but we were one of only a couple of units that did not have many children.  This morning, Sunday, there has been a parade of trailers headed out to get the little ones to school tomorrow, and Mom and Dad back to work – oh! there is that four letter word!  Sorry.

Carol is assiduously working at her computer writing posts and working on images.  I have been doing as little as I can and will return to reading the NYTimes on the Kindle over lunch.  Later today we will take a walk in the woods.  It is getting late to take a long hike.  Then tomorrow we will get back on the road late morning for a 90 minute drive to Dan and Malena’s where we will perch until it is time to roll on to Rochester.  I will really try to find more to write about along the way and in Covesville.  We will continue to shop for Gee 2’s successor as well.