This year Lennon got to go on middle school choir tour for the first time. I went along as chaperone again. The tour took us to Amarillo with a quick stop in Wichita Falls for lunch and a small concert at a senior living community where they kids had a chance to also talk to the seniors there. Below is Lennon talking to one of the residents. After saying good bye to the very grateful men and women, we were on our way again.
We made a quick stop at the very large cross in Krum, TX for a bathroom break and a group picture. I took a picture of the potographers instead. I am also adding a few pictures I took from the bus en route. There were plenty of abandoned houses, at least one ghost town, and very, very flat land.
We arrived in Amarillo Thursday early evening for dinner at Amarillo's famous steak house big Texan, the perfect kind of place for me to eat, lots of meat everywhere and planty of dead animals on the walls. After dinner we settled in at our host church. We all had a long day ahead of us with a wake up call for everyone at 6:00 a.m. Friday morning.
Lennon and his friend Logan, the two 6th grade boys in choir.
Friday, we had to get up early, which meant that my friend DeeDee and I got up even earlier to set up breakfast for everyone. Luckily, we had set out most items the night before and only had to get the perishables out of our giant coolers. We could not use a refrigerator at our host church this year, so we had to rely on our very large coolers and ice to keep our milk, yoghurt and cheese fresh.
Our first stop Friday morning was the Amarillo Boy's and Girl's Club, after that we spent some time in a local park and enjoyed the beautiful weather (the low 70s were too chilly for me and I ended up buying jeans later in the day during our lunch break at the mall). We then headed for a homeless shelter that also runs a drug addiction recovery program. The kids sang for the guests there, then served them lunch cleaned up and visited with the people there. The guests appreciated the kids' music and enjoyed talking to them. Then it was time to head over to the mall for lunch and a little shopping. After lunch we headed out to Palo Duro Canyon for a guided jeep tour.
Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the U.S. This was definitely the highlight of the tour for both Lennon and me. Such beauty!
Blackfooted Daisy
Prickly Pear Cactus in bloom
White Bee Balm
Desert Christmas Cactus
After the jeep tour we headed down into the canyon for dinner and to see "Texas" the musical at the amphitheater. The visitors got a special treat, as our middle school choir was the pre-show event.
After a long day, we finally headed back to the host church to shower and lay our very tired heads on our air matresses. Thankfully, we could sleep in until 8 a.m. the following morning before packing up the bus and heading back home after one more stop at an other retirement community where the kids assisted the residents with their lunches and sang for them again. We arrived back at our church in Plano at 8:30p.m.. Erik and the girls picked us up. We were able to have dinner in Plano before picking up Lukas and Katharine from one of their "Newsies" performances at one of the community theaters in Plano. Lennon enjoyed the tour, so did I. Next year we need to make sure that Lukas will not be in a theater production druing chour tour time so he can go on tour again.
