So it’s time to wrap up the last bits of tour for the journal. I’m never sure who reads the posts done after tour is over, but it seems to be appropriate, if only to put some kind of wrapup on the blog for awhile.
The drive to Lenoir City was pretty uneventful, save for the last few miles after our dinner stop in Knoxville, when Bus 2 decided it was more interested in being a large doorstop than a bus. Andre was able to nurse it to the Lenoir City church with no loss of life, and only about 30 mins lost time. Cal had already scheduled a maintenance guy to meet him in Lenoir City to replace the power-steering pump on Bus 1, which had gone out sometime on the way down to Cincinnati, so they fixed bus 2 at the same time. It turned out to be a broken clamp on a turbocharger hose, that was allowing too much air when the turbo (essential for a diesel engine this size) kicked in. Lest you think that Cal has just been phoning it in for his 25 tours, he and the maintenance guy were up until 4am fixing both buses and testing them. Cal and I started with this group in the same year, so we’re both on 25 tours. Cal will probably retire before I do, but it will be hard to go on tour without him.
Our connection to Central UMC in Lenoir City is through Ric and Melissa Best. Ric Best was the long time band director at Lenoir City High School when I was growing up in Norris, and was at the University of Tennessee with my band director, Rick Hong. They worked on each others’ marching shows, and we always went to band camp together. Ric’s program grew to be one of the powerhouse programs in the East Tennessee area, rivaling some of the most successful Cobb County bands. Ric has been retired for several years now, but still judges marching band festivals nearly every weekend during marching season.
When Thomas first went to UT for band camp, he only knew one person in the band, Andrea Colombo (now Andrea Albritton), who was a Senior when Thomas was a Freshman at Wheeler High School. I called each evening to see how he was doing. The first couple of evenings he was walking around campus trying to figure out where his classes were, but the third night or so I called and he was obviously with someone else. It turned out that night he was hanging out with a new friend from the mellophone section. He said his friend’s name was Chris, and that his father was the band director at Lenoir City. I said, “well it’s been about a hundred years, but the band director at Lenoir City used to be Ric Best”, to which Thomas responded, “That’s him. Chris Best”. So Chris and Thomas and another bandmate named Nick Lefew became fast friends and college roommates, our families became friends also, and I finally was able to talk to Ric Best without him critiquing my marching (which needed a bunch of critiquing).
Central United Methodist Church is a beautiful facility. Micah Nicolaus, the Senior Pastor, and Trevor Smith, the Music Director, are both young and vibrant ministers, and you can see how their spirit radiates through that church. We were truly blessed by Micah’s sermon on Sunday morning, and the choir performed well also. It is great to share in ministry with friends. Lenoir City may become a pretty-regular last stop for us on tour, at least if I have my way.
So if you were at homecoming, you already know this, but in case you weren’t I’ll tell you that the homecoming concert was amazing! This is such a young group to be so musically strong. It’s amazing how the bar has risen over the years. Each group builds on the previous one, and the expectations in the choir just keep rising and rising. It’s like that old joke about the bumble-bee: Mechanically, the bumble-bee shouldn’t be able to fly. Fortunately, nobody ever told them, so they fly just fine. Nobody ever told these kids that they shouldn’t be able to sing as well as they do, or come together as a group as well as they do, or lead internally as well as they do. To be sure it’s work for us as counselors sometimes, and lots of work for Kim, but they do lead themselves a lot too. Nobody ever told them they couldn’t, so they just do it.
It was a great tour. The kids were pretty easy to deal with. There was some drama, but not too much. There was some illness and injury, but fortunately it all got managed. Bonnie Wohl’s fall at homecoming ended up requiring some stitches, and the illness David Lischer was fighting with the last couple of days turned out to be appendicitis. He had surgery last night and is doing well as of this writing. We’re grateful, as always, to our medical staff, who handle everything from routine bumps and bruises to ER visits with grace and efficiency.
So it’s time to put a wrap on this year’s tour journal. Thanks as always to all of you who faithfully support this choir with your time, talents and money. It has a great impact on your kids, and on the people they minister to at every stop. We are so blessed to be part of this ministry.
Until next year,
Jeff