Hello from the road! Sorry about not giving a blog post yesterday. From time to time, we get into areas where the cell phones don’t work and they still use dial-up to connect to the internet. Stanley, North Dakota is one of those areas. With the discovery of oil in this part of the state, Stanley went from a dying town to a boom town in the 5 years since we came here last. Every hotel room within several counties is filled-up with people working on the oil rigs, trying to make a buck or two. They have actually constructed a pair of temporary villages on the outskirts of town to house additional workers where you can stay for $120/day and included food, lodging and laundry. A pretty good deal, if you are in need of that sort of thing. With all that being said, the staff was in host homes last night and had very limited access to internet. I didn’t even get to play my new favorite Facebook game, “Empires and Allies”. I am sure my empire is being run-over by fellow gamers capitalizing on my absence.
To help with catching-up, I asked Joshua Zanett to help with me yesterday’s blog post. He’s been doing very well with his journaling, so I wanted to reward him by using his entry as the days’ post. He’s been very into watching for new species of birds, so that has helped to occupy a good amount of his bus rides.
I did promise to tell you who the host home was in Roseau that hosted boys when we were here in 1995. David Johnson, the man who created the first Polaris snowmobile, was my host family when I came through here as a boy in 1995. His wife and he hosted four boys this time, and I noticed they came back with autographed Polaris hats as souvenirs. Pretty cool experience for them.
Today has been a pretty relaxed day so far, as the boys are staying in a motel tonight in Havre, Montana. We met at 7:45 this morning and ate breakfast as a group at the Sybil Center, the site of last night’s performance. It was raining pretty well, which is the last thing they need in this part of the country. Every ditch, swamp, stream and river is swollen well outside of its normal boundaries.
During breakfast, I ran to the Post Office and put the first batch of letters in the mail. Every boy was required to turn one in yesterday, so they should be home by later this week. After breakfast, we loaded the bus in the rain and continued westward. The rest of the morning was fairly uneventful. The boys watched a movie and relaxed while we drove through more oil fields and flooded areas. Along the way, Aaron praised the bys on their exceptional concert last night, calling it “the best of the year, so far”. The boys are certainly starting to “get it” a little more. That generally happens around days 4-6. It takes a few days for them to adjust to being a constant member of a group, but they are getting it down well now.
By mid-morning, most of the rain had stopped and the sun even poked his smiley little head out a few times. We crossed into Montana and the boys were treated to the state facts about our new temporary home. “Gold and Silver” is the motto of Montana, so naturally we accused them of stealing that name for our Land of Lakes Choirboys recording library. Aaron also treated them to some of the weird state laws of Montana, such as it being illegal to show a movie in which a felonious act takes place. Another law expresses how it is illegal to laugh in public. Now, instead of chuckling, we do an over-exaggerated sob. Sometimes, I really need to kick myself for starting these annoying games.
Lunch was at a nice little rest stop just outside of Glasgow. The boys ate like kings, again. The people of Stanley did a very fine job of helping me not lose weight. Some of the boys even got some physical exercise in. (In order to trick them into doing it, I told them they could perform push-ups and sit-ups on the picnic tables…worked like a charm.) After a quick stop at the restrooms, we boarded the bus and continued on our way.
…and that is where we are now. The boys are resting on the bus and should be pleasantly surprised when they wake-up in about an hour. I can see the first real mountains on the horizon, which I am sure all of you will see when the film and photos get him in just over 2 weeks. (Can you believe this tour is already 20% over???) Sounds like the Viking Choir is having an incredible time over in Iceland – we will probably take a few minutes and read their blog post to the boys to keep them in the loop. Thanks for following the blogs – if you havn’t done so yet, be sure to “like” the Land of Lakes Choirboys on Facebook. I generally put links to each blog post on their to keep everyone in the loop. I will do my best to get some photos on the blog tonight, assuming we have decent internet. (I will be checking my Facebook Game out first though!)
P.J.
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