Day 1 - LaGrande UMC,

Our first day on the bus passed without any noticable calamities! The hills in eastern Oregon are a deep shade of green, so beautiful passing through Baker with the mountains still full of snow! Our first concert was in LaGrande UMC - a beautiful old church with amazing acoustics and all the brass pipes from a pipe organ! Our hosts fed us a fabulous dinner - italian themed with the tastiest spice raisin cookies for dessert (I wrapped an extra cookie in a tissue and I will get into that after I finish here! mmm)

Our audience was a modest size, but their appreciation was sincere and heartfelt. Our home-stay host, Margo, said we near-brought her to tears on one song. We like it when we can make our audience laugh and cry.

I am staying the night on 10 acres horse property in a huge house, hyooj I tell you, situated on a hill with incredible views of the valley and surroundng mountains. Margo is hosting 7 of us, Katie, Kristal, Jill, Lynn, Marylee, Mary B, and me. You should have seen us crammed into an SUV with our suitcases crammed around us and on our laps! Same drill in the morning, so we should be good at it by tomorrow.

This is Katie here ... can't wait to get back on the bus (believe it or not) and make our way up to Canada. I miss you Karen - hurry up and get here! Every one else we're missing - we miss you so much! I think Phil is doing fine with us so far ... it's early yet though. :D

Tomorrow we head to Sumner, near Tacoma. The great thing about tour is that each night we find areas that need work, and we have a chance to fix those hiccups the next night! So Sumner, you are in for a treat tomorrow because tonight we found some areas that need polishing! Off to the ocean tomorrow!