September, 2018

After the consecutive weekends of travel in August, I took a few days off to relax at the beginning of the month.  First, I visited Aunt Ida Melrose Shoufler in Farmer City, Illinois then drove on to picturesque LeClaire, Iowa to watch trains — and towboats on the Mississippi.  The hotel where I stayed was touted as the perfect place for viewing the river as well as a nearby rail line.  As it turned out, I didn’t see much of anything for a couple of days as the area was pounded by heavy rain.

Despite their claims, the hotel was not the ideal place for train or boat watching.  I walked around the downtown area several times, but never saw anything on the river except a couple of pleasure crafts…and NO trains.

Finally, on a trip into Rock Island, I spotted Ingram Barge Company’s “Samuel B. Richmond” pushing 15 loaded barges toward Lock & Dam 15 at Rock Island.  I managed to snap an iPhone photo just before the barges were eased into the lock:

Now I am back home for a few days, getting ready to play at Lindy On The Rocks/Denver Jazz Festival.  I will be leading Swing Central and also playing with the Jonathan Doyle Swingtet, so it should be a great weekend of music.

I was just hired to play the Roswell Jazz Festival in New Mexico again, so will be returning to Alien Country on Oct. 18.

Meanwhile, Alex and Mittens are having difficulty containing their excitement at my return…