Tuesday, 5/31. Arrival Post

I mean, again, it's after midnight, so most of you won't see this, but we are all taped in for the night following a very exciting baseball game (which will ensure tomorrow's concert is super good because of all the screaming).

It was a good day. Great concerts, responsive audiences, and a fun game to top it all off. I'll give you a little hint here of the magic that is to come:

All smiles all around. More tomorrow...

Monday, 5/30. "I Didn't Do an Arrival Post" or "How Much Fun Is Too Much Fun?"

I try to do one concert per day on our music mission. Memorial Day makes that something of a challenge because places struggle to staff in such a way that they can host a group. So it became a day just for fun.

The arch seemed like a good place to start. We walked there from the hotel (we are staying just a few blocks from it!). We had tickets to go up, but due to covid restrictions we had to go in a couple of shifts.

I was in the second group, and when I came down the tram, I looked at my watch and realized it was 11:53, and our Riverboat cruise departed at noon. I shooed everyone out of the gift shop and ran (literally) from the arch down to the riverboats to get them to hold the cruise while the rest of the group came down. No pictures of that because I was running as fast as I can with a 35 pound backpack.

I crashed into the ticket window and did my very best to explain the situation while also searching mostly in vain for my breath. "I" [pant pant] "am John Cowden, and I have a [pant pant, you get the picture] group for the noon cruise. What do we need to do? "Uhm, well, we will start boarding that at 11:30, so I guess they can just wait out here for the next 25 minutes?"

Wait. What? [John looks at watch again and regrets some of his life choices...specifically his choice not to set his watch to Central time] It's funny because I spent the entire run from the arch to the boats wondering why the people who worked at the arch and riverboats didn't know how the arch and riverboats work. Turns out I'm just a dummy.

So a bunch of us casually walked back to the arch and back through security to purchase some items in the gift shop before returning to the boats for our cruise.

We had lunch on the cruise, which was really good except for the snickerdoodle. That was not the best example of a snickerdoodle I've ever eaten. We learned a lot about barges and how they operate. And why the boats that push the barges are called tow boats. It's because a group of barges is called a tow, and the largest group that generally transits the upper Mississippi is 15 barges.

After the cruise we headed to the zoo. Will informed me along the way that he figured out what happened to our AC and that it wouldn't happen again. Good news. We were reminded we are not in the south when a few folks got of the bus at where we believed we were to exit and were told somewhat curtly to get back on the bus.

For your reference, if you're ever on a bus, you need to go all the way around to the north entrance, and you will be judged harshly if you attempt to use the south entrance.

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures in the zoo. False. I got a lot of pictures in the zoo. But if you want to see pictures of a zebra you can probably do a lot better than the one I got. And I missed the picture of the strange cow-like (but not cow) creature pooping even though I observed his squat and knew what was coming. I do recommend the St Louis zoo if you're ever here, but of course I believe Atlanta to be a better zoo for a variety of reasons. We can talk about that under the oak tree later if you'd like. Oh, and before I go any further, I would like to apologize publicly to Mariann that there were no wild hogs to see.

Speaking of hogs, the chaperones have, over and over again, saved my bacon this week. Yesterday's example of this was when Megan came up to me while we were waiting on the bus and said, "Uh, all the restaurants on the hill are closed." We (mostly she) explored options, and we decided to go to the Delmar Loop for the chaperone dinner instead. So Will parked the bus and we all bailed out with our chaperones to have dinner. The Rootbeer place had a great patio that was shaded, so that's where my group went. The rootbeer was too sweet and didn't have enough bite for my taste, but the conversation was, well, it was interesting...because my guys are quite the crew. I'll never think of a 2013 Prius the same way again, and I'm still wondering what I'm going to do with my orange conjuring super power.

This was in front of the bathroom at Fitz's (that's the rootbeer place). Luke pointed out the white sticker someone added, and he commented that it seems true.

St Louis natives have all told me if I don't take the kids to Ted Drewes we didn't actually go to Saint Louis, and after dinner was our moment. We rolled up to see this:

That's, uh, that's BEFORE we got in line, after which it looked like this:

But it actually went reasonably quickly, and soon it looked more like this:

The frozen custard was good, but--and I don't want to offend anyone with this--I actually, uh, well, I think I may prefer...Dairy Queen. I'm sorry. Butterfinger Blizzards are the sun, the moon, and the stars, while the Mildred Concrete is the sun and the moon.

We wrapped up the night at the hotel working on our thankyou notes during our devotional time.

If you supported music in mission financially any time in the last year, you will receive a note written by one of our youth while we were on tour. We talk about how in addition to the greater church, specific individuals make this trip--and all these fun memories--possible. I read some of the notes. They get it, and they appreciate it. And experience has taught me that the more years they do this, the more they will come to enjoy writing thank you notes.

Dismiss to the rooms, tape 'em in, figure out why my phone won't charge, pick out some pictures, get to bed. Finally got to sleep at what, 1:00? Untaping doors a bit later...7:30. We'll head out at 10 in the morning for the first of two concerts. It was a full day today, and it'll be another full day tomorrow. We only travel one week a year...let's make it count.

Sunday, 5/29. "Back on Track" or "Almost Back on Track"

Well, Sunday was [mostly] a return to music mission normal. Every piece of tape was just as I left it the night before, so I didn't have to send anyone home. That's always a good way to start the day.

Breakfast at the Avid was a little different. There were, uh, there were no waffles. And they were out of milk. I usually have milk on my cereal (the same as 53% of my children's choir singers). They did have Jimmy Dean sausage biscuits, though, and honestly the protein probably lasted me longer than the carbs anyway.

But I still missed the waffle. Strong marks for Avid, though. Thanks Adam!

We headed to Belmont UMC to get ready to sing. Shout out to Gayle Sullivan for being so, so good to us. She's the director of music there. And, also shout out to the members of her youth choir that showed up early to help us find our way, serve us lunch...the whole thing. They were great. They sang last week to be commissioned for their own music mission. They are going to San Francisco.

We sang five pieces throughout the service. The first one is our concert opener. Someone got this incredible picture of me from the choir's perspective, which was impressive given we had taken away all their phones.

Ok, so confessions. That's not me. It's Nick. He's conducting our opener! Also this picture was taken during our warmup, not during church. He's doing a great job. The power may be going to his head, though...he enjoyed the power of standing and sitting the choir maybe just a bit too much. But then again, all of us do.

We ran into some friends along the way as well! In what was maybe one of the cutest reunions I've ever seen...

And also, 2 transplanted Oak Grovians!

You may not know that in 2004 I went on my very first music mission. I was serving at Embry Hills, and Janet Johnson invited our choir to travel with the Oak Grove youth choir to Chicago. I took her up on it. This guy and his brother were both on that tour!!! I neglected to get permission to post names with pictures, so I won't name either him or the pastor's wife pictured here. But it was fun to bump into Oak Grovians in the diaspora.

Belmont UMC is beautiful, by the way. I've sung here a couple of times across the years, and it's always a treat. We had to hang out a minute before lunch was ready. I love casual group photos.

The lunch they provided was soooooo yummy. Chicken, green beans, salad. I think there was also potato salad, but I can't comment on it because I've never eaten potato salad since...the incident. They had bread pudding, though, and it was awesome. 

We went back into the sanctuary to do some rehearsal ahead of our afternoon concert, and uhm, the choir found itself. I mean, they sounded spectacular. Not "good for a youth choir" or "good under the circumstances" or "not bad for a bunch of kids." They. Sounded. Great. They filled up the room. They sang with nuance, good vowels, good pitch, and good balance. We lingered there almost longer than we should have because we were enjoying it so much. Well, I was anyway.

The Saint Paul was our first proper concert. They were ready for us and had chairs and everything!

The choir, embracing their recently found power, well more than filled this room with sound. I actually found myself trying to quiet them a little bit, which is a gesture I think I've never used with a youth choir! Just before our final song I thanked the audience and told them we were going to sing one more song and visit with them, and one of the audience interrupted me to thank us for coming and bringing light to them...because it has been such a long, difficult time. It meant a lot to me because she didn't talk so much about how well we sang (she could have!). She talked about bringing peace and hope...and bringing peace and hope is really what we are trying to do.

...which makes it all the much sweeter that we were able to visit.

I know that's a lot of pictures, but it isn't even enough. Everybody engaged and chatted. I know because many of them came to me after to tell me what their person had said to them. Lori told a moving story of one in particular. Lori asked if she had any grandchildren, and she said, "I used to have 3, but now I have 2. I lost one to suicide a few weeks ago, and this is the first time I have been able to smile since." 

That is what I mean by music in mission, y'all. It isn't about the music. The music is a means to a much more important end.

Also, in another small world kind of moment, I met one of the singer's mother's first grade teacher. I think that means we're related somehow.

We changed on the bus and headed toward St Louis. I said "almost back on track" because on the way the bus AC stopped working, which required an extra stop and some creative work by our amazing bus driver, Will. Megan said we had Sully as a bus driver, and now that she said that I can't unsee it. We did get it working again, and we came in a little later than we'd like, but honestly that is actually 100% back to normal for Music Mission.

We checked into the hotel and did devotional. I took this picture of the youth at devotional:

But the youth were getting in the way of the amazing decor, so I photoshopped them out.

Totally kidding. I forgot to take a picture, so I took one of the empty room. And I don't possess the photoshop skills to put them in. Or honestly the time. We didn't have a lot of time for devo, so I invited them to share about their conversations after the concert and other parts of the day. We'll get our notes started tonight.

I did the room taping and all that. Picked out the pictures for the blog. Went to bed. No concerts tomorrow because nobody can staff appropriately to host us on Memorial Day. We'll double up on Tuesday. Of course you can find out all about it here tomorrow!

Sunday, 5/29...From Somewhere in Illinois

It's just a little before 10pm. We are somewhere in Illinois. I'm not sure exactly where, but the GPS thinks we're about 55 minutes from the hotel. Typically I would wait to write until we get there (because these are usually arrival posts), but I've done the math. We'll get there, have a brief devo time, and have to get to bed, which means by the time I get to post the "arrival post," it'll be after midnight and nobody will see it.

Let me say that today was a good day. We were able to sing both at the church and at the Saint Paul, and in both places we found some friends. Can't wait to share with you about that on the detailed blog. But we're running behind in part because we had to make an extra stop when the bus AC broke. Our bus reset seems to have fixed it for now, and Michael and I just now shut the emergency hatches we had opened up for circulation.

Today was the most normal music mission day we have had, and it reminded me time and again why I enjoy it. Not only that, the choir was really on. I mean...really, really on. Don't believe me? Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQEoaNlMOJE So proud of this choir and these kids.

Saturday, 5/28. "The First Day of Tour" or "Plans Are Useless"

Let's be real. The Youth Music Mission has always been an endeavor that favors flexibility and the ability to pivot/reimagine/shoot from the hip. So many moving parts and opportunities for error. I learned a long time ago that doing this successfully means learning from Clint Eastwood himself:

1000 Cowden points for the first person to correctly identify the movie reference in the comments.

So when the first venue for today let me know they were quarantining and we wouldn't be able to sing for them, it just rolled off like water off a duck's back. No problem. I alerted the choir they'd have more time to sleep. We had everyone show up a little later, and we left the church right on time.

We stopped in Dalton for lunch. I reminded the singers before we got off the bus that we are on day 1 of a week-long trip, and we are singing to vulnerable populations, so continue to be as cautious as possible with masking and eating outside. The weather cooperated. It was lovely.

Most people went to either Chick Fil A or Moe's. I have never, in my life, seen mayhem like the Chick Fil A parking lot. The drive thru line went around the building 3 times. Three. Times. I'm glad they had some outside seating. We got back on the bus. Right on schedule. Everything was just perking along nicely. I may have congratulated myself on things running on time. That's a rookie mistake.

We rolled into our afternoon concert venue, and we were having a little difficulty figuring out where to go. I called the office so they could talk us down.

"Hi. I'm John Cowden with the Oak Grove UMC Youth Choir. We're scheduled to sing for you guys today!"

"Oh. Yes, well, they told us yesterday that all group activities are cancelled because we have had a few cases of covid in the building. They really should have called you, but our activities director was out yesterday."

"Well, that would have been good, but I certainly understand. With covid things can change so quickly."

...

You may remember that about a month ago I was in Chattanooga with my children's choir, and we sang in multiple locations. So I called them. It's Saturday. Their activity directors aren't in. There's nothing they can do...but maybe I could try this other place, which I did. Nothing. Anywhere. At this point I'm a little desperate. It's a choir tour. We have to sing. I called me friends in Chattanooga. They didn't answer. I'd like to think it's not because they saw it was me, but honestly it could have been.

Megan also has some Chattanooga contacts, and we determined the best plan would be to go to this park on the north shore of the river and just stand out there and sing. We have no way to set up a keyboard, so we just hoisted those tunes a cappella. To nobody in particular...just whoever was there. And there were a number of people around the park, but not really anyone paying attention to us. Except for the McMillens, who were in town for something else but wanted to see us sing. Really, what you see in the picture here is just about all the crowd we had.

So, not a HUGE audience, is what I'm saying. But there were people milling around, and it was a nice day. And the choir proved that they pretty much know their stuff. We did all but one song, and even without the piano we managed to get through. And there were some places that sounded genuinely great. With no piano. Outside. Insanity.

[Editor's note: if anyone can tell me how to lay out pictures on this so they are beside each other instead of up and down, please let me know. Click and drag isn't working, and it's harshing my mellow.]

Anyway, after we sang, we went across the field to the carousel. Sometimes these spur-of-the-moment things are the best. My favorite was hearing the youth claim which animal they were going to ride. I didn't hear anyone claim the frog. Maybe we'll unpack that in the future. Probably not.

The bus was a few minutes away, so after the carousel we had to wait a minute. People wonder why I tetris our schedule (pack it very tightly). Here's why: idle hands are the devil's workshop.

These two jokes were throwing a hat trying to get it to stick on each other's head. Spoiler: they were never really successful, and it wasn't just because the bus came.

When the bus arrived, we went some distance and stopped to change. We'll be wearing these shirts and jeans a little each day, but I try to change whenever we can...honestly some of these shirts can stand up on their own and sing the concert by the end of the week, I think.

We change on the bus. I brought along a frisbee and a couple of footballs to entertain the gender not on the bus. I realize as I'm looking at this it might be counterproductive in the sweat department, but they don't know how to play parchisi.

Everyone got back on the bus, and we headed for Nashville, where we are about to hit it big? No, not really. We did watch Shrek, though. I mean, some people did. Most people were streaming Stranger Things on their phone. Well, some people were.

Dinner was a chaperone meal. On this trip, each room of youth has a chaperone. There are a couple of meals where I have the chaperones eat with their youth. It's a fun way to get to know them and to help them get to know each other. And to make sure they leave an appropriate tip for dinner. I took pictures as they came back to the bus. These were the first two groups to arrive:

The girls named themselves "fun size." We hadn't thought about naming ourselves, but we settled on "whale enthusiasts." That's because we amused ourselves by trying to make each other laugh by reading whale facts from a whale fact instagram. Examples: Did you know that a whale can eat 40 million krill in one day? They call it gobblin' mode. Did you know that most whales poop completely naked? Did you know that your landlord can't collect rent if they get eaten by a whale?

I'll let you know if I find other groups with clever names.

Then it was on to the hotel. If you've followed any of my music mission blogs before, you know I have always had significant brand loyalty to Hampton Inn. It's the waffles. For a few reasons, we opted this time to go with Avid, which is a new brand. I have to say, I'm impressed by it. Super clean, modern look. Great staff at this one. And it's highly functional. What I mean is there aren't drawers in the rooms (because nobody but the Gideons use drawers in a hotel). They have benches with open shelves underneath. Decor is modern, and the color scheme in my room matched my shoes. How did they know?

We had our devotional at a reasonable hour. We talked about what they needed to know for today, and we talked about yesterday.

Honestly, the singing in the park wasn't awesome. I mean, they did a good job, but it felt mostly pointless like singing into the void. So we talked about that. I told them there have been times when singing felt mostly pointless but it was actually critically important (we once sang a concert for 6 people, 3 of whom couldn't leave their rooms...and it was hugely impactful for everyone). This didn't feel like that to me. But when I tell stories about music mission, I rarely talk about the times everything went completely according to plan. Rather, I mostly wind up talking about, well days like today. Singing outside because we couldn't sing where we were supposed to forged a memory. Memories are woven together into history. And the fabric of our shared history holds us together. It makes us a group, a choir. And that's a big part of why we're here.

We started writing thank you notes too. I explained why we write them and what goes into a good note, and then they wrote a practice note (pick someone, anyone, and write them a note). I'll write more about that another time.

Then it was off to bed. Checked in on everyone, reminded them about the next day's schedule, and put tape on their door. Even when we get an early start it's late nights on the music mission (because I still have work to do after I tape doors).

So...it was a good day, even if it bore little resemblance to the day I thought it would be. Next up, church, a concert (potential concert???) in Nashville, and then we'll make our way to St. Louis.