OVER THE RHINE Roots on the Rail: Day Three (Sunday, November 7th) The Painted Desert & Petrified Forest (or are you sure this isn’t just a great big mural and movie set?) and The La Posada Hotel – Winslow, Arizona

Roots on the Rail: Day Three

Sunday: November 7th

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest (or are you sure this isn’t just a great big mural and movie set?) and The La Posada Hotel – Winslow, Arizona

After a breakfast on board the train, we again hopped on a bus, destination, The Painted Desert. It was about a four hour trek, there was good conversation, reading, naps and as we neared our destination, about an hour of the trip was an informative presentation by Lynn (Neal) on the formation and history of The Painted Desert. After Lynn’s presentation, Charlie informed us that what we heard “was all a bunch of crap, that it was really just a huge mural!”

Once we arrived, we had a nice, tasty boxed lunch and a casual little picnic in this beautiful setting, The view was stunning, many of us walked the rim, others, half way down (me) and a few brave souls, made it all the way to the floor. Several of us attempted to seize the opportunity to take pictures, which despite the views, was hard to come away with something that didn’t look like a post card. We then headed to The Petrified Forest.

On the drive over Lynn again explained the history to us, the drive was fascinating, the craters and jaggedly formed hills and formations, mostly void of vegetation, looked much like I would imagine the surface of the moon would. Hmm, maybe those “Never went to the moon” conspiracy theorists are on to something.

Sadly (as a commentary on our culture and our country), my first thoughts when arriving in the Petrified Forest Park was my amazement that this place existed and was preserved and that we weren’t walking into “The Disney Great Petrified Theme Park, Mall and Condominiums.” The sheer fragility of these few prehistoric “rocks” just lying around on the ground, after tens (hundreds) of millions of years was awe inspiring. It kind of put us, as humans in perspective and what a small (yet often destructive) piece of the puzzle of life we are, and how short our visit on this miraculous planet really is. Many thanks to President Roosevelt for the courage and foresight to form the National Parks Service to preserve these natural wonders.

We jumped back on the bus for the cruise to Winslow and the beautiful La Posada Resort. As we were checking in you could hear the band sound checking in the ballroom for the show later that night. Several of us who kind of bonded on the trip met up, had dinner together in their wonderful restaurant , then headed to the ballroom. The format was much the same as Santa Fe, with OtR playing a slightly shorter set due to a Sunday night 10PM curfew out of respect for other guests in the hotel.

On a side note, just after sound check, and 80 year old man approached Karin (having no idea who she was) and asked what was going on in the ballroom. She explained and he immediately was disappointed. He then asked if it was a “private function,” and she replied “yes” and asked him why. After talking further, she found out that on the same day a year ago, he married his wife (she is 60 and they were both widowed) there and that they had they had their first dance as “husband and wife” in the ballroom and that he had surprised her with a trip back there to celebrate their first anniversary and hoped to dance with her there again tonight.

Karin lit up, explained who she was and personally asked them to please attend the show.

After a great dinner in the La Posada Restaurant, everyone began to casually accumulate in the ballroom across the hall. Lucy opened the night with another charming set of music and her stories, Molly & Bill (Swan Dive) followed and then OtR. All sets were slightly abbreviated there was very little break between them, due to there being other guests in the hotel and a 10:00PM curfew.

Three songs into the set, Karin acknowledged the newlyweds mentioned above and invited them to “have their dance” while dedicating “I Want You To Be My Love” to them. They danced together as Karin sang to them, it was a beautiful, touching moment. Many of us met them in the bar after the show and they were beautiful, kind people and very grateful and happy for the generous acknowledgement.

The set was very casual and relaxed, which fit the day, the setting and the mood perfectly.

Afterwards, everyone hit the small bar across the hall, pretty much overwhelming the poor guy tending it, he did the best he could, with a smile and we were patient, especially considering the fact that the bar “Closed at 10:00” and it was well after 1:00AM when we cleared out.

The Painted Desert

The Petrified Forest

Lucy Wainwright-Roche

Swan Dive

Over the Rhine

—————————————————————————————————————

“Roots on the Rails” conducts about four of these trips a year featuring different routes and musicians. They are now in the initial stages of planning another trip with OtR, possibly for next September.

Contact Sarah or Charlie @ (and PLEASE tell them that you were referred by Bill Ivester and read about it here)
Roots on the Rail: http://www.rootsontherails.com/

Roots on the Rail (Facebook): http://www.facebook.com/search.php?q=roots%20on%20the%20rails&init=quick&tas=0.6926599160176896#!/group.php?gid=9411601292