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| Image from Esty.com |
Chuck
Roots
10
July 2017
Home
Sweet Home! That is such a true statement. About an hour ago Isaura
and I walked in our front door after ten days of romping and playing
across California, Nevada and Utah. We even clipped the edge of
Arizona on our drive from Delta, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada. What a
beautiful drive! Nevada and Utah have one thing in particular in
common. Both states have specific high population areas. The rest of
the state is open and fairly barren. For awesome scenic beauty, there
are parts of eastern Utah that are simply breathtaking. Then there’s
the drive through the southern part of Utah that brings you through
some fantastic mountains (a spill-over of the Rocky Mountains).
Our
time spent with family was priceless. But the biggest treat for me
was watching Alyssa, our nine-year-old granddaughter, rise up early
three mornings in a row to help hold the super-sized milk bottles for
the one and two-day-old heifers to nurse from.
So,
on Tuesday we pulled out of Delta for the roughly five-hour drive to
Las Vegas. We had booked tickets for Popovich’s Comedy Pet Theater
for the 2:30 show. We arrived in Vegas about 1:20, quickly settling
into our hotel room at Bally’s. We then walked to the V Theater for
the show. It was a delightful performance with Popovich using most of
the 30 dogs, cats, birds and mice he has rescued from animal
shelters. It was non-stop activity on stage with several assistants
helping keep things moving along. Alyssa loved the show! Popovich was
in the lobby afterward to sell his books and CDs. We bought one of
the CDs for Alyssa, and I took a nice picture of her with him in his
clown costume.
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| Eastern Utah along Rt 70, source uncertain |
I
had to call into question my being there at all in the midst of the
raw nakedness evidenced on the sidewalks, not to mention the
performers in the casinos. But then to have my wife and our
nine-year-old Alyssa there, too, made me stop and rethink the wisdom
of bringing her along. I suspect I’ll be mulling this over for some
time to come. There were, however, several street preachers
positioned on the curbside using loudspeaker systems to proclaim
God’s Word from the Bible. I had to admire their tenacity. That’s
a rough place for ministry, but they were persistent in proclaiming
God’s righteousness, and calling sinners to repent from their
immoral behavior. It was an amazing contrast to witness.
My
time in Vegas was spent either resting in my hotel room, finding a
decent place to eat that was close by, or rehearsing with the VoCal
chorus in preparation for our performance on Friday afternoon. We
seventy stout-hearted souls put all of our effort into giving our
best performance. As I mentioned in my last column, we were going up
against 29 other choruses. Well, as it turned out, we fell well short
of our hoped-for score. When all the choruses were done on Friday, we
placed 26th
of the 30. We can take some consolation in the fact that very few
choruses even make it to this level of competition, and furthermore,
a chorus from our district, the Far Western District, took first
place, receiving the coveted gold medal. We are very proud of the
Santa Fe Springs, California chapter, Masters of Harmony, for winning
first place.
As for the quartet
competition, it was tight because the top ten quartets are just that
good. These ten were left standing from the original 55 which started
the competition on Thursday. The gold medal winning quartet, Main
Street, is from Florida. Listening to these ten quartets competing
down to the wire on Saturday night was such a treat. The musical
quality and presentation on stage is worth the price of admission –
literally! Afterward, Alyssa and I joined several of the VoCal chorus
members down in the hotel’s food court for some chocolate ice
cream! Yum!
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Roots in Ripon - Author Chuck Roots
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It
was a hectic ten days, but we sure had fun, especially with Alyssa.
Next year our International Barbershop Competition will be in
Orlando, Florida. Now won’t that be fun!
But,
when it’s all said and done, there’s no place like home!
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