Fall Tour Day 5: Concert in Chanute, KS!

11:52pm.

Whew!  Just finished a concert in Chanute, KS, a really clean, tidy town of about 9000 people or so.  There's this gigantic cement factory as you enter from the north (about two hours south of Kansas City) on small highway roads.  There are lots and lots of wheat, corn, and bean fields everywhere you look!

The concert was a blast!  It was a very different style of concert for me.  I played everything from Chopin Etudes to Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire (which he, too, played on that same piano years ago!).  Apparently Victor Borge, Liberace, and many others have been on that stage and on that piano over the years!

The hall was gorgeous.  Built in 1924-1925, it was in a building that housed the town's many city-related services...from the police station to the fire trucks directly underneath the stage of the Memorial Hall, it was quite a beautiful old building.

The audience really seemed to like the program, and many people said it was a perfect style for the Midwest! :D

After the concert ended and everything was wrapped up at about 10, my dad and I headed west toward Wichita for about two hours in pitch blackness with literally nothing.  But boy the stars were amazing...hundreds and hundreds filling the sky.  It was quite a sight, and definitely something you don't see in cities!

Tomorrow is just a day of driving, heading toward Raton, NM.  We've got about 7.5 hours left to go and my first event there is at 1pm on Thursday, where I'll get to do an outreach for children, followed by the main program that night.  Should be a blast!

-Charlie

Brunch-time!

Olathe, KS

Memorial Hall, where the first Midwest Tour concert was!

Memorial Hall 

Hot in October!

This piano was played on by Liberace, Victor Borge, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. :D

Breaktime!

"On the Road Again..."

Pitch black driving for two hours between Olathe and Wichita

Pretty flat~

Gas $3.19? Wow!