{"id":1017,"date":"2007-12-13T21:55:35","date_gmt":"2007-12-14T03:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2007-12-14T17:26:01","modified_gmt":"2007-12-14T23:26:01","slug":"ukeing-it-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1017","title":{"rendered":"Ukeing it out"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning we hated to leave our little boondocking spot in the desert. We would have stayed another night somewhere out there, but we had reservations for the Palm Canyon campground at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and it’s one of our favorite spots. None of us wanted to miss a single day of it.<\/p>\n

Besides, we had made plans to meet Tommy and Kathy, our friends from the San Diego area. Tommy, as you might recall, has offered to teach me ukulele this weekend. I’ve been practicing chords in the evenings, in an attempt to be prepared for him.<\/p>\n

\"anza-borrego-two-airstreams.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes it’s nice to be recognizable by our Airstream. In January 2006 when we were at Anza-Borrego, Eleanor made friends with a ranger and promised to bring her maple syrup on our next visit. Last March when we returned, the ranger spotted Eleanor and said, “You promised to bring me maple syrup.” Eleanor reached into the back of the car and handed her a quart on the spot. (Yes, we used to travel with maple syrup. We are, after all, from Vermont.)<\/p>\n

This time when we rolled in the ranger said, “Luhr, right? Your friends are already here and they’re going to save you a spot. Just go right in and let me know where you’ve parked later.” So we found Tommy and Kathy and got set up, and not long after Tommy was in the trailer trying out my new Kala<\/a> tenor ukulele.<\/p>\n

\"anza-borrego-tommy-strumming.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This evening Tommy made a fire and set up his gear. He came ready for serious jamming, with three ukes of his own (Martin soprano, Martin tenor, and a uke banjo with hubcap resonator), his music stand, two big binders of songs, plus a CD and some sheet music for me.<\/p>\n

Those nights of practice paid off. He gave me some tips, taught me a few more chords, and it wasn’t long before we were playing songs together. I’m far from proficient (and not ready for public performances!) but it was a really great experience to go from bumbling and unable to play a song, to able to play a song while bumbling.<\/p>\n

Tonight is the classic winter night in Anza-Borrego. The sky is crystal clear and the stars are glowing, the coyotes are yip-yipping off in the darkness, and there’s a sense of wonderful desert peace. We are so grateful to be here. I wish we could stay for a month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning we hated to leave our little boondocking spot in the desert. We would have stayed another night somewhere out there, but we had reservations for the Palm Canyon campground at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and it’s one of our favorite spots. None of us wanted to miss a single day of it. Besides, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}