An American Songline

Journeys in Vintage Music with Cecelia Otto

lake tahoe

Final day of the conference

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Hi everyone!

Today is seminar day for the LHA conference.  The speakers have all been fantastic, and I’ve learned so much.

I was asked to sing a small anthem at the end of the Keynote speech by the speaker himself, and we surprised everyone when I came up onstage.  It has been videotaped, and when it is edited down, expect to see it on here shortly.

Tonight is the awards banquet at the top of Heavenly mountain, and then we’re all off!  I will be leaving very early in the morning to catch a flight to a family wedding in Indiana where I will also be singing.  I’ll be offline in a few hours today (wifi expires), and cialis in uk will write up something once I’m back home.

Thanks to all of the new friends I’ve made here in Tahoe this week, and to all of the online followers as well.  I look forward to meeting and working with you more in the future.

East Tour of LHA 2011 conference in pictures

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Hello all:

Another great day, but man I am tired.  Today’s tour was in Nevada. We started in Stateline, and then went to Carson City, Dayton, and then came back to Lake Tahoe for the Thunderbird lodge tour at sunset (an old mansion built from 1936-1939).

Again, I will write more later, but here are the highlights of the day.

This is Coin Press #1. This is the first coin press ever used in the United States, and still makes coins/medallions today. All of us who went on the tour today have a special medallion made for us, and it was made just for us.
Feral Horses outside Carson City, NV.
The historical society of Dayton NV went all out for us. We were able to walk the whole town for 2 hours today.
Sign on Dayton Fire House, Dayton NV.
Horse Hitch outside of the main saloon, Dayton NV.
Fence in Dayton, NV.
Coach/Carriage house, Dayton NV.
Original Lincoln Highway stretch outside Dayton, NV.
Thunderbird Lodge at sunset, Lake Tahoe.
Looking down to the water at the lodge. Yes, the rumors are true. Lake Tahoe is very clear. You can see down 100 feet in some places.
Another great sunset in Lake Tahoe. It will be hard to leave.

West Tour of LHA 2011 conference in pictures

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Hello all:

It’s been a long but exhilarating day (14+ hours). I will write more about the day post conference, but in the meantime here are some photo highlights of today (I had over 200 pictures to choose from).

This is the view from the old Echo Pass Summit.
The LH was based off of many trails, including the Pony Express.
Old Tollbooth from the circa the gold rush days.
Clarksville is a ghost town where original LH roads still exist. Thanks to a local Model A association, we were able to go back in time and drive these roads in cars from the period. My car was from 1927.
Traffic Jam-1914 style. The original roads were 14 feet across in most places, so you had to

pass carefully.

A closeup of the original 1914 pavement. It is believed that Folsom Prisoners built these roads in Northern CA.
Abandoned house in ghost town of Clarksville, CA. A Bee Keeper still lives in the entire town and acts as a watchman to keep trespassers out. A developer has bought the whole town, and the hope is to rebuild it when the economy improves.
The boat we were on was the “Tahoe Queen”, an old Paddlewheel boat.
We took a cruise on Lake Tahoe to Emerald Bay. This view is looking from the bay back to the lake at sunset. What a way to start the first day of summer!

Tomorrow we go East into Nevada; there are more photos to come, so stay tuned!

Continental “Divide”

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Greetings from sunny South Lake Tahoe on the first day of the Lincoln Highway 2011 Conference! While it there were a couple bumps getting here, I am here, and so glad to be here. If you haven’t been to Lake Tahoe ever, you must put it on your bucket list. It is truly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in this world.

The weather in-flight was quite good once we hit the badlands in South Dakota. As we got closer to Wyoming my heart started to beat a little faster. I would see mountains again soon.  I watched the Bighorn mountain range come into view, and I let out a huge sigh. The clouds and the mountain snow blurring into one another at times, it was a sight I didn’t think I would see in late June!

We passed over the continental divide, and another level of “zen” came over me. In my previous years living out west, I always felt a unique peace in and around the divide. It’s always a “Kodak moment” around the divide. What I mean by “Kodak Moment” is that time stops and you want to capture all five senses of that moment.

Time stopped on the plane as we passed over the divide as I thought it would, and I reflected and reveled in that moment.  I didn’t feel “divided”-I felt united and whole.  All of the good and bad of me and my life sat next to me on the plane in that moment, and it was beautiful.

In the short time I’ve been here with people from the conference tonight, the Lincoln Highway represents so many things to the 100+ people present, but all of these people still manage to come together to celebrate a different part of the road. It’s clear this road has some spiritual meaning to many veteran conference goers, and I look forward to seeing how many on this trip moments “stop time” for me and for others in the next week.

View from hotel at the LHA Conference
View from my hotel room. With a view like this, I could blog every day!

Hello world!

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First off, a big thank you for liking, following, or checking out my project. This is not just a musical journey, but it is also about community.  Roads are powerful to us – they can bring us together and drive us apart.

We live in a world where people seek to find the negative differences first, and then try to find the positives after that.  Absurd!  While the diversity in America is engaging and wonderful, let’s not forget that we really have more in common than we think.  We all want to be loved.  We all want to be heard.  We all need a place to sleep and some food.  There is so much that unites us, we should embrace those ideals more each day.

It’s so easy with technology these days to forget that there is a live person sitting behind a computer.  I hope that with this project you reach out to your community, wherever you are to see “where the road takes you”. Take a wrong turn on your way home one day and see what you find.  You may find a store you’ve always wanted in your neighborhood, or a local cafe where you can work unfettered, or a community center where you

can finally take that oil painting class you’ve always wanted to take. You may make a new friend.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be writing about everything related to this travelogue.  This blog will be live pre, during, and post journey, so keep checking back for updates.  Next week I’ll be in Lake Tahoe for the annual Lincoln Highway Association’s conference.  You’ll see daily updates and pictures from the road.

Once again, thank you for being a part of this journey. See you on the road!