Several weeks ago we ventured West for three new bookings. It was a foggy drizzly day when Phil picked me up at 7 am for our drive to Coon Rapids, Guthrie Center and Panora. There was a little miscalculation of the location of Coon Rapids, so we did a little sight seeing - if it wouldn't have been foggy that is - before we made it to Coon Rapids. We were still there in plenty of time to get set up and meet some of the residents before out 10:30 gig. They were nice enough to invite us to eat lunch with them before we went to Guthrie Center for a 1:30 gig where they had us set up in a room we thought might have room for about 20 or 30 residents. Boy were we surprised when they packed the place and then sat them out in the hall way, I would say there were about 50 to 60 people there! We were disappointed that we couldn't stay and meet each one personally like we usually do as we had to quickly load up and head down the road to Panora for a 3:30 gig. There they had 5 or 6 awesome volunteers ranging from 78 to 98 handing out Halloween hats to the residents and two actually did a little line dance!
By the time we headed back home the sun was out and the colorful wet tree leaves were so pretty shinning in the sun. We were tired when we got home at 7 pm, but felt we had been blessed by the new friends that we met. All three facilities booked us back every other month for next year, so look forward to our fun trips West next year!
We also had a long day last Friday, just closer to home. We had our normal monthly gigs at Grundy Care Center at 10:00 in Grundy Center and then in Iowa Falls at 3:00 for their Happy Hour at Heritage Care Center. We also had a booking in Ames at Burgies coffee shop for a fund raiser from 7 to 9. A lady heard us playing at Hubbard Care Center last month while visiting her mother and asked us to play for an evening to help raise money to build schools in Guatemala. We never know what to expect when we play for public events. We knew we would have a great time when we walked into the coffee shop and they said, "Oh, your Sugar & Spice"! They were so helpful and gave us coffee, fruit smoothies and sandwiches on the house! It isn't a very big place, and I was happy to see that there were quite a few people there for the two hours that we played. You never know when you will be blessed by meeting wonderful friends and look forward to working with them again some time!
Stop in and give them some business if you happen to be in the area, they are on the corner just South of the intersection of hwy 30 and Duff, right by Lowes. The building is a gas station, bank and Burgies coffee shop. While we were playing several people from the gas station side took our picture....makes me kind of nervous - hope we don't end up on some face book page titled "Only in Iowa" or something like that! If you stop in tell them Sugar & Spice sent you!
