Overseas Tours 2015

There were three tours in 2015 First was Colorado and Nevada then Canada then later in the year, Durango Co.

Colorado Cowboy Gathering and the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada saw Carol in twenty three shows (including some school appearances). Her picture was on the front page of the Elko newspaper and the response to her performances throughout the West was overwhelming!

2015 CANADA   5- 18 March

Sydney,  Los Angeles,  Seattle,  Calgary
After a whirlwind tour of Calgary and the famous Stampede Ground, Carol and Canada’s No 1 poet, Doris Daley  headed for a gig in Saskachewan.  It’s straight out of Dr. Zhivago.  Beautiful.  Miles of flat, pristine, snow covered prairies. Your dog could get lost for four days and you’d still see him. Friends from Viking,  Alberta drove for hours to meet us for lunch.   Next gig was a thriller.  Doris and Carol contracted to entertain across the country on Frontier Tours.  What a way to ‘sing’ for your supper!   The folks on the bus were heading for the Kamloops Cowboy Poetry Gathering in British Colombia and we girls were on the stage line-up for this fabulous Gathering.  The Conference Center Hotel is a dandy and I’m spoiled rotten while I have the privilege of being  paid to perform at this incredible event.   Huge trade and art displays,  everything you could (and couldn’t) imagine  connected to Western Culture, along with workshops and concerts, concerts, concerts.  The big night time shows kick off with a rousing, rollicking Can-Can, the girls high kicking it down the aisles and everyone’s ready to have a thoroughly great time.    How could we not?

 

Seventh Successful Overseas Performance Tour –
US   September 23 – October 12 2015

Not the winter tours of previous years, this time a panorama of Rocky Mountain Aspen clad in the golden hues of Fall.   Denver was first stop and a rendez-vous party with fellow entertainers and friends at ‘The Pickin’ Parlor’   What a feast of fun! What stories we all had to tell!   Outings and adventures followed and then a  concert at Cripple Creek (near Colorado Springs) in a wonderful historic theatre.    New friends every step of the way.   Then came the road trip down through Colorado, with friend and now tour manager/agent,  Diana Raven, three of us revelling in the sights and heading for the Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering.  Wee Haaa!  First night at the home of my sponsor and we were told to be on the lookout for bears.  All quiet on the Western Front. Then straight in to the deep end with Carol compering the Welcome Party at the awesome ranch of another of the sponsors.  The action unfurled from there – three school appearances, lead-up concerts and the highlight? Performing on each carriage of the Durango/Silverton steam train and singing cowboy songs all the way up the mountain.  A busy schedule included five shows in one day and all in different venues in the town (whew) and being part  of the “Gunsmoke” theatre concert cast (the stage set was a saloon from the old Cowboy days TV show).  Finale was as a concert in a Gallery  where by performers did songs and poems specially written and inspired by the Western oil painting used as  the poster of this year’s event.

After the Gathering, we detoured to take in Mesa Verde’s spectacular sights and the remains of the villages of the ‘cliff dwellers’ .   Quite amazing.  Poet Milton Taylor always said it was his favourite place on earth so I had to see it.
A tour to US is never complete without a dinner at “The Fort” with Rex Rideout, entertainer, actor (and failed moose hunting friend).  After tip-toeing around rattle snake nests, we sat on the terrace, ate Rocky Mountain Oysters, played and danced to violin waltzes, wined and dined and watched the eclipse over the awesome Colorado landscape.  
Then reluctantly packed my bags for home...