GMC in Europe 2008

Dear GMC’ers who toured and who waited,

While vistas, music and food (and Rich’s Lime Juice) were an amazing part of our tour, I cannot help but say I will miss the people the most.  There were a few folks who stood out, like Ian and Peter, our guides from Scotland and England respectively along the way to make it a ton of fun.

But what will always make me smile are those many moments of connecting with our many wonderful chorale folks.  Truly, we learned lots about each other; it has added a dimension of opening up a lot more and seeing sides of folks that we never saw before.  Yes Colin, there is really a 20-year-old Rich inside this 50-year-old man!

So whether we shared a Pilsner or Gruner Veltliner, a vista, an educational moment (thanks David), a laugh (or a thousand laughs thanks to Michael Lombardi on Bus #1), I found myself being myself, having one of the best times of my life and being able to handle being apart from my family perhaps in a way I could never have handled were it not for the amazingly friendly GMC folks.

There were some very helpful and smiling locals…perhaps the cooler air chilled a few smiles but it was worth it to try and say ‘Ahoy’, the Czech hello, to see what response you’d get.  Me thinks it’s the lack of green veggies in their diets!

And, contrary to the label that I received by lead tour guide, Iain, who started calling me ‘Don Ricardo the Deviant’, I prefer Deviator; it sounds as though it might allow some positive connotation.

I had a blast and hope that we share our newfound camaraderie and deep respect of one another with those of us who did not make the trip.  Truly, we thought of many of you while away.  Thoughts like, wow, Stef would have loved that, or Steve and Jim would have really rounded out our sound or where did Paul and Patricia go off to?

So get ready for some smiling faces as we meet up tonight.  The experience is just beginning.  That’s why this concert is called “Echoes of Europe - LIFT EVERY VOICE”…for we were only a small contingent of the great GMC.  Missed so many of you and hope you missed us.  Let’s put some energy into making our best music TOGETHER!

All the best!  Rich

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Tour, Tour Entries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.