1. Arrival in New York 2. The concerts 3. Going west 4. Good bye in San Francisco 5. Back to the east coast back to homepage

In the afternoon we arrived with a Greyhound from New York. Again we didn't have much time left. Our first concert in the USA took place at the New Waverly United Methodist Church of Baltimore at 19:30. We had a very warm welcome by the poeple and after the concert they surprised us with cakes and other good things.
Matt de Rouville, our host, then helped us to get a car at an airport car rental and also took us there the other morning.

New Waverly United Methodist Church	Matt and the quartet at the Washington-Baltimore Airport

At the airport, after getting the car and saying good bye to Matt, we went to Pittsburgh. We arrived in the evening and had another warm welcome by our hosts Beth and Bill Ivins who took us to the City after the supper. The next day was Sunday and at 10 o'clock we sang at the service of the Faith United Methodist Church. After that we had to go on immediately because we had to sing a concert in Dresden, Ohio, the same day.

Pittsburgh at night	Bill and Beth with the quartet	Faith United Methodist Church	our car in front of the house of the Ivins' family

The reason for us to contact the "Dresden Village Association" has been the Name of the town which is the same like that of our home town in Germany. We had the concert at 19:30 at the Dresden Presbyterian Church. Unfortunately there was no big audience but a local tv station. So later in the evening we were part of the local news. On Monday morning then we were adressed by many people that recognized us as the "guys from the news". Why didn't they bring us on tv the day before? Anyway we had a great time in Dresden which is first of all the home of te world's largest basket.

"Welcome to Dresden	the DVQ in front of the DVA office	Dresden Presbyterian Church
the world's largest basket	our room in "The Village Victorian" Bed & Breakfast	The Village Victorian
	the DVQ in the news of WHIZ-tv, Zanesville, Ohio, in the evening after the concert mpeg video (1min/2,8MB)

On Monday, after visiting some places in Dresden, we went on to Cleveland to rehearse a bit at a friend's of Stephan, Saho Ikemoto. In the evening we went to Medina (30 min from the Cleveland) to spend the night at Rick Einwald's family. On Tuesday (August 24th) they showed us Lake Erie after inviting us to a heavy american breakfast that lastet for th whole day. In the evening we sang a concert at the chapel of "The Oaks".
The other day we had to leave early because we had to go about 1000 miles to the next concert place. Passing Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, Chicago and some shopping opportunities we came to Wisconsin. We stopped for the night at a "bavarian" Campsite. The son of the owners, who were real Bavarians, invited us to a real german beer.

with Rick and family at the Lake Erie	Cleveland, Eisi phoning home	Chicago, cloudy and rainy

The other morning (Thursday, 26th) there was not much left to get to Ellsworth. We arrived early and had time enough to play soccer a bit on some school's yard in Ellsworth. It was really exhausting to play in the early afternoon but after that we felt good. In any case it didn't have any negative influence on the concert the same evening. After spending the night at the Pastor's (Harlen Menk) we had a kind of morning concert at the Ellsworth High School. The rest of the day we spent driving south-west to get closer to Nebraska. We spent the night at a very nice camp site at the Missouri river (South Dakota).

Harlen Menk and the quartet in front of his house	Ellsworth Lutheran Church	for the first time at the Missouri river

On Saturday, 28th there was no concert to do so that we did what is done best in Amerika: shopping. That's why we arrived in the late afternoon in Wahoo where we lived with Lee and Sandra Wade. On Sunday morning there was a service with a lot of people at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church. After that we had the shortest drive ever in the States: only 25 miles to Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska. In the evening we sang at the Grace Lutheran Church which is remarkable for it's outstanding acoustics, maybe the best of the churches we have visited.

Lee and Sandra Wade (Wahoo)	the hosts of Ben and Dirk with the quartet (Lincoln)	Grace Lutheran Church (Lincoln)

On Monday, 30th - again no concerts - we drove south to Oklahoma City. The next day we visited the Cowboy Hall of Fame, a museum of cowboy cutlure. In the evening we had our next concert, maybe the concert with the biggest audience thanks to a great article in the local newspaper ("Computer brings german group to city") describing the way how this concert at Immanuel Lutheran Church respectively the whole tour was made up.

Immanuel Lutheran Church	Immanuel Lutheran Church - inside

Going more and more south we learned about the importance of the air conditioning in our car. As this was another day without a concert we took it quite easy to drive these about 600 miles. That's why we arrived late at San Angelo (22:00). Our contact of the First United Methodist Church, Linda Baumheckel, had reservated a room for us at the Holiday Inn and welcomed us with a cake. The next day, Thursday, September, 2nd, we first rehearsed a bit and the rested a lot by the river. After our concert we went to our hosts living a bit outside San Angelo.

First United Methodist Church	our hosts Matthew and Charlotte Lewis and daughter Abby
report of the concert in the news of NBC 3, Texas mpeg video (29sec/1,2MB)	again in the news, here on TV 8, Texas, mpeg video (36sec/1,9MB)

For the first time we had two consecutive days without a concert. We used this for some sightseeing trips in Texas. First we visited the marvellous Sonora Caves and then the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, an outstanding rock formation.

Sonora Cave	Sonora Cave	Sonora Cave "The Butterfly"

armadillo in Enchanted Rock	Enchanted Rock State Natural Area

As the last two days there were no concerts we had now two concerts in one day. It was Sunday, 5th, when we had a service at 10:50 at the Hyde Park United Methodist Church and after that the last concert on our trip at 13:00 at the same church. The concert was wonderful and a good end of the "cultural" part. Otherwise it was the beginning of real vacation and we didn't hesitate to start. So we left Austin the very same day at 17:00 to go west.

Hyde Park United Methodist Church	our hostess in Austin	the start in the late afternoon	Highway No. 10 west

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