So, we didn’t escape far. We pretended to be tourists and drove down to El Cajon on Friday afternoon to do the Taylor Guitar factory tour with the kids. DH had been a couple years ago, but we thought it might be interesting for the kids since they’re becoming more musically aware and we’re like them to get back into playing the instruments that were bought for them.
Next time, I want to go in January. The weather shifted here this weekend from cool and sunny to sunny and very warm. It was in the low 90s here today. The factory is located much farther inland and the highway rises to 821 ft above sea level before slipping down into the valley there at Santee and El Cajon. Add to that the fact that much of the factory has fans blowing water vapor into the air as they acclimate the wood to a nice average humidity level. San Diego is normally arid.
The kids did well, but the boy got bored and a bit cranky when we refused to buy the $2500 acoustic guitar off the shelf for him in the gift shop. They ended up with hats and DH got a shirt, a pair of mugs and a set of wood cut Christmas tree ornaments. I got a cup of ice as we were heading out of town and melted most of it between my swollen hands by the time we got home. I don’t handle heat and humidity well at all.
Today, I sent them off to the Build-a-Bear Workshop and other points south. They came home with a cute little Rock-n-Roll Groundhog and a Rock-n-Roll Pterodactyl, a red iPod Shuffle to replace the one that went through the washer and now refuses to take a charge, several comics and books from the Comic shop on the way home and junk food from McDonald’s.
In exchange, I got some time to recharge and write. I almost reached the 1600 word mark, nearly doubling the other day’s progress. I’m still feeling unfocused and unsure, but every bit I write, the going becomes easier. I think the characters have some surprises still in store for me, but at least they’re not holding back on me where it counts.
This evening we’re headed back downtown (it’s only gas, right? :P) to hear David Wilcox play at one of the local acoustic music series. He’s out promoting his 14th album, Airstream. We haven’t seen him live since Austin and before that at the Kerrville Folk Festival.
Tonight’s show will be held in a church, so the acoustics are amazing and it often leads to jokes about the appropriateness of certain songs. The kids do well there. There was a bit of a worry one night when we took them and their game boys along and someone was complaining about a high pitched whine. They encourage minors to attend the shows and were quick to eliminate the gameboys as the source. Turns out it was an older gentleman’s hearing aid that was feeding back. Phew.
Oh, I bet that was a cool tour! Nothing interesting to tour here in Vegas really except maybe the Ethel M Chocolate factory….. did I tempt you? I mean really- if you’ve seen one casino you’ve seen them all. 😉 I love reading your stuff. I have to be better about commenting though. That is now my resolution. Will comment on my dear kaige’s blog at least once a week. Lurve ya!
I had no idea! NONE! Now I have to visit SD!
Wow – what an exciting couple of days! The tour sounds pretty cool – do you get to see them making the guitars?
Glad you got some uninterupted writing time! Sounds like you’re making some great progress.
How was the David Wilcox show? I really like him – saw him live about 5 years ago and it was a lot of fun!
Hmm. I didn’t know that factory was there. Must get down below Del Mar more often I guess. LOL Congrats on the writing progress.
The tour is through the actual production departments. They do the tour daily at 1pm, you just show up and they hand out safety glasses to those who don’t wear glasses normally and you pick up a headset receiver so you can hear the tour guide along the way.
Some of the rooms are louder than others. The laser cutter machines were pretty neat. It’s pretty amazing the parts of the process they’ve managed to mechanize and then how much of it is still done by hand. We got to see a couple of guys putting the decorative binding along the sides of acoustic bodies. The painting and polishing was robotic as well. They said they do about 300 guitars a day in that shop and use a total of about 5 gallons of paint/varnish for all of them.
The other cool thing was there was a custom made guitar for each department hanging on the wall for the employees to take down and play as they wanted. The guide said even the people who don’t play when they start, eventually learn just from being around them so much.
The David Wilcox concert was awesome. We’ve been following him since ’92 or ’93. We used to be much more into the folk scene, even went to the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas a couple of times. I think the last time we saw him live was at the Paramount Theatre in Austin one Easter weekend.
He did a lot of the slower more spiritual songs. The show was in a 95 year old church after all. DD really enjoyed it and liked him much better live than on CD. She even got him to sign her brand new Build-A-Bear groundhog’s guitar strap. He got a kick out of that.
The only downside to the concert was DS got a migraine during the first set and was miserable all night. He’s still not 100% today, but is feeling better. He doesn’t do well when he doesn’t eat right (and he’s such a picky eater, he never does) and you add noise and heat to the mix. It’s been in the 90s this weekend. Poor little guy was sick twice and had everyone trying to help him feel better.
DH did have a nice talk with his manager, Tom, during all this. They were both surprised when he pulled out “Leave it Like It Is” and “Johnny’s Camaro” toward the end of the show. I’m not sure it was worth full price for all of us, but, we like to support the folkies directly when possible and we ended up with the DVD, Vista (which we’re still not sure if we already owned or not) and the CD booklet we brought for Airstream all signed.
MJ, do they give out free samples at the chocolate factory? If we’re ever in Vegas, I’ll let you know when we’re in town. I was so _not_ impressed by the airport, but that’s the only place I’ve been there, changing planes.
And Dana and Winter, anytime! Just lemme know. We’re not THAT much further than Del Mar. We still really haven’t explored much over there. Haven’t gone to see the ponies run or seen the Fair or anything. We’re such bad local touristas.