Chuck Roots
3 July 2017
www.chuckroots.com
A Little Traveling Music, Please
“A Little Traveling Music, Please,”
is the signature expression uttered by The Great One, Jackie Gleason on his
television show from 1952-1966.
I have taken the liberty of
borrowing this phrase to start my column this week. You see, Isaura and I,
along with nine-year-old granddaughter Alyssa are currently in Delta, Utah,
visiting her brother Tony and numerous other relatives.
What prompted this trip was my
involvement in my hobby of singing barbershop. The Barbershop Harmony Society
(BHS), the parent organization for all things barbershop, officiates an annual International
Competition for barbershop quartets and choruses which is held in a major city
somewhere around the country. This year we are gathering in Las Vegas.
Since I am a member of Voices of
California (VoCal) out of Sacramento, I will be joining 71 other members of the
chorus on stage competing against 29 other choruses. This is my first time to
sing on the International stage. What an exciting opportunity!
Isaura’s brother, Tony, has
developed a very prosperous dairy farm here in Delta over the last eighteen
years, and Isaura loves visiting whenever possible. So, we decided to head for
Delta last Friday making this part of the overall trip to Vegas. We were thrilled
when Alyssa asked to come with us. This would give her an opportunity to meet
and get to know better some of her extended family. Plus, she was really
excited to see (Great) Uncle Tony’s cows!
The nearly 700-mile drive to Delta would
likely be a challenge since we had not taken any of our grandkids on such a
long trip before. But we planned it well, leaving Ripon at ten o’clock in the
morning. About 12:30 we stopped at a Subway shop in Truckee for lunch. Then it
was back on the road following Highway 80 east. Somewhere around Fallon, Nevada
we cut over to pick up Highway 50 east. We basically stayed on this road for
the remainder of the trip. We stopped a few more times. We grabbed a smoothie in
Austin at an old bar and grill after traveling over small mountain ranges, and
dipping into more valleys than I could count. When we arrived in Ely we stopped
for dinner at a Denny’s restaurant on the downtown drag. Casinos are
everywhere! I’ve never been a big fan of this restaurant chain, mostly because
the service has been terrible most everywhere I’ve stopped, but we were hungry
and we didn’t know any of the local eateries. Much to my delight, the service at
this Denny’s was superb, and the food was excellent.
We finally rolled into Tony and Edna’s
about 11:30 that night. I did all the driving so I was pretty much done in. I
was up early, made some strong coffee and did some reading. Isaura and Alyssa
didn’t show themselves till about mid-morning. We relaxed most of the day which
we sorely needed. But Alyssa was anxious to have a tour of the dairy, so off we
went. Crossroads Dairy runs more than two thousand cows which requires three
eight-hour shifts for milking. It is quite a process with cows shuffling in and
out of the milking barn. In one hour, a four-person crew is expected to milk
260 cows. If they move more than that through then they get a bonus. Tony has
forty employees working somewhere on their spread every day.
Seeing the enormous undertaking
required to bring milk and other dairy products to a store near you always
leaves me deeply impressed by the efficiency of the entire system. However, I
really enjoyed watching Alyssa marvel at the production required so she could
have milk on her cereal. Computers control everything, including the amount of
milk each cow produces in a day, along with the quantity of grain they eat and
what kind, and very soon each cow will have a necklace of sorts that is
computerized and will be able to record everything going on in the cow. If the
cow starts to get sick, the device will signal the computer, and then that cow
is pulled out of production and sent to their animal hospital for treatment.
And the hospital is right here on the dairy.
Alyssa’s favorite part is feeding
the calves. At any one time, they have 500 or more calves (heifers) in
individual shelters where they receive personalized attention until they’re old
enough to be released into the herd. I’ve been around these dairy farms and all
that goes on since I was first introduced to Isaura’s family in 1975. But as I
mentioned earlier, I am always in awe of the strenuous and diligent work that
is necessary in the care and feeding of the cows. Alyssa was thrilled to hold
big milk bottles for the two-day-old calves to drink from.
Usually when Isaura and I are here
in Delta, I’m invited to preach to the small independent evangelical
congregation known as The Way, which meet in a store front. And so it was this
weekend. What a wonderful time of fellowship we had!
Tomorrow morning I’m meeting Dan, one
of the dairymen, at the Sunset View Golf Course for a round before it gets too
warm.
On Tuesday, we leave for Las Vegas
where I’ll meet up with the others from VoCal so we can get a few more
rehearsal sessions in before our Friday competition. Then it’s back home to
Ripon.
This evening Alyssa was asked if she’d
like to live here in Delta, Utah. Her immediate answer was, YES! She loves
animals and has expressed an interest for some time in being a veterinarian. I
guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Happy 241st Birthday,
America!
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