Having been refreshed by a rest day which included hiking and exploring on the Oregon coast, we boarded the bus for a scenic drive to Zillah, WA. Crossing the Cascade Mountains, we traveled along the Columbia River Gorge, glimpsing Mount Saint Helens, Multnomah Falls, the Bonneville Dam, Mount Hood, Stewart, Ranier, and Adams. We passed through the Yakama Nation, before a short lunch stop.
The scenery on this tour has been an unexpected delight. Bus time is punctuated by frantic searches for peaks, Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep, and timing in that one measure of Crucifixus.
Oasis Chorale members are also readers! A brief sampling of authors being read on this year’s tour bus (listed alphabetically):
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Frederick Backman
- David Bayles & Ted Orland
- Wendell Berry
- Kate Bowler
- Daniel James Brown
- Sarah Clarkson
- John Coblentz
- Matthew Crawford
- Steve Cuss
- Charles Dickens
- Sean Dietrich
- James Percival Everett
- Audrey Frank
- Makoto Fujimura
- Neil Gaiman
- Elizabeth Goudge
- David Greene
- Jonathan Haidt
- John Hendrix
- Anna Lembke
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- Lucy Maude Montgomery
- Beth Moore
- Alex Pang
- Chaim Potok
- Russ Ramsey
- Terrance Real
- Nina Riggs
- Marilyn Robinson
- Richard Rohr
- Leonard Sax
- Stephen Sizer
- James K.A. Smith
- Tyler Staton
- D.E. Stevenson
- Paul Tournier
- Gene Veith
- Derek Walcott
- Tish Harrison Warren
- Lis Wiehl
- Jen Wilken
- Connie Willis
Authors and books like these punctuate Oasis Chorale bus conversations about music, culture, politics, and the church. (And for our three tour babies, we have Where’s the Duck?, and Dog Breath.)
We received a warm welcome from two German Baptist communities in Washington: the Zillah community and and the Cascade Valley congregation. At 104 degrees, it was our warmest stop!
Darren Sensenig, tour manager, has done an amazing job of scheduling our tour to allow plenty of rehearsal time in each venue. We enjoyed another wonderful concert with new friends, and then drove an hour north to our hosts in Ellensburg.
Esther Swartzentruber
Alto 1
