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This Ross Finbow-organized tour picked up where the 7-towers festival left off. The tour started and ended in Dallas, logging over 1,000 miles to ring in the three towers in Houston as well as the towers in Shreveport, Texarkana, and Little Rock. The band of 8 hailed from all over – Robert Kakuk (Kalamazoo MI), David Hawkins and Michael Hinton (Toronto, Canada), John Owen (Winston-Salem, NC), Beth Sinclair (Washington DC), Chris Bostock (Leeds, England), Ted Clark (Birmingham, AL), and Ross Finbow (Pittsburgh, PA).
Here are some highlights from the tour:
Successful peals in Dallas (mixed minor), Houston St. Thomas (Cambridge), Shreveport (PB Major), and Little Rock (Kent).
Supporting local practices in Dallas, Houston (both at St. Paul’s and Palmer), and Shreveport.
Dinner at the Arnold’s (co-pastors of Texarkana First Presbyterian Church), hosted by the Remica Gray and the rest of the Texarkana ringers.
The enthusiastic blossoming band of ringers in Shreveport, including a fruit plate and other snacks for after the peal. (Side note: Ross has promised to make similar refreshments available for all future peal attempts he organizes.)
Allen Nunley on the phone with the police during the peal attempt at Palmer, presumably working to prevent them from storming the ramparts.
Porter Brownlee’s tour of the renovated Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock, accompanied by Dick Dearnley’s ringing dog.
A half-muffled peal of Cambridge rung despite the unexpected (and puzzling) sound of the school’s bagpipe band.
The hipster lunch at the Root Café in Little Rock.
The beautiful scenery during the drives (if you believe this, you obviously have not driven from Houston to Dallas). Although this is a lovely area, it does not, as they say, show well from the interstate.
The prom kids in their finery at the Texarkana TX Olive Garden.
The tour was all in all a rousing success and there are some important thank yous that we want to extend. First, thank you Ross for organizing the shindig in the first place. It is no mean feat to put something like this together and this tour went off very smoothly due in no small part to your efforts. THANKS. We would also like to thank all of the ringers and tower families who welcomed us into their towers and in some cases their homes. One thing that is very special about ringing is the built in sense of community and we lived that each day of the tour. Finally we would like to send particular thanks to some members of our group who played particularly important roles in our success. Rob and Chris served as our conductors in residence for all of our peals and quarters and Rob, Chris, and Ted did all of the driving.
