What a Long Strange Trip it Was

We're back in Maryland. We left Pismo Beach at 4:00 AM PDT, having been advised by United that the TSA line for the leg from San Luis Obispo to San Francisco is often backed up and cause people to miss their flight. We got there at 4:15, parked the rental car, had to wait out side in the dark, cool misty morning until they opened the terminal at 4:32, sharp. We were first through the United terminal to check bags, and second through the 5 person TSA check station, where were were all but waved through, thanks to TSA precheck which we had both directions this year. I didn't even set off the metal detector with my RFID wallet (my birthday present), since I remembered it this time, and my belt, which I forgot. So we got to sit around in the cleared area for about an hour until it was time for the flight. As promised, the TSA line was crazy in the few minutes leading up to the flight.

We got of the ground in San Luis and landed in San Fran on time, despite to low cloud ceiling at both airports, and had lunch and a stop in the United lounge during the wait for our leg to Chicago. The flight to Chicago was uneventful, boring even, especially because United's inflight internet failed to operate as promised, but we landed on time or better, grabbed another bite to eat in Chicago, and dutifully found the next gate.

And this is where it started to get strange. The plane was supposed to leave Chi town around 7 Central and land in Balmer round 9 PM Eastern, not too bad. However, once on the plane (a 737 much the same as the one from San Fran) it started to fall apart. A long time after the plane should have pulled away from the gate, the Captain came on to announce that the plane had too much fuel, and that trucks were supposed to be coming to take the extra fuel off. How can you have too much fuel? Does it make it too heavy to land? Anyway, about the same time, the air conditioning was off, and they announced that a technician was on his way to deal with that. It took about 2 extra hours for the fuel to be off loaded, and the AC fixed, and the plane finally pulled away from the gate.

But wait, there's more. We got out to the taxi way, and sat a while, and eventually, the Captain came back on and announced that a motor that was supposed to shut off after the plane left the airway did not, which was a definite no go, and they would have to go back to the gate to check it out.

We sat back at the gate awhile, and the Captain came back on and pronounced that they had decided the plane had "too many gremlins" (just what you want to hear), and that they would move us and our luggage to a new plane just coming in in around 15 minutes, and gave us the gate # and let us off the plane. Georgia and I were near the back of the plane and among the last to get off, and by the time we had finished our potty stops, we met most of the passengers from our plane tromping (perhaps stomping is a better word) back to the gate with the gremlin ridden plane, which had been fixed, and pronounced fit to fly.

So back to the original gremlin ridden plane we went, and we waited around a little longer while they found a new crew (a change of crew was required due to flying time). Eventually, a new crew was shanghaied to fly and crew the plane, and we made the one hour and 28 minute flight from O'Hare to BWI, at 12:30 PAMish. As usual, BWI baggage handling took nearly forever, and Georgia called the hotel shuttle immediately upon sighting the second bag, and they missed us on the first go around of the airport somehow, and took over 30 minutes to be picked up. We only got lost getting out of Baltimore once, and then not more than by half a mile. We made it home around 3 AM EDT, to find everything more or less intact, and went to bed without any unpacking.

We just go back from picking up Skye, who's sleeping off her visit to Lori's house on the cool new family room floor.

SLO Lunch

We (Georgia, I, Mary and John) were assigned to deal with dinner today, so we decided to go into San Luis Obispo (SLO) have lunch and go to Costco for materials to make hamburgers to grill at the Sea Crest. We stopped in the old, main part of town, rounded the San Luis Obispo Mission. . .







. . . and started to walk down the path beside San Luis Obispo Creek looking for a restaurant that backed on to the creek for an outside lunch.

On a whim, I stopped us at Novo, in the shade of a giant California Live Oak, with a table overlooking the creek. Say, can you tell they are sisters? It was uncommonly cool for SLO in summer, only 85 or so, but with delightfully low humidity (unlike home), and a helpful breeze.

 I ordered the grilled albacore tuna on ciabatta,

 John got the pork belly on french roll

 Mary, the lettuce rolls (do it yourself on the rolling),

 And Georgia had the nachos.

We all decided our own food was great, and that we would like another crack at the menu. Maybe next year, God willing and the creeks don't rise.

It didn't take long in the Cosco, and nearby Target to get everything we needed for tonights dinner for the 21 family members.

Guitar Factory Touring

 Ted, Monica, Alex and I headed off this morning to visit a couple of well known guitar manufacturers that happen to be located in San Luis Obispo. The first stop was National Guitars, where Monica has a friend.  National is best known for their reso-phonic guitars, with resonating metal cones in them to amplify their sound. National is housed in an unprepossessing looking warehouse building on the outskirts of town, but inside. . .

The entry room, with some prototype electric reso-phonic guitars.

One of the workers was delegated to give us the tour, and we saw the building process from the block of wood (or in some cases, steel) to finished guitar. Much of the work is done by computer controlled machinery, which cuts the parts to shape.

But still much of the work is done by hand. Here a guitar body is bent into shape using a jig, glue, and strips of wood.

In other areas, the pieces are assembled, sanded, stained and glued together.

Some of the resonater guitars have metal bodies.

A gorgeous hand engraved brass body ready for the neck.

At the end of the tour, they invited us to try some of the guitars in the entry room, and Alex took them up on it:



After a bit of lunch, we set off for the Ernie Ball/Musicman factory, after Alex made contact with them (he sells Ernie Ball strings at his store). A much larger, and different type of operation, the factory we saw

 The businessman behind it, Ernie Ball

Ernie Ball (born Roland Sherwood Ball; August 30, 1930 – September 9, 2004)[1] was an American entrepreneur, musician, and innovator, widely acclaimed as a revolutionary in the development of guitar-related products. He began as a club and local television musician and small business entrepreneur, building an international business in guitars and accessories that would eventually gross US$40 million a year.
. . .
While still in his early teens, Ball began playing professionally in South Central Los Angeles beer bars. By age 19 he joined the Tommy Duncan Band playing pedal steel guitar. Duncan, the former lead singer with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, took the band on tour through the Southwestern United States. During the Korean War, he did a tour of duty in the United States Air Force Band, playing guitar and bass drum. After the military he returned to Los Angeles and continued playing in barrooms and lounges, until landing a job on the 1950s "Western Varieties" program at KTLA television.The position soon gained him wider recognition in the Los Angeles music scene and led to studio work and teaching jobs.

A very different factory, they wouldn't let me take pictures in the work space, but it was much different than National. The strings, with which Ernie started the business are made in another facotry elsewhere, but here they make the electronics for the Music Man guitar and bass lines. All guitars and basses are mad to order, in effect, sold before they are created.

With the guitar-based rock revival of the 1960s, Ball noticed that beginning students were having difficulty playing the bestselling Fender #100 medium gauge strings, particularly in holding down or bending the stiff 29-gauge third ("G") string. At the time, it was common for a set of strings to have a "wound" third string. He approached the Fender company with the problem, suggesting a lighter gauge but was rebuffed. Ball convinced a string manufacturer to make him custom sets with a 24-gauge third string which he sold in his store. It was the beginning of the Ernie Ball brand. Located not far from Hollywood, the store began to attract a large patronage of professional musicians, including The Beach Boys, Merle Travis, and The Ventures.

 From little things big businesses spring.

Ball also began to notice the practice of "slack stringing" among players who discarded the bottom sixth string and added a banjo first string on top. This resulted in an overall lighter gauge set with a plain third string. Again, he contacted Fender with a suggestion for a lighter set and was turned down. He then approached Gibson, who also turned him down. So, once again he ordered from the manufacturer naming the product the Ernie Ball Slinky. "Slinky" strings traveled the country with the pro musicians who used them and before long, Ball was receiving mail orders from individuals and stores.[12] Still not a string company, he ordered separate strings in various sizes and displayed them in a makeshift case allowing musicians to experiment in creating their own sets. It took off, and in 1967 he sold the store and moved his string business to Newport Beach, California.

Alex talked to the sales manager a while, and swapped some contacts.