Behind the NinthWheel

Gaither Homecoming Concert

The Gaither Homecoming Concert at Hershey's Giant Center (photo above) last night was fantastic. So much good music ... and my favorite group, Signature Sound, was there even though they weren't on the playbill! So I was thrilled. The Center was sold out for the concert; almost 100 buses were there, including two from Hagey's. Other favorites of mine during the evening were the Isaacs (what amazing musicians they are -- I don't care for bluegrass music, but they are so good, I really enjoy their music), and, of course, the Gaither Vocal Band. There's also a new pianist replacing Anthony Burger who died last year -- Gordon Mote -- he's blind, and an amazingly talented and versatile pianist. I was so impressed I bought one of his CDs, as well as the latest Gaither Vocal Band CD, "Give It Away" (they weren't giving it away, however LOL).

The Isaacs did a version of "It Is Well with My Soul" that was absolutely awesome -- raised the roof on the Giant Center, and brought tears to your eyes. I found out from some of my passengers that they were selling a CD of just that song at their stand there, but I missed it. I just checked iTunes but there's only one of their CDs there, and it doesn't include this song. Hopefully it will be available there eventually.

I drove our "new" old Coach 54 for the trip last night to the Gaither concert. It was its inaugural trip since being fully refurbished. It got a new interior a couple of months ago, and a new exterior (paint and graphics) just finished this week. The new graphics match the style of our newest MCI J4500 coaches. It's the first of the older coaches to be refurbished on the outside; eventually all our older D-model coaches will look like this. Fortunately I didn't put the first scratch on it -- it's still in perfect shape. The photos show the old and new style of graphics -- Coach 58 (first photo) is the old style, and Coach 54 is the new one I drove last night. It also happens to be our oldest coach -- 11 years old, although it looks brand new inside and out since the refurbishing (and except for being slightly underpowered, still drives like the new ones). It has close to a million miles on it. (Click photos to see larger versions.)

posted by Bob @ 12:46 PM