Long-time festival directors Flossie and Ken Coulter are enjoying the second year of their retirement as year-round residents of Lake Havasu City, Arizona. They are looking forward to only their second summer vacation in 28 years when they will hit the road in mid-June for a 10-week tour of the Western United States in their motor home.
"Running the Mammoth Lakes Jazz Jubilee for 26 years, we never were able to get away during the summer," Ken stated. They have joined a local RV club that takes short monthly trips (under 100 miles), and they did a tour of Yellowstone Park in 2015. They've also joined the Lake Havasu Yacht Club and spend time on their boat cruising Lake Havasu and the Colorado River.
What Flossie and Ken and their jazzy cohorts accomplished over 26 years is truly amazing. Mammoth Lakes is a high-end resort community at an altitude of 7,880 feet in California's Eastern Sierra Mountains. The town has a permanent population of 8,073 hardy souls who contend with an average of 206 inches of snow in the winter. Visitors are warned to be aware of deer straying onto the highway, especially at night. Yosemite National Park is a two-hour drive, and the nearest metropolitan city is Reno, Nevada, 164 miles to the north.
What was unique about the fest
