Hi folks, it's a couple weeks later and I finally have a moment in the wee hours to tell you that we survived the long drive to Delaware! We didn't even get lost, and arrived at the hall in Arden just about at 1pm, an hour before the dance. The dance went well, with many familiar faces in the dance lines. Our experience was almost marred by having nowhere to lay our heads that night. There'd been a change in leadership among the dance organizers, and finding us a host had fallen through the cracks…

Friday we drove back over the highest point on Rte 81 to play the Charlottesville dance. That's such a beautiful drive, even with clouds and rain a lot of the way. Bill's old 4-Runner is going strong - with over 260,000 miles on it with the original motor we think he should be in one of those Toyota commercials. It's a little slow up the hills, but we're not complaining. When I first walked into the hall at the MAC center, I wasn't impressed. It seemed a little small, no windows, all hard surfaces. I was…

We headed back to Asheville to play the Old Farmer's Ball at Warren Wilson College. The weather has finally changed and it's cooler and a little rainy - that's a relief for us Mainers. The dance is held in Bryson Gym, which is the only hall I've been in that has a rock-climbing wall at the far end! That and the quilts hung everywhere to absorb sound make it quite colorful. This time we had the rare treat of having Bill just play guitar, and not call. He's amazingly good at calling and playing at the same…

During the day Wednesday we slept(!) and prepared for our house concert in the evening in Durham. The heat wave is continuing with temps in the 90s every day. We're still trying to acclimate to it. Jim went for a walk in the near-by Bog Garden, and saw lots of baby ducklings and goslings, big turtles, and a water moccasin that had just eaten – we hope NOT one of the baby birds. The house concert was a hoot! This was the third one we've done at the home of Paul Fackler and Marilyn Hartman. The room was…

The repairman at Acoustic Corner was very helpful, spent quite a bit of time tinkering with my dulcimer to see what the problem was. It was not a loose brace, which is what I was worried about, just the shell of the pick-up plug had come loose inside the dulcimer. Not serious, but a little bit of a hassle to fix. He wouldn't charge me for it, so I gave him a copy of my “Trestle Bridge” CD as a thank you, and we continued on our way. Next stop was at the Song of the Wood music store. Jerry Read Smith, owner…

Off to Asheville for the Grey Eagle Tavern and Music Hall! It's about a 7 hour drive, with breaks for us and Sadie to play “stick”. Somehow we arrived in North Carlina just in time for a heat wave. It was hot and humid in Asheville, not quite what we expected at the end of April. The Grey Eagle is quite a contrast to the elegant “Art Deco” of the Spanish Ballroom. It's a very cool, very funky restaurant/bar run by two “twin cousins” from Louisiana. Their “gumbolyah” is to die for! They crammed about 100…

We lingered at Bridgette and Don's as long as we possibly could, ate way too much at brunch, then headed back to Glen Echo for the Sunday night dance. This is a more experienced dance crowd than Friday's dance, and about half as large. No problem, though – they more than made up for it with their enthusiasm and style! Dave Shewmaker was there providing a rhythmic counterpoint to the band all night as he flat-footed his way through the dances, and we were happy to see many folks who had been at the Friday…

Before playing the Frederick, MD dance, we visited the National Arboretum. WOW! The azaleas were in full bloom. 15,000 azalea bushes on one hillside, all different shades of red, fuchsia, salmon, orange, yellow, and white and various combinations. I don't know how many different cultivars there were among them. We only had time to explore the azalea gardens, the perennials, and a little of the herb gardens before we had to head on our way. After a couple of days of feeling out of our element on the roads…

We left home last Thursday, and drove to Chester, NY to stay overnight with our friends, Mike and Barb Gilman. They are long-time dancers, former dance organizers, gardeners and all-around good folks. The morning was a little drizzly, but we took a brief tour of the farm anyway, said hello to the horses, admired the new deer fence around the garden – for our Maine friends, their asparagus is starting to come up! And Sadie, my border collie, of course jumped in the pond shortly before we needed to leave…

I just discovered there's a video of one of my bands, T-Acadie, doing one of the things nearest and dearest to our hearts - giving folks their first experience of community contradancing with a fun Quebecois dance called "Une, Deux, Trois, Pousse!" The location is a lovely little studio at the Rock Gardens Inn, Sebasco, Maine, where we do community contradancing several times in the summer. Check it out!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzyF0l4RIAA