Dear Mudcatters,

I am counting down the days until we sail, which will be next Saturday!!! Our first port is two days from Tampa: Grand Cayman (below Cuba), where there is a bank on every corner. I am taking the snorkel, mask, and fins I use in the Flori-DUH springs so I can look at fish and rocks and coral under the deep blue sea!

I hope I get to play and sing with Eileen Koslof, to harmonize with Karen Mueller, and to play Carter tunes and bluegrass and gospel with the Hollingsworth's from Virginia. Our stateroom has a window to the sea! I'm sending myself and my roomy from Kalamazoo, a basket of wine and cheese and nuts and fruit; (I'm taking the Mudcatters I know and love in spirit!!)

My bags are packed and I am taking four autoharps and a banjo. The fourth autoharp is down in Tampa waiting for me to adopt it. It is a diatonic C which was Gove Scrivenor's at one time. Mark Fackeldy has rebuilt it for me.

Our second port is Cozumel. I expect to roam around the Playa del Sol, buy a silver bracelet, and a silk screen tee-shirt with the Sun on it, and then go to the music store a few blocks east of the plaza to play with the owner, if he isn't teaching lessons on the classical guitar.

On board ship we will hang on the boat and play lots of music. With sixty plus in the MLAG group (Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering) music will be ubiquitous!   

Nathan will be staying in the homestead. He is having a Super Bowl party tomorrow so I hope he will be partied out when I leave next Saturday! Otherwise I may not have a house to come home to!!!!

Wish me a Bon Voyage and if you want something from the Grand Caymans...



GET IT YOURSELF!!!!!!



love, harpgirl