Fionn, You've made my day, and the Antrim Coast Road goes into the itinerary, together with the Giant's Causeway. I now thank God for computers, as they allow me to insert and edit my itinerary.

Last night, at a jam we hold in a local train station, I passed around a brochure from the Ulster Appalachian-Bluegrass Festival in Omagh, from two years ago, and we all sat around grinning like great apes. I've been given another mission from the group to gather information about the Ulster Festival this year, (even if it's not going on while I'm there). Two years ago, it was held August 31 – Sept 2, which means that it might be possible for the rest of my group to come again next year, catch the Fleadh Cheoil wherever it's held, and then trek north for the Ulster Festival. We would be learning things at the Fleadh, but right at home for the Festival, as that is our music. And if this idea catches on, you could begin to regard Americans like rats with banjos.

And make no mistake, were it not for some folks failing to believe in this year's trip, our group would be larger. (There is the sound of anguished crying in the land, "We coulda been in Ireland").

As for being blown away in Alaska, I was kidding Dave the Gnome that once on a flight to "Gnome," we wheeled in across Norton Sound, and landed in a cross wind so heavy the pilot told us the strip was using a log for a wind sock.

And I hope you got as far up California One as Bolinas, just north of Stinson Beach, where the road comes down through Muir Woods. I spent many happy summers there, during the polio scares of the 50's. I look forward with much anticipation to the drive along the northern coast.

Brawn/Robin A: I repeat Fionn's question; Which village?

My town, Shepherdstown, WV is built around a college, has a population of approximately 1,200 people, and is located some 70 miles up the Potomac River from Washington DC, just up from the confluence of the Potomac and Shennandoah Rivers at Harpers Ferry. We have been gathering at a Thursday night jam for some twenty years at a old general store called O'Hurleys, with a large music room (exposed beam and clinch-nailed random oak floor, with a two-story fireplace from floor to ceiling) attached. We call it the "Great Hall," and there have been three marriages and two funerals conducted there, and several local musical celebrities such as Brian Bowers, Sam Rizzeta, and Maddy O'Neil have held concerts there.

We have solved our version of the Irish Question, by permanently displaying the Irish Republic Flag across from the Northern Irish Flag, with them separated by the Irish Brigade Flag ("Erin Go Bragh"), first flown during the Civil War battle of Antietim, (which was located just across the river). Tommy Sands song, "There were Roses" is a local favorite, and during the Syrian-Israeli peace talks held last year in town, we had both Jewish and Arabic musicians playing at our jam.

I'm not sure what you're proposing, but our Morris Dancers are "twined" with a group in England, and our Border Morris with a group in Wales. As the local saying goes "Get particular, and we'll talk".