Wow!! Music on the road! Great story, Sourdough, and beautifully written. I really got into it. And Maggie, I'm very familiar with Sheherazade, and as I was reading your description I could hear it playing in my head. That was a magical moment right there! Thank you!

(A thread-drifty aside:-- The story is told of a world-famous conductor [Toscanini, I think] who was great with classical, but not all that comfortable conducting modern music. On this occasion, a music student dropped in on a rehearsal to take advantage of an opportunity to hear the Great Master in action. They were rehearsing a modern piece, and both the orchestra and the conductor were having difficulty with a section in 5/4 time. After several false starts, suddenly both the conductor and the orchestra got it together and the piece went smoothly. The music student noticed that the conductor was muttering to himself, so he snuck up behind him to see if he could hear what he was saying. When he got close enough, he heard the great man muttering "Rim-sky-Kor-sa-kov, Rim-sky-Kor-sa-kov. . . ." Yup. Five beats.)

Don Firth