Hello All

I made it home in good shape. The reason this reply is so slow is I ended up in the VA hospital with a batch of Kidney Stones. I'm still a slow mover but feeling much better today.

My trip to DC was much more than I expected. The Chantey Sing was a blast! Not knowing anyone in the room made me wonder if any Catter's were there until carolC walked in. I recognized her immediately and once the connection was made we had a riotous good time! Wotcha took a few pics of several of us and I met about 15 or so catters there. I've only heard Dave The Ancient Mariner do a couple of Chantey's on PalTalk so had never heard the full import of how they sounded with a full chorus of people singing them. Pretty darn cool.

We sang, well I listened mostly, until about 11 and then BillD and Ferrara had us over to their home. How gracious! We played music until 3:30 AM! And don't let CarolC ever tell you that she doesn't know how to play that sqeezebox - she is very good! Ferrara let me play her Gurien and I fell in love with it. I wish I was a rich man as I'd have brought it home with me. I did offer her $80 for it but she thought the trip would be too hard on it and opted to not sell. I'd have given her $100 but didn't have enough cash to cover that amount.

Then it was back to work the next day. Saturday after I finished up it was onto the Metro for a trip back to Wheaton to link up with BillD and over to their house. From there we went to the concert. WOW!! That was just superb! I now have an autographed copy of the Irish in america CD and certainly recomend it highly! Listened to it a couple of times on the way home.

I can only say Thanks a hundred times over to BillD and Ferrara. Wizened souls that opened their hearts and home to me for a brief moment in time. Thanks to the Folkies that made me welcome in the various environments I passed through on my way. My musical background is quite enriched by the meetings, greetings, songs, and good cheer. And I've a million stories to tell to my friends here about my many adventures in the wild and wooley East!

And as to the Metro "entertainment" questions. I had been told many times over that the Metro is clean, safe, and inexpensive. I wasn't on it more than two minutes when a fight broke out in front of me! After some brave hearted citizens got that one broke up another started right behind it. So we spent quite a bit of time getting the rioters off the Metro so we could continue on our journey. Took me a bit to get my courage screwed up again to get back on but BillD assured me that in all of his years he had never even heard of such a thing happening. So it obviously was "Staged" just for me! But the blood looked so real!

Well I must sign off for now. I'm really tired and sore - my Mom says I had triplets - and I feel like it. Thanks again folks - and I know I have left someone out - but know that your faces and songs are in my heart.

Steve