Thurs. July 21, 9 am
Since last Saturday, Lui Collins, her daughter Maggie, my son Sather, my dog Side and I have packed into Lui's Subaru and have been driving through New York State, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Our first show was for the Endicott Performing Arts Center, near Binghamton, NY; a vaudeville and movie theatre built in 1917. Then it was on to State College in central Pennsylvania to play outdoors for the Festival of the Arts. With Monday at our leisure we drove through PA via Harrisburg where we took brief stop to look at the Rockville Bridge and Miss Liberty on the Susquehanna. Tuesday saw us playing in front of the Capitol Building in Washington DC, then Wednesday was simply spent driving up to Northern Maryland to place us within an easy commute to our show this evening at Longwood Gardens in Kennet Square in southern Pennsylvania.

At this moment we're all waking up with a house to ourselves on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The kids are sleeping late upstairs, Lui is practicing banjo in the other room, I'm in the kitchen typing, and our hosts have gone off to work. In many ways, this tour has been idyllic. It is summertime touring at it's best. Smooth traveling, and nice venues with good sound and good pay. The houses that we've stayed at have all been unique in their own way. Our hosts have prepared us nice meals, and made us feel welcome. It seems that having itinerant musicians over for the night who are willing to sing for their supper, with children who are delightful and on their best behavior brings out the best in everyone.

We've taken walks on unfamiliar roads: gravel covered county roads in Louden County Virginia where slave-built stone walls border the road and raspberries grow mingled with poison ivy; or over fields where  Civil War soldiers once camped, and picking blackberries along the narrow old wagon paths. Other nights I've walked Side up some lamp-lit residential streets in the dark, wet, cool, and quiet that it's been recently before putting him in the car or someone's garage to bed.

Fri. July 21, 9.30am
Longwood Gardens was amazing yesterday: the walks on the grounds, the rarified air, exotic trees and flowers, the fountains and a beautiful not-humid day. The concert itself was first rate in every way: a generous audience, great sound, and beautiful surroundings in front of the conservatory. Then afterwards a spectacular water-light show from the dozens of fountains. Lasting a half an hour and done to the music of  Tchaikovsky it was something of a cross between a ballet and a fireworks show.

Wed. July 25
The tour wound down with a show each in Virginia Beach and Newport News for the Tidewater Friends of Folk. We celebrated Sather's ninth birthday with buying a new boogie board and a swim on Virginia Beach with the throngs of tourists. It was actually a lot of fun body surfing the small waves until the lifeguards blew their whistles for everyone to evacuate the water because of an approaching thunderstorm.

We drove the 12 hour return trip from Virginia Beach to Massachusetts in one day up route 13 across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and on up the Chesapeake Peninsula through Eastern Maryland and Delaware. Doing so we realized we had circumnavigated the entire Chesapeake and Susquehanna watershed. We began near the headwaters of the Susquehanna near Binghamton, NY and come down the river through Harrisburg. We had slept in Abingdon near the mouth of the Susquehanna at the top of the Chesapeake and few days later crossed the mouth of the Chesapeake where it meets the Atlantic Ocean: one big circle.

I often seem to write something before I actually experience it. Here are the lyrics for the song I wrote in early May about the Susquehanna. I didn't comprehend when I wrote it that I'd be following the very same path the song illustrates. I should know better by now. :)

Enjoy! As always, write me with your comments and observations in the guestbook. Have a great summer everyone!
Dana

Susquehanna
Running like a hilltown girl
Rolling down into the world
Over creek beds and cobblestones
Moving easy, then you're gone

Susquehanna honey babe
Through the woods your path I trace
Lines of laughter on your face
Crows feet on your muddy banks

Meet me down in Marysville
Where Miss Liberty is standing still
Bless the floodplain, and the Rockville Bridge
And the coal cars on the edge

Susquehanna sugar babe
With you I would go all the way
All the way to the Chesapeake
Before you wander out to sea

Copyright Threshold Music
May 2000 Harrisburg, PA & Kerrville, TX