June 10, 2001, 12:15 PM
USAir Flight 499
Atlanta - Pittsburgh
It's good to be in an airplane again, where I don't
have to drive. It's been a rough month for Dan the Tan Van. At
the end of April I was in Florida doing shows and got backed
into by an eighteen-wheeler at an offramp. Then a few days ago
in Austin I did my own backing - into a pole at a car wash. In
both cases the damage was mostly cosmetic, though the latter
adventure buckled the bumper up so I couldn't open the back to
get to my gear.
On Friday I stopped at a body shop in a small town
in Alabama where a burly guy with a sledgehammer and a two-by-four
kindly knocked the bumper back down - no charge. He's still running
well, though, and the trucker's insurance came through to fix
the front, so I can't complain much. Dan turned over 112,000
miles on Friday as I passed the exit for Chunky, Alabama - no
kidding. And that was just a few miles after I saw the most interesting
road kill of the trip - a four and a half foot alligator. I turned
around and drove back one exit to make sure I wasn't fooling
myself. Sure enough.
I'm just coming home from some shows in Texas and
ten days at the Kerrville Folk Festival (which runs for eighteen
days). It's my annual vacation and pilgrimage, where I strip
off the emotional crust I've accumulated over the year and molt
like a lobster. I often burn like a lobster, too, but managed
to pace myself this year. I watched the sun come up a couple
of times after having played music with friends all night.
On my last morning there I was awakened by a tapping
on the window. There was a female robin sitting on my rear view
mirror, occasionally trying to come inside, thwarted by the half-open
window. I watched her for a while, about three feet from my head,
and after a moment a male robin came down, brought her a little
green grub and fed it to her. Pretty Disney, huh? It's what happened,
though. Nice way to start the day. I got this picture of her,
but didn't manage to catch the love scene.
I drove across the southeast on Thursday and Friday
to get to a family reunion in Atlanta, which was great fun, got
up early Saturday morning to do a Pennsylvania radio interview
by phone then caught a plane this morning to run up there for
a show tonight. I'll fly back to Atlanta tomorrow and get Dan
and go home to my basil and the summer tourist traffic in Black
Mountain. As much as I love traveling, there's nothing like going
home...
6/11 2:42pm USAir flight 1832, Pittsburgh-Atlanta
...and now I am. I raced all morning to get to the
plane on time. Memo to self: don't calculate what time you have
to leave right before you go to sleep. Barely made it, after
dropping off the rental only half-full of gas. Ouch. Gotta love
those $60 tanks of gas. Oh well. I made the plane with seconds
to spare, and now I'm headed back to Atlanta to pick up Dan and
drive home. I guess it's not too hard to understand why Kathy
and I often have conversations that include such questions as
"How far is Thursday from Chicago?"
I did the Riverside House Concert in Emlenton, PA
last night. It's held at a bed & breakfast overlooking the
Allegheny River. The house is 116 years old, and it was a delightful
place to have a concert, not to mention sleep for the night.
I'll be home all week, then heading back to Cary,
NC for another show at the Six
String Cafe, which we'll be recording for the live album
I'm working on. This will be the fifth of twelve shows slated
for recording. Of course it will depend on what we get good recordings
of, but right now I'm planning to make it about half unrecorded
songs and half previously recorded. Please let
me know if there's something you'd like to hear on there.
The end of this month will hold one marginally musical
adventure (I started to say non-musical, but...). The mockumentary
movie I made with film-maker friends Joe Lunne and Paul Dowler
last year, Unknown the Great: The
Life and Times of Buddy Schmcghee, is being featured at the
Dahlonega International Film Festival
in north Georgia at the end of the month. It got great screening
times - 8:30PM on Thursday night and Saturday night - and they're
hosting us for the weekend, so Paul is coming in from California,
and Joe from Wyoming. All of us will be in character all weekend,
and I imagine they'll get me in all kinds of trouble. Should
be lots of fun, though.
One last bit of cool news - this week we welcomed
Megan Livengood to the Lower Dryad Music staff. I've known Megan
for several years, and I'm thrilled to have her working with
Kathy and me for the summer. We'll lose her in the Fall when
she goes back to college, but we're sure grateful for these days.
Coming home from this particular trip sort of marks
the end of my heavy touring season for the year. I'll mostly
be in the Southeast through the summer, then it starts again.
It's a strange time to celebrate New Year's Eve, I suppose, but
that's kind of how it feels. An appropriate time, at least for
me, to stop and be grateful, and it's a mighty long list of blessings.
Among them is the fact that there are folks like you who are
interested enough to read this. Thanks for that. I'll look forward
to our paths crossing again.
Peace,
David
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