Down the Road - Roll On!!

Hello friends... I never cease to be amazed by how many of you, in so many places around this old world, read my blog! Makes me want to keep writing. Thanks for your continued interest! Life for me continues to be very good indeed. Today I'm writing at a coffeehouse in the Five Points area of Jacksonville, Florida, where I will play tonight on the patio of the Derby House Cafe. That show and one at the Five Points Coffee and Spice coffeehouse tomorrow evening will be the final shows of this loooong tour. Tomorrow, Sunday, I will drive from Jacksonville to my home under big trees on a quiet street in Largo, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico. It will be good to be home... oh, but I surely do enjoy the endless road! Beginning at the end of January I fared away from Largo, across the United States as far as Phoenix, Arizona---travelling out on a southern route and returning in a more northerly route (but of course NOT northerly enough to encounter the terrible winter). In previous entries here I've chronicled travels west through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana; all along the South Texas "Texas Riviera" circuit; on to Austin, Texas; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and to several locations in Arizona; to Phoenix. The centerpiece of my visit to Phoenix this time was the Glendale (Phoenix) Folk Festival, organized by my friend Lon Austin of Phoenix. It was a fun festival. I enjoyed performing, jamming, listening, and visiting with many old and new friends---most of them fellow musicians. I've played the festival before, in other years, and I look forward to playing it again next year. Major fun. There was a down side. In common with most festivals in the United States, the Phoenix festival had no food fit for human consumption available for sale. There was typical American grossly unhealthful and unattractive greasy, sugar-loaded crap on offer, of course, but nothing I'd want to eat. Seems sad to me that a festival celebrating American roots music would have only the food available that has led us to our current epidemic of obesity and the galaxy of ills attributable to poor nutrition and tragically bad eating habits. Yeeeechhhh.... This not only turned my stomach---it led directly to a traffic accident. I had to leave the festival grounds in search of a grocery where I could buy some food I could eat. Another serious problem in Phoenix is a combination of terrible traffic---everyone tense, zooming around, driving much too fast for conditions---and horrible traffic management. These two factors together led another vehicle and mine to occupy the same space at the same time, amid a forest of red plastic cones and diverted traffic. The accident was what we call a "fender-bender". Most fortunately there were no injuries involved, as both vehicles were moving slowly. My car, though, being like all modern cars mostly pieces of plastic, sustained considerable damage. I have adequate insurance coverage to take care of another party's damages, but no insurance to cover mine. Since this accident was judged by a local cop to be my fault (what a surprise), it was up to me to fix my vehicle. Fortunately, I was able to do that. My friends Jim and Midori Hall demonstrated their true friendship by allowing me to do the needed repairs in their suburban driveway, and actually Jim Hall did a lot to help me get the job done. He drove me around to various junkyards and auto supply stores to buy parts, and also wasn't a bit hesitant to get his hands dirty as we did the needed work. I got the old buggy back on the road very quickly, a little skinned up but otherwise all better. By skipping a trip I'd planned to make to Flagstaff and on to the south rim of the Grand Canyon for a day of camping, I was able to stay right on schedule. There are good aspects to every situation, and I like to find them. A really good result of this accident was that in sharing the effort to fix my vehicle, Jim Hall and I were able to deepen our friendship. That's great!! Jim is a truly fine guy. Leaving behind (not without pangs of regret) my many Arizona friends and friends from everywhere who came to play the Phoenix festival, I headed out to Albuquerque, New Mexico, spent the night there, and then went on to Tye (Abilene), Texas, where I visited with my friend Johnny Warren. Johnny and his wife treated me to dinner in an outstanding catfish place they knew about. Just before I got to Tye I had stopped to call Johnny and tell him I was on my way. While I was in a truckstop making the call, someone broke out one of the taillights on my long-suffering van! Amazingly, after a couple of strikeouts, Johnny and I found exactly the taillight I needed, late on a Friday night at a junkyard operated by a friend of Johnny's whose place would ordinarily have been closed when we got there and would not have opened again until the following Monday. I was able to get up early the next morning, pull the broken taillight and mount the replacement. Sweet!! Johnny Warren delivers big RV's to purchasers all over the USA. He takes the train from Dallas, Texas, to the midwest, where he picks up the RV's, drives them to their new homes, and then takes train or bus back to Dallas. On my way eastward, I was able to give Johnny a ride the three hours or so from his home to the Amtrak station in Dallas. We had great conversations about many things on the way. In Dallas I did two things I'd been wanting to do for years and years. The more important one was connecting once again with a friend I had not seen for a number of years, a young woman with whom I once played music and became friends. In the years since we had met, she had been through many personal and family difficulties. I knew she had survived but did not know how well she'd done. It was very, very good to find that she seems to be doing well, is living independently, looks fine, has a nice man in her life, and is possessed of a strong spirit that has not been shattered by what's happened to her. I think she will be okay. I spent the night at her place and went on early next morning, much more at ease about Megan than I had been for years. I hope we'll keep in touch. The other thing I did in Dallas that I'd wanted to do again for a long time was to play music at Poor David's Pub in the city. This is a legendary folk/acoustic venue I played many years ago when it was in another Dallas location. As it happened, the owner, David Card, was there. We had a nice visit, recalling old days and times. Here's Poor David's: http://www.poordavidspub.com/ After Dallas...off across the country: Clinton, Mississippi (near Jackson), where I visited with friend Larry Estest; Birmingham, Alabama, where I did the same, with Richey McKay, who took the time to show me the sights of this fine town...and connect me with a couple of venues where I might play in Birmingham. We ate at a neat backstreet place called the Garage, which I never would have found in Birmingham on my own. Last night, in Montgomery, Alabama, I visited the fascinating Len Daley and members of his family. Unfortunately Len's partner Becky was out of town. Len is a very well educated, well read, wise man. We shared conversations about a wide range of subjects. We made music. I showed Len's bright young daughter, Rita, how to make some guitar chords . She caught on very quickly. I hope she continues with guitar. The next morning I went with Len to see some sights of Montgomery, and also to visit the deeply impressive Rosa Parks Museum and the Civil Rights Memorial. Neither of these are to be missed, when you are in Montgomery. Very, very affecting. We have a long way to go in this country in learning to treat each other fairly and equally...but we have made much progress too, thanks to heroic efforts and great sacrifice, including the ultimate sacrifice, by wonderful, brave, determined people. Here is the Rosa Parks Museum: http://montgomery.troy.edu/rosaparks/museum/ Here is the Civil Rights Memorial: http://www.splcenter.org/civil-rights-memorial As usual when I'm writing these blog updates, at the end of my efforts I think of all the hundreds of things that have happened that I have not mentioned but wish I had time to add. I am blessed to have such a great life, I enjoy it so much, and it is so well populated by wonderful people and events and scenes and experiences that I just can't include them all here. Many of you know I am pretty much a Taoist, and as I have delved more and more into Taoism my life has become more and more satisfying and rewarding and peaceful. I do my yoga; I meditate; walk; ride my bicycle; read a lot. I open my heart and mind to life and I try to give and to receive joy, with music and otherwise, wherever I go. Must move on from here, just now, but I'll be back again, before too long. Be happy.