How I spent my summer part 2

Proposing to Christie would be a fitting way to end my summer story, but we were just getting warmed up. Not more than a week after Falcon Ridge we were on a plane bound for Houston, Texas as part of the tenth and as it turns out final SAMfest (southern acoustic music festival) in attendance were Tull Glazener, Robert Force, Karen Mueller, and Neal Hellman, a veritable who's who (and who?) of the mountain Dulcimer. Also in attendance were hammered dulcimer players Rick Thum, Guy George, and Dan Landrum (who plays with Yanni) Christie and I were down there to do a little teaching (I was teaching a workshop on Irish guitar) we ended up pal-ing around with the headlines, jumping in on their sets, and basically being regarded as peers. A great time, even if it took place in Texas (where CNN they say stands for "Clinton News Network")

Finally we were back in NJ at something resembling a home, Christie's parents in Cinnaminson. Only a temporary stop, as we were about to pack up the whole shebang and fire it off to Bowling Green, Kentucky. Where Ms. Burns would be attending grad school. I made a trip or two to Philly to get the rest of my stuff from my apartment we jammed it all into Christie's Buick and made our way down to the Hilltop House in beautiful Harper's Ferry, WV. On top of a birds-eye view of three states, where the Potomac meets the Shenandoah, I spent a week doing ear training, learning dulcimer tunes from a guy named Bruce Hutton, and generally having a great time. About halfway through the week, I got an email from Jon Harris --whom I had met at SAMfest-- in response to a long long conversation we had had about dulcimers, and after seeing me play. He wrote to tell me that he had BUILT me a dulcimer, and where should he send it.

Well I didn't have an answer for him; we didn't have a place to live in KY. After Harper's Ferry, we drove down to Bardstown, KY. Site of my Old Kentucky Home, where Christie and I spent a wonderful evening camped behind the historic house, being serenaded by Little Feet. This time however, there was no Little Feet, just a crappy Days Inn where we slept for maybe 5 hours, tho' we did get to make our own waffles the next morning.

We took the first place we looked at. Not that we didn't spend 12 hours looking at terrible places all over town just to make sure we got the best place. Now that we've been here for a while, and know this house's limitations, I can say with authority, we got lucky. But then again, when I'm with Christie, we usually do.