The final gig of our tour was at Wilderness Run Vineyards/1781 Brewery. Beautiful spot, but lordy it was hot! On our way there, we decided that if they did not have shelter from the sun for us, we would refuse to play. Luckily there was a tent over the stage. Also, frozen wine slushies were on point. I fell in love with a cat named Fred. A large tom turkey gobbled loudly and frequently while we played.

We were really close to home at this point. Under normal circumstances, we would have driven home after…

I went for a morning walk down to the Susquehanna River.

This was a travel day, no gig. And, this is also the day the tour turned homeward bound. We drove about half the day to get from New Paltz, NY to Marietta, PA. There, we checked into our bed & breakfast, the B.F Hiestand House. This place is definitely more lavish than our usual accommodations, but the price at that time wasn't bad and we felt like treating ourselves. Here's a first glimpse of the place:

We went for a walk around the town, but Dacey returned to the house much sooner than I did. I insisted…

In the early afternoon, we played for the residents at the Woodland Pond progressive care community, where Dacey's 92-year-old dad lives. We've played there several times now. Today for the first time, they broadcast our performance via closed-circuit TV, so the less mobile residents could watch us from  another community hall, or even on TV in their own rooms. For a few songs, I played the baby grand piano they have there, instead of hauling in my electric piano. Even though my keys are weighted, a real…

After leaving Anne and Mark's we headed to Poughkeepsie. First stop was to meet my godparents for lunch, and celebrate Diane's 75th birthday.

We had no gig scheduled for today and no real plan. Anne and Mark invited us to stay an extra night and we were happy to accept. We spent an ultra relaxing day hanging out with our friends. We went on a nice bike ride, got fried clams for lunch, picked up some groceries (spending a substantial amount of time perusing the beer section), and had a delicious home-cooked dinner on their back deck. It made me realize how much more down time I actually want on our tours, instead of rushing around from place to…

We woke up in Sturbridge. Although the 45-minute drive seemed SO hard the night before, when we were really tired after our gig and a late dinner, in the morning we were thankful to wake up there. I did my morning yoga by the hotel pool, and Dacey came out a little later to enjoy the sun with me. We explored Old Sturbridge a bit, went on to Brimfield for a ginormous antique show, then played at the Abandoned Building Brewery in Easthampton, MA. We couldn't believe it: Jan and Scott actually showed up to see…

The morning was rainy, perfect for teleworking. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Kim did much better. We stayed with the Peters till early afternoon, then said our goodbyes.

The greatest thing about Sam's house is that it overlooks this lovely pond. The boat dock has seen better days, but I like its jaunty stance.

In the early part of the day, Dacey and I tooled around on our bikes. We went down to the Campgrounds, which is not actually a campground but a cluster of very small, charming "gingerbread houses" where people actually live, centered around a Tabernacle.

They often have concerts at the Tabernacle, but today it was empty except for a lone woman "practicing" on the piano up on the stage. She was amazing!! She gave us our own private classical concert. I could practice every day for the rest of my life and…

Before leaving Vermont, we squeezed in a hike on Deer Leap Trail, then had lunch at the restaurant at the trailhead.

We got one practice in with Tom, our drummer friend, in his barn.

We had another free day for relaxing. Chris took us on a short but sweet hike to Thundering Falls.

We popped into the office of the Rutland Herald (Vermont) today to record a podcast, on the way to our show at the Wild Fern tonight. The podcast features an interview and a couple songs played live and unplugged. Thanks so much to George and Sarah for having us! Click here to listen to the podcast.

After the podcast, followed by the lunch, we headed up the road to Pittsfield, VT, where we got settled in to the guest room offered up by our friends Chris and Erica. The evening was spent playing and hanging…

No gig today, so we were free to hike. The place we planned to go was inaccessible; too many people and they'd already closed it to any more parking! But we managed to find another spot with access to the Karamac Trail, on the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap area. The forest was loaded with ferns.

And blueberries, of which I ate many!

It reminded me of that kids' book, "Blueberries for Sal", which features a bear eating blueberries. And then... we saw a freakin' baby bear!!!

I managed to get a…

We stopped into a great coffee/tea shop for breakfast, setting the bar pretty high for the rest of the tour!

We drove up to Easton, PA and had a little time to explore before our afternoon show.

All packed and ready to go...

We got dinner at an Irish pub in Towson, Maryland, and got a little carried away with the selfies.