| Atlantic Crossroads (continued) |
| When Kyle and Sheumas came out to set up, I waved and they did a double take. Sheumas laughed and said, �You�re HERE? You sure get around! What are you doing up here from Philadelphia? And where is your friend?� Andi will be happy to know he remembers her. Kyle remembered she is from Buffalo and was usually with me when I saw the Barras. �Driving?� said Sheumas as Kyle pantomimed. �Punishing yourself by driving,� he chortled when I answered in the affirmative. They told me to enjoy myself and asked when I was coming back. Kyle told me that the Barras are playing the Gaelic College on July 13th. ARGH!!!!! That�s a day after I leave Cape Breton on my way back. Maybe I can stay an extra day. After all, I�ve been invited to the show!
I enjoyed sitting with Bob and Sandra from upstate New York who had come for their first visit in 1998. They bought property in 1999 and came up for 2 weeks this year in the summer and time in the fall for Celtic Colors. She delighted in the dance and just had a marvelous time. Jorn from Denmark had published a book of all the Cape Breton set dances and he could really step! A guy from Phoenix, Arizona wore his combat boots with flair and made them loud. Tea and Oatcakes were free but the proceeds, should you choose to pay for them, went to LARCH, an organization for people with developmental disabilities. Guess who was serving up the tea and oatcakes? Jerry Holland, premier Cape Breton fiddler! I always love the oatcakes in Cape Breton. They sell them at Tim Horton�s but they are a cheap imitation of the real thing. SO I donated my dough to LARCH and grabbed my oatcakes. Sheumas stopped me at intermission and asked if I was going to be at Stanfest. �There will be no hotels except for those an hour away.� �But you�re used to the drive,� Kyle winked. I asked about the new album, which has been done for quite a while. Who knows when it will be out? �It�s supposed to be out by the end of July,� they told me. It seems that the distribution company kept putting it off. �Well, your fans are waiting with baited breath,� I said. �Us too!� retorted Sheumas. I still could not believe that some of my favorite Cape Breton musicians were playing while I was there. What a gift! I was up for it after the ticket of yesterday. Ryan MacNeil came to dance also as well as Jean MacNeil and her husband, Columba, the Barras� folks. Later in the evening, Gillian Head from Portland, Oregon ended up at my table. She had frequent flier miles to se and decided to come to Cape Breton. She was not sorry she did. She had to go back to Bar Harbor, Maine for a wedding in a week. Rachel Davis, a very lucky 14 year old, got up to play with Sheumas and Kyle and led three sets! Boy, was she good! Later on, Sara Beck also came up and joined them all on stage. Anne MacDonald step danced for our entertainment too. With that good Cape Breton fiddle music going through my head, I had a completely enjoyable ride to the ferry terminal in North Sydney even though it was 2 AM. Took my place in line, changed my clothes and hunkered down in the back of the van with my tartan blanket and pillow. Wednesday, June 22nd Day dawned as it usually does when we take an early ferry � hardly any sleep for me. I bought a blanket, left plenty of room to stretch out in the back of the van, brought a pillow from home�nothing worked. I got my usual 2 hours sleep and was thankful I reserved a dormitory sleeper on the ferry. I purchased a couple cinnamon rolls at the terminal and made sure I had a small bag packed for the 14-hour ride to Argentia. I included the iRiver despite the fact I had not been able to record anything on it yet after several attempts. Batteries in two sizes, camera, CDs, iRiver and condenser mic, Ham Radio and chargers made my bag look like a floating Radio Shack store! I shoved a change of clothes in the bag, the Angels and Demons book my daughter Heather lent to me, a puzzle book, and some money. What a surprise to find the ferry more than half empty! They surely didn�t make any money on this trip. The fog gathered around us, but out of the mist a cruise ship found its way up the Sydney River towards Sydney. Flat Stanley and I walked around the deck exploring. He wanted to know where the life rings were. The fog hadn�t hit our spot in the river yet and I had a clear view of the churning water when the ferry turned around to leave port. After I stayed on deck for 45 minutes or so to say goodbye to Cape Breton (past the Sydney Light), I retired for the morning to the dormitory sleeper. Blessed sleep overtook me as the boat rocked gently in the sea. I can ALWAYS sleep on boats, even in a storm. I woke up at noon and grabbed a hot dog for lunch. The stern deck was calling, so I took my lunch, book and journal out there with me. It was sunny but kind of cool out there and I wore my long sleeved shirt and my fleece with the hood. On the benches on the stern deck I met Millard and Donna, both alumni of Bob Jones University. He works for the Red Cross disaster relief and she as a city manager in the hurricane-lashed Florida panhandle. They had been keeping an eye on the hurricane news, hoping they could take their whole vacation and not get called in. Last year they didn�t get a vacation because of Hurricane Ivan and its aftermath. So far so good. It was their first trip to NFLD and they were doing the cross-the-island in 5 days trip. Having made the same trip 5 years ago, I can say you�d need to take that time twenty-fold to do the island justice. And then you�d still have places to see and music to hear and people to talk to. As I sat on the deck in the sun, listening to the ferry�s engines and the waves, all I could think was, �He-e-e-e-e-y, somewhere, I threw my fear in the Sea of No Cares.� Suppertime came and went and I finished reading Angels and Demons. Wow! I thought the DaVinci Code was good! I guess I am going to end up reading all his books now. I like the way he weaves reality and fiction. So good! After eating, I went back down to the dormitory sleeper because I was still soooo tired from not sleeping in the parking lot. The purser�s announcement that we would be docking in an hour woke me up, plus they turned on the lights in the dorm area. Excited, I hurried out to the deck to find�.fog! Argh! Couldn�t get a glimpse of Newfoundland yet! It seemed to take ages to dock and we were out of the ship in short order. I wasn�t sure of the route to the TCH but I figured there�d be signs, so I settled in behind a group of really slow cars. Impatiently, I passed them all and put myself in the front of the line only to realize that I�d now be the one to hit any stray moose. Hmmmm. Lucky for me I happened upon a tractor trailer truck and now had the perfect solution. He knew where he was going, I figured it�d be the TCH, and he�d hit the moose instead of me. SO I followed the nice trucker all the way to the TCH, where we parted ways. He drove off toward Clarenville and I to St. John�s. The ride into St. John�s was uneventful, to my surprise. Every other time I�d driven onto the isthmus, I had encountered terrible fog. Not a wisp tonight! My lucky evening! I just kept watch for moose on the side of the road and sent out �don�t hit me� vibes. I hadn�t been able to speak to Jim earlier in the evening because I had not been able to program the stupid ham radio for the correct frequencies. I felt so technologically inept. After all, this was my radio and I hadn�t the foggiest notion how to do anything other than up the power and change the channel already in the memory. Shame on me! I took my chances and stopped by Erin�s Pub before heading off to his house. Lo and behold! Jim and Lillian were there! It was so good to see them after a year away. Even though we get to talk often via Ham Radio, there�s nothing like a hug from a real person. And I was greeted with a welcome bag containing an Atlantic Crossroads Festival T-shirt and a brand spankin' new Midnight Rover CD! Wahoo! We stayed for quite a while and I was very happy listening to Dave Panting entertain. OMG! Can that man play the mandola! Whew! I loved his switching instruments. Of course most of my friends know about my fascination with multi-instrumentalists. Heh! We closed the bar and drove to my home away from home for the next three weeks. I love the guest room at Chez Fidler. The walls are covered in stars and moons and maps of the world that are not North American-centric. The ham radios are in the room also. And the window looks out on the patio in the back of the house. And then there is Gypsy, the cat who meows in the early morning to be let into the second floor hallway window next to my door. I am allergic to cats but for some reason, Gypsy does not affect my allergies. In fact I don�t seem to HAVE any allergies when I am in Newfoundland. One more good reason to live here. Woke up early the next morning when I heard my call sign on the radio on the desk. Puzzled, I answered the call and found it was Vince in Havertown whose neighbor was arriving in St. John�s on Friday and wanted to know some places to visit and things to see. He asked me to contact her on Saturday. So I found myself awake at 9:30 AM after I had gone to bed at 4 AM. It would be the first night of many that would not contain 8 hours sleep. Jim and I spent the day catching up on what�s been going on since we last saw each other in August 2004. We discussed possible projects with next year�s class at school, talked about the endless podcasting possibilities, listened to some music. I spent a bit of time making things accessible in my room, so I wouldn�t be scrambling for clothes and such. Gypsy made himself known and I had to stop for a bit and pet him before he�d leave me alone to tidy up. He�s one of the only cats I know that love a good belly scratch. Then all of a sudden, it was time to pick up Lillian at work. Time had really flown! |