Earl, not too many years ago I decided to take time to smell the roses before someone was placing them on my casket - best decision I ever made. Far too many friends of mind, many of which were fellow musicians, worked till they dropped dead in their tracks. A few of them were forum members, Bob Lee, Jimmy McKinney, Hank Bowman and others, all of whom were great musicians and entertainers, never took a vacation in more than 40 years. They all died not having taken those vacations and wishing they did.

I've done some crazy things in my life, things that other folks only dream of doing but never seem to get around to doing them. At age 51, I was the second oldest person to get their Hang Gliding Certificate from Kittyhawk Kites. My wife was with me and said I must be crazy, but I still jumped off a perfectly good 700-foot high sand dune, made 6 flights down the slope in 100-degree weather and loved every minute of it.

Once July 4th, I convinced my loving wife to make a boat trip with me around the entire Delmarva Peninsula, a distance of 695 miles, in a 21-foot center console fishing boat. No cabin, no bathroom facilities other than a bucket with a toilet seat mounted on it, no AC - just the two of us and the open waters of Chesapeake Bay and later the Atlantic Ocean. We caught a variety of fish, had fresh seafood for dinner most nights in waterside restaurants and slept in waterside motels. Near the end of the trip, we ventured offshore to the inner edge of Baltimore Canyon, she caught a 75-pound bluefin tuna, which was 15 pounds heavier than the one I boated just a few minutes earlier, got to see a right whale up close and personal and explored the tidal marsh behind Virginia's Barrier Islands. Also saw some wile ponies on Assiteague Island on our way to Ocean City, Maryland. The trip lasted 9 days and we had a ball.

I was hoping to convince Carol to make this trip with me, but she has a great deal of difficulty getting on and off the boat because of her bad knees. And, she equates living aboard the the boat to camping out in a tent. For me, living aboard the boat is just like being at home, though much smaller, no lawn to mow, no snow to shovel or plow and no deer eating my flowers. The big benefit is that I can catch dinner by just baiting up a hook and lowering it over the side, I get to meet lots of very nice folks with similar interests and get to play music in Paradise. That's a tough combination to beat. One last thing, formal attire in the Florida Keys is shorts, a clean shirt and flip flops.

Here's a photo of my last venue and me driving to the job from my boat, which is in the background. A typical day in Paradise.


All the best,

Gary