If the weather permits, I'm getting the hell out of the People's Republic Of Maryland for a few weeks, heading south to someplace where the air temperature and my age are equal.

I'll be traveling down the east coast of the U.S., stopping along the way to look at new sailboats, and meet up with forum members from the Zone and PSR Tutorial. My loving spouse of nearly a half century will be traveling with me, but she's not real happy about the sailboat part.

At months end I will be making a stop in Shreveport, LA for the Jam, then heading back to the coast before heading home to the frozen north. (Damned global warming. )

One of the places I'll be looking at a boat is Destin, so maybe I'll get a chance to catch a performance by Diki and some of the others that reside in that part of Florida.

If anyone along the route want to meet up, email me before Friday, January 8th.

Cheers,

Gary

Gary ... I wish you and Carol a very safe and enjoyable trip ...
And I am sure warmth will come from meeting other S-Z members along the way ...
t.

Gary, any chance you'll be coming down I-75 thru Cincinnati to get South?

I'll be in Washington state on a video shoot early in the month, but we may connect on your way up or back, if you'd like.


Russ



[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 01-04-2010).]

Russ,

While I really appreciate the invitation, this time of year the weather in the mid-west is just too iffy for me to chance the inland route. Besides, I have a lot of sailboats to look at all the way down the Atlantic Coast.

Thanks again,

Gary

I emailed you, Gary. Hope we can get together while you are here.

Hi Gary - welcome to the land of the sunshine! Would you believe there is a chance of snow here this Thursday evening?

When are you getting to the Destin area? The wife and I would love to meet you and the missus and we'd be glad to have dinner and/or enjoy some music. I dropped you an email too.

Randy

[This message has been edited by saxxman (edited 01-04-2010).]

Diki,

Got your mail and replied.

Randy,

I hope to be in the Destin area during the week of January 18 to 21, then head north to Shreveport for the Jam. Email me your phone number and I'll call when I get in town. I would love to meet up with both you and Diki.

Cheers,

Gary

Wayta go, Gary... have fun!

Glenn

Cya when you get here.
Eddie

PS-- Bring a jacket or three.

[This message has been edited by btweengigs (edited 01-04-2010).]

Gary,
Our evening news (monday night the 4th) advised that florida will be in the 20's tonight.
So...............c'mon out to California and we can go look at a lot of sail boats here in the sunshine at near 70. In fact Pismo Beach where I hang out in the motorhome was 71 today.
ThINK ABOUT IT
Bebop

Thanks for the invitation Bill. Key West, Florida was in the 50s yesterday, which is about as cold as I can ever recall for that part of the world. Hopefully, the sunshine state will be a lot warmer when I get there. Damned Global Warming!

Cheers,

Gary

No global warming here in Philly ... it's CHILLY! ( and I LOVE it! ) Me and the grandson are waiting for more snow to add to our menagerie on the lawn! My folks are down in St Auggy Fla and STILL complaining about the chill - one thing we will NEVER have in common is the "snow bird" deal - I like all four seasons - couldn't live without any one of 'em!

Dave,

When I encounter air temperatures lower than my age I consider it the dead of winter. Gonna' be 70 next October--the Florida Keys are sure looking good!

Cheers,

Gary

Hi Gary,

Growing up in Key West we occasionally saw temps dip into the high 40's. Down there this is like Antarctica. There's no heat, the houses are drafty and we didn't have heavy clothing. I can remember my mother turning on the oven, opening the oven door and letting us get dressed in front of it. The good thing was it never lasted. Hope it warms up for you.

Joe

------------------
Songman55
Joe Ayala

GARY ALERT GARY ALERT GARY ALERT

Temps on southeast coast of the "Sunshine State" predicted to be in 20's this weekend.
No joke.

(Don't tell Al Gore.)
Eddie

Hopefully, it'll warm back up before you get here. This is insane for NW Florida!

If I were you, I'd be taking a look at an ice yacht..

Strange footnote, but once upon a time, ice yachts were the fastest thing on the planet, back in the days of the 19th century... ice yachts could easily double the speed of the fastest locomotive. This cold snap goes on any longer, I'm going to find out for myself, and stick runners on my windsurfer!

+12F here in the Roswell (north Atlanta suburbs) area. I'm projecting our gas bill to be in the 800-900.00 range this month. It had better warm up soon or it's going to seriously impact my music-junk buying habits. I can't believe it, we're 10 degrees colder than Philly. I may have to move back to the area (at least I'd be closer to my buddies Fran and Donny ).

chas

My wife and I were planning to go to Italy and decided to wait for the dollar to recover a little ... then we were planning to do to Florida and have now decided to wait for a turn in the weather ...
I'm doing too much waiting ... I think Hawaii may be looking good ...
t.

[This message has been edited by tony mads usa (edited 01-09-2010).]

Tony, stop in San Jose on your way. We got 70 here. We also got 300,000 Italians and Calabrese that live her who really know how to make a great lunch or supper.
We traveled 5 years full time in out Motorhome always thing about a better place to dig in but after touring all the states several times summer and/or winter plus I was on the road on business full time for 10 years, I/we decided that just wasn't any better year around weather then right here in good old San Jose.
So make sure that Plane stops at the airport and I will be there waiting.
Best to ya,
Bebop

Well, I'm in Destin, supposed to meet up with Diki tonight, and possibly Randy (saxman) tonight. Probably spend another day here before heading north to Shreveport.

Looked at four boats, a couple were duds, some were sold. Damned cold here, bue locals said it was warmed up quite a bit since last week.

Cheers,

Gary

70 degrees in Shreveport today.

Spent a nice time with Gary, his wife and Randy Sherwood this evening. A gracious and fascinating couple (Gary and his wife, that is!), and surprisingly, the first time that Randy and I had met. Destin is a small town, but you CAN miss people... Glad we got that rectified.

Nice to put a face to the names (although I had seen pictures), and nice to meet someone that has such a fascinating life...

Just glad they weren't here for the big freeze a couple of weeks ago. 20's at night is pretty unusual for round here...!

Have a good trip up to Shreveport, and give my regards and apologies to all.

Ditto! It was quite a pleasure to put faces with names! It was great meeting Gary, Carol and my "Destin Cohort" Diki! And Gary's "Kickapoo Juice" was to die for! Thanks! It was a fun night!

Wishing the Diamond Duo safe travels to Shreveport!

And Diki - Glad we finally met and I look forward to collaborating w/you in the future!


Randy


[This message has been edited by saxxman (edited 01-19-2010).]

Thanks for a great evening gentlemen and we hope to see you both again sometime in the ensuing years.

Gary & Carol

Okay, good to know Diki is real. Now someone has to find out if Ian is real.....or just a compressed Mp3 from Yamaha.



chas

Chas,

It's a pretty long haul from Destin to Canada for me to check this out.

Gary

PS - Gary - if you and Carol are still in town tonight, let me know and we can go down to the jam session at BluzDestin.

Safe travel!

Randy

It's already public knowledge that Ian is my John DiLeo...

I spent the day driving north to Greenville, AL to meet up with Bill Grosse, a psr Tutorial professor whom I've known for years but never met. We played his T3 through my Bose L1 Compact. He loved what he heard and says he's gonna' buy one first change he gets.

The neat part about the drive was listening to Randy'a and Diki's CDs. Both of them are outstanding musicians and have an enormous amount of talent--far more than I will ever have.

Tomorrow, I'm headed west toward Shreveport, if the weather cooperates. Lots of rain and some flooding near Prattville, AL, which is where we're spending the night.

Cbheers,

Gary

Had a little rough weather here too. Tornado and hail. No damage for us, but I think there is some around the area. Won't know much until tomorrow.
See ya soon, Gary.
DonM

A tornado hit the town of Waskom, TX, just a few miles East of Shreveport about 8 p.m. There was a lot of destruction of homes and property, but somehow no one was killed.
They are clearing roads now, so there should be no problem getting to the Jam.
Today it is sunny and warm!
DonM

Spent the day driving to Shreveport,and the evening with DonM and Bill (semilive) at Earnest's Orleans restaurant. Gonna' be a fun weekend.

Gary

It was great to see Gary and Carol again. Gary was kind enough to "help me make it through the night". He adjusted to the Audya pretty quickly. Said it was almost as good as the PSR 3000! That's pretty high praise coming from him!
It's gonna be a great weekend.
DonM

Any pics from last night???

I REALLY envy you guys .. but it's an unfortunate twist of fate that something else had to be scheduled for this weekend ...

I know I don't have to say this, but "HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND" ...

Take lots of pics and we will be waiting for 'you tube' videos ...

t.

Sounds awesome. I'm gonna have to miss this weekend due to my being in the hospital over the holidays. I missed quite a bit of church and I have a lot of travel planned for the summer. Take lots of pics!

Joe

------------------
Songman55
Joe Ayala

The Audya is an incredible keyboard, especially in the hands of someone as masterful as DonM. It sounds great, even to my aging ears.

Carol is taking lots of photos and when I get home I'll post some.

Joe, we'll miss you down here in the sunny south. When the weather gets warmer back home I'll take you sailing.

Gary

Yes, get plenty of photos and DonM I hope Joe Lee plans on doing video of this year's jam. I bought the last 2 years DVDs, if you can't be there, the video does a great job of getting a taste of what the jam is like.

Joe will be making another video. We're going to be certain everyone has ample opportunity to perform solo, so that we can better hear what each of the various keyboards and players are doing.
In the past we had a lot of outsiders wanting to dance and make requests, but this year we will concentrate more on exchanging ideas, asking and answering questions, and learning from one another.
Later on in the evening we can "jam" together as we wish.
DonM

Wish I could be there. While Gary was here he set up his Compact L1 in my living room and it sounded great. We then went to the VFW I was playing that night to try it out in the big room....but there was a memorial going on.

I still want to hear what the "mini-bose" can do in a larger venue. I'm guessing you guys are not going to be using it at Ernest's...but if you do...let us know.

Eddie

Eddie, yes we are. I use two of them every night at Ernest's. We may use just those two, or up to four Sunday, depending on how many show up.
I have not tried the Compacts on really big venues, but I did play a party of about 200 with one of them, with no problems and plenty of headroom left over.
DonM