Our next musical stop felt like one of the most important, meaningful shows
we’ve ever played. During our travels we heard of a recent family tragedy
of two of Kendra’s students and found that we could include a house concert
at their home on our trip. They graciously took us in for the afternoon and
evening and we shared our music while they shared their tears, stories,
food, and memories.

We looked at old photos, talked of life’s ups, downs, twists, and turns,
and closed our eyes and played from places in our hearts that only great
depths of emotion can reach.

We love you Cyndi, Matt and Denny. Our love is sent to you on every note we
play. May you all feel the most beautiful of vibrations…now and always.

Leaving the beautiful, WARM Atlantic and its boogie-board friendly waves
was really, really tough. But we ripped ourselves away and bumped down the
road to the next state. Virginia.

As we drove, I checked out the good ol’ AllStays App for our next camp
spot…excited to find something equally as rustic and filled with sand and
fun and sun as our spot at Cape Hatteras.

King’s Dominion.
I thought it sounded like a funny name for a campground, but didn’t think
too much about it. Thought maybe it was on a big mountain or something…

When we pulled in, quite late at night, we were in for a surprise. King’s
Dominion Campground just so happens to be connected at the hip to the
King’s Dominion MASSIVE AMUSEMENT PARK and is crawling with teenagers
salivating with anticipation of their next thrill. We nestled in among
screams from the roller coasters and smells of cotton candy and funnel
cakes.

We got some fun looks when we decided to get up the next morning and do Tai
Chi before the shrieks and shrills began again. I just wish we had time to
stay for a day in the park! (Greg is quite happy to get back on the road
though, as he hates the idea of being strapped into a small metal cart that
may or may not stay on its rickety old tracks for very much longer…)

If you’re ever passing through Virginia, check this place out!

KING’S DOMINION

The vast, great Atlantic is a purely magical, inspirational entity. There are now at least three new songs on the way:

• Greg’s New Folk Song: “Let it Go”
• Kendra’s New Country Song: “Cuz I Can Be Free”
• Sweeter Than Later’s New Blues Song: “Boogie Board Boogie”

Among other events (all of which turned out ok in the end) are:

• Kendra’s smelly shorts
• Greg’s head wound
• Happy (the Dolphin’s) Wheely
• Surf board rashes
• 101 mosquito bites
• We’re ready to get back to “work!”

After an entire night being pounded by rain and whipped around by wind, we awoke to a clearing sky…and new hope for seeing the sun and the sand at the same time!

But first…we had to secure bowls and tupperware containers to catch all the leaks (uh oh) and then make it through the WALL of mosquitos separating us from the great Atlantic Ocean.

After securing a surf board and two boogie boards, we were off…and soon we were hooked. To all my dearest friends in Portland, guess what?!

THE ATLANTIC OCEAN IS USER-FRIENDLY!!!

It’s so warm you can play for hours!

And the waves…so gentle…they just want to pick you up and set you down wherever you’d like to be.

After a day of splashing and shell searching though, we knew what we had to do.

FIX THE LEAKS.

That’s why we bring a master electrician, carpenter, mechanic, and all-around-fix-it-man on any tour we go on.

Let’s hear it for GREG!

In a matter of hours we were back on the beach.

Not shortly after we added this bumper sticker (photo and close-up above), did we get to live through this scene:

We made a quick stop in a grocery store for some lunch items and were in the Dolphin, still parked in the store’s parking lot, making a salad and sandwiches, when WHAM! Someone smashed right into that sticker! After the shock of what had just happened settled, Greg jumped out of the back to find a very, very elderly man in a huge pick up truck trying to make his getaway.

When the man saw Greg, he stopped his truck, calmly got out, and then said, very sweetly:

“Oh…did I hit something?”

Yes, sir. You did hit something. You hit the largest thing in the parking lot. You hit an entire home on wheels.

Since no damage was done (or so we think so far), Greg did the only thing he could…he wished the man luck and sent him on his way. Before he went, he called out to us, “Thank you!”

Then we headed out to the coolest, skinniest, wettest, funnest part of our journey yet:

Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

Look it up. You’ll see what I mean by skinniest, at least. 🙂

We’ve been travelin’ and playin’ music for weeks now. And it’s the apogee of our trip. So we must, we just must have a little surfing vacation.

Right?

So we drove to end of the country. Literally. If our tires had gone any further we’d have fallen off. As we rolled into town, our roll turned into a sail. In a storm that had Greg laughing hysterically and Kendra praying for her life, Happy (the Dolphin) forged through FEET of fallen rain, sending up 6 feet walls of water on either side.

The first KOA we pulled into was literally submerged in about 2-3 feet of water. A man in a golf cart floated up to us and let us know it would cost $75/night to camp there. In that puddle.

No way, no how. We decided to get outta there before the hurricane hit.

But! Just as we had Swaha-ed the whole idea of a beach-y vacation from the vacation, we saw it. A perfect little camp spot in a teeny little park that was steps off the beach. And somehow still above water.

We grabbed it. And hunkered down for the storm of our lives…

(so sorry–due to technical difficulties Hayley’s picture is trapped in cyberspace…please check back again soon…)

After a healing visit to a beautiful farm, we headed into the cities. First stop, Asheville, NC briefly, then off to Greensboro, NC to visit Kendra’s sweet, sweet sister, Hayley and play some healing vibrations for her peeps.

We are in the South. And it is downright LOVELY.

Everyone smiles and waves like you’re old friends. One man struck up a rather lengthy conversation with Greg about peaches while standing next to the peaches at a local store. You’d have thought they were relatives sittin’ on the porch in rocking chairs by the way they carried on.

Hayley put together a wonderful venue at a community house just next to the…get this…the POOL! We literally played an entire show while we were…POOLSIDE! In the South. In the Sun. Poolside. Could we ask for anything more?

No. We couldn’t. But we got more.

Really, REALLY amazing people we met.

A life-changing event occurred for Kendra with her sister.

A chance to play poolside, then a chance to slip into our suits and go BE poolside.

And then…to top it all off…the chance to slip into a cool, dark movie theater and watch…

THE HUNGER GAMES.

Now, for those of you who don’t know:

Kendra hasn’t read a Fiction in, like, a decade, cause she’s so absorbed with books on quantum physics and sound healing. Hayley, being the fabulous sister she is, recently sent Kendra the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy to encourage a little mental relaxation. As part of the process of keeping Greg awake while driving around the country, Kendra has been reading this riveting novel aloud to Greg. They finished the book just before arriving in Greensboro, so it’s GREAT that it happened to be at the $1.00 theater!

PS. Every where we go, we offer to make folks Green Smoothies. Some take us up on it, some just politely look at us funny. Hayley and her entire staff at work happened to take us up on them, so I think we’re in business! Next tour: Music AND Green Smoothies for sale!

PPS. The only thing we COULD have asked for…and the only photo we actually took while in Greensboro…was more than ONE BAG of tortilla chips to be served as appetizers at the show. They must really like tortilla chips around here, cause Hayley says this scene (see photo) happens OFTEN. Hmmmm…..

Ok, so, it turns out if you’re not willing to book shows way in advance cause you’re retired and want to have a little freedom on your first music tour ever, then you may, occasionally, have very small, “unique” audiences.

If you let that get you down, you could be in trouble.

BUT…if a show for one fabulous human being, three goats, three dogs, and two cats set at the pristine venue of the Barefoot Farm (Organic & Completely-Off-The-Grid) in Asheville, NC sounds like a dream come true, you just may be in luck.

We were.

This was one of our best shows yet. Could’ve been the farm, could’ve been the animals, could’ve been this particular human (Mr. Will Harlan…look him up…phenomenal human being), or, most likely, could’ve been all of the above, but Greg and I closed our eyes and astounded even ourselves with the music that came through.

Maybe it’s just that after you travel in a teeny motor home for so long and play show after show (aka: practice a lot), magical things start to happen?

(I think it may have something to do with the hundreds of mating butterflies that seemed to be all around (Greg had to slam on the brakes for the ones in the photo above) or the fact that I milked my first goat this morning before the show…ewww…i mean…wow!)

Right now…right this very moment…we’re right down the street from the Graceland Mansion!

If you’re like us, you’re probably thinking, “Uh, so?”

Let us remind you… ELVIS PRESLEY

We’re in Memphis!

Tomorrow…we head to Nashville.

Now, Nashville may be the capitol of country music, and we may be the beatniks of blues, but we don’t care. We’re gonna go give ‘em what we’ve got anyway. What’s the worst that could happen? What’s the best?

Watch out Elvis. There’s a new sound in town.