|
The day started late, about 7:00 am, by which time I would usually have been under way for about an hour. I had been awake on and off, though, from
first light. First on the menu was another of Tim's breakfasts at Grey Gables, which, with every justification, have become legendary in their own
lifetime.
Viveka and I then left for Lancaster, NH, back in the Connecticut Valley, to play with Susie for the annual Scottish country dance. Our route took
us past some places which had recently become familiar to me from a different perspective. The dance was the same one that I played for in the
middle of my west-east through-paddle five years ago. This year there were fortuitously three weeks between this event and the previous one that I
played just before starting out, rather than the usual two. It would not have been possible (or at least advisable) to try to get from Fort Kent to
the vicinity of Lancaster in less than two weeks, so the stars aligned for me to make this trip and still to play for both dances.
I of course did the potluck supper proud, although this time I did not eat the obscene amounts of last time, having managed my feeding system much
more successfully this year. We then retired to a friend's house for tunes, more food and a comfortable night. Interestingly, although my fingers
had been seizing up overnight, once warmed up they proved to be well up to the task of playing the fiddle.
During all of this, my brain was certainly still out on the trail, although I seemed to be more present that last time, maybe because I was in
better physical shape, or maybe just because it was no longer an entirely new experience to be on the trail for weeks at a time.
|
