It was a good month, a lot of travel, the logistics of airports and commuter trains, trams and buses, who's picking up, where and when, but easily the best month I've had as a performer.

Elizabeth drives over from Harpers Ferry and gathers me at BWI for a split bill with Sam Pacetti, our first show as headliners at The Institute of Musical Traditions. Sam is a reluctant performer who reminds me of John William Davis in that they both have all the skills in abundance, mastery of guitar, great songwriting, strong stage presence, and both follow a promotional model that could have been designed by the Federal Witness Protection Program.

I have conned him into coming up from VA to open for us, but I get him on stage and keep him there for both sets, a great time, trading songs and stories for a snow-thinned crowd, over half of them folks I've done some repair work for over the years. I realize that had I worked more I could've had a full house.

We fly south to FL, first for a house concert at Palm Lodge in Homestead then up to Fort Lauderdale for a split bill with Danny Schmidt at The Labyrinth Cafe. Danny's an amazing songwriter, the best I've heard live, and we play to a packed house.  I've got Danny Schmidt on my left and Elizabeth on my right and that, my friends, will be tough to top no matter what else I do on stage.

I drive the RV from FL to Chicago. Pick up Elizabeth at O'Hare for two gigs, Two Way Street Coffeehouse on Friday and Rich Warren's Folkstage at WFMT studios on Saturday, our first Illinois shows ever, Oh, give me that mix, of new audiences that haven't heard my old jokes and old audiences to work on the new jokes, a bathroom to tile now and then to help keep the RV gassed up, and I am a happier man than I thought I'd ever be.

I remember talking to Jack Williams some years back about this path, about getting to that desired indefinite There, and he told me There Ain't No There to Get To.

I know he's right. But this sure felt close.

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