That's Correct!

My last posting was about my decision to go see JM in Hartford, CT. We made the schlep to NJ to get the rental car, then we were stuck in traffic all the way on the Cross Bronx. We got lost in the suburbs of Hartford looking for a fabric store (this is what you do when you have access to a car for one day). The two things we planned to do in Hartford were to visit the Harriet Beecher Stowe house and the Mark Twain house -- but because of the traffic and getting lost, we were too late to visit the HBS house. We were still able to take a tour of the Mark Twain house, which was very interesting. The whole time I'm thinking, "Why do I do this for a concert? Why do I spend the money and the time for all this craziness?"

Then we went to the concert and said, "Totally worth it!" Then I woke up yesterday, the day of my actual birthday and said, "Why didn't I plan to go to Saratoga Springs to see him play there?" I'm just a junkie and I can't get enough!

It was a GREAT show! Definitely in the top five. We were sitting far enough to the left of the stage that we could see backstage and his parents were there. He dedicated "Stop this Train" to his parents, which he rarely plays, about getting older and the fear of losing parents. Before the show, Kathy and I made our wish list again. I think they were the same, but this time we decided to do our three choices of his songs and then instead of an alternate, we chose one cover song. We both chose "I'm on Fire", which he did not play. But he did play "Why Georgia" and "Belief" for me. He played all of Kathy's, "Why Georgia," "Gravity," and "Waiting on the World to Change." In the middle of the show, he did five songs in a row, all acoustic. I loved it! Then he switched gears and went into a blues number, "Mercy," which was about 10 minutes long (this link isn't from our show).

One more thing... I was excited to have my new camera to use at the show because it has a super zoom and I could get some great photos. However, because it's new and I'm not used to it, I didn't think about the fact that the battery might die (it did) and that it would run out of memory (it did). Even so, I got a few good shots.

Here are some photos of the two homes we visited. Did you know that HBS and Mark Twain were neighbors? Literally, they lived next door to each other.

Mark Twain's home (look at that great balcony -- right off of his writing/billiard's room)

And here's Harriet Beecher Stowe's house