Friday the 17th in Gloucester, VA

I drove to Gloucester on Thursday night after having dinner with the four hosts at the Golden Corral.  Yum.  If I were rich I'd open one in Goffstown.  I LOVE their fried chicken!
Anyhow, I was pretty tired driving to Gloucester so I sang "Georgy Girl" as loud as I could and made it there in one piece.  I had to get up early the next day to go to the radio station.  The station, XTRA 99.1, is home to Neal Steele and his co-host Karl Brubaker in the morning.  They have been playing my music for three years and have been very supportive of my career but Neal does like to razz me.  So I didn't even bother to comb my hair let alone put on makeup..I just showed up in my red coat and let him insult me for 45 minutes and  tried my best to zing it back at him in spite of the fatigue!!  I was presented with several boxes of Goo Goo Clusters, which are a candy sensation that is made in Tennessee and cannot usually be found in NH.  One of Neal's listeners heard me talking about them and sent some in to the station.  There's another ten pounds on my butt in those boxes!  But I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of the lady who sent them in!
I have seriously eaten more chocolate in the past three weeks than I've eaten in the past year.  I forgot to mention that Sandy from Paul's Bakery handed me a box of gourmet truffles as I was leaving....they are sooo good so I'm limiting myself to one a day.

In addition to the Goo Goos I also was given a "Danny Award," which is basically a recycled soccer trophy, for "Biggest Red Coat."  Ha Ha.


Later I had lunch with Neal and some of the folks who are regularly featured on his show.  They were all a hoot.  I'm having a hard time remembering the name of the guy with the beard, but he told me that whenever they go out to eat at that particular restaurant they all get up and sing the national anthem and he handed me a little flag, so I got up and started singing America the Beautiful and many of them joined me.  I thought Linda, the lady sitting next to me, was going to die from embarrassment.   As it turns out, it was all a joke on me cause they never do that at all...I didn't mind, though.

The driveway party that night at Danny Joyce's house was some spectacular event. Danny's decorations are amazing...I think there were something like 500thousand lights out there.   Nate Sparks, who is a talented musician and great writer of Christmas parodies, opened the show and his daughter Demi joined him and his band on several songs.  They are a hard act to follow, but I had to go on next.  It was a VERY exciting and fun performance because there were lots and lots of people there and Neal had really built up the Grammy nomination on the air in the days leading up to the event, so they were all excited too.  It was somewhat cold but not nearly as bad as it had been in Indiana and Pennsylvania.Karl's version of "Candy" with me was a rare thing unlike any other that has been on the tour. That's the only way I can describe it!
  My show was followed by a set from Juniper Green, two young guys who are very talented and harmonize beautifully.  I made sure to get a copy of their demo before leaving.

The whole event was a benefit for the local food bank and animal shelter, and I was very happy to learn the next day that they had raised over three tons of people and pet stuff!  It feels really good to be part of the events everywhere that have benefited so many different charities.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to all the people who put that event together....and I met so many nice people that day and night....and they all made me feel very welcome.  I was dead meat on a hook by the time I got back to the hotel, though.  I actually fell asleep at the computer back at the hotel.
So now I'm two days behind cause I still have to tell you about Saturday night and tonight...but I'm once again dog tired so I'll have to sign off now and then maybe write more in the morning!!
Hasta manana!!