Donnacona, Quebec, Hospitality

A short notice cancellation by the Maison de la Culture in Donnacona, Quebec, has left us with an open day. Do I want to talk about this??? Blog it?? They did say they were sorry. And it's not as though we didn't have two weeks to come up with a replacement Sunday night theatre gig between Montreal and Quebec City. So that's just life, eh?

Richard Carr, the opening act for our Quebec City show, has kindly offered to accommodate us for the down evening— so we have nothing but a travel day ahead of us. We had a big sleep after staying up too late with McLean Ave house concert hosts Sue and Steve. Runners log: got a good flat five miles in around Perth. Nice, pretty old stone town. Michael gave a mandolin lesson on the front porch while I ran. After a great breakfast we were off to the highway. An easy drive to Quebec City where we were met by Richard and his partner, Manuela, who took excellent care of us— presenting a fine meal and sending us off to bed at a decent hour. Yes, really.

I met Richard in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards a couple of years back, and we’ve stayed in touch. He did some work with the Big Road Blues Tour last year, opening for Big Dave McLean and I, so it was a natural to get him on board again for some Quebec dates. He’s a talented singer guitar player— and is fun and easy to be around. He’ll be helping us set up at Pub Limoilou tommorow, and playing the first set. Manuela is charming in whatever language she happens to be speaking. While we were eating dinner my cell phone rang— it was Big Dave McLean, calling from Winnipeg to say "hi." Very cool. He's going to be off to Europe with the Perps in October, but he does promise to pick Michael and I up at the Winnipeg airport when we fly in for our western Canadian dates. Thanks, Dave, I love to ride in that Caddy.

We now look forward to a big sleep, and wonder about why some days turn out like this. But we're OK. Life is good. We have good company, a full table... and there's no point getting mad at the wind. We'll just remember which way it tends to blow.