Thursday, November 15, 2007

Mt. Vernon, Virginia

This will finish my travelogue of the D.C. area.
It was an easy trip on the Metro to get from the Capital area to Huntington Stop on the Metro, BUT . . . they're under construction there, so lots of noise, and even worse, there are no phones/phonebooths. I found a quick friend to let me use her phone and call S.A., who was going to come down and pick me up. It took about a half hour, so I had ear-plugs in my ears by then, and found a pipe to sit on. Everything changed for the better when S.A. arrived and we drove to her beautiful home in Belle Rive, one of the five original farms of George Washington. All of the homes are quite prestigious, and it was beautiful, like a warm autumn day. S.A. was on a mission -- to find a Steinway Grand Piano, and I won't go into detail on my search, but we did do a few prints and phone calls from Craig's List and then a LONG drive to a Steinway Outlet. This was not unlike a used car dealership, where they have a salesperson first, then the hammer, then the closer. The exception was that the pianos were all beautiful, and the salesman was also a concert pianist, so difficult to make a choice. Price was another BIG consideration, as I don't remember anything under $45,000. BTW, S.A. doesn't play either, but it would make a beautiful piece of furniture until she learns "Mary Had a Little Lamb". So the real trigger was the fact that 92-yr. old Mr. Steinway was coming to the store at 4 p.m. that day to sign any piano that we bought -- probably his last visit as such. No, we didn't bite.
The other attraction at S.A.'s was her dog, Jade. You've never met a better lab. She loved me immediately and that helped. She responded to any command, and was great company. She has jade colored eyed and a chocolate coat that is healthy and shiny. After two nights there, it was hard to leave her behind, even more so than S.A. (whom I also love, by the way).
So that's my story, and S.A. drove me to Washington Reagan Airport, where I took the 90 minute flight (and 2 hour Metra line ride) to Chicago, where I checked into the great hostel here.

Tomorrow I hope to catch you up-to-date on my Chicago Stop. You'll like the combination of music and magic, which is turning out great, so far, thanks to my host, Reed B. . . . yes, I avoid using names on the blog just because of you bad guys out there that spam, and steal, and all. . .

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