Hey Folks,

Some of you may still be drying out your wet clothes and soggy shoes from our adventure on Sunday. It was a roller coaster of emotion for me this weekend and I'm just starting to sort it all out. I'm not sure where to start but the first thing that comes to mind is how amazing the crowd was on Sunday at Heritage Hills. I'm still in awe! A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who came out to support us. Thanks to everyone for their excitement and patience during the recording process and getting started. Thanks to everyone who jumped up to help get equipment off the stage. So many people asked "what can I do to help?". Thank you. Thanks to everyone who helped set equipment back up (in between storms) and then hauled it all back off the stage again. Thanks to everyone who helped out with raffles, boards, signs, 50/50s. Steve and April, Steve Augustine, Bill Styer, Sheryl Styer, Carlyle Styer, Deb McDonald, my personal assistants Jared and Dan. I'm sure I'm missing some folks, but you know who you are. Thanks to everyone who stuck around and stuck it out. Thanks to everyone for their words of encouragement and looks of sympathy. Thanks to everyone for not saying "I told you it might rain...."

Going back to Sunday morning, our backup weather plan was to hold the recording in the Terrace room if it looked like the day was going to be a washout. We had to make a decision one way or the other by 10:00 am. Well, as you all know by now, I am not a meteorologist, so when I heard the forecast was a 30% chance of an isolated shower, after some discussion, I gave it a green light. After all, this is July in Pennsylvania. There's always a slight chance of afternoon showers.

Well, there was no turning back, and we went full speed ahead with our outdoor plans. The day was beautiful, hot and breezy and as you all know by late afternoon that changed and all hell broke loose. Like I said, it was an emotional roller coaster going from sheer exuberance, to horror, to hope then helplessness, bewilderment and anger (at myself). I felt bad for the band, JJ and Mark (the recording and sound guys) and the Heritage Hills people, but especially all of our friends who came out and were so excited for the day. I really felt like I had let everybody down.

In the midst of all this madness, my brain had totally shut down (no smart comments here...) I couldn't even think clearly enough to try to come up with an alternate plan for the recording. While Sue however, was trying to keep me away from sharp objects and tuck her own emotions away, she somehow still had the presence of mind to think of a plan B. When she first mentioned that we might be able to do this on Monday, all I could think of is that Scott was flying back to St. Louis, JP was heading back to Baltimore, Randy, Jere, Heather, Dave, JJ and Mark all work on Monday. Oh yeah, and we also had no place to do it. This seemed logistically impossible. Somehow, before we left HH on Sunday to head home, dry out and lick out wounds, Sue had put together a plan to make it happen on Monday in the Terrace room at Heritage Hills. Flights were changed, work schedules changed, things were canceled or put on hold. Thanks to the band, JJ and Mark for their amazing flexibility and willingness to complete this project. But mostly thanks to Sue, because without her, this quite simply wouldn't have happened.

Fast forward to Monday at the Terrace room. The band all arrived in good spirits and ready to take another shot. JJ and Mark were already setting up when we got there. Well the day went extremely smoothly. Thanks to the 15 or 20 folks who came down with a case of the tropical flu and played hooky from work. You guys sounded like a crowd of 200! Oh yeah, special thanks to Dr. Vic and Richard for getting us beer!

Bottom line is, I only heard playbacks of a couple of pieces of songs, but I think we got a really great recording. Everyone left the Terrace on Monday with smiles and hugs, feeling that although it wasn't quite as planned, we'll still end up with a CD we can all be proud of.

Thanks again to everyone!

Dennis