[11/1/6] 2 days of driving found kristie and me crossing alligator alley on wednesday afternoon on our way to key west and the 15th annual "meeting of the minds"... we stopped at alabama jack's to achieve "island time" and for some of their legendary conch fritters... we, naturally, ran in to our old buddy pete and knew it was going to be a great week...once in key west, we caught up with crawdaddy at the avalon and headed down duval... after a snack at pepe's in mallory square, we went to the green parrot to meet up with our pirate friends and the calypso nuts... what we DIDN'T expect was bonerama... DAMN those boys can play... since we had an early thursday, we headed home about midnight (step away from the daddy)

day 2 found us at rick's setting up for our official MOTM gig at the listserv party... the show was crawdaddy & me, sunny jim and john frinzi w/doyle grisham... we each did a set then had a jam set together... during that set i got to sing "come monday" with doyle sitting right next to me playing those famous licks he played on the original recordings with jimmy... it was QUITE a moment for me... it rained like CRAZY during the show and duval street became the duval river for about 2 hours... mike had to "get out in it"... after that we grabbed a burger at hogs breath, said hi to chris clifton and hugo duarte and went to the casa marina to sit in with john and doyle... T.C. Mitchell from the coral reefer band and jim pappas from the big bamboo band sat in with us during our set... kristie really wowed them and got asked to do the encore... a huge moment for her!

day 3 began with lunch at el siboney, one of my favourite key west restaurants... next was a short guest set with the calypso nuts at the conch republic then on to the bottle cap to play for the virtual parrothead club... detroit dave was in town and sat in with us as did VPHC member bob poliquin... robbie and lynley joined us for the last few songs making it an amazing evening... then we hit the town in a BIG way... monte's for the jimmydreamz.com 10th anniversary party, schooner wharf for big bamboo and finally to hog's breath with hugo, chris and "fingers" taylor who was "torching the place" he & crawdaddy had too much fun!

day 4 (whew!) we had a show with the "nuts" (can you tell that we LOVE these guys???) at the rum barrel... now keep in mind that that we weren't able to promote the show until 2 days prior and the island was FULL of places to go and musicians to hear... the pay off is the place was PACKED and rockin'! charlie D and "ringo" pappas (in yet another cool hat) joined us for the last set and there was even a little "ass kissin" involved!! the pirates of the potomac did a fabulous job of putting this show together... they are some of our favourite people so this one rocked on many levels... we made lots of new friends (as several of these photos will attest)... when we finished there, mike and i blasted across the island to joiin jimmy & the parrots on the big stage at the casa marina... these guys are not simply the nicest guys in the world, they are high energy and talented!! they had the crowd at the casa dancing and singing and mike & i had to jump in fast and try to keep up... the sound company did a great job getting us plugged in and we had FUN! extra big thanks to jimmy, jimmy, hal & lance for allowing us to be a part of this HUGE show! once we calmed down, we took lynley to duffy's for dinner then met up with the rest of the gang and achieved even more fun... the drag show at 801 duval, margaritaville, schooner wharf (i did a cool acoustic set with jimmy sr. on banjo!), hog's breath and back to see the boat drunks at margaritaville so the "lolas" could dance... and can they ever dance!!

day 5 was low key by necessity! sunny jim's songwriter's brunch began the day... mc & i played, lynley joined us, the nuts were next, we joined them and mike and i got to back up sunny jim and his dad "shady" floyd! i got to visit with old friends tom & michelle becker, tropical soul and new friends rob mehl & jack mosley... later we went back to the "great escape" and chilled with mc, robbie & lynley, the taylors, chris & tc, will & the gang

there was a day 6 but it was mostly shopping, eating and resting... we did end up at hog's breath (again) to watch my good buddy "little" dave edmison play with scott kirby and see my high school friend joel nelson do a set at the ocean key resort

special thanks to ms. charley, bob h., cheryl @VPHC, commander chris & rob T from manassas & alex @MTOM for your support and friendship
and to all the musicians and fans who allowed us to be a part of an amazing week in key west