In another of those "results of boldness" referred to on my top-level page, my old friend Danny lives in Keene, New Hampshire, which turns out to be well located among some of the best dance venues in New England: Greenfield, MA; Brattleboro, VT; Nelson and Peterborough, NH.   Concord, MA is an hour and a half away - but still quite do-able. So I'm parked in Danny's driveway, with house privileges, and dancing five nights a week :-)

• On Saturday (Aug 23) I danced at the famed Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield, MA (but forgot to take my camera in, so no pics on this one). Adina Gordon (recently from NC, and who was also at Pinewoods) did a great job with the calling. The band was Stuart Kenney, the phenomenal bass player formerly of Wild Aspargus, Airdance and The Sevens and currently in Tidal Wave -- and several others, including the "house band" for this venue. It was a treat to have his son (10 to 12 years old, I'm guessing) on percussion. Wow. And the floor was dreamy. Really perfect. I commented on it to one of the regulars who described how they care for it. I forget the details, but it included a periodic application of just the right kind of wood oil. What a treat.
• On Sunday I took my first trip to Brattleboro, VT to dance at the Stone House. I went early to walk around town, which was good, because I saw a sign saying that the dance started at 7:00 PM, and I was aiming for the more standard 8:00 PM. Almost everything in town was closed, but it was still a pleasant walk. It felt like an expanded version of Carrboro, with hills :-)
      This building is beautiful, with the stone walls the name implies, as well as stained glass windows that were a nice surprise. The turnout was small, and the floor was very hard on my knees, but I'm glad I was there, and it was fun to run into some of the folks I'd just met in Greenfield!
• On Monday evening I listened to one of Danny's bands rehearse for awhile (very nice) then drove to Nelson, NH, one of the "must do" dance venues. It was a little tricky to find since it was dark and I didn't have an address to feed to my GPS, but I got close and then found the only well-lit building in town, and heard the music.
      This is really a sweet place. The callers and band are volunteers, so it's only $3 to get in - and they have homemade cookies to share too! The hall is small and not rectangular, and the floor is uneven (so much so that one caller asked us to do a "Nelson up and back", in which folks were supposed to move up or back as needed to straighten the lines!) -- but even with all that, the dancing was excellent and the people were very friendly. (And yes, there were folks there that I'd seen in the past two days :-) I even got a job offer: to teach math part time at the local high school, starting the next day! (I said "No thanks" :-)
      I'm very happy to be staying close enough to Nelson to get there on a regular basis. And it is the final night of the Iron Dancer Challenge, which makes me happy: I won't be eager to drive very far by then!
• No dancing on Tuesday, so I visited Otter Brook Dam Recreation Area. For 50 cents (half the normal price since I have an Annual Pass to parks :-), I got the share a large clean lake with one family of four, and enjoyed walking up to and across the dam. This will be a nice outdoors place to be while I'm in the area.
• Wednesday was a day of clothes and camper washing, and web-page updating, and resting up for the Challenge!