First attempt

Actually written on Feb. 23, 2013

Leaving tomorrow for SoCal, so-called due to its location in the southern part of the state known as California. Escondido, to be more precise, and somewhat north of Escondido, to be even more precise. 33° 14.0754 N 117° 08.4014 W to be excruciatingly precise and beyond all necessity.this is the location of our timeshare unit, our annual visit during the eighth week of each year.

In some years it doesn’t work out for a visit to the Scottish Festival at Long Beach, and this is one of those years. Otherwise upon arrival, we would be immediately on our way up to the Queen Mary and the Festival for the weekend. This year, however, half the reason for the trip is not to be seen, insofar as Men of Worth did not appear at the Festival, which took place last weekend.

Men of Worth are two fellows who have been singing together for a long time. Donnie was born on the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides (Wut port of Texas is that?), and gives instruction in Scottish Gaelic, a language not for the faint of heart. James was born in Charlestown, county Mayo (Ireland), but avoided a life of working in the mayonnaise mines by emigrating to the United States and taking up a career in music in a Neil Diamond tribute band.

We are proud to call James and Donnie friends as well as their being part of our regular road music and our tour leaders on two, soon to be three, tours in Ireland and Scotland.They alternate front of the bus duty, each in his homeland, while the other heckles from the back of the bus. The tours are congenial, the company is great, the fellow travelers are interesting with many repeat customers (one couple on our last trip was counting 10 tours with MoW.), the schedule is not grueling, the food is great, and the music every evening is like a family house concert. No wonder we’re repeaters, along with many others.