It's happening!

I think you'll all be both shocked and pleased that I did not make a single wrong turn in all of the 1,335 that I traversed, making it safely to Hartford on Friday night. I left early on Thursday morning, getting stuck in only minor traffic through Chicago, and got to spend some quality time with Grandma Caryer that evening. Friday morning was an early start, but I ate brunch with my dear friend John Eley who was freshly back in the States after a year at the Royal Conservatory of Music in London. After that there were many hours of Pennsylvania, half way through which I went a little crazy. After stopping to get a blizzard at a Dairy Queen which I made them put coffee in (I highly recommend a Georgia Mud Fudge blizzard with coffee added!) I regained some much needed sanity and finally made it to New York!

 I had thought that I wouldn't get in to Hartford until at least 11:00pm but the wind must have been at my back because I drove into Ruth and Ben's driveway a little after 10 and got a couple of big hugs (the best of which was from Roger Williams.)

After some delicious BLT's accompanied by porch-sitting and stupid-driver-watching, Ruth went off to a gig while I practiced and then made dinner with Ben. Ruth and I had our first rehearsal session of the trip, discovering that getting acquainted with pieces 1,000+ miles apart and then trying to put them together means that you sometimes have very differing ideas of how things should go. Don't worry, we'll resolve our differences before you hear us (or we won't and will just have an epic battle). Ben was nice enough to get us ice cream from A.C. Petersen's (both Pistachio and Crushed Ginger) so we have ended the evening on a sweet note!

Here is a picture of my cello with a basket for a hat:

-Leah