Ashore again!

Hi blues fans!
Ashore again! No Internet that was reliable (or cheap!) whilst on the ship although oddly mobile phone connectivety was. Back on land it's reversed!!
The Cruise was all I expected and actually exceeded expectations. Organisation was superb with shore runs on Puerto Rico, St Croix and St Maartens where some of our bands went ashore. So many stories to tell, My diary on Word runs to 12 pages already.
Have met and spoken with all my blues heroes and discovered many more. On morning at breakfast a fella asked to join my table and we chewed the fat some. We only introduced ourselves at parting. i had speaking with legend Buddy Flett! Damn me next morning the same thing with keys man with the great voice, Mike Finnegan. it's that sort of gig.
Hung out with a bunch of Californians who were wacky in extremis, I called them the Californian dreamers. very difficult not catch their slow youall drawl. Most guests, 2000 of them (looked after by 1000 crew). are from the southern states so everyone's laid back.
The ship is Holland America's newest Niew Amsterdam, launched last year and has won best cruiser 2011 already. Gob smacking luxury and have shot hours of video re ship's interior as well as performances. Life will never be the same again. Food available 24 hrs a day and some look as if  they never left the cafe's (6of them) Five sound stages running simultaneously from 11.00 am to 6 a.m. Some folk running on uppers! Provision manager had to radio ahead to Puerto Rico to have an additional 20,000 cans of beer ready.
The Americans live up their noisy and loud reputation so I fit in very well!
At St Croix I went to a school with Joe Louis Walker's band  as a follow up to my article in the last Blues Matters mag. Joe found playing to 400  disinterested 11 - 16 yearolds  hard going with no applause between the first two numbers so he switched to a funky groove which made a few sit up and clap. A certain elderly gent in the wings then persuaded the senior girl to go onstage on the next number and perform a wild dance routine. The place erupted. At the close Joe shouted to the audience " Who says white men can't dance"  As we were walking back to the bus, a big ( and I mean BIG) black kid stepped out of the bushes in front of me. God I thought he's going to flattenen me for some reason. He gave me a fixed eye stance hands on hips, lent forward and grumbled into my ear, "Man you got style" Gave me a high five and walked away! In the bus I was ribbed by the band and our roadie Shrek. Joe jokingly asked me if I was free to join his road show but I told him he couldn't afford me.
The whole event was captured by the ship's videographer and subsequently played out on the ship's CCTV system. This was followed up by a TV interview back on board so the British Invasion ( We had badges) presence (16 of us) was truly established.
Like the Boogaloo weekender events there is a very large core of regulars. They had already sold 1600 cabins for next year by the time we got back!!
I was cabin sharing with a great guy and now good buddy Joe Rosen, the Cruise's stills photographer. He was an encyclopedic in his information  and knows all the musicians which was a great help. I was included by the organisers with the media/musicians pack so we were all on the same floor of  staterooms. The ship has 11 floors of accomodation!
Saturday morning in the main theatre we had Gospel Brunch. It was fantastic with the cream of all the bands jamming. Got a lot of it on video including one lady singer tripping into me as she came off stage into the wings. Will life ever be the same? So many new found friends are urging me to return nest year so be warned I'll be coming around with the begging bowl. And I'm only one week in!
There's a bunch of Canadians who are also going up to Memphis with me for the Blues Foundation's IBC event so I'll have more company for that tomorrow, albeit located in other hotels. We also plan to visit the famous Sun Studios, the Foundation's musem and Elvis's old pad.
As for N'oleans, I met a lady aboard who runs a twice weely blues radio programme and a resident musicman who told me to get in touch to get to the right places and he knows and plays with Jon Cleary, Duke Robbialard and Dr John et al so that could be interesting! The Mardi Gras will also be getting going although I'll miss the final days. However I shall hopefully be seeing Buddy Guy and Janiva Magness up in Clearwater instead - well someone has to support them!
Love to yo'all folks. now to the Jim Beam!
Mike