Last Friday I had a PBS meet & greet in Fort Lauderdale. They brought us into a room that had lots of tables and food, so people were asking if the food was for us but it was just where the cast and crew had eaten earlier. All four of the ladies were there. It was pretty much the same as meet and greets that we had pre-covid. The ladies stood in a corner and everyone lined up to say hello and take a photo. Gregg & I kept letting people go in front of us so we could be last. Their tour manager has seen us plenty of times and he lets us have plenty of time with the ladies. We each got to chat with all four of them and we weren't rushed. The corner they were in was kind of dark, but the photos still turned out nicely. It was before the show and they were in their first act dresses. We had a great time!

The most shows I ever did in one year was 13.  Interesting that that was the year I was kinda burned out and said I wasn't going to travel very much.  Went to what I think (without looking it up) was the first show of the tour.  This was where the girls came out in the audience for the start of TAR.  I was on the end of the 2nd row.  Lisa L was on my side.  She sat in an empty seat next to me!  That's when I fell in love all over again!

I figured out that I have been to 36 different cities for shows; 84 total.  Then, there's another bunch where I went to see Chloe after she went out on her own, plus a couple shows Lisa Kelly did as well.

Such fun experiences and memories to have!

Here's my very ambitious list for this spring tour. Some of these locations were selected because we also have friends there to visit, and others were selected because they are in close driving range of each other and allow for multiple shows with one flight. I wonder if anybody else out there is going to this many shows on this particular tour or if I have the most? As far as I'm aware, I had the most on the 2023 Christmas tour at 7. I'm really excited to make the 20th Anniversary be my personal record for most shows on one tour - I must have my record be on a tour that Mairéad is in 😍

February 29th - Sarasota, FL
March 1st - Fort Lauderdale, FL w/m&g
March 2nd - St. Petersburg, FL
March 5th - Fort Myers, FL
April 10th - Lima, OH
April 11th - Wabash, IN
April 12th - Shipshewana, IN
April 13th - Shipshewana, IN
April 16th - Minneapolis, MN
May 5th - Tucson, AZ
May 7th - Phoenix, AZ
May 9th - San Diego, CA (this one might get axed in favor of going to Disneyland)
May 10th - Long Beach, CA
May 21st - Las Vegas, NV
May 25th - Colorado Springs, CO w/m&g
May 26th - Denver, CO w/m&g

Gregg & I have definitely put a lot of money into this, but we love it with all our hearts and it's worth every penny! We both have good jobs that we are paid very well for and we don't have kids, so no childcare expenses. We are world travelers and the vast majority of the time we plan our travels based on the concerts we want to attend. The biggest hindrance for us is the number of vacation days we have, of which I am currently loaded but Gregg's is more limited. We love everything we're able to do and we have such a blast!

Since this is the 20th Anniversary tour, I do think there will be a tour somewhere this fall, but I have no clue where. I personally am hoping for a Europe or UK tour because I want to travel overseas to attend! Hoping to find out soon so I can start planning.

I've been thinking about this since the album came out last week and during my many many many times listening to it. I have a very clear top 2, but then way too many contenders for the next 3 to be able to choose. So I'm going to give a top 2 for now and I'm being lazy and copying this from a different post where we were also choosing favorites since my reasons here are still exactly how I feel!

1) Mairéad's Cinema Paradiso - big shock, right? Anybody who knows me knows that Mairéad is my all-time favorite singer, that her stunningly gorgeous voice is my favorite thing on earth, and that she's a very dear friend of mine. Watching this live at the filming, my jaw was dropped the entire time in awe of the beauty. And as beautiful as this song is in the special, it's even more spectacular on tour where Mairéad is really showing off her opera voice. Phenomenal performance!

2) Muirgen's A Stor Mo Chroi - I am loving this song so much! I had been waiting to hear Muirgen sing a song like this since she joined the group. I saw her perform numerous times in 2022 and really enjoyed it, but after this filming I said this is the best I've ever heard from her. Muirgen absolutely nails this song and it is so perfect for her voice!

I was able to delete the one I had added to the calendar, but not the two that were added by other members.

I chose 20th Anniversary because the dueling fiddles was so awesome!