The 32nd Tour of the American Travelling Morrice will take place August 19-25 in the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts. I’ll be there and will be most pleased to greet any friends who turn up. Here’s the schedule as of now — if I get any updates or corrections I’ll edit this post, so bookmark it!
Sunday Aug 19
12:00 Amesbury - Upper Millyard
Afternoon Newburyport - various spots:
1:00 – 4:00 Walking tour of Newburyport. In no particular order we will picnic in Waterfront Park, dance at Waterfront Park or next to it at Somerset Landing, dance at Market Square, drink at the Thirsty Whale (24 Market Sq), dance at Inn Street (one block long) and drink at Rosie O’Shea’s (84 State St). Ideally we will eat first, at 1:00 in Waterfront Park. However, there is a wedding taking place in Waterfront Park at a time uncertain, so it’s possible that we’ll have to dance first and lunch after. Lunch and one stand is all we’re doing on the water. Then we walk about four blocks up to the Market Square/Inn Street area.
Around 2:30 we will dance either in Market Square or Inn Street. They are 1/2 block apart. Around 3:00 we’ll have a QUICK beverage at the Thirsty Whale. 3:45-ish we dance wherever we didn’t just dance before, or maybe where we did dance before. Not to worry, remember they’re 1/2 block apart.
After all the dancing is done we’ll head to Rosie O’Shea’s for another beer.
With the exception of Rosie’s, everything is within a five block area, so just listen for the bells.
Monday Aug 20
11:00 Danvers - Peabody Institute Library
12:30 Hamilton - Patton Park
Tuesday Aug 21
11:30 Portsmouth, N.H. - Prescott Park (fountain/ pier area)
1:00 Portsmouth, N.H. - Prescott Park (fountain/ pier area)
2:30 Portsmouth, N.H. - Market Square/ North Church
4:00 Portsmouth, N.H. - Market Square/ North Church
5:15 Portsmouth, N.H. - Vaughan Mall
Thursday Aug 23
11:30 Essex - Essex Public Library
12:30 Ipswich - Russell Orchards
3:15 Essex - Red Barrel Pub (dance)
4:30 Hamilton - Green Meadows Farmstand
6:00 South Hamilton - Asbury Grove Methodist Retreat
Friday Aug 24
11:00 Salem - Salem Willows
12:30 Salem - House of Seven Gables
2:30 Salem - Essex Street Mall (between the museum & the
mall, by the fountain)
3:30 Salem - Derby Square by the Derby Square Bookstore
5:30 Marblehead - The Landing
Saturday Aug 25
10:30 Rockport - Tuna Wharf
2:00 Manchester-by-the-Sea - near the Town Offices
3:45 Gloucester - Fisherman's Monument
5:20 Rockport - Rocky Neck Artists' Colony
Doctroidal dissertations 
Hmm, the timing is a little awkward, but August 19 just might work. OK then!
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Both Amesbury and Newburyport are close to where we live. We haven’t actually been to Amesbury, but we like Newburyport. The downtown has some cute shops and good restaurants. If you do decide to come up, let us know when/where you’ll be.
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Let’s just plan on it — the other things I was half-thinking about going to on Saturday are in the evening, so noonish/afternoonish stuff should be no problem. I guess we will have to wait for Doctroid’s schedule to be a bit more resolved to get very concrete, but let’s definitely do something.
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Erm, August 19 is a Sunday, not a Saturday.
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Right, I meant Sunday.
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I got email last night from a woman organizing an arts festival in Woonsocket:
I wrote back expressing interest in an early (before noon) or late (after 4) slot. If I get either then I should be able to go to Massachusetts for a few hours anyway. I’ll comment again once I have an update. Sorry for my flakiness. (I think the odds are good that I will get the early slot, since no sane musician wants to perform at 10 am.)
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Well, hopefully you can make it. If not, email us and we’ll make alternate plans for meet-up. Jorie’s old enough now that she can stand a longer car trip (especially if we strategically time it with a nap).
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I think I will be leaving Woonsocket between 1 and 1:30 pm, which hopefully will put me in Newburyport around 3:30. (Which is not great, but hopefully will give me an hour or two of Morris-related entertainment.) Maybe I should call you when I get there or something? If you want to make arrangements, my cell phone number is 401-419-0367 and my email address is jake at jwgh dot org.
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Also, I’d want to head down to Providence around 7 pm, but that should leave time for an early-ish dinner if anyone’s around and interested.
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Apparently the Sunday afternoon schedule is meant to be somewhat, erm, flexible. But (it says here) between 1:00 and 4:30 we’ll dance at Waterfront Park, Market Square, and Inn Street. At some point we’ll have a beer, probably at the Thirsty Whale, and after we’re done dancing we’ll go to Rosie O’Shea’s for, yes, more beer.
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See italicized edit above.
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Matt and I plan on arriving around 2PM, so we’ll look for your group either at the waterfront or in the Market Sq area.
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It looks like I’ll be taking train 2161, which supposedly gets to Newburyport at 2:30; google maps tells me it’s approx. 1.5 miles from the station to the downtown, which should be an easy walk.
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I will have to check if any of your locations are accessible from the commuter rail stops in those cities, but if so I might be able to come to one.
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I’ve decided to plan to head up on the 19th, so if necessary it should be possible to give you rides hither and thither on that day.
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mmcirvin and I live minutes from the Bradford commuter rail station (on the Haverhill line) and would be happy to give you a ride.
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