"An old love never rusts !"  -- old Dutch expression

Dear Robbie, Jody and MMD'ers,  I admit I have been a bit unfaithful
towards the MMD.  I wasn't scanning it every day for the last months.
(A shame, okay.)  That's because other interesting stuff crossed my path.

Since January 1996 I stay at home due to heart blood-circulation
problems.  My boy of 14 is a member of a Water Scouts group (scouting
with sailing boats -- in the Netherlands there is a lot of water), and
I became the secretary of this group, working behind my computer when
I felt good.

Then I came across an old Netherlands rescue boat from 1923 that
bears the same name as my scouting-group: "Dorus Rijkers", a famous
Netherlands rescue man from 1900.

This boat is a part of the Netherlands history that has to be pre-
served, and it is a perfect tug for my Scouts, with an original motor
from 1923 !   I came across it only two miles from my home.  It takes
a lot of energy to organize a group of people to start to restore this
piece of history.  But "An old love never rusts !"

When we were married 25 years ago we planned a trip to the USA,
to Cajun country.  My wife is from France and she is dreaming of
visiting Louisiana since her youth.  Due to my illness we canceled
the trip.

Now we have arranged this trip for this year.  We stay three nights
in the Big Apple to show it to our boys (14 and 17).  On 17 July we
arrive in New Orleans for two nights and then we take a camper to visit
Louisiana, Mississippi, Memphis(?).  As a civil engineer I'm looking
forward to seeing the traffic on this river.

We'll stay three nights in Orlando (until 04 Aug.) because the boys
want to visit several attraction parks here.  I will be 'broke' by that
time, and already looking forward to a quiet hotel room!

New Orleans, Cajun, Mississippi, Memphis -- all mean music to me.
I have always linked this region to pianola's (correct or not?), and
my Aeolian Pianola is my old love.  In the magnificent pages of the
Musica Mechanica I did not yet find any museums of mechanical music in
the neigbourhood of our travel itinerary.  If you know, please inform
me.  If you live in this neigbourhood and would like to have, e.g.,
CD's of Dutch draaiorgels (e.g. from the KDV-site) I could bring them
with me.

Web sites and photos:

home:
http://www.casema.net/~wvdwal  (only a photo) or
http://www.caiw.nl/~wvdwal (also only a photo; the boat and
  Scouts take my time)

the boat:
http://users.scoutnet.nl/~dorus.rijkers/diversen/oude_boot/oude_boot.HTM
  (in Dutch; if wanted I'll send a translation)

the motor of the boat:
http://huizen.dds.nl/~brons_ad/btyp_eli.htm  (in English!)

my scouts:
http://users.scoutnet.nl/~dorus.rijkers/ (only in Dutch, too much
   to translate. In case of interest I'll explain)

KDV-CD-site:   http://www.caiw.nl/~havo/kdv_post.htm


Thanks, looking forward to the trip and to see/meet/hear some of you.

Wybe van der Wal
Leeuwendaallaan 53,
NL-2281 GK Rijswijk
tel. +31.(0)70.319 10 60
fax. +31.(0)70.319 10 61

 [ The American South is famous for its hospitality, Wybe; I think
 [ that, with the help and advice of our MMDers, you will find plenty
 [ of people and places to hear the famous music: the riverboat music,
 [ the sounds of New Orleans, and of course Cajun French dialect and
 [ Cajun music.  And, for the Dutchman who loves boats, there should
 [ be some adventures awaiting you along the rivers and bayous!  You'll
 [ have a grand time!  :-)  -- Robbie