Let's put all this into perspective...

Matt joined the forum in 2000, Mario joined in 2003, and I'm the straggler who joined in 2008. That means Matt has been adding value to this online community for at least 17 years, Mario for 14 years and I've been lucky enough to interact with each of them for the past 9 years!

In that time my respect for both of them has grown substantially. I don't have many "real life" friends I've interacted with on an almost daily basis for the past 9 years, so it is fair to say that most of the active forum members are people I would consider to be friends. Yes, whoever is reading this... I'm talking about you too.

Nevertheless, there is only so much to learn from an online friendship. True friendship often assumes the role of give and take, and digital friendship doesn't lend itself to the same opportunities as real-life friendship. Hence, the road trips.

I want to talk about Matt in a separate thread because this entire event simply cannot be understood outside the context of his involvement.

Meeting Mario and his dear wife Linda was such a pleasure, I hate that it took so long to happen! We spent a bunch of time together, both as a group and as individuals, and all of it was like time spent with a lifelong friend! We have so much in common, I can see why Danny Campo described Mario as his "brother from another mother". I felt exactly the same way.

Not only are our life stories remarkably similar, but our values and core beliefs are also in alignment. If Mario and Linda lived in my town, I'm sure we would be best friends, hanging out together all the time. The interesting thing is that we live in a time when distance matters less than ever. Travel is easy, communication is instant, long distance calls are free, and the GPS lady knows how to find everybody's house.

Thanks to PGMusic for its role in making such friendships possible. Thanks to the people of the forum for being of one mind about making the forum a friendly place instead of a place like so many other forums where flame wars rage on a regular basis. It speaks volumes about the people of this forum that I can't remember ANY flame wars here in the entire 9 years I've been a member! Good job people!

I hope others will speak up about how the friendships on this forum have enriched their lives. Speaking for myself, I can honestly say that my life is better because of the friendly, interesting and helpful conversations that happen every single day on these forums!

My hat is off to all of you and I look forward to meeting more of you as time allows. I hope everyone reaches out to whoever might be nearby.

I didn't take any photos, but I did take video of the concert. Mario will probably be posting some of his photos before long, and I'll start posting video as soon as Matt has had time to preview and approve . Meanwhile, here's a teaser of the the pre-concert landscape. You can at least see what a beautiful lakeside setting Matt chose for his concert!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/96tsp0egg6a5lm9/pre-concert.MP4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0