It seemed James Fleming could not do enough for us during our stay in St. Johnston. He took us on an extended drive all over the Laggan and pointed out obscure places and interesting things a tourist could never find. The question I asked John was, "Why did he do this?" He was obviously a very well to do long time resident of the area and owned hundreds of acres of land in and around St. Johnston stretching all the way down to the Foyle. Was this simply Irish hospitality? Was it a bond between fellow genealogists and historians? Did he feel obligated to "host" a couple of Americans who stumbled into his little town? James likes to drive fast in his Mercedes and we covered a lot of ground. He took us up to Sheriff's Mountain, all through they country to an old round stone fort that was a couple thousand years old with a view to die for and into Derry where he played on the walls as a kid. We dined at his expense at the finest restaurant in Derry and had lamb. It was delicious and the company was great. He brought his buddy to make a fourth and this guy was great company; a member of the Irish army and a fine story-teller. It just didn't get any better than this. We were two Yanks being treated like royalty by people who knew more local history than anyone else in the area. The travel Gods were with us. I can only surmise that James Fleming felt content living in an area for 400 years (his family) and loved showing it to people who were as excited to see it as we were. He was the teacher and we were his students. If he ever decides to come to North Carolina to play golf my wish is that he finds the hospitality here equal to what we found and I would be honored to make that happen. Regards, Robert Cowan