On another occasion, Dick Foley had a conflict with our Japan tour and Mark filled in for him. Altho we missed Dick, Mark was a perfect replacement for him and we did have a good time on that tour.
Other than that annual tour, when gigs came in we generally took them. I remember one that we shouldn't have taken, tho. We were booked for a single date, as I recall, in North Dakota. We drove - all of us together in a van - all the way there only to find out that the promoter had gone out of business, the gig was non-existent and nobody had bothered to tell us. Grrrrr....
When I joined The Trio, Nikki Gary managed the booking schedule (and she still does). Since we were all happy to work, we obediently followed the schedules that she arranged. January and February were generally slow months, and in 2005, Meri and I requested that no bookings be accepted for the month of February so we could take a month-long trip to New Zealand and Australia. That was the only time I ever requested special scheduling. As I recall, no dates were turned down because of it anyway.
As for birthdays, anniversaries and such, we celebrated those on the road if necessary. One year Meri flew out to Laughlin to surprise me on my birthday. Or maybe she came to surprise George on his birthday. Either way, we were both surprised.
In general, the answer to your question is - work came first - family second.
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