Hello all! I haven’t been online much as I’ve been very busy with my new Salvi Daphne 47SE. I’m moving back to my university in Virginia from my home in New Hampshire (about 13 hour drive) during the last weekend in August and I would like your suggestions on a few aspects of this move.

1) We managed to acquire a minivan which is *just* big enough to hold my parents and I, plus both my pedal and lever harp, along with all my musical paraphernalia and school “stuff”. The van is in great shape, but we just discovered that the air conditioning is broken and it will take a lot of money to fix. We can’t afford to fix it after spending over $1,000 on the padded travel case and extra set of strings for my pedal harp. If the weather is only about 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit, and we are traveling with the windows down for a breeze, and I put either a white sheet or space blanket over the pedal harp, it should be fine, right?

2) My dad is quite the inventor and he is working on a new kind of harp cart. I’m a Nervous Nelly and I need you to squelch my fears. His idea was to lay the harp onto a 4-wheeled cart on its column, so it would be lower to the ground and less likely to tip over as I’m wheeling around campus by myself. (I’m sure you all know that an upright harp in the case is basically a giant sail waiting to get blown over….) Since it’s a common practice to column load a harp into a vehicle, it should be fine that way on a cart too, right?

3) We also need to fit a humidifier into the van. We would have enough room for it if we kept my lever harp (Dusty Strings Ravenna 34) upright on its feet between the two front seats. There are D-rings for backpack straps on the padded case for that harp. If I attach tie-down straps to those rings and then to the front seats of the van, the harp can’t tip over in any direction. What do you harpists who travel with harps a lot think of that set up? As long as nothing can bang into the levers and it can’t tip over, it should be fine, correct?

Sorry for the long-winded post but my harps are my most prized possessions and I am always a little paranoid about them getting damaged somehow. (But when your instruments collectively are valued at over $25,000 a little paranoia is good! hahaha) I’m just driving my dad crazy because he says it will be fine but I would like a little assurance…. Thanks in advance! You guys have always been the BEST. 🙂