Merlefest Mania

Well we all survived Merlefest and had a great time. My parents drove out from Arkansas to join us for a weekend full of Bluegrass. They have been very gracious to take care of our dog, rent collecting and vehicle storage while we have been gone so James decided to give the old people a thrill and introduce them to their first music festival. My dad loves bluegrass and my mom likes anything you can dance to (I guess that's where I get it from) so Merlefest was a perfect fit. They even got here a day early so James & my dad were able to fish the pond at our campground. Luckily we had steaks in the fridge so we didn't have to depend on them or else we would have gone hungry. Sorry Tuna, once again no fish pictures.

We had 2 days of really nice weather and then yesterday it started off nice and then poured down rain. In less than 10 minutes I went from reapplying sun screen to grabbing my rain coat. After a 30 minute 'frog choker' as any good bluegrass fan would say, the sun came out and teased us for an hour and then it started raining again. Her frustration at the weather caused my mom to let out her strongest string of expletives.. 'well shoot a monkey'. No wonder I don't cuss, I never knew how.

The festival was extremely well run and everyone was so nice, good ol' southern hospitality I suppose. They had free parking with shuttles driven by the boy scouts, well their leaders not the actual scouts. There was also a church group set up across from the shuttle stop handing out free donuts, ice water, and hot dogs. The stages were all run very well and kept on time. They even had a tent just devoted to dance, you could learn how to clog or square dance or watch other people who actually knew what they were doing. The food was even reasonably priced. But the best thing of all was they had these portable trailer bathrooms with real stalls and sinks! Yes, it was a good festival. I do have to say it is a little intense to listen to over 30 hours of any kind of music in 3 days, so safe to say if I don't hear another banjo for a year I will not be sad.

James was so sweet to my parents, making us breakfast and a fire every morning and splurging for the reserved seats so we didn't have to lug chairs or sit on the ground at the main stage, yes he is good to his in-laws.

My parents left today to go see my sister Juli & her family in Savannah. Janet is trying to go into premature labor (she is not due until June 8th) hopefully she can hold off at least until they get home next week. Keep Janet in your thoughts and prayers, even baby nurses get nervous when they have to go to the hospital.

James and I are off tomorrow morning for Virginia. The clock is ticking so the next month is going to be action packed.

We hope all is well with everyone and we will see some of you soon!

Love, Kim

Pictures: Very cool inverted rainbow that came out after someone sang 'I'll fly away' as a tribute to Merle watson (coincidence?), my mom & dad between bands, my mom & I soaking up the sun, Doc Watson bluegrass legend, James banging his knee while trying to take a picture, I just wanted you to see the sacrifices he goes through :)

Chimbley Rock

After a day of trying to conjure up who the mysterious commenter T.W. was on our blog with their recommendation of Castle Rock, Kim and I figured out it must have been Tony Wing a.k.a. Santa Claus or the local expert on everything good 'ol boy. First of all, Tony, let me tell you that it isn't Castle Rock it is Chimney Rock or might we say Chimbley Rock since we are from Arkansas. Second of all, let it be known that when you suggest something to Kim she then fixates on it, researches it and if she likes the brochure enough it becomes a must visit. This is all fine and good Tony, but you must also remember that I am the one that is your friend and you shouldn't suggest places with 986 stairs going UP! Yes, there is an elevator, but Kim does not take elevators if there are stairs. I have to ask, Tony, did you take the stairs or the elevator hmmm?
It was a very cool place and definitely worth the $14 entry fee and the 986 stairs. My buttocks just recovered. I have to come clean and say that it was a good recommendation, so thanks Tony! And yes, the Last of the Mohicans was partially filmed there and no Julie there weren't any visions of Daniel Day Lewis with his shirt off.

We cruised up the Blue Ridge Parkway to our campsite at Raccoon Holler near Wilkesboro, North Carolina to get ready to see the music festival. Kim's parents, Bob and Karen a.k.a. the IN LAWS, arrived yesterday afternoon and we are all fixin' to head down to check out the pickin' and a grinnin'. B3moosed hasn't commented in a while so I don't know if he is still reading this blog, but I have to thank my father for introducing me to Doc Watson many years ago. I remember stealing the tape and bringing it to Arkansas and then Bill's friend Steve McIntosh stole it from me. Doc is 85 now Dad and still getting with it. I will see if I can find that c.d. and a t-shirt for you to make up for the thievery of 27 years ago. Doc's son Merle died many years ago in a tractor accident and they have this festival in his memory, this is the 20th anniversary of Merlefest. The absolute best in this genre of music show up for this event, so it ourt to be good. If any of you-ins have a problem with my poor grammar and vocabulary you can kiss my ass! I think ass is the strongest word I am allowed to use with out censorship by the Baptist wife.

If you are very lucky, I might include some snippits and pictures from Merlefest in the next blog.
I will let Kim comment on the festival, she will have had her fill of bluegrass and newgrass within the first 2 hours and I am sure she will be ready to vent.
Talk to you soon.
James

photos

1. Halfway up Chimney Rock

2. At the top of the falls

3. Stairs, lots and lots of stairs

4. Linville Falls

5. Tom Dula Hill on Blue Ridge Parkway

Just Some More Pictures

Here are some more pictures of the Smokies and surrounding area.

Photos

1. Abrhams Falls

2. Mingo Falls

3. Jackson County Courthouse

4. Town of Sylva, NC

5. Cheoah Rapid without dam release water (compare to last blog kayaker)

Cheoah and Other Cherokee Names

I feel kind of at home with all of these Cherokee names on things. Cheoah, Oconoluftee, Nantahala, Tsali, and so on reminds me of the Western Cherokee names we see in Oklahoma such as Nowatta, Muskogee, Tahlequah, Sallisaw and Broken Arrow. It is so nice that we name all of these towns and wilderness areas with Cherokee names and give them casinos and bingo parlors to reconcile for giving them small pox, lying to them, kicking them out of their lands and relegating them to small reservations and such.

We had a great time in Eastern North Carolina and the Smoky Mountains, but we had to move on. I think that we have to have constant change of scenery or we get bored. We are spoiled and we can't afford to linger or we might figure out how sick of each other we are. We went on a nice hike in the Deep Creek area of the Smokys where we met two men on the path that insisted we drive through the Cade's Cove area as it had some neat historic buildings, so we did that a couple of days later. If I want to see this kind of history in buildings all I have to do is drive out to Tuna's house. Hell, the resident is even missing a tooth to lend to authenticity. It was a nice bike ride though and I have included a picture of one of the houses in case you guys want to see how my brother lives in Elkins. Sorry for the roast there fish, I can't help myself.

My wife is already sawing lumber in the back of the r.v. and she just hit the hay 10 minutes ago. I do love the woman, but I have to refrain from boxing her in the back of the noggin on some nights when I wake up for no reason from a glorious dream only to hear the Homelite gettin' after it next to me. Actually the David Bradley comes to mind, that was the monstrous chainsaw that Huber had that if I remember right had an engine big enough to power a Harley on it. I am sure that my prime time flatulence is no dream for Kim either. We have headed up the Blue Ridge Parkway to go see Merlefest, which is a music festival in honor of Merle Watson the late son of Doc Watson who is now about 80 years old and still flatpickin' the heck out of a guitar. I am going to try and get you caught up with some rapid fire updates now that we have reception.

Pictures

1. Whore frost (Kim's phrase not mine) on the trees at Clingman's Dome in the Smokys. Kim took the picture, which I think is one of the best (rookie luck)

2. Cheoah River rapid

3. Deep Creek

4. Tuna's House

5. Kayaker on the Cheoah

Still in the Smokies

Well we are still hanging out in the Smokies and still having a great time! We have had a very full week from hiking in the snow to floating down the river. You would have to stay here several years I think before you could even begin to conquer all the outdoor activities. We have covered a whopping 30 of the 600 hiking miles and that is just in the park alone!
We stayed at a campground earlier in the week with a trout stream running through it. We were actually on the Cherokee Indian reservation and they stock the lake with a bunch of fish. They even tossed in a bunch right behind our campsite. It was a little sad to see the fish flying through the air only to land in the middle of a rapid, but of course James was excited to see that many new adversaries being added to the mix. James restrained himself and even though the limit was 10 he only caught what we needed for dinner. It was delicious!
Wednesday we headed back to the Tsali campground to enjoy some more biking and kayaking. Last week when we were here we almost had it all to ourselves and this weekend it is packed, what are all these people thinking? Don't they have jobs?
We rented a two person ducky (sort-of like an inflatable kayak) on Thursday and floated the Nantahla. It was a bright sunny day but the water was cold! James did an awesome job of navigating us so we hit every rapid with maximum spray. We did make it successfully over the falls so I was able to keep up good spirits. The camera man was asleep at the switch so I can't prove to anyone I did it, you will just have to trust me.
Today is another nice day so we will probably go for a bike ride or watch the carnage on a class V river that they are releasing. James knows I couldn't drive the RV back to Arkansas by myself so he is restraining from any life threathening situations. We went for a long hike yesterday so we feel a weird since of entitlement to be bums today. Weird how that works. It is gorgeous here, the trees have finally started to bloom out and it is really pretty. Sort-of like the Ozarks only higher.
I hope that Jeff & Meme made big bucks at the MS garage sale and that the weather was nice for all those who walked in the race for the cure.

Love, Kim

Asheville

We are sitting in a coffee shop in Asheville, N.C. Kim is drinking her hot cocoa and doing a sudoku. I don't get it. If you have finished a suduko you are done with that chapter in your life and it is time to move on. Crosswords have lots of character and themes and sudokus are just numbers folks! This is the same girl that can sit and play solitaire on the computer for hours on end. I get bored, I must have change of scenery or challenge.
We are enduring this rebirth of winter here. There was actually snow falling this morning with temps right at freezing. It's April for cry eye. Cry eye, pete's sake, my lands, dear me, for the love of pete, oh me, sake's alive and all of those old folks sayings that I learned from my Grandma Mardy and have no idea how they originate. Anyway. I drove around the R.V. campground we are staying at with this old fart that runs the place and he had quite a few sayings too, I just couldn't understand most of what he was saying. I thought arkie accents were thick. "You-ins whant a slip next to the crik ere or you best not be cidin' for the wife lest she whoops your ass. These ere done got sewers, but whatch out cuz the tea kettle's 'bout full and she might cum boundin' up through the pipe on ye!" We got a beautiful spot right next to a set of rapids, so the old fart did me right and Kim figured I had 'cided on a right good spot.
I caught a few trout right out the back door as it were. We are going to feel awfully guilty about playing Nintendo with that crik flowing right behind us. We plan to do a little hiking in the Smoky's tomorrow. I can't believe that I am 42 and just now realized that it is Smoky Mountains and not Smokey. Damn illiterates. I had to spell check illiterate, that's funny.

Photos
1. Dick's Creek Ledge on Chattooga
2. Narrows - Chattooga River
3. Painted Rock Rapid
4. Bull Sluice
5. Me running Nantahala Falls

Sorry about not keeping up with the blog-a-day promise. I forget that blogging is reliant on good internet connection, which our latest campground does not have. We are down in a canyon surrounded by North Carolina hills in the Tsali Recreation Area. If you are an avid mountain biker you should come here, there are 40 miles of single track trails running through the hills and alongside Fontana Lake. We are only 10 miles from the Nantahala Outdoor Center, which is paddling mecca for the Eastern United States. We stopped and checked out the scene, which consisted of many good looking hippie chicks. I made the comment "maybe I should get in shape and become a raft guide and I could have a mid-life crisis with one of these paddling chicks!" Kim said "do you really think you could do that?" I said "well, of course you have to consider how much money you would lose in the divorce and if it really would be worth it, but anything can happen." Kim replied "I meant being a raft guide!" "Oh, oh, yeah, uh sure." I said. Luckily Kim decided to take my piggish comment in stride as usual.

We biked all but one of the trails with our road bikes. I busted the right brake handle on my bike and Kim got a flat tire, so we decided to back off a little. It is hard enough to slow my bulk down with two brakes, let alone one. I paddled the Nantahala River while Kim waited for me by the falls to watch me run it. I was the only one on the river and when I approached the falls I could see Kim and a few others waiting to see me run them. Of course I flipped over at the bottom. As I was going over I could only think, "please let me get my roll. Lord don't make me swim in front of my wife and her fellow onlookers!" Luckily I hit the first roll of the season perfectly and avoided an embarrassing swim to shore. We returned to camp to find that we were not the only ones in the camp ground anymore and that the new campers decided that of all the 40 some odd sites that the one right next to us was the most perfect. It didn't take long to find out why the man had occupied the neighbouring site, he was the neighboring kind. "Howdy folks! You been here long? My son and I just hiked the Appalachian Trail for a couple of days." It was a conversational barrage for the next 3 hours or three days for that matter. Scott and little John Paul were very nice though and they epitomized a good father, son relationship.

Well, that is all the mega-exciting news for now. I will hopefully get back to you with some pictures of the Chattooga River soon.

Pictures.

1. you can tell Kim is thrilled about holding up another critter for photography.

2. Kayaker getting munched int "the Thing" on Oceana falls.

3. Kim at Black Rock Mountain State Park in Georgia.

4.Tallulah Gorge in the sunlight.

5. North Carolina hills in the morning

I have looked and pondered the whitewater of the Tallulah Gorge in Georgia from the canyon rim. I have photographed some of the action on the Oceana Falls with my tele-photo lens and I have decided that I am too big a whimp to endeavor this run of river. There are somewhere around 100 boaters here that are doing it. I really don't think that it is the most challenging section of river in the East by any stretch, but it is labeled class 5 and it does contain the Thing at Oceana, which is a 15 foot tall ball of froth that results from the river pile driving down a 50 foot chute onto a rock. After hiking down 496 stairs into the canyon and then having no way out but the river one does not want to have a bad day. It is fun to watch though. They only release this water 5 times a year, the rest of the time it is diverted down a long underground tube to the generation plant and they only let about 50 cubic feet per second trickle through. Today they are releasing 500 cfs and tomorrow 700cfs, it is beautiful.

It has been raining for three days straight, which this area needs, so I am not going to wish it away, but I am longing for the sun again. We have only had about a dozen days of rain in our 9 months off so far, so we can't complain. We purchased a Nintendo Wii at Wal-Mart and we have been bowling and playing baseball in the back of the r.v. We have almost had a couple of disasters from swinging the controls around in such a confined space, but so far we are still married. We explored the "Alpine" town of Helen, Georgia today. It was in a nice setting, a little cheesy though. Evidently the town council voted in 1968 to make this town a little Switzerland to attract tourist dollars and it kinda shows still. We drank a couple of $7 German beers and bought a couple of small things in the Dutch import shop and called it good.

I am starting to sound like a boring high school girl now, talking about shopping and other unimportant #$@! I can't believe that I have been relegated to replacement cussing in my prose. Kim is such a prude and she is convinced that every one of our precious nieces and nephews is reading this by themselves, therefore I am being cool. Here are some pictures of a foggy, rainy Tallulah Gorge. Hopefully I will have some sunny ones soon.

New blogs coming quick now, since we are in beautiful country.

James

Note the perspective change once the kayaker is in the picture of the Thing on Oceana (3rd and 4th pics)

Happy Birthday to James!!

Happy Birthday to my schweetie!!

What can I say about James that everyone doesn't already know. I love his humor, his strength, his honesty (most of the time I love it), and his generous nature. He makes me laugh every day and never says no to a spoon. I love his intellect and his convictions and I love how much he loves his family. I love spending this time together. I love how he is always calm in the face of adversity when I am usually freaking out. I think it is an amazing testament to his patience that he hasn't left me at a rest area yet. I feel so blessed to have him as my husband and best friend. I also love how he tolerates my cheesiness!

We have made it back into Georgia to the Tallulah Gorge. Tomorrow & Sunday they will be releasing water from the dam, they only do this 4 times a year so James is very happy to be here for the occasion. His birthday present is that we are here, his early birthday present to me is he is not going to tempt the class 4 & 5 rapids so hopefully he can see his next birthday.

I will let him write next time so he can thank everyone for the kind birthday wishes.

Love, Kim

I had to include that picture of him on Easter because he looked so cute climbing in & out of the back of the van.

Southern Living

Hello faithful blog readers, and anyone who has accidentally stumbled across our adventures.

Speaking of adventure………..we had a very exciting week in my sister’s drive way in Savannah, maybe not exciting but it was fun. James worked very hard on his ’uncle of the year’ title. Shooting off rockets, giving piggy back rides, fixing broken bikes and overseeing intense War of the Monster games. I earned a whole new respect for stay at home mothers everywhere after spending a week with my sister. She starts the day at the crack of dawn to get Chloe & Sophie off to school then spends the rest of the day entertaining a very energetic 4 year old, who just when you are about to start laundry or do some dishes looks at you with her adorable smile and says ‘peas play with me just a little bit’ , then picking Chloe & Sophie up from the bus only to begin shuttling them to softball, tennis, brownies, piano, & church while still trying to entertain Maya and hoping everyone gets homework done. James and I were exhausted just watching the progression of events. We would lure them out to the RV & hop them up on candy just to see how close we could bring Juli to a break down. She is a seasoned veteran so we were unable to phase her.

We really did have a great time. It was fun to be there for Easter and James even went to church without much of a protest. We also got to see my cousin Robin again at Easter and she went to the movie with the girls and I one day. We spent one day in downtown Savannah going on a trolley tour, it was gorgeous because all the azaelas were blooming. We also went to a kid free dinner one night with Juli and my wonderful brother-in-law Chris. Chris and James get along very well, or at least we think they do. They pretty much just played NFL football so I am not sure if they actually had to have any conversations. We also packed everyone into the RV for a fun day at Ft. McAllister state park. It was a little chilly so we were glad we didn’t go all the way to the beach and our bar-b-que turned into a picnic in the RV. The girls were still thrilled because they got to ride in the RV while they were playing a video game, long gone are the days of the back of a station wagon and license plate games for entertainment.

James was so sweet and patient to just let me have some time with my sister and nieces. I told him it was an investment in our future since we don’t have any of our own kids. We may be dependent on our nieces or nephews to care for us in our old age. Hopefully they will remember that Uncle James made them the most popular kid on the bus for a day because of his rocket launching abilities, or that Aunt Kimby played pretend kittens with them for hours. It doesn’t matter, because they are all so sweet and so much fun. Juli is an awesome mom and it is always fun to spend time with her. I am glad that she doesn’t charge me for gum anymore. I take that as a sign our relationship has changed from more than little sister/big sister to friends. I miss them all so much already.

We left Savannah Monday morning and headed over to Charleston, SC. It is a beautiful city and we were able to find a nice campground about 30 minutes south of the city close to the beach. They say Charleston is a walking city and we feel as if we did it proud. We walked all over taking in all the neat architecture. It is very easy to imagine it during colonial or civil war times. I can’t imagine having to wear one of those big hoop skirts in the middle of the summer however, no wonder mint juleps were invented. Tonight we are at a different campground in South Carolina along the Savannah River. We have been greeted with traditional southern hospitality everywhere we have gone and have been trying to maintain a steady diet of sweet tea and sea food.

As an anonymous blogger mentioned Friday is James’ birthday. I welcome any creative ideas of birthday presents for him (PG rated please, kids do read this blog). It is very hard to purchase anything for him since he has all the money.
We hope everyone is surviving all the rain back in Arkansas and all are doing well along the West coast or wherever you may be.
Tracy- Juli & I talked extensively about Yosemite so let us know what we need to do.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Love, Kim

Pictures:
Maya at the IMAX

The Giorgianni family on Easter
James ‘Pied Piper’ Rocket man

My cousin Robin who will be going to Iraq in June

Chloe & Sophie on their bikes