Kentucky Music Week

I talked Mike into going with me to Kentucky Music Week

find out about this great event at website: www.kentuckymusicweek.com

.We left early on Friday, June 19 and made it to our destination - My Old Kentuck Home State Park in Bardstown, Kentucky around midnight. Camping spots were WAY... smaller than we had imagined from the map on the website, and also there was a severe grade on the pad. Real challenge trying to level her up. There was such a huge step to get off the porch.

We met a lot of nice people - and were graced with camping fairy gifts many nights! A nice family from Kentucky gave us a lot of firewood. Betty from Florida, in her awesome little new Shasta, brought us some delightful keylime pie ( she shared her recipe for it and a few other easy pies - which I made for our impromtu "dessert jam" )

A couple driving by gave us a thumbs up on the vardo and we invited them to come in for a tour. Thrilled to find out they were also dulcimer players here for KMW! Mary Jane and Jean were are first KMW friends and we enjoyed talking with them throughout the week.

Bardstown was a quaint little town and we walked the downtown shops and went on a trolly tour to Heaven Hill distillery.

We started off the week with a little trauma. Early Monday morning a little rain storm blew up. Mike had decided to sleep in a little tent instead of the mattress on the floor of the vardo. I sent him a text - "You dry?" reply - "no!" I put on my shoes and went out to help put a plastic sheet over the tent and as we were clipping it on I made a quick trip to the loo and came back to find Mike standing on the vardo porch saying " we need to find a hospital" I looked down at his muddy foot to see his big toenail had been ripped back. Walking in the mud with flipflops proved to be dangerousewith all the exposed roots . We called Nancy the KMW director and found a hospital fairly close. The ER doctor came into the room and shuddered when she saw Mike's toe - all bloody and muddy, nail hanging loose. I said, "You're a doctor, you're not supposed to do that" she said " I don't do well with toenails" Well after a couple of standard ER hours of waiting - the nail was removed, toe cleaned and bandaged and we were out of there - Mike hobbling with his protective boot.

We made it to Boston School the location for the KMW by around 9:30 - The classes actually started at 9, but to our good fortune there had been a fire alarm and everyone had been out of the building - so we really didn't miss much. The gods are with us!!! The week was filled with classes on Hammered Dulcimer, Autoharp, Singing and Tin Whistle for me, Mike enjoyed making two lovely stained glass pieces, a drum out of a gourd and campground cooking( he had intended on doing a dancing class - but not destined to happen with his toe situation!)

Back to the campsite one night, we found the campground fairy had left us a nice wooden step to get up on our porch, another night there was a bright orange leveling pad by the vardo! Folks were really generous. We gave a lot of tours - think I should put out a donation bucket for future improvements!

Here are a few pics with the Emma Rose dolled up in her finest (courtesy of Mary Janes blog - I borrowed these pics cause I forgot to take any pictures that week!)

I added a flower garland that has lights (purple of course) Check out the new carpet I made for the porch. These are recycled carpet tiles I have cut to form a quilt like pattern - pretty unique eh? I have some challenges keeping the pieces in place - they come with these little adhesive dots, but the rain and heat are taking a toll on them. I may try to find a way to sew them together using plastic lacing.

Check out the groovy little colorful lights I found at Wally world. They are those paper lantern styles - although they are made out of nylon - so they won't melt in the rain! They work great clipped to the spines of the umbrella .

We really enjoyed our first full week camping in Kentucky - minus the setback with the big toe! and a little muggy heat which made cooking our dinner over a campfire a real chore - gotta buy a little electric grill - sure Wally world will have something that will make dinner in less than an hour!!

Our last day in Bardstown we found this fabulous family owned restaurant - it was way too hot to try and cook over an open fire. Lunch was amazing and we made a reservation for dinner. T hen we went to visit Mary Jane and Jean at their campground - toured their big rig, saw Mary Janes new baby - an amazing sounding mountain dulcimer ( Mike said he wouldn't mind learning to play that one!) We invited them to join us for dinner. Great home style southern cooking and fun conversation - a memorable end to our week. Think we might do this one again!

First Annual Gypsy Goddess Gathering

For my birthday I decided to camp out all week at Watkins Mill campground in Excelsior Springs. A few nights of storms, but for the most part a great week with the culminating event on Saturday night - my first annual gypsy goddess gathering. I invited some girlfriends and 15 actually ventured out. Rose and her mom came up on Friday night and shared dinner with Paula P and I. They helped put up our makeshift tarps and fancy disco lights! This was a big step for Rose as she doesn't really like the "wilderness" While sitting at the picnic table eating - she screamed and leaped next to me when a snail crawled up the tablecloth by her plate. My goal is to get her to stay the night sometime this year!

Paula P from work brought her pop up camper and got a spot right next to mine. She's my hero cause she taught me how to make jello shots. We made over a 100 for this event.

April and Paula A. came up early and set up their tent and oozed in the beautiful weather - we enjoyed some hammock and lounge chair time before the festivities began.

I invited Maya Zahira to give us a little belly dance and drumming instruction. She brought scarves and drums. The yell she taught us drew just a little attention. One guy just kept hanging around the vardo - said he thought a bunch of Indians had invaded = and he thought he was going to get a free show. I talked with him for a bit and he finally went on his way.

Maya was great - gave us a little gypsy history info and taught several steps and moves. and drumming rhythms. Gonna start a tradition of the traveling sisterhood of the the scarf to keep our gypsy goddess spirit alive all year!!

Amanda works it after a few jello shots!

Angelina, Geslaine, Paula A, Paula P, April, Phyllis, Amanda and her mom and sister, my mom, Meghan, Elva are decked out in our finest gypsy apparel - skirts, scarves, and jingly drapes.

Gypsy girls chillin by the fire. We hung these tapestries on the clothesline to give us a little privacy. A couple of boys at the next site spent much of the evening peeking out of their tent window.

After Maya left, we tossed around a few more jello shots, then came a little visit from the park ranger asking us to keep it down a little - I thought we were going to be kicked out. Next year I may need to find a private place to camp so we can party and not worry about quiet hours.

Be looking for an invite the second week of June for Gypsy Goddess Gathering take 2!