JULY JAM ON THE SHENANDOAH (Page 4 of 6)

We left the house this morning and went straight to the Martin Factory for our FREE tour (in PA).  it was... A W E S O M E!!!!  As a "tour gift" everyone received a little "piece of Martin"  The wood cut out from the sound holes are all laser etched with the Martin Logo, year, and some other info which is pretty cool (I'm planning to stain and varnish mine and keep it forever).  Then we headed on further south, randomly found a tiny little barbeque place for dinner which turned out to be, in my husband's words, "Better than any BBQ" he's ever had (between NY and California!!) and then decided to finally stop when we hit Virginia.  There's no way we were going to set up camp this evening.  So, here I sit in a King size bed after relaxing in our in room jacuzzi tub using my laptop.  I'm looking forward to the weekend, but I'm going to completely enjoy tonight's sleep in this cozy bed before the weekend in a tent.

I am looking forward to meeting everyone and if there's any wifi and I have time while the men are fishing I'll post up some pics... otherwise, see the rest of you all Monday!  Have a GREAT WEEKEND CHORDIANS!!!! 

I'll be there all weekend for you guys bringing wives.  I camp just fine, but I don't care to fish.  This is my peaceful relaxation weekend away from the kids... I don't care if there's a few bugs, and I'm extra happy there's going to be more than a few guitars.  Bring the ladies along and let them know I brought my hot pink nail polish.  LOL!

hey jets,I have been laughing at this one that would be really a suprise too some of them. have a great time there!!

This sounds like a blast in the making..  and living on the other side of the river (in MD) I wish I could have joined in..  Can't wait to hear all the stories.. and perhaps new songs written on the fly..
Enjoy..  the weather promises to be quite nice... 
Deb

Heading out there now....

Got off a little later than planned. Tom Tom says 6:30 is when we should arrive....

The satellite radar shows the weather has been good and no rain. I'm guessing everyone's had a blast last night and are pumped to do it all again.

I wonder who has the sorest fingers and the biggest headache from to many wobbly pops.

Sure do wish I was there.

Kenny

Having a great time! Had to drive 10 miles for cell svc/3G... headiing back now. See ya tomorrow! AWESOME MUSIC AND YUMMY DRINKS!

Normtheguitar and I arrived back to my house.  We were the first to arrive and the last to leave.  I took nearly everything I own, I believe, to be sure there was enough to go around.  In the several days, we enjoyed comfortable rest in the king size beds of my camper, canoeing, fishing, kayaking, and most of all playing music until all hours of the night.  We did manage to put rather a large dent on the cooler contents (both food and beverage).  The weather was perfect.  Warm days and nights cool enough that we wore sweaters and the campfire was both large and welcome.  My friend Roger (not a Chordian) put on a light show trying to ignite some white gas powered lanterns.  There was some fantastic dialogue. 

Some one liners I recall, and will likely recall more.

Jim (Mekidsmom's hubby) to Dirty Ed: "I thought my guitar was broken until you played it.

Guitarpix (or perhaps Jim) to Dirty Ed after he played a guitar in a banjo style: "If you bought a banjo, the money wouldn't go to waste." 

I should have written them down.  There was quite a lot of witty banter. 

Oh, and also we had a 'possum and a raccoon that visited us often.  The raccoon came out and sat beside my friend Roger late one night when Roger got a snack.  I think it was wishing it could sing, because it haunted the song circle Thursday night when it was just Normtheguitar and I and also Friday night.  On Saturday, there were a lot of other campers partying and going strong, so our raccoon friend abandoned us for better (or at least different) company. 

Lots of fish caught.  Many, many, many, many songs sung.  And an absolutely unreasonable quantity of beef eaten.

- Zurf

There were a lot of pictures.  I took few myself, between playing host and just playing, there was little time for me to photograph.  However, a few people seemed to be physically attached to their cameras and have promised to send the pictures to me or to post them to a public album for viewing. 

I did ask a friend to take a picture of all the Chordians together.  I still haven't unloaded the truck and camper - just enjoying the air conditioning and not sweating for a few hours.  Once things are put away properly, I'll start sorting through the photos and post what is worth posting to a public Picasa album. 

- Zurf

Of course, the picture where the guys are heckling me is the only one Jim got where everyone's looking at the camera!  Obviously I am in front.  From left to right in the back we have GuitarPix, Dirty Ed, Zurf, Jets, and NormTheGuitar.

More pictures can be found here:  https://picasaweb.google.com/mekidsmom/ … erJam2011#

I'll be a bit uploading... and then maybe tomorrow I can work on some of the videos and sound files. 

I arrived around noon Friday and saw a familiar face - Zurf's friend Roger, He informed me we had three campsites so I picked out a spot near Jets stomping ground.  Saw a red car with NY tags and assumed it had to be Amie and Jim so I went over to introduce myself. Every blue moon or so I meet someone I instantly like and that was the case with Amie and Jim - within minutes were were gabbing like old friends. Next to playing around the campfire in the evenings, the time I spent BSing with Jim was my favorite thing to do (plus munching on large chunks of dead cow and sipping the Jack and ginger ale they provided). 

Putting up a tent in the hot sun had broken out quite a sweat, but Jets (Jeff) invited me to sit in the shade at his campsite.  Before long our guitars came out and we had an afternoon jam going with Jim joining us as our audience. Jeff is one hell of a songwriter, and I really enjoyed listening to his lyrics. We played so much that by the time Zurf and company showed up from their day on the river, I was already hoarse.  I was introduced to Paul and found out that evening that "that old dude rocks".  Pix (Chris) and BJ showed up and I was disappointed that he was too tired to join in on the pickin', but we all understood that he was pretty tired.  We played until around midnight although "quiet time" was supposed to commence at 11.  As we didn't get any complaints from other campers, we must not have been too loud.

While others either fished or hung out at the campground Saturday, I drove a "circle route" and visited the Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Civil War Battle sites.  It was humbling to view the ground that so many had bled on 150 years ago.  I probably bored everyone by playing some Civil War songs I knew or wrote for the first hour or so of the picker's circle Saturday night. We had a great time playing, Jim finally pulled out his guitar and played a couple songs - even teamed up with Zurf on one.  Amie shared her fantastic voice with us (I think Jim should just drive a tour bus for her), Paul played one great song after another, Jeff continued to grab us with his lyrics and Chris finally played a tune for us.  Zurf (bless his heart) always seems to pull out a tune that matches whatever the mood is at the time and add to the evening's enjoyment. I had a great time playing and was honored that the group seemed to enjoy my songs.  We played until about 1:30 Sunday morning.  Jeff's family sat with us and I enjoyed talking to his grand daughter - an absolutely beautiful child.  I could see where she gets her good looks from - grandma and mommy - lord knows it wasn't from Jeff (bless his heart).

I had a wedding to attend Sunday, so I headed out at around 6 am for the 7 hour drive.  I really hated to leave, but hopefully we'll get together again.

I told Zurf that since he put the Jam together, it was his responsibility that everyone had a good time.  As he didn't receive any complaints, I must assume a good time was had by all.

Dirty Ed