Sailing with Nine of Cups

We left John's with a suitcase of clean clothes and smiles on our faces. It was a great visit. We headed back along Skyline Drive to complete our tour through Shenandoah NP. Morning fog occluded the views, but once again we found more than enough to keep us entertained. Each turnout held something new...an orb spider web heavy with dew, will-of-the-wisps floating by in odd shapes, a blue-tailed skink, a turtle just sitting beside the road taking a rest.

Skyline Drive is connected directly to the Blue Ridge Parkway and we continued along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains through the dense Washington National Forest, leaving the parkway to get to Natural Bridge. We weren't interested in the bridge at all, but rather we visited Foamhenge, a styrofoam, scale replica of Stonehenge. It was a hoot!

We'd seen a black & white brochure proclaiming the 77th Annual Old Time Fiddler's Convention in Galax (GAY-lax), Virginia and for once, our timing was good. We sat and listened to old time fiddlers competing...more than 100 of them and then dobro (resonator guitar) players and mandolins. It was a fair-like atmosphere with trailers and tents set up offering everything from candy apples and funnel cakes to chicken sticks and beans and rice. The best part of the evening was a jam session in the camping area behind the stage and vendors. Fiddles, mandolins, banjos, basses and guitars joined together in one song after another. Some musicians would leave and others would wander in to replace them and just begin playing. They were fantastic. Local folks began flatfoot dancing to the old time tunes like Polecat Blues and Mississippi Sawyer. A Blue Ridge country, cultural experience. What a trip!