Back in February we took a trip to Snowshoe with friends. On the way there, or it could have been the way home, Cortney and Clayton mentioned they were planning to attend MerleFest and asked if we would be interested in joining. Duh. So last weekend, we all took off early from work (I unfortunately made our departure an hour later than we wanted) and hit the road to the mountains of North Carolina. Cortney's parents have a house at Blowing Rock that they have named The Outpost. It is a great house with the perfect mountain decor. Cortney's parents left us the best homemade cheese crackers and fresh fruit salad.
On Friday, we arrived around 8 something and quickly got to work on a dinner of grilled shish kabobs (yall know I love a kabob), rice and veggies. It was delicious. We drank some brews and watched a replay of the royal wedding. I don't know if it was the quiet mountains or a long work week, but I was catching flies in my mouth and snoozing before the royal couple even kissed on the balcony.
On Saturday the boys were up early to go turkey hunting while Cort and I snoozed the morning away. Conveniently, we awoke just as they were returning unfortunately empty handed. Cort made some delicious baked oatmeal - seriously so good - for breakfast and then we prepared to depart for the day. As we were cleaning up breakfast, I noticed a bird INSIDE the house. Jeff and Clayton quickly got to work rescuing the poor thing and showing him the door. We spent the early afternoon exploring Blowing Rock and checking out some shops, made a quick stop at the grocery store for some mixers and snacks and then regrouped at the house before making the trek to Wilkesboro for MerleFest.
Read the history of MerleFest here. It is a mostly bluegrass music festival that takes place annually at the Wilkes Community College. The lineup of artists was impressive and we listened to great music all day.
We started off setting up our chairs and stuff at the Merle and Doc Watson Stage which seemed to be the main stage. We walked around for a bit to get familiar with the other stages and then settled back at home base for a little while and listened to The John Hartford String Band. We then moved on to the Hillside Album Hour with The Waybacks and Joan Osborne covering The Allman Brother's Eat a Peach Album. This was probably my favorite part of the day. Afterwards, we headed over to our home base again and got some dinner and then settled in to listen to The Sam Bush Band and a little Lyle Lovett. As we were heading out, we decided to stop in at the tent where Donna the Buffalo was playing. It was like everyone in there had taken happy pills before the show (maybe they did). Everyone was smiling, dancing and LOVING every second of the show. About halfway through their set, one of the members of Donna the Buffalo introduced a special surprise guest. Zac Brown. It was definitely cool to see him so close up.
In true Courtney inappropriate sleeping time fashion, I slept the whole way back to The Outpost. Sorry!
On Sunday morning we woke up, ate a light breakfast and took off for a platform near The Outpost with amazing views. It was well worth the short little hike up there. We then returned to the house, changed and headed to Boone, home of the Allen's alma mater, Appalachian State University. I hadn't been to Boone since Senior Skip Day in high school so I was excited to return.
We ate lunch at Courtney's favorite restaurant there called Our Daily Bread and then quickly visited the General Store across the street where Jeff bought fireballs and fire gummies.
The trip was so fun and thanks to Cortney and Clayton for showing us such a good time and thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Turner for letting us stay in their beautiful house!
No comments:
Post a Comment