So Josh and I went to
The Festy Experience a couple weekends ago. We camped out, enjoyed the great outdoors, and listened to a lot of fun music. The lineup was mostly bluegrass-type stuff, so that's right up our alley. And it took place at a brewery--also right up our alley.
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Day one and we are having fun! |
I will admit it was not my favorite camping experience. I like having our own private campsite, with a picnic table, real toilets nearby, and running water. (Clearly I'm not into backpacking. Yet?) Instead, we were cramped between some bushes and a parking lot with a bunch of other people and too few porta-potties. Josh and I are also old and need our sleep, which is hard to come by when a bunch of people who have been drinking for a long while come back at the end of the night and want to hang out for hours being noisy. But after all that I will admit that camping was still fun. A couple nights in a tent (on an air mattress) is always a fun break.
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Our camp area early on Saturday morning. |
So we got to The Festy Friday afternoon, set up camp, and then listened to music. We went back to our campsite for dinner--beans and rice plus peas and corn. Then it was back to the music, with dessert in the brewery restaurant. After a few songs of the headlining band (
Infamous Stringdusters) we were tired and called it a night.
Saturday I got up relatively early, ate some breakfast, went to "base camp" to buy a cup of coffee, and got geared up for a run. Josh and I drove about 14 miles down the road from the festival to the head of a rail trail, where I ran 14 miles while he walked and read. It was a nice (and flat!) trail that went along a couple streams, and the fall leaves were beautiful. I did, however, see my first big wild snake, which was essentially right under me before I noticed it in mid air. I yelped and it scurried in fear, but luckily it was black and I keep hearing how those aren't the scary kind. Whew.
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About to begin my run, sporting a fashionable "blaze orange" hat. Because better safe than shot during hunting season in rural Virginia. |
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The trail. |
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Trail and river. |
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Old rail car. |
After the run we went back to camp and took showers in the portable shower truck they had at base camp. I had to wait a good while before it was my turn, but the water was warm so I was happy. After showers we listened in on a Backpacking 101 workshop, and then took a nap.
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Napping with the rain fly off was glorious. |
After getting some rest we headed to the festival to listen to music. We also visited the vendor booths and ate food.
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Josh got an "Elvis" burger, which included peanut butter and bacon on a cheeseburger. He loved it. |
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With our tickets, everyone got reusable steel pint cups. Nice way to cut back on trash and go home with a souvenir! |
After several music sessions we once again called it an early night. This time we used earplugs though, which helped a lot. Apparently our rowdy neighbors got the whole camp to sing happy birthday in the middle of the night and set off firecrackers, but I didn't notice.
Early Sunday morning it rained, and all of Sunday was cold and dreary. But music-wise it was my favorite day. We started with a pancake breakfast. It sprinkled some, but wasn't too bad.
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Sliced banana and strawberry jelly on a pancake in the rain! |
We also got some coffee at base camp and heard a little gospel music, then went back to the tent where Josh slept more and I read for school. (Got a whopping 25 pages read all weekend, which was not really ideal...) Then we packed up our campsite and headed to the festival for the rest of the day.
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Della Mae, a fun all-female bluegrass band. |
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Tony Trischka on the banjo and some other good musicians. |
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Whoah, check out this guy's dreadlocks! |
To warm up a little we ate dinner back at the restaurant. Dancing also helped keep us warm. The weather wasn't
too bad though--kind of fun to be bundled up in the fall.
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Notice the fog in the mountains behind Josh. |
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Leftover Salmon had a natural fog machine for their set! |
After hearing a few songs of the last set, we finally headed home. It was a good weekend overall!