1000 and counting

Well what a moment. I have had 1000 visitors to my blog. This is an odd feeling. Especially since this blog was created to vent my feelings to no one. As a matter of fact only 2 people knew it ever existed at the very beginning. So congrats to me for continuing to write here even after other people started to read it.

Today’s blog has to be devoted to the last weekend though. I have yet to blog about last weekend with my sister Tiana. I promise to do that but I have promised many that I would write of the festival and rafting. So here goes. Friday was the festival and Saturday was rafting…..

Friday afternoon I drove to a small town in West Virginia. Every year Elkins, West Virginia is host to a Summer Program devoted to American Heritage. Each week is dedicated to a type of music. They have concerts on Tuesdays and Thursday and outdoor dances every Friday. There are classes during the week to teach you various things from that heritage. Everything from singing, to dancing, to blacksmithing, to learning to play the guitar, you name it and people are brought in to teach it. The dance on Friday is a culmination of all the students have learned.

Last week was Cajun/Creole Week. Zydeco is a combination of cajun, blues and rock music that hails from Louisiana. The sound is a little faster then country. There is a different rhythm. The band includes and Accordion, a guitar, a fiddle, the drums, and I am told true Zydeco has a washboard (though there was not one at the festival on Friday)

A girl from one of the single adult wards invited those of us involved in our rafting trip to take a detour to this festival. It is in her home town. It is about a 5 hour drive from DC and we arrived about 7:30. We were welcomed like long lost children into the MacArthur home. Here we were fed and given a chance to get ready to go dancing. I, of course, dressed completely inappropriately in a t-shirt, jeans and flip flops. But no one mentioned anything to make me feel uncomfortable and I had not planned on actually dancing anyway. We also got a chance to meet Chester; Zydeco dancer extraordinaire. Chester hails from Beaumont, Texas. He travels to West Virginia for the festival every year. He is amazing to watch. So smooth, graceful and controlled. It is extremely cool. The steps to Zydeco dancing seemed simple enough when they were demonstrated, just a 4 count. Anyone should be able to do that right. Sort of a 2-step; instead of quick, quick, slow, slow; it is quick, quick, quick, quick. It should be easy right. I watched for the first couple of dances and was finally coaxed on to the floor. I proved yet again that I am a klutz. But that is okay. No one pointed or teased. I laughed and we went back to counting. After a few hours I could get the basic steps, and sometimes I was even able to do turns. I know I am pretty proud of myself too. It was so much fun. Even when I didn’t have a partner we would go to the middle of the floor and just enjoy the music. I soon learned the reasoning behind skirts on a crowded and hot dance floor. It was hot and muggy even this late at night. But no one let that slow them down. Even with everyone sweating profusely the dancing went on till midnight. Some where around my second dance I gave up on the flip flops, I went barefoot the rest of the evening. People were extremely kind. Mama MacArthur calls dances like these the great equalizer. Her favorites are Zydeco and Contra (another form of dance that I have only heard about, sort of like square dancing but different, it involves everyone on the floor dancing with each other though) She explained that you see everyone dancing with everyone. Old with Young. Rich with Poor. All Races dancing together. Gender didn’t really even matter when you needed a partner and there weren’t enough men. As long as you got to dance. The dancing was extremely pleasant.

Afterwards we all filed back to the MacArthur home and were treated to homemade Strawberry shakes. They were delicious and the discussions were lively, but by 1 am, with the realization that we would have to be up for rafting in a few hours, we started to turn in for the night. Mama and Papa MacArthur were up to see the first crowd off at 5:30 to make their 8:00 departure for rafting. The second crowd woke to the mellow tones of a dulcimer being played by Mama MacArthur. We then left by 7:00 to make our 9:30 departure time. The Macarthur’s were very good to us, they provided directions and breakfast. Mama MacArthurs was praying for us by name when we left, she didn’t want anyone hurt. She is a sweet lady.

Rafting was also fun. There are pictures. I just do not have them yet. We rafted the Lower New River. Apparently it is the second oldest river in the world, who knew? It is also called “The Grand Canyon of the East”. The rapids ranged between Class I thru Class V. With 3 sets of Class V rapids. It was not as difficult or intense as the Gauley last year, but still it was highly enjoyable. I got to swim through a couple of rapids, completely voluntary. I actually never fell out of the boat. As a matter of fact while trying to surf a specific set of rapids, me and Kyle were the only 2 that stayed in the boat with the guide. Everyone else ended up in the water. I also got a chance to go cliff jumping. Again the cliff wasn’t as high as the one that I jumped at the Gualey, but the falling sensation was the same. There is that feeling in your stomach; that tingle and jump that comes. Wahoo!!! There was also a waterfall that I got to climb up. I have decided I like bouldering much better then regular hiking. Bouldering is hiking big boulders; it is more of a scramble to get up and down. It is lots of fun. I took a camera, who knows how well the pictures turned out. But I also bought a bunch of pictures from the rafting company. They took them as we were rafting the rapids. They are fun. I will post them once I have them down loaded. By the time I got home I was exhausted. I showered, fell into bed, and slept through Sunday. I am glad I went but I think I need to pace myself. That way I don’t crash and sleep thru church anymore.

This weekend I go to camping to the Assateague Island in Maryland. I know nothing about this trip other then there is a beach and possibly wild ponies. It should be fun. I’ll let you know.