Long Neglect

Oh, my silly little blog, I have long neglected you!
But suddenly the work is done, and a holding pattern commences. The baby is napping, Russell is on a plane bound for NC, we signed a lease on a house, I have a job with the nearby Trader Joe's in Santa Rosa, and there's nothing to do but wait.
California is as incredible as I had hoped. The weather is weird - cool and foggy, hot and dry, good for sleeping in the mornings and changing to excellent for afternoon excursions. The produce at the local market is noteworthy and difficult to deny. We're on a tight budget, so I haven't yet begun to indulge in the 50 different types of tomatoes, mounds of stone fruits that are fragrant, ripe, and juicy, more breeds of melons than I've ever seen before. Even the city, San Francisco, boasts so many fruit trees and flowers that it actually smells good - the first big city I've ever experienced that didn't reek of too many people, trash, and fumes. Instead it smells of jasmine, lavender, and countless flowers I can't even name. Here at the Berkeley/Oakland border, where we're staying until our house opens up next week, there's a lemon tree in the front yard with fruits like small footballs, and the planters in the back boast all sorts of herbs and greens. The flowered tree that stands as tall as the house is home to amazing little hummingbirds, the males of which have metallic red heads that shift and shine in the sunlight. A house up the street proudly displays a small redwood tree, larger than any pine in a front yard in NC. Next door there is a massive growth of aloe, and the lavender grows wild out of cracks in the sidewalk. There's color everywhere, bees and birds, ground squirrels, and blooms to enjoy.
There are more murals here than anywhere else I've ever seen. The local cannabis dispensary, CBCB (Cannabis Buyers Club of Berkeley) is covered in a scene from the coral reefs, with octopuses, eels, fish, and undersea plants. Another restaurant up the way shows jazz musicians playing, the Starry Plough Irish Pub is covered in images from constellations and Irish folklore - and that's just on my walk to the Berkeley Bowl.
I'm in love with this place, and I hope against hope that we can make it work here. Our house in Rohnert Park is about an hour north of here, where it is cheaper and there is more room. I'm amazed at the place we found - there is such a vast difference in available housing in our price range from one city to the next. We wanted to be closer, but the same $2,000/month in Novato would have gotten us a condo with no parking, no yard, an annoying HOA, no garage, and no storage. In Petaluma we found a similar house, but run-down, that shared a drive with the house next door, and required $60 just to apply to live in it - and once we turned over ALL our personal information, there was no promise we'd even be accepted. Closer still in Richmond, a 3-bedroom house surrounded by concrete and in the ghetto would run us $1,800. However, we lucked out, and by going a little further north we found a beautiful three-bedroom, two and a half bath, with a fenced back yard, large deck, 2-car garage on a corner lot in a healthy suburban neighborhood full of families, kids, and pets. It looks like Shangri-La to us, and we're all flabbergasted that we found such a beautiful place. It's the nicest house I'll have lived under my own efforts. It's also just a short drive to the redwood forests and the coasts, with many opportunities to get out of the suburbs and enjoy the BIG nature that California abounds in.
Yesterday we spend the day with Verity, the little girl who will be living with us, the daughter of our new housemate. She is cute and kind, and the relationship between her and Orion looks to be beneficial to them both. Having a housemates allowed us to find a better place to live, share the weight of childcare and food prep, and made us realize a good part of our dreams about living here in Cali.
As soon as we found a house, I went to the nearest Trader Joe's (a mere 5 miles north, in Santa Rosa) and applied right away. The First Mate gave me an interview on the spot, and called me two days later to tell me I had the job. I start in two weeks - that was even easier than I expected it to be! Now we just need to find a job for Russell... Which we knew from the start would be harder to do, but once we're here and settled, getting to know people and the area, I think something will come through for him, too. He's got school to concentrate on anyhow, so there are priorities regardless. And there's always someone free to watch the kids, which saves money for all of us!
Next week Russell will arrive with the Jeep, the cats, and a trailer full of our stuff. I can't wait to see my kitties again! I have missed them. I hope they like their new home. Though we won't have much furniture for a while, at least we'll have the essentials - like my sewing machines! He starts school on the 16th at College of Marin, and on the last week of August at Dominican University. I'm so proud of him for going back to school, taking a chance on bettering his situation, and getting out of the construction industry. I was so tired of having him come home hot, tired, and as often as not injured. His hands are already looking so much better for lack of nicks, cuts, scrapes, bruises, and broken nails. We may not have much money to throw around for a while until he's done with school and finds a new career, but I think the couple years of penny-pinching will be well worth it. Then we can look at where we want to be, re-assess our situation, and make some decisions about the rest of our lives... Maybe even have another kid!
And that's the news today. Much love!

Strike a Pose!

He's a handsome baby man.

Broke Down in Nebraska!

On Saturday morning we awoke early at Johnson Lake and started the big packing-up process, happy to know that we'd have just one more day of driving before we'd be able to have a bit of rest in Colorado, get the baby to stretch his legs, and re-up on the default world. Although our week-long stop with my family in Louisville is meant to be primarily restful, there is still a lot of stuff on our list to do. Russell needs to sign up for courses, we needed to do some banking, I need to find a used cell phone, Russell needs to get his phone fixed, etc. etc. So we need to reorganize and line up our ducks, so to speak, but we also knew we had just six hours to go before we'd be in a place with a real bed, AC, and plenty of amenities! No long car rides for a whole week! Yay! We told Orion all about how we'd be at Noni's house (my mom) that night and he'd get a good long break from the car seat...
Alas, but we were mistaken! On the Des Moines-to-Nebraska leg we started having some trouble with the car and the 'check engine' light came on, but we sort of thought it was related to over-stressing the cruise control for miles upon miles with the loaded car in the heat. The rising altitude was also a factor on my mind... A little hesitation in the engine, just a bit of a stutter... Hmm... It seemed to get better, though, and once we were stopped at the lake we sort of let is slip our minds. When we got back on the road in Nebraska, the 'check engine' light had gone off - and we figured we were in the clear!
We even left slightly unprepared: the cooler needed ice, the baby was fed but we'd had a light-to-nonexistent breakfast, and we had a limited amount of water. We weren't in dire straits or anything, but we certainly weren't totally prepared for the day ahead. After only a couple hours into the drive, the engine started stuttering badly and we were losing acceleration. We pulled over on the side of the road and called AAA. Thank goodness for them - that's a purchase that I'm constantly glad to have made!
However, the place where we stopped wasn't ideal. We were in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, and it was hot. The grass on the roadside was high and full of bugs like spiders and biting flies. It's not safe to sit in the car, so I sat under an overpass (for the shade) until I just couldn't handle the bug factor. We decided to try to get to the next exit and get off to wait for the tow truck there. Thank goodness the Subaru, my good sweet zippy girl, cooperated and got us off the highway to a Shell station. With Orion asleep in his carseat, we posted up on the porch of a restaurant that had yet to open for the day's business to wait. I scooted in to the convenience store and got us ice cream sandwiches and water, and when I came out the tow guy had already arrived.
His name was Rob and he was really nice - I appreciated that immensely, because it can be pretty luck-of-the-draw for crazy mechanic guys in the middle of the country. He towed us about 40 miles toward Colorado, to the shop he worked for: Steve's Towing and Recovery. The place is right on the Nebraska/Colorado border, a garage adjacent to the owner's house, with the usual complement of broken down, used, or half-fixed cars spread about the place. The area was beautiful - good thing, too, because we were there for a good four hours, maybe more.
Rob did a diagnostic on the car, then hooked some readers to the fuel line and took her out on the road. Bad news: we needed a new fuel pump. They had the power to fix it, but not the part - and the part wouldn't arrive till Tuesday. Suddenly we were looking at a three-night stay in a hotel in nowhere, Nebraska.
Fortunately the house had wi-fi, so we got our computers out and started scrambling for a fix to our problem. Having the car towed to Louisville would have cost roughly $600, so that was out. We then figured we could rent a car, get to Louisville, and then go back for the Subaru once it was fixed. However, a recent hailstorm had damaged enough cars in the area that all the rental cars were booked. The only hotel in the nearest town, Julesburg, CO, was a run-down motel. There was one restaurant nearby, a Subway. It was starting to look like 4 days of hell, stuck in a town primarily populated with liquor stores, with no car, one phone that only sort of worked, and a dwindling food supply. Bummer.
Thank goodness we were only about 2.5 hours out from our destination at my mom's place in Louisville. We threw ourselves on their mercy, and DB was kind enough to make the drive out to our place of stranded ennui to pick us up. We waited for hours in the yard near the shop, getting more testy and burned out as the night went on. As the sun went down a storm moved in on the horizon, and I got some amazing photos. The temperature cooled a lot in the evening, too, and that helped our state of being quite a bit.
The piece of country where the shop was located was intensely beautiful. The house was on a hill, surrounded by wheat fields and wild grasslands. The sun setting over the wheat fields was so intensely beautiful that it was almost worth the car trouble. There were jackrabbits and mourning doves all over the place on the property, and I really enjoyed sitting with the sweet little bunnies that came out to investigate us. Fortunately we did have sandwich fixings and some drinks, and the folks there were nice - though they didn't invite us in. We had access to their patio, though, so we sat out there and watched an episode of Game of Thrones.
A little while after 8 PM, DB and my mom arrived, a bit harried after driving through the storms that we could see a few miles off. We all stood and watched the amazing sky show happening across the horizons, with the burning colors of the sunset peeking out below the indigo and gray of the storms. Absolutely stunning!
Finally we arrived in Louisville, sans-Subaru and in need of some serious showers and rest. The car will be available on Tuesday, and we're borrowing a car to go pick her up. We're even trying to find a babysitter for Orion so that he is spared the extra day of driving.
Today we just kind of lazed around... But at least I caught up on blog posts! There's a few more stories I want to relate from the first leg of our drive in West Virginia - keep an eye out for those, coming soon!

Fun by the Lakeside!

Johnson Lake was really a beautiful spot. There was some old skool playground equipment, beautiful trees and plants, a nice biking path, and even an enclosure full of goats, miniature ponies, and alpacas! (Perhaps a petting zoo's permanent home?)
Orion really enjoyed playing in the calm shallows of the beach. He also got to go on his first slide and merry-go-round! He loves playing in the tents and having snacks out on the grass. He's a happy camper!

Johnson Lake, Nebraska

We drove for two days with the over-night stay in Des Moines, and decided that if we found a spot we liked in Nebraska that we'd camp for two nights, take a day off with the baby. Russell did some good research and found a campground by a lake that wasn't too far off the route. We rolled in on Thursday afternoon and decided then and there that we'd stay a for a couple of nights. It was beautiful! As we pulled into the gate the cottonwood trees were bursting with foamy fluff, which looked for all the world like a summertime snowstorm in the late day golden sunlight. We rolled in with the sunshine sparkling off the waters of the lake, and found a nice little spot to set up our tents a little ways off from the RV's.
As we were setting up we quickly discovered the only downside of the Johnson Lake area - mosquitoes! There were swarms of them, and none of our granola-crunchy 0-Deet bug repellents really worked. We kept having to reapply, and they were particularly interested in Orion. He kept getting bitten on his face because I couldn't put the repellent near his eyes, and he didn't wave the little beasts off! We scrambled to get the tents set up and get him under cover, but boy did they get him good until then. All of us, really. Fortunately the damn things aren't actually as bad as the big zebra-striped ones we're accustomed to in NC; the bites aren't as big and itchy. In any case, I've never been more happy with my screen house tent. We usually use it for shade and rain cover, and it acts like our 'living room' in the camp set up. We downright hid out in it during the evenings when the bugs were bad. Luckily, they weren't as bad the second night because there was a bit more breeze!
We mostly just lazed around our camp, took a few nature walks and photographed plants. We went to the lakeside a few times, but it wasn't really warm enough to swim for a long period of time. We encountered some rainy weather while we were there, which made for good sleeping but not the best beach going! It was a really beautiful spot and we were glad for the rest, for sure. Orion had a great time rampaging around in our tents and playing around outside. It was a good stop!

Driving through the Heartlands...

Hello, Heartland America! There's corn, and wheat, and cowboys (but not that many cows), and lots of white bread folks who seem slightly afraid of hippies! We've certainly had the eye on us in restaurants and campgrounds... Apparently we're a rare breed out here! It's a trifle unsettling, but mostly just funny. I can't imagine what people are afraid of; I suppose they assume we're out to corrupt their children and coax them to run off with the freak show like some dready pied piper.
The country out here is really beautiful though, with long rolling hills and high grasslands, plus tons of farms - huge acreages of corn and wheat. There aren't many animals, livestock or otherwise, however; I've only seen a few cow herds.
In several places on the road, most notably a rest area we stopped at for lunch, the views were miles-long stretches of undulating green with the occasional farmhouse, silo, barn, or cell tower... And all those beautiful windmills!
In Kearney, Iowa, we passed under this big wild bridge. Apparently the locals think it's kind of a joke. It was built to attract tourism, but really I don't think people would make a point of going to it. We just took photos of it through the window of the moving car. I did enjoy the pegasus statues on either end of the structure quite a bit though. Another randomly interesting roadside attraction: thanks, America!

Wind Farms!

We've had a crazy couple of days, but I'm still going to try to go in some sequence with my storytelling! Suffice to stay, we're still doing well, if carless, and hanging out in Colorado with my mom and David!
Anyhoo... We left Des Moines and got on the road to Nebraska. On the way there we went through some rainy weather, which also coincided with our cruise through some big wind farms! Yay, sustainable energy! They look so graceful turning in the wind... I took a lot of photos through the moving car window, in hopes of getting a few good ones. One of the coolest aspects of being in a part of the country where there are windmills all over is the presence of the windmill arms on the highway. We saw several trucks toting the individual blades. Up close they are so strong and swift looking. The long sweep of the blade made me think of seagulls on the wing... Very inspiring!

Just a Drive...

Today we drove from Michigan City, Indiana, through Illinois, and into Iowa, where we stopped at a hotel in Des Moines. Fortunately, a friend gave us a great hook-up when it came to hotel rooms, and we managed to get the 'friends and family' discount for the few nights throughout the trip that we planned to stay at a hotel. It was rather necessary in Des Moines, because (not surprisingly) there weren't really any couch surfers in the area. We plan on staying at a campsite in Nebraska for a night or two starting tomorrow, but for now I'm glad we're at a hotel.
The day started out without a hitch as we got in the car and got out on the road, but I was feeling unusually cranky. I suppose it's that time of the month, which is definitely not something anyone feels like dealing with when trapped in a hot car on a long trip! We did pretty well until nearly the end of the drive, but with only a few hours more to go we had to stop repeatedly; once for gas and lunch, but then again to get Russell some coffee and again for the baby, who just wouldn't calm down for the last hour or so. We kept having to find ways to distract him, but even that stopped working after a while. He just wanted out of the car... So we pushed through and got to our hotel with a big sigh of relief.
The drive today was pretty boring. The country around here is wide open farm land, mostly corn, and it's relatively flat, with only the occasional roll to the earth. It was beautiful, but somewhat unchanging.
The big event today was that we crossed the Mississippi River on the Illinois/Iowa border. For a minute we weren't sure which river it was, Ohio or Mississippi, but it was so BIG and MUDDY, it seemed pretty obvious. The bridge we went over didn't afford much of a view, but at least I got a shot of the riverboat and the barge off the north side of the bridge. Pretty cool! It makes me think of Twain and Huck Finn, of course - and not only because we saw a billboard advertising the Mark Twain Cave (www.marktwaincave.com) in Hannibal, Missouri - where he grew up. I'd love to go there, but it's not really on our route - besides, it's probably disappointingly touristy and lame. I like the idea, though!

Michigan City, Indiana

Today we mostly lazed around in the hotel and did laundry, got our stuff repacked, etc., but we did take a little time in the evening to drive into the downtown area and see the lake. We went to Washington Park, which is really quite a nice place, though is somewhat ruined by the looming cooling tower of the power plant right next to it. Lame! Why do we do that? Stupid humans...
Anyway, the park boasts a maritime museum, a green with a band gazebo and an amphitheatre, park, picnic area, marina, and of course the beach. It's weird to be on a beach with a lighthouse, water with no opposite shore, sandy beaches, seagulls, and even a lifeguard tower - but know it's not the ocean, it's a lake. A Great Lake, to be sure!
The water was a beautiful blue (though I'm a little suspicious that could be related to the power plant's off put). We walked the beach, let Orion splash in the shallows, and walked out to the lighthouse. It's really beautiful out there. I could almost see myself living here and being happy, but I think in the end I'd miss the salt.
We saw a momma duck with six babies, which really pleased Orion! So cute... It also made us curious about the wild life around here - six ducklings is a lot for one momma duck, but they all seemed to be doing good. What sort of predators would they need to worry about here? I don't know... Food for thought.
We ended the night with a little date at a nice, small family-owned restaurant called the Sahara. Russell had lambchops and I had a Fattouch salad. We also started the meal with feta-stuffed dates in a pomegranate induction. It was fabulous! Orion chowed down on my salad, too. He's funny - he'll eat almost anything I do, but he didn't like those dates a bit! I really loved the art on the wall by our table; it was a big peacock painting with three smaller complimentary pieces. If we had had the money to buy them and a home to put them in, I would have done it in a second! At least I got a photo of the big painting...
Now we're chilling, finishing up a few things before we get up and head out for Des Moines tomorrow. We're staying at another hotel; not surprisingly, there weren't any couch surfers there and the camping didn't look that great, either. However, the next stop after that should allow for some good camping, and if we like what we see we may stay a few nights in Nebraska!

Independence Day

July 4th dawned bright and early for me, mostly because the baby was up early, and I was hot in the tent. Russell had stayed out late, and he was still sleeping, but I could hear various of our friends packing up their stuff. The baby went back to sleep after nursing a bit, but it was all over for me so I got up to chat with our campmates before they headed out. Everyone but us was packed and out of there early, with the last folks leaving around 10am.
We played it smart, though, since we had already booked a hotel in Michigan City, Indiana, for that night, which is only a 2.5 hour drive. We had a lot to pack, but not far to go, so we took our time getting our stuff together. We ate a good breakfast, got everything organized, and took it nice and easy. We left the festival around 1:30 and headed to Michigan City.
It took us longer than it needed to because of traffic/road construction, but we got to Michigan City around 5 and settled in. Our whole plan was to laze around, swim in the hotel pool, do laundry, and store up some energy for the upcoming drive. Missions accomplished, all of them! We even restocked our road food at a grocery store and had a nice dinner at a Mediterranean place called Sahara. It was a good stop and we're feeling up to 100%! Plus I know Orion appreciates a break from being in the car so much...
All in all, I'd say it was a very positive and fun festival experience. Most importantly, Russell and I always do so well during all these events. It takes a lot of prep, organization, and will to do it big and do it right, like we do - and we never get frustrated with each other! I'm always so proud of us the whole time, because we never ruin our fun factor by getting snarky and fighting. It's always just easy going with us, and I think we really maximize our experience since we don't waste our energy on stupid stuff. We enjoy each other, we love the music, we are committed to teamwork, and we always look out for each other. It's really a wonderful experience to have such a great partner that I can depend on no matter what. Festivals bring that out, and I recognize what a great pair we make. I'm lucky to have found him! Cheers to a great honeymoon. More adventure awaits ahead!

Almost Famous

A common theme for us at Electric Forest was the recurring experience of having folks recognize us from previous festivals and shows. It happened a couple of times of day; one kid, dressed very fabulously, materialized out of the crowd and said he saw us a the Red Rocks SCI shows last year. Another girl stopped us on our way back to camp and said she'd seen us at Shakori Hills. People are always commenting on the baby, and since we're usually in wild costumes, Russell and I tend to get a lot of attention, too. Russell most of all - he gets tons of attention from all sorts of folks in the crowd. Even today we had a funny interaction with some kids at the beach, because they were interested in Russell's dreads. I don't mind it; I think it's fun to be a part of the spectacle rather than just an observer! You know us Burners - we like to participate!
Anyway, on Monday as we were packing up a guy camped about a block down from us came over to tell us that his girlfriend recognized us from the Rothbury '09 SCI show. She was right behind us in the crowd, and remembered us from back then. She was all excited that we had had a baby but was too shy to say anything until her guy came over and broke the ice. It's nice to be appreciated - and we do get a lot of good energy from people who are excited for us, smiling at Orion and sharing the love!

The Electric Forest

It's called Sherwood Forest, and it's in the middle of the venue at JJ Ranch. The production team does a lot of work with lights, smoke, disco balls, hanging art, art installations, a stage, inflatable weird stuff, and tons and tons of hammocks. It's shady and cool, and the trees are perfectly lined up on a grid, making for some cool visual opportunities.
My favorite was probably the big bike art piece made from reclaimed metals. It was a great place to climb around and get some photos done - too bad the light was so BLUE!

Reincarnation

A beautiful art installation in Sherwood Forest, the spot that gives "Electric Forest" its name!

Seersucker, Improved!

Russell has this seersucker suit that is dirty, stained, and holey, but still too fly not to get some love when it comes to festival costuming. We carved stamps of Deady Bears and a Terrapin Turtle and did a circle of the dancing bears on the back a year or two ago, and Russell gets tons of compliments on it.
Sunday night, I went to bed with the baby and Russell went back out to see Pretty Lights and Eoto. While he was out and about, he ran across a girl doing spraypaint stencil work on clothing. He gave her his jacket and a few bucks, but then our friend Elliot came by and gave her some more money to do the whole jacket. The photos here show the results. The work is awesome! She just happened to have the exact colors we did the bears with, and her stencils are awesome!
The design on the lower back is actually from a crop circle known at the "swallows" (http://www.greatdreams.com/crop/swallows.htm) but to us String Cheese fans it looks like a jellyfish! Either way, that jacket is now completely awesome. I couldn't have been more excited when he showed it to me Monday morning! What a score.
Makes me think we should start doing some stencil art.... Hmmm....

Crash makes me smile...

Sunday I was lounging in a shady grove near the main stage, listening to Railroad Earth and sort of dozing, when this apparition appeared in front of me. Crash always has great fun costumes on! Her steampunk get up on Saturday was even vamped up Crashypants festie style with lots of neon accessories. Her outfit Sunday was one of the best yet... I think maybe it was the wig that did it for me, but anyway, all I could do was smile when I saw her!

Bluegrass Sunday

Sunday was a bit more chill; clearly the organizers had planned it well, with two great bluegrass groups in the afternoon, followed by SCI's final set and the late night party music. We saw Railroad Earth, then the Infamous Stringdusters. When Cheese came on in the evening, they opened with a bunch of good acoustic music joined by guests from all the bluegrass bands. We did a lot of chilling in the shade during the early part of the day, I enjoyed a good lounge session during RRE's set.
We even did a little shopping, checking out all the vendors in the festival. Aside from some food, we were good about not spending tons of money during the festival. However, since it was our honeymoon (really this whole journey is an extended honeymoon, if you ask me) we decided to get something to commemorate the trip. After our recon of the hippie shopping mall offered by the fest vendors, we decided on a set of spirit hoods. They are faux fur hoods with scarf 'arms' that have pocket paws on the ends. Russell got the fire wolf, and I got the snow leopard. I love them! They're going to be great on the playa. The company is out of LA, and they donate money to support the wild animals that the hoods represent. It's a cool concept; check them out! http://spirithoods.com/
During Cheese, Steven came dancing over and we had a great time during their final show. It was, as usual, a spectacular night of music. Three nights always seems to me to be the 'right amount' of music. I feel as though I got enough time to really enjoy and be fulfilled by the experience. Three nights of SCI was more than fantastic; now I get to look forward to three nights of Yonder Mountain String Band at North West String Summit! What a summer it's been so far - and continues to be!

Hooper Enclave

Before the festival started, the EF organizers sent a request out via Facebook for hoopists to submit videos of their performances. The winners got free tickets! I suppose those folks also got together and did a bit of rehearsing or at least prior planning, because on Saturday they all got together and did a bit of performing.
It was during SCI's second set on Saturday night. We had set up our blanket and the B.O.B. in the middle of the field next to another family blanket with kids and a wagon. We had a nice, big, kid-friendly area set up. Little by little, hoopers in wild costumes with piles of hoops started gathering behind us. Once the sun went down, they all started hooping around us, and suddenly we were surrounded on all sides by fabulous hoopists - a little island of families in the midst of a freek show!
This also meant we were front-row for the actual LED hoop performance. I was the first one on the scene with a camera, and I got several good still shots and about a minute of video of the performance. It was epic! Definitely the best thing I've seen done with hula hoops, ever.

Steven and Orion

We got to spend some time with Steven, a friend of ours from Chapel Hill. He's one of our new favorite people! It was great getting to know him - he loves to dance and is full of fun energy. Orion enjoyed the company, as well!

Glow Hoop Goobs!

It's actually not a hoop; it's a set of three glowstick necklaces someone gave to Orion. He LOVED it! He danced with it all night and shook it around with gusto. He had a blast! He loves to dance, and every time a band he likes stared playing (especially Keller and SCI) he was all smiles, cheering along with the crowd. He got lots of love from folks in the crowd for all his great dance moves and big smiles.

Steampunk Saturday

Well before the festival, Crash, John, and us decided to rock our steampunk gear at the festival on Saturday.
We didn't make it out of our camp until late afternoon, just in time for Keller's set. We love our KW! Michael Kang, the mando player from SCI, and Keith Moseley, the bassist from SCI, came out to play with Keller - which was awesome!
We were all decked out and ready for our day. Both of our costumes went through several revisions as the day went on, removing or adding layers, but we stopped traffic all over as folks got excited about our get ups!

Full-On Festival Conditions Existing!

The rest of the festival was a great time for all! Thursday night into Friday morning it was quite rainy, and we experienced some big storms with absolutely amazing cloud-to-cloud lightening; you know the type that forks wildly through the sky - it was amazing to behold! The rain had one great benefit: it stayed cool and comfortable in the tent until pretty late in the day, and many of us took advantage of that and slept in as long as we could. It's great fun being in the tent with Orion - he can just rampage around while we doze. He makes a huge mess, but nothing in there is dangerous to him, so it's no problem! Our new tent is really nice, too. We got the Kingdom 6 from REI, with the attached 'garage' that the stroller and our foods supplies fit under. The tent itself is two rooms with a divider. The pack'n'play fits on one side, our bed on the other, with plenty of room for our clothes. We were quite comfortable in our space, and totally protected from the rain, so despite the somewhat nasty weather we were happy campers!
SCI's first show was Friday night, and we spent a good amount of time getting excited and ready for that. There was some frustration about music, however, as some of the groups that folks were particularly excited to see, like Bonobo, didn't show, and the schedule was all messed up for the day. It was hard to figure out who was playing where at what time. Another rather annoying element of the festival's line-up was that there just wasn't much variety. SCI and all the related bands were great, Galactic was awesome, but the electronic music was pretty much entirely dubstep. And for the most party the weight of the line-up was electronic music! We love certain types of techno music, especially most forms of House music. Dubstep, however, is not one of our favorites. It's sort of hard and dark, doesn't really inspire much dancing, and attracts a less-than-savory crowd. We were sick to death of dubstep by the time we left the festival on Monday. I think we've filled that quota for our lives!
String Cheese Incident was totally amazing through every second of their three performances. Friday is was a very solid set - but you could tell they were conserving energy. Saturday was definitely the highlight, and they rocked it! Then on Sunday the first half of the set was very bluegrassy, with musicians from Railroad Earth and the Infamous Stringdusters coming out for a good picking jam! The second set of the third night went back to rocking out, and they let us down easy with a sweet, slow song for the encore.
We had a great time all throughout!

Electric Forest Festival

The Electric Forest Festival took place in Rothbury, Michigan, at the Double JJ Ranch. The Ranch is a beautiful spot, with big open fields, lakes, and a replanted long leaf pine forest that was planted on a grid. The trees are spaced perfectly for hammocks and to hang art installations on; needless to say, the production team went all-out when they decorated for the festival weekend!
We left Ann Arbor in the morning on Thursday, a bit later than we meant to but still pretty much on track, and got up to Rothbury in no time. However, we once again ran into trouble with the damnable GPS. It tossed the address for the festival grounds and took us to the city center of Rothbury. Lost and getting frustrated, we reverted to the directions giving on the festival site, which also weren't very clear. We got back on the highway, this time heading south since we had overshot, and once again didn't find the right exit. We re-entered the address into the GPS, and this time it took us to the gate - the wrong gate, as it turned out. By then there were folks around to ask questions of, and we managed to get directions to the actual gate on the other side of the grounds and got into the traffic line, only slightly the worse for wear.
Oh, the traffic line; truly a festival rite of passage. Some of the bigger festivals clock hours upon hours when it comes to getting the cars loaded with festival goers and gear into the grounds. Going to Bonnaroo 2003, I was stuck in that line for over 12 hours - and that after the 10 hour drive to get to Manchester, TN! Whew! Fortunately, the line for Electric Forest wasn't taking that long. There were only about 15,000 ticketed folks going to the fest (as opposed to the 30,000 of the previous Rothbury festival, or the 50,000 Burners) so it was a pretty small event as they go. We even managed to get in the line, get searched, and cross five or six lanes of traffic in order to make it over to the ADA camping in only a few short hours of time.
Our friend Dave managed to get us into his camp in the ADA (handicap accessible) and WET (work exchange team) reserved areas. This was a great benefit for us because those camps were the closest to the gate into the stage area. It was also very roomy, with relatively clean port-o-potties and even a somewhat more mellow area than out in the acres of regular camping. We got in, got set up, and our friends continued to arrive and put up their temporary homes. Once we were all done, we had quite a set up! A fully outfitted camp!
There was a moment of stress for me, as another carload of folks rolled into our camp and one of them turned out to be Patrick, my ex. Although it's been several years since that nasty split went down, there's still been quite a bit of tension between us on the countless occasions that we've run into each other. The last time we crossed paths (at a Keller show in VA) I tried, once again, to smooth things over a bit so that the level of awkwardness could hopefully be relieved. The conversation then was less than promising, but apparently it did have the desired effect, as we ended up getting along fine and even enjoying each other's company by the end of the weekend. That was a major healing moment for me, and I'm really glad it happened. I think I've finally moved past my anger with him and that whole situation. Perfect! It's so nice to stumble into those moments of positive life experience in the midst of what is mostly just a fun party!
The festival officially opened the gates to the stages around 2, and we made it to our first show - the Emmitt Nershi Band! Drew Emmitt, the mando player from Leftover Salmon, and Billy Nershi, the guitar player from String Cheese Incident, lead this great rocking bluegrass group. We danced our pants off with Crash & friends. It was a great start to the festival!
We caught a bit more music on Thursday, and explored the forest a little bit, but decided to turn in early and get some sleep to prep for the rest of the festival weekend. The folks around us did not, however, and the partying went on around us till late in the night. This lead us to name our camp "Camp Schwilly", and that stuck for the rest of the weekend.

The Drive, Part 1

Wheee! I love traveling. There's so much interesting stuff to see, people to meet, places to experience. Although our first couple of days of travel were only meant to get us to Michigan, it was still a fabulous adventure!
Day 1: We left NC around noon with a loaded-down car that was, quite frankly, a bit of a mess. We did really good about packing in advance, but down-to-the-wire stuff had us a bit flustered and lots of random items, even food, got thrown in helter-skelter toward the end. We were just so happy to get on the road, we figured we'd deal with it all later. Our goal was to get to Kanawha State Forest in West Virginia, where we intended on camping for the night. Our GPS, however, had other ideas. The stupid thing... Russell took all the time and effort to program it for each stop on the trip, but for some reason it threw out all the actual addresses. So we told it to take us to the state forest campground, but instead it took us to the town of Kanawha's center. Unfortunately, the town of Kanawha is a couple hours down the road from the state forest. Fortunately it is at least on the right route - so we overshot, but at least we didn't go out of our way.
Once we realized our mistake, we stopped and asked some locals about nearby camping. Since we were in West Virginia, close to the Ohio border, there was plenty to be had. We managed to tool up the road just a bit more and found a spot at Mountwood Park (ha ha, that's what she said!)
We have a great story, told to us by the camp superintendent, Ruthie, that I will have to relate when I have more time; stay tuned, it's a good one!
We got settled much later than we intended, but we had just enough light left to pitch the tent and make dinner.
It was a beautiful night, only somewhat sullied by the drunken rednecks next camp over (more on that later, too). I didn't get much sleep, but we still woke up with the sun and got a good start the next day.
Day 2: We woke up around 8, and I started in on the car. I pulled everything out of it (repack #5?), organized some of the loose stuff that we threw in last-minute, and repacked the whole car. It didn't save us too much space, but it did feel better having things more accessible or at least not a jumbled pile of miscellaneous items. We ate breakfast, made some sandwiches for the road, took showers, and got back on the highway.
We made good time the first part of the day, driving through some beautiful country. The best part of the route from NC to Ann Arbor, MI, is that it's mostly rural; no big cities or bad traffic, just lots of lush green and rolling mountains. We stopped a few times for Orion's sake, but mostly made good time and arrived in Ann Arbor without a hitch.
We met our couch surfing host, Missy, who lives walking distance from the hip university area of Ann Arbor. We got settled and then went for a stroll in the downtown area, checking out a few shops before we grabbed dinner at the Arbor Brewery. That place has great food (mmm, goat cheese and apple salad with golden raisins? yes, please!), and we got to enjoy the wonderful Michigan weather by sitting in their sidewalk section.
We even managed to meet up with Myke & Beth, who are also headed into Electric Forest today! Speaking of which, I need to get my boys up and going so we can head to the festival grounds in Rothbury - about 3 hours out from where we are now!
We'll be out of touch until Monday or Tuesday - look for more posts, and more pictures, then!