We’re heading home from Evart. It’s been an exhausting ten days but I have no complaints. My workshop leaders were wonderful. Everything flowed smoothly and we felt the love.

I will be happy to put my feet up and enjoy air conditioning at home.

Our friends, Shelly and Richard Brooks, left the fairgrounds last night at about 10:30 and headed to their motel in Clare, MI. We turned in about 12:30. We were up by about 7:30 and by about noon had broken down our campsite and at 1:00 we sat in on the ODPC meeting.

After repeating “Good-bye” and “See you next year” many times, we left the hot and dusty Osceola County Fairgrounds.

Loved it! What fun!

I’m so exhausted and grubby but today’s the last day of the ODPC Funfest. I think I can survive it.

Right now I can hear three or four music jams going on around us. There’s one in the “Rabbit Barn,” one in the “Swine Barn,” one at the Kaiser family’s campsite right inside the corral, and one in the ODPC pavilion. I hear the Rabbit Barn playing “Peacock Rag.” The one that’s at Kaiser’s is playing “Wizzard’s Walk.” That’s probably the fastest and craziest of the gatherings. Everyone is wearing battery-powered hats that blink or flash. We sat and watched them for a while and it was fun, but when John wanted to join a jam, he chose the one in the Rabbit Barn which is a bit more mellow.

Since arriving at the fairgrounds last Thursday, we’ve been non-stop busy. A lot of our time is taken up talking to friends. But there have also been a few pre-arranged events. Sunday night we attended a huge pre-festival potluck and jam at a nearby lake. We’ve gone out to dinner a couple of times. Tonight there was an ice cream party.

A lot of our time has been spent getting things ready for the start of the festival on Thursday. The tempo is definitely picking up. Tomorrow morning there’s a “breakfast” in the community building. At 1:00, we’ll join the officers for pizza. At 6:00, there’ll be a cart parade, followed by the “list” reception at 7:30 tomorrow night at our campsite. Also there’s a meeting of the “mentors” so Shelly and Richard (our friends from Florida who we visited a week or so ago) will be arriving in the afternoon. (She’s one of the participants in the program.)

We’re in Evart, MI, at the ODPC Funfest, the largest hammered dulcimer event in the world.

Arrived yesterday about noon. Friends have been pulling in and things feel “right with the world.”

I did hurt my foot yesterday. It was really sore last night and swollen. But Gwyn Besner loaned me some Arnica gel which helped. When the swelling went down, I realized the swelling had caused my foot to fit differently in my sandal and a blister formed on my little toe. This morning it had broken and it’s a really raw spot. Oh, well… Where are the bandaids when you need one?

We’re in our regular spot where this a.m. we’ll be putting up the “workshop leader rest area.”