We had a great time, but we’re pooped and need several days to rest without any stress or commitments.

The weather was varied: hot, cold, rainy, nice, hot! Today with it hot again, we were exhausted after packing.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the festival for us was enjoying the music played outside our door in the workshop leader rest area.

For me one highlight was the purchase of a marimbula. The picture is from the Cloud Nine music site which shows a marimbula just like mine.

The sound is similar to an upright bass. I got it Thursday night and over the next two days, played a few times with some excellent musicians. Didn’t do as badly as I’d feared. It was fun.

Why a marimbula? you ask.

In Florida, we have created a performing group with the Conklins called “Kings Strings.” The four of us have played several gigs, but we feel our sound isn’t “complete.” Two dulcimers and two autoharps are missing a “cut through” bass beat. We need to add some punch. If I work on it, I hope the marimbula will give us what we’re looking for. Playing with others was fun! There were times when I knew I missed the proper notes, but other tunes came together nicely.

What shocked me most was the positive feedback I received. I actually had folks asking me to keep playing.

I was careful to keep a steady beat, and that’s what was most necessary. I’ll work on the correct notes, but I was pleased with my progress.

We attended the Saturday night stage show. It was great. We got back to our campsite about 10:00 and played and enjoyed the music which was going on outside our door. We went inside by about 1:00 a.m.

This morning came too early. We were tired but dragged ourselves out of bed to start breaking down our “campsite.” It took from 8:00-3:00 for the two of us, plus a bunch of our friends, to get our trailer ready to head home.

We pulled in our driveway about 5:30.

During the first days of the week, before the actual festival began, friends from Florida came by. We enjoyed showing them what our life is like at our festival.

John’s two sisters and their significant others stopped by to visit a few times, but we really didn’t have time to visit while they were there.

So we’d stayed at the fairgrounds living in our trailer for 12 full days.