U.S. Trip 2012

A quick stop overnight in Houston – visiting Peter’s Indian friends – lovely family whom he met in Delhi 10 years ago when he spent 3 months there teaching! Then on to San Antonio, where we spent 2 nights with Dave and Patti Dyer – friends from last year’s Kaufman camp. It was nice to … Continue reading »

Well, a few days in Lafayette brought mixed experiences, some great, some disappointing. First night we found Randoll’s – a cajun restaurant and dance hall. A good start – big plastic tub of crabs and shrimp, with a cane basket for the scraps and a mallet – no plate just bash the crabs on the … Continue reading »

Wow, how cool is the French Quarter? You could easily hang out there for a while. 2 days in New Orleans is almost criminal. Wandering the streets the first day we stumbled upon Frenchmans St where all the jazz bands are playing – so refreshing to see the brass/reed front line with banjo/bass/washboard….all acoustic. Great … Continue reading »

Three hours drive down the highway to Memphis from Nashville. In Memphis you can feel that you are in a poorer environment, more run down housing everywhere. Seems to be some kind of transport hub – transportation and logistics centres and trucks everywhere. We’ve only got time for quick stops everywhere now which is not … Continue reading »

I can’t believe we have been doing this for 6 days….we’ll need a holiday to recover… or at least Peter will – he has been out till 6am picking most of the rest of the week. I’ve had to bail out earlier, to manage to get up and go to a few more conference sessions … Continue reading »

Well, we are here…. got our passes and checked in (Sunday)- though that was difficult as the football was on and all the roads were closed – amazing site to see the stadium and all the hordes of people on the streets in their Titans shirts. Quick visit to the Station Inn to check out … Continue reading »

Arrived in the dark at Bean Blossom on Wed night and the festival had already started – we thought it was a Thursday start so that was a bonus – arrived just in time to catch the Boxcars! Set up tent high on the hill, amongst the elm trees – just above ‘Big Sandy Holler’! … Continue reading »

Packed up Sunday, after the banjo championships – Gary Davis (who we met at Kaufman Camp) took out the National Banjo Championship for the 4th time. That is the record! He first won it when he was 16 and when you win, you are not allowed to compete again for 5 years! Not sure how … Continue reading »

Drove up Sunday in good time, stocked up at Walmart and headed to the camp site to set up. Didn’t know where the Coyote Camp was actually located (our friends from Texas) so we camped in the vicinity. Found a fabulous tree with heaps of shade as it was still really hot the first few … Continue reading »

It looks like my updates are going to come in bursts! We stayed in Oklahmoma City especially to attend the Rodeo Opry The Rodeo Opry Stage – great size theatre! and see Byron Berline’s band perform. They were taping the show for 2 weeks of television and the first half of the show featured a … Continue reading »