Prescott Bluegrass Festival

Spent yesterday 'up north' in Prescott at their annual bluegrass festival on the courthouse square.  Didn't realize beforehand that it was their 30th year - and happy to report that I've made it to most of them. (Carol & Betty, Tami, and Cindy - you missed a GREAT DAY!)  

The crowd was bigger than ever, with lots of kids (I remember taking Lisa and Alex when they were younger), dogs, and smiling faces, and of course the music was absolutely wonderful.  I especially enjoyed the Triple L Band (great musicians with amazing voices... their a cappella song was outstanding!), the weather was perfect (ie - lots cooler than Phoenix!), and it was free... how can you beat that for a great summer day?!

On the drive up, my intrepid navigator (Patti) was trying to help me figure out the Voice commands on my new navigation system.  We did run into a few snags (the 'Navigation Lady's' hearing is worse than mine, and she often misunderstands - sometimes it was pretty funny) but we did discover that I have access to the heating/cooling system by voice control.  There's a seemingly endless list of commands - but I actually got 'her' to do things like adjust the A/C fan setting up and down.  Will wonders never cease?!

I felt like I was on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Maybe I do have a food replicator, and my requests will appear in the glove box?!)

The emcee of the festival, Clyde Score, is a fine musician in his own right. He teaches music at Yavapai College, and in the past, while on tour, "shared the stage with The Platters, James Brown, The Coasters, Joe Williams, Wayne Cochran, O.C. Smith, and B.B. King."  But when I read that he "currently performs on the Grand Canyon Railway" I was reminded of a story... and here we go   :-)

In February of '96 Mom and Dad were visiting, and we took the kids on the train trip from Williams to The Canyon.  The kids were young (5 and 3), and we thought it would be a great way for them to experience the canyon for the first time.  

 At the depot, before the train pulls out, there's a 'shootout'.  (One of the passengers pulled a banana out of his lunch bag to 'shoot' back, so it was pretty low key, but Lisa was so distressed by the whole affair that we had to walk away from it with her - probably why she's not in this picture with Grandpa.)

The ride there was uneventful

and we had a great day at the canyon taking in the views.  

On the ride back, I knew that 'train robbers' would 'attack' the train as we approached Williams, but it never occurred to me to warn the kids.  Alex was pretty distressed as they came through our car, whooping and hollering, and as they left I was able to tell him, "See, they're leaving."  Then they came back through.  He was upset again, and I promised him, "See, they're gone now, and they won't be back."  Wrong!  On their 3rd pass through I was trying to calm him down, telling him that they were "just Daddies playing pretend", like when he and Tom played Monster, but he was having no part of it.  When one of the robbers heard me saying it was 'just pretend' he turned around to disabuse me of that idea.  But as soon as he saw Alex's face he immediately dropped the bad guy attitude and tried to show Alex he was just a regular guy.  Alex, of course, was having none of it, and was obviously relieved when the bad man left.

And that's it for today, folks!