April 25-May 3, 2022
MerleFest has always been on my radar, as festivals go, but the timing just didn’t seem right or too many other places to see! This year is the year for MerleFest 👏👏👏🎶 . My folk music roots are placed in bluegrass, a genre that has always made me feel happy. With Covid still around, this festival, like most others, has been moved, cancelled, rescheduled and now, back at its normal place and time so winner winner! Doc and his son Merle Watson played at the philly folk fest many times together and Doc is listed as playing 15 festivals from 1964 to 2007. Merle died young in a tragic accident in 1985 and his family started MerleFest in his honor. Let the banjo picking begin.
Wilkesboro, North Carolina here we come! A total of 9 days dry camping (without any hookups) but solar panels and generator ( and VERY quick showers) will get us through 🤞. Stay tuned!
We started our day early… 8 am! We wanted to get on the road so we could arrive at our destination by 5. The day was beautiful and after heading west we made our way down I-81 into Virginia, so lovely. Our first stop was a harvest host, Whitebarrel Winery in southern Virginia…425 miles under our wings today. Just in time for a wine tasting then making dinner and enjoying it under the veranda as the sun sets.
Since we were ”dry camping” with our upgraded Fleetwood Bounder for the first time we had all the manuals out…several times, figuring out what’s what. Thank goodness for our RV sales person, Dan, who was able to talk us through an issue. Indian Valley Camping Center is Amazing!
After dinner, Paul was relaxing on the bed and I was playing cards in the semi-dark and heard a sound to my left…low and behold there was a mouse sitting 2 feet from me 😳 All I could do was shreek and scare the pants off Paul … and the mouse! We were not towing the car so the next day on our way to NC, we stopped at the hardware store and picked up some mouse traps.
Not knowing what to expect at MerleFest, we got there soon after the RV lot opened and found our spot for the week. We arrived on Tuesday and the music starts on Thursday afternoon so we had some time to scope out the grounds and relax.
We listened to some of the sound check music and relaxed for most of Wednesday. Paul got to know some of the other RV campers and we pulled out some more manuals to better understand our rig.
Let the music begin 🎶
There were 12 stages and the weather was amazing! My kind of weather…upper to mid-60s during the day and wonderful sleeping weather in the 50s at night. Great snuggling but did miss the campfires we have at the Philly fest. Friday morning we laid in bed for a bit and listened to the sound check, clear as day we could hear the main stage from our RV and enjoyed a morning serenade by a guitarist.
Old Crow Medicine Show, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Emmy Lou Harris were among the many on stage.
And SUCH FUN at the post show dance parties every night! YES, we were hopping and dancing with the youngsters, great time with We Banjo 3 and Scynthian providing music for the dance tent.
Sunday it downpoured for about an hour but we came prepared and after clearing the festival grounds, we headed back up the hill and listened to the closing act from the RV.
Monday we said goodbye to our new fest friends armed with a ton of ideas on how to upgrade our dry camping experience. Off to northern Virginia to another Harvest Host, Backroom Brewery. We had a great dinner with home made beer bread and a glass of wine and beer. After the place closed we had the acreage to ourselves and had nothing else to do but sit on the swing, watch the bees in the wisteria, birds in the meadow and watch the sunset. A perfect ending to our 9 day excursion.
We are home for a week then off to Virginia Beach to hang with dear friends.
Safe travels and have fun!💗