Everyone’s Rockin’, Except For Pokey

Pokey danced so much today, that he pulled a muscle in his hind leg.

Day 48         July 27

Even though it rained for a good part of the day, this final day of the festival, was just as wonderful as the first two days.

The rain brought out a comraderie in the musicians and in the festival attendees that added to the excitement of the day. And it also brought out our rain ponchos for the very first time! Now I was glad that I had bought those things two months ago!

A little rain didn’t bother this crowd!

After two full days of music, and now another full day of music, in the rain no less, you’d think I’d be dead tired, and tired of listening to music. But I wasn’t. The quality of musicianship, and the energy from the bands and from the crowds, was just unbelievable, and I never tired of it! And at the end of this day, I was so sad that it was all over.

The end of an amazing three days!

Here are my snapshots, my documentation of the bands I saw, from the final day of the 2014 Newport Folk Festival……

Starting the day with the Berklee Gospel & Roots Choir.

Mavis Staples

Mavis Staples & Friends

Gabriela, of Rodrigo & Gabriela

Rodgrigo, of Rodrigo & Gabriela, on the big screen.

Hurray For The Riff Raff

Trampled By Turtles

Lucero

Gregory Alan Isakov

The Lonesome Trio

Leif Vollebekk

The Deslondes

Nothing Mellow Happened Today. Today We Rocked!

Adult beverages.

Day 47      July 26

The Newport Folk Festival 2014…..Day #2

This morning, when we arrived at the festival, the parking attendant thought we were musicians, and waved us on into the VIP parking area. This is what happens when you drive an Airstream Interstate powered by Mercedes! LOL! We set him straight, and went to the “normal people” parking lot.

Legal to drink and legal to listen to music.

Today was just as spectacular as the first day of the festival. Great weather, food, people and outstanding music!

Again, here are my quick little snaps of each of the bands……

J. Roddy Walston. Totally awesome. And loud. I lost a little bit of hearing after this one!

The Oh Hellos. Awesome and a great, fun time!

Willie Watson (from Old Crow Medicine Show). Star Quality!

Jack White & friends

Jack White & the big crowd

Jack White

Nickel Creek w/ Sara Watkins. Wonderful!

Nickel Creek & the crowd.

OK. We’ll do what we’re told.

The Milk Carton Kids. Great music, and very funny too.

Houndmouth

Shakey Graves. Yet another great artist!

Newport Folk Festival…Peace Out!

Anticipation….

Day 46           July 25

The Newport Folk Festival 2014…..Day #1

Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, drove to Fort Adams (the festival site), parked, strapped our chairs to our backs, and rode our bikes down the hill to the entrance gates. We were early, and waited about an hour before they opened the gates.

Earlybirds at the festival. Mark’s chillin out, hangin’ out until they open the gates. A very mellow crowd, indeed.

 

It’s very important to wait in line to get wristbands for beer.

If you have to wait around, you may as well wait around here! So, no complaints!

 

Super happy to finally be at NFF!!

Once inside the gates, we set up our chairs by the “Quad” stage. We’d use that as our home base for the day, and in fact, we ended up setting up in the same place all three days.

Fun times at NFF. Hangin’ out at the Quad Stage.

What followed was the most magnificent day of great weather, spectacular music, burgers, beer, ice-cream, and blueberry pie. From noon until 8:00 pm, we got to listen to the most awesome musicians, in the most awesome location, with thousands of other awesomely nice people!

I was able to take a snapshot of almost every band that we saw all weekend. What follows are those pics. I know, they all look the same…same place, same vantage point, etc.. I just wanted to document who I saw. It wasn’t about getting great shots, or zooming in close, or whatever. I was just enjoying the music and taking a quick pic of each artist, so that I didn’t forget who I’d seen!

You’ve probably never heard of most of these artists, and believe me, they were all out of this world, crazy good! So, if you’re looking for new music to listen to, I hope you’ll check some of them out!

Mandolin Orange. Great way to start the festival.

Ryan Adams. Friday night headliner on the main stage.

Jimmy Cliff. Fun, fun, fun!!

Indoor intimate venue

Spirit Family Reunion jamming.

Newport locals, Lake Street Dive.

Reignwolf. Kind of heavy metal ockers!! Not sure what they were doing at the FOLK festival, but they were pretty freakin’ awesome!

Noah Gunderson

Noah Gunderson, with his sister, brother, and a friend. One of my festival favorites.

Phox. A great sound!

Mission Accomplished! The Space Shuttle Arrives In Newport!

Downtown Newport, Rhode Island

Day 45          July 24

This was a monumental day for us, because we finally, after driving about 7,000 miles, arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. This was the whole reason we were traveling cross-country….to get to the Newport Folk Festival. Yipppeeee!!!

Hello, Rhode Island!

This way to Newport!

This was also a monumental day for Dax and Trixie, because this would be the first time on the whole trip, that they’d be separated from us. Since we’d be spending about 10 hours a day, for three straight days at the music festival, we had to board them.

After checking in at our RV park, we drove to Fort Adams, the festival site, to get our bearings for where we’d have to drive to in the morning. Fort Adams is a cool place, with lots of musical history. Other history too, as it is a real fort.

Here we are!

The iconic big banjo @ Newport Folk Festival

Our first batch of New England oysters

Lunch stop by the water

After a lunch stop, we drove the dogs to Narragannset, to Gnarly Dog…the cage-free facility I’d found on line months ago. I breathed a sigh of relief when we saw the place and met the owner. Nice place. Nice owner. I felt confident that the doggies would be in good hands.

The pups’ home away from home near Newport

I was sad to say goodbye to the pups for what would be 3 1/2 days, but I was also happy to have 3 1/2 days of freedom. If you have dogs, or kids, you know what I mean.

With complete freedom to do whatever we wanted to, without concern for the dogs, Mark and I headed straight for the beach! We made sure to touch the Atlantic Ocean to officially complete the coast to coast part of our journey.

We’re in….the Atlantic Ocean!

Mark, & the Atlantic Ocean

Cool sculpture by the beach front

Of course, our second stop on the freedom trail, was the grocery store. Not too exciting, but, necessary. Oh yea, we also stopped at the post office to mail my friend Bob’s present off to him. I’d bought it two or three weeks ago, can’t even remember now. But I kept forgetting to mail it. Finally shipped it off.

Near Newport, RI

Near Newport, RI

It was early evening when we got back to our RV park. A couple women staying nearby us in the park, asked where our dogs were. They’d seen us drive in earlier in the day, before we’d dropped the pups off at “camp.”

“We took them to Gnarly Dog for boarding while we attend the Newport Folk Festival,” I replied.

They weren’t critical of my decision, but told me that they would have taken care of the dogs for the three days that we’d be gone.

Can you say, Guilt Trip?!!! Plus, I already missed my doggies. On the other hand, the space shuttle seemed so, uh, spacious, without having to trip over Dax and Trixie. So yea, boarding them was a good thing!

Cross-Country, Concerts, College, & Cats!

We’re planning a big cross country RV trip for the summer. Our main destination is the Newport Folk Festival, in Newport, RI.

I’ve always been into music. When I was in college, it wasn’t unusual for my friends and I to drive three or four hours to see a concert…Bruce Springsteen, George Thorogood, The Grateful Dead. They were all worthy of road trips, even if some of them were during finals week. Fond memories, every single one of those rogue concerts with my college buddies!!

And so, it probably won’t surprise most of my old friends, that I bought tickets to the three-day Newport Folk Festival, a mere 3,500+ mile road trip, depending on what route we take.

Mark and I started planning our driving route, by agreeing on two things:

1. We want to avoid the southern parts of the country, where it will be the hottest in July and August.

2. We want to travel through as many areas and states as possible that we’ve never been to before.

With those two points settled, we began prioritizing the things we want to see and do along the way to Rhode Island. Zion and Bryce Canyon, in Utah, are top priorities, as is Mesa Verde in Colorado. After hitting those major sites, I’m referencing the book, “The Most Scenic Drives in America,” to try to link together some of the suggested drives along the way.

For a brief moment, Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, was on our “to do” list, but really, why would I, a self-professed claustrophobic, drive a bunch of miles out of my way, to go to a bunch of caves that I would then refuse to go down into? We’ll see. Mark loves that s%#^, so, we might just make a last minute detour when we get over to that neck of the woods.

We’re also planning a different, distinct return route, by first, heading north to Acadia National Park, in Maine. While we’re up there, maybe we’ll just keep going to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Then we’re oh so close to getting to Newfoundland, but not really that close, but kind of close. Well, you can see what the problem is. There’s just so many places to visit!

We’re exploring heading back west through Canada, dropping down into North and South Dakota, across Wyoming and Idaho and into Oregon, then down through California until we’re back home in San diego. Simple! Approximately 4,400 miles…..each way!!!

This morning, while discussing our route, Mark asked,

“Are we gonna drive through the Catskills? ‘Cause I want to see what kind of skills the cats have.”

Wow. So, now you can see what I’m dealing with and why planning this trip may get a bit complicated!

And so, dear readers, I have to ask you, have you ever been to the Catskills? Do the cats there really have special skills? Are there other parts of the US and Canada that you’ve been to that you love and would like to share? Please drop me a comment. All suggestions are welcome!