Traveled the new highway being built through the middle of West Virginia, Route 48 or better known as Corridor H to this year’s Vandalia Gathering in Charleston, WV. This year’s event was a “scaled down” as the West Virginia Division of Culture and History decided to take many of the events that generally occur and move them to another weekend to celebrate the State’s 150th anniversary. This decision left just the annual music events to be held over a shorter period of time (1 day instead of two) which resulted a much smaller turn out of bands and visitors. We decided to attend but only stayed for a few hours since we were just 1 of 4 jams playing on the grounds. We got some nice crowds to stop, listen, and dance to a few of our songs. We did have a couple of other musicians join us including highly experienced autoharp player and two players who were preparing to play in the individual contests
We took advantage of the extra time for other activities. Edna and Tim went to Hinton, WV for a viewing of a Civil War documentary on the battle for White Sulphur Springs. Brother Jim was in a few scenes as a reenactor. John and Larry enjoyed the wonderful weather with some fishing.
Our last day together was spent relaxing, practicing, and learning a few new songs: “Nelly Bly” by Stephen Foster, Liberty (very popular fiddle tune), and “Ramblin Rose” an old Nat King Cole tune that our father always sang to us. Also, John got to show of his melody playing skills with a Celtic tune called “Southwind.”