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We do something similar, though not midnight movies.  We do camping and river trips and hikes and visits to historic places and that sort of thing.  I never got the chance to travel when I was young, and now that I have the opportunity, we take it.  My wife also enjoys travel, and the kids are learning. 

- Zurf

Well Dirty Ed, I played your first album on shuttle runs for those boys from Nashville a few years ago and they both thought you were, and I quote, "A pretty good picker."   'Course, neither one of them played guitar. 

- Zurf

Hydraulic underwear.  All the old Motown guys used to use it.  I'll demonstrate the inflation and deflation moves for you if we ever meet and you remind me. 

- Zurf

I'll check into the electricity.

- Zurf

That goes for many of us from Pennsyltucky too.  And, if I must say so myself, those are three darned fine reasons.

- Zurf

That's hard to take.  I'm sorry for your loss.

- Zurf

I was on the river yesterday.  It was a bit high and colored, but it was clearing rapidly.  The subsurface fish bite was off, but they were willing on the surface all day (very unusual for this time of year).  I paddled a new section of river for me that winds up pretty much at the campground.  Just upriver a mile or so is one of the most picturesque pieces of water I've ever seen.  The fish didn't think so as I couldn't buy a bite in that section, but I still anchored up and enjoyed the scenery.  Plus someone at a nearby camp had a very good truck stereo and was playing some outlaw country, so I had some tunage to hear. 

I'm really looking forward to this. 

When you check in, say it's for "Derek Zurfluh's event."  I'm going to try and tell them it's "July River Jam" as well, but they definitely have my name. 

- Zurf

Merle Travis.  In bluegrass circles, Merle is enough.  Just as one does not need to add Nelson to Willie or Presley to Elvis.  He originated that whole thing of playing the bass notes with a pick and using fingers play rhythm and lead.  Anyone who can play three parts at once on a guitar, and any one of the parts can befuddle other players gets to be known by one name.   

The park was Chippokes Plantation State Park near Surry, Virginia.  Lovely place. 

Edit to add a link to Cannonball Rag by Merle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8vOTKMqzw4

- Zurf

You'll be singing with other folks in less than a month.  But we'll all be smelly and have our own guitars and won't be able to see anything through the campfire smoke.

Campfires, friends, adult beverages, and a LOT of encouragement from Dirty Ed.  That's with guitar, and I had a lifetime of being on or around stages.  Butterflies in the stomach are normal.  Forgetting your lyrics is normal (it's why the touring bands continue to practice, practice, practice even after playing the same songs for twenty years).  You just have to force your way through it and don't get angry with yourself when you make a mistake.  You're GOING to make mistakes.  Shoot, I've got a recording of Willie Nelson playing Goodnight Irene with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and he messed up the lyrics.  Goodnight Irene!  It's a campfire song, and Willie stinkin' Nelson messed up the lyrics on a RECORDING.  So don't be hard on yourself.  Just laugh and keep going.  It's all about having fun.

New Facebook event set up for getting a head count.  Name is August River Jam and I set it up as a public event.  The August event is more paddling and fishing oriented than music.  There are other things to do there than paddle, but not many.  The particular campground is more on fishing water than serious whitewater, but there's class 2 and 2+ whitewater nearby.  If one does not know what rapids classes mean or needs to ask what kind of boat to paddle (i.e., will my XYZ canoe work), then I would recommend using an outfitter rather than going it alone. 

That said, I am willing to help new bumpy water paddlers on some of the easier runs here and there.  I am not qualified or sufficiently skilled to outfit or lead a large group of novices and I will not agree to do anything that will create more than a necessary level of risk.

Nearby Meadow Creek is Beckley, WV, some really great whitewater on the internationally famous New River Gorge and Gauley Rivers (contact outfitters for paddling these areas) and Bluestone State Park.  There's a humorous story about Bluestone State Park.  Usually, if an Army Corps of Engineer dam project floods a town, they  name the dam  after the town.  The town of Gad is submerged beneath Bluestone Lake but the Army Corps of Engineers chose not to name it Gad Dam.  It is possible that the West Virginia State Fair will be going on (and also possible that it won't).  There's the prison where Martha Stewart did her time.  A hundred years or so ago John Henry raced a steam drill.  There's a statue on the spot. Oddly no one does that song.  Aaaaaaaaaaand that's about it.  Mostly this trip is about fishing (or recovering) during the day and music by night.  In August the fish are lazy and the water low, so the music is usually very good.  There are no quiet hours enforced, mostly because we have always been respectful and not been obnoxious with excessive noise.  The campfire concerts often last until 3AM or later.  (thus the recovery)

- Zurf