Bluegrass and Greencards

Greg, Linda Sue, me, David at the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival

Welp, this is our last week in Wichita.  We've enjoyed these 6 months here so much!  Really going to miss everyone.  We've learned a lot from our workamping position at Air Capital RV Park.  And we've met some very interesting people: Sondra and Frank's son-in-law from CA is a cop who dives to inspect ships coming into harbor.  He said that isn't a new thing, but it's really kicked up under Homeland Security.  We've also met a Dreamliner pilot (he assured us he wasn't the one who landed accidentally at Jabara Airport), a boom operator on a military refueler, a train conductor, and a lady who was 1 of 5 buffalo lottery winners in WY.  But the people you see in some of our pix on this post, were the most interesting to us!

first stop was Cherokee Maidens and Sycamore Swing

this was only a small fraction of the rv's at this festival

the lead singer of Cherokee Maidens (lady in the hat) owns the arboritum in Belle Plain

Singer/Songwriter John McCutcheon is a regular 

Cowboy Music Master Dave Stamey

Kansas natives, Bluestem

Mountain Smoke has been playing this festival since the beginning

Greencards showed us how Australian Bluegrass is done

they drew a good crowd

unique sound -- we immediately downloaded one of their albums

the warm temps didn't stop a huge crowd from sitting in the sun all day to catch some bluegrass

Boxcars!

Boxcars were IBMA champs 3 years in a row

we downloaded some of their stuff, too

this flying machine circled around the festival a few times

Greg and Linda Sue trying to dance a jig from their chair

big crowd for the Boxcars

tractor pulled tram

9-20-14:  Wonderful day at the Walnut Valley Festival with Greg and Linda Sue.  This was the first bluegrass festival for all of us.  We do love bluegrass and really enjoyed the tunes. Remember - "if it ain't bluegrass, it's just a weed,"  We all liked Greencards and Boxcars the best today.  The title of this blog is the name one of the Greencards' albums.

another pretty KS sky

date day at Equalizer

 9-27-14:  David and I went to see The Equalizer for date day.  We used to watch the tv series all the time.  The movie is starring Denzel -- who doesn't like Denzel? During the final 10 min of the movie, an altercation broke out at the back of the theater.  Pretty scary.  Didn't know if bullets would be flying or what.  Several folks got down on the floor.  I ducked in my seat a bit, but quickly realized those chairs wouldn't stop a bullet. David was the only one in the theater who thought to call 911. Once we finally got out in the lobby, security and maybe one cop were questioning the folks.  Dang. And this was an afternoon matinee on a weekday! Thankful nobody was hurt.  Craziness. ( I went back the next day and got our money back)

ACRV managers Frank and Sondra treated us to dinner at La Hacienda

 This evening our managers took us and the Curtis' out for a farewell dinner.  Gonna miss these good folks.  We've really enjoyed getting to know them.

Frank and Jack didn't know what they were getting into when they ordered large margaritas

luckily their wives were there to be the dd's

our server was so much fun

Hopefully we'll see them all again "down the road".

Andrew - 2nd from right

9-27-14:  Finally get to see one of the boys' soccer games! Da Sharks. We had to work for the first 2 and last week's was during the bluegrass festival. (At that one, Andrew had 3 goals, one of which was with his head).

Andrew is ready to take it

keeping their eyes on the ball

Andrew was definitely the star of this show! Soccer may just be his thing!  He made 3 goals again today -- no head usage. So proud of how well he plays!  So focused and always in there getting that ball!

Asher getting in there

Asher could talk some smack -- but it was all fact

Very proud of Asher as well.  He has to be reminded a little of where the ball was, but he always knew the score!

pretty sure he's still talking some

Coach Justin is the ref also

tho they "don't keep score", Asher flashed us the count from time to time

Go Asher!

Andrew taking a look at his fan base (grandparents galore)

Love, love, love being in Kansas to watch these boys!! Go Sharks!!

On the way home we saw some camels that Doug had told us about.  Very cool.  One of them looked brindle or something!  We also saw hundreds of MS Kites.  They should be called Kansas Kites. They were loving something in the harvested corn fields.  Cool sight.

we both will miss this place, too!

Andrew and Asher showing us the new Razorbacks on their van

9-28-14:  Today is Justin's 32nd bday, so after church we met them for lunch in Derby. Got to celebrate Justin's and Brooke's bdays and had to say our "cya laters".  The boys had a new game going -- they tried to make everyone say "what".  It was actually fun.  New travel game for David and me! ha.

saying "bye" to our boys

Brooke, Andrew, Asher, Justin -- sure gonna miss this group!

McClintock's: David, Doug, Mac, Heather, Sheila, me, Karen, Taylor, Dan, and Conner 

faces? who's making faces?

Bros: David, Doug, and Dan

Our hearts are full.  Feeling so blessed to have had quality time with our family these past 6 mths. And to learn some wonderful new things about Kansas.

Now we are headed to Branson for about a week on our way to Texarkana. Looking forward to seeing our mountain friends!!

Much love from the road,


Boxcar David, Kim, and Pele'