Rafting the Ocoee

Woke up at 5am to pack up my car and head down to GA to meet up with Kellye, SHOE, Leslie, and Joan. The 5 of us had an appointment with a raft and the Ocoee River. Woo Hoo! Along the way I picked up Kellye and Joan and we made it to Rolling Thunder Rafting Outfitters by 11am. As soon as we stepped out of my car, SHOE and Leslie pull into the parking lot. After hugs hello and catching up, we checked in with the outfitter. Since we had 2 hours to burn, we decided to walked thru the metropolis known as McCaysville of some lunch. Seriously, we walked the entire town in about 10 minutes. haha! It was a cute little town though. We rolled up on what looked like a town carnival. There were big slides, about 2 craft booths and a guy in a dunking tank. We watched some kids throw baseballs at the target until they hit it and made the guy plunge into water tank. We ducked into a little candy/fudge store that ended up being a huge shop. It had different sections from antique knick knacks, black bear novelty items, a candy/fudge/jam/general store shop, handmade wooden furniture, to a quilt shop. It was pretty interesting. We then made our way to the only Mexican Cantina in the town. I had a quick flash of what eating Mexican food and then jumping into a river full of class 3 and 4 rapids would be like, (puke fest!), but I quickly forgot about it when the chips and salsa came out. :)

After a yummy lunch, we headed back to the outfitter. Once we were there, we learned that they were running a bit late b/c the early morning rafters had a "situation" that they had to handle. Well... this is where I learned that Kellye was deathly afraid to go rafting. I mean she was really spooked, so nervous that she couldn't even look at the "pictures of carnage", that the outfitter had up of all the raft crashes on the river. I thought they were pretty funny, but I didn't let Kellye know. We all gather up to hear the safety rules and get our gear (helmet, PFD, and paddle) then we break up in groups. Kellye goes back to hear the safety rules, again, that the outfitter is giving out for another group. We finally load up on the stinky, wet, school bus and are on chugging along down the road to our output, when we hear this really drunk fool making a spectacle of himself. I have to admit, that for the first 15 minutes, he was pretty entertaining, but it got old after a while. He kept rousing the guide up front and yelling at the bus driver, and making fun of his friends. Anyways, I couldn't wait to get off the bus, not just b/c of him, but when I looked at my knees and hands, there was some dirty muck on them that came from the bus seats. I almost lost my tacos when I discovered it. We make it to the put out spot, get off the gross bus, and find our guide Brian. Immediately I like him. (He's wearing an ITALIA soccer shirt, only my favorite country in the world.) Because of the earlier "situation", there was no practice time for us, we had to get on the river ASAP, so we hauled up the raft and walked it down to the line forming at the river. I looked over at Kellye and I swore I thought I saw her go two shades whiter than her normal pasty self. ha ha! I mean there was no break, no practice time, no nothing. We just got off the bus, grabbed our raft, walked to the output, and BAM! within 5 feet we were in two sets of Class 4 rapids called Broken Nose and Slice & Dice. I hung on and knew it was going to be a wild ride!

After a couple of more rapids, we came to a section that looked pretty tough. The rapids were called Double Suck and Double Trouble. I knew we had to all paddle hard if we were going to make it through, so after Brian barked orders at us, I yelled for us to paddle hard! We coasted off that first ledge of a rapid that felt like we dropped 8 feet down, and got the raft going the right way again. After we made it through the second rapid, we pulled off to the side to spectate others attempting to make it through. Well, just our luck, we saw carnage and before we could even blink, Brian had us paddling hard out into the middle of the rapids to rescue a girl floating down the river. We made it out to her and as SHOE grabbed her PFD, our guide swiftly pulled her into safety and ordered us to paddle hard. I glanced at the girl to make sure she was OK and she looked terrified. I've never seen anyone so scared in my life. We smacked the second rapid and it wasn't pretty, no one fell out, but the boat went over the rapid sideways. All we could do is hang on. After we were in safe waters, we all look at the girl and the first thing she says is, " I lost my flip flops!" After that terrifying event, all she could think about was her flip flops! ha ha! We got her safely onto her boat and we continued plowing down the Ocoee. We were so on point with our paddling that we owned the rapids and I felt like a freaking warrior conquering the Ocoee. I whooped and hollered it up, we all paddle clapped and cheered each rapid. It was so much fun.

Towards the end of the trip, we pulled over to the side of the river so Brian, our guide, could touch base with another boat. Well, I finally got a chance to turn around and talk to Kellye. Poor thing, she had been scared silly this entire time. (Come to think of it, the usual chatter box WAS awfully quiet the entire trip down the river.) I felt so bad for her that I gave her a big hug and promised that all of us would paddle our hearts out so she wouldn't fall out the boat. I swore I saw crocodile tears well up, but it could of been river water. I'm glad she took on the Ocoee and I'm glad she stayed focused and strong. It says alot about someones character when they are in a dangerous situation and they stay focused instead of losing it. (Kind of like I lost it on my first ocean sailing trip. I curled up like a fetus and cried my eyes out til Boo took us to safety. Yeah... I can be a big baby sometimes. But that was a looooong time ago. I can now sail with the best of them.) Kellye stayed strong, contributed to all of our safety's, and endured the ride. And boy was it a wild ride! She can check white water rafting off her bucket list now.

We headed back to the outfitter on the dirty bus, and everyone seemed to be in great spirits. I'll have some great memories of Joan paddling like a wild woman and her wide eye in amazement look about her as she commands the right front of our boat. Then there's Leslie's ever present 1000 watt smile and laugh holding up the right side middle. SHOE's cheesey grin and child like spirit with those foggy glasses manning up the front left side of our boat. An the look on Kellye's face when we pulled out to the rivers edge to end our Ocoee adventure, it was pure relief with a touch of joy. And I'm sure I had a bit of every one of those emotions running through me as well. It was a great adventure with the ladies from GA. What's next ladies? haha! Til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!

Workouts for Week 2

This weeks workouts were pretty good. It started with a hike on Saturday with my friend Becky. We then did some Yoga on Sunday with a new instructor, that I didn't like. Not that I didn't like her personally, but I didn't like her yoga routine or the way she massaged our feet as we rested the last five minutes of class. Too weird, plus she talked waaaay too much for me to enjoy the calmness that yoga is supposed to bring and I think she f'ed up my left calf, cause since her yoga class, it's not been right.

On Monday, Becky and I did the week 2 workout 1 of the C25k program.

On Tuesday, I met my other friend Tracy and we started a new strength training program. We were assigned this 12 yr old Governor Arnold looking boy with emo hair that was constantly in his face to show us how to use the free weights. Well Zak sucked. He briefly went over the weights and cables for like 10 minutes and then, all hood like, said, "YOU GOOD?" Really? did he just say that to us? I looked over at Tracy and mockingly said "You good?" She says, "Good, you good?" Then to Zak I said "We good." (GOD I so wanted to roll my eyes just then.) I asked him to write up the routine he flew through so we could start some sort of weight training. After an hour at the gym, we had finished up chest presses, chest flys, bicep curls, tricep exercises, ab workout on a balancing ball, shoulder workouts on cables, and walking lunges that were crazy hard. The next morning I texted Tracy to see how she was feeling, and it wasn't pretty.

Wednesday Becky and I did week 2 workout 2 of the C25k program and we ended the day with a spin class. It was actually not that bad.

Thursday I woke up so soar it hurt to even move out of bed. My abs killed from all the sit ups and the back of my thighs ached from the walking lunges. I wanted to call Tracy and cancel our workout, but Boo made me stick it out. So I met Tracy after a ridiculous traffic jam day. It took me almost an hour to drive 4 miles. I got to the gym late, but then so did Tracy. We both were hurting but we had to work out. I saw that in 10 minutes they were going to start a cycle class and I asked if she was interested. She said sure! lets try it. So off we go to pick out our bikes. Our normal instructor was out on vacay, so we had some guy named Teri subbing from another Y. Well.... let's just call him Psycho Cyclist. He was like the drill sargent of spin class. I mean he was yelling, walking around screaming for us to hit it harder! turning up our tension to make the bike pedaling harder, checking to see if we were sweating enough. I mean he would walk right up to you to see if you were exerting and sweating! and if you weren't he would yell! This guy was nuts! AND he had us up off the seat for 90% of the workout. It was crazy hard. Poor Tracy kept looking over at me with a painful look on her face. I felt so bad, she will never come back to a cycle class ever. After our workout, we wobbled up to the stretching area and Tracy rolled herself down onto the mat. We both cracked up at how stiff we were feeling. We stretched for a good 15 minutes and noticed a really fit couple, that was in the cycle class with us. They walk up and ask how we liked the class. I told them it was Tracy's first spin class and they pleaded to her that this was not a normal spin class and to please come back. Even they were hurting! Tracy said she would be up for another class, so the Psycho Cyclist didn't scare her away.

Friday morning I ran/walked again with Becky to finish up my Week 2 Day 3 work out of the Couch to 5k program and it was tough. My legs were fatigued from all I did this week but I finished the last set of runs pretty strong. Tonight I am definitely taking it easy cause I got so crazy plans with the ATL girls this weekend and I am looking forward to it! Til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!

5 mile Hike

Today I invited Becky back out for another easy 5 mile day hike. I picked her up around 8am and we zoomed up to Troutman NC where we were meeting a group to go hiking. It's one of my favorite local trails, Lake Norman State Park's, Lakeshore trail. It's a nice rolling trail, nothing too steep or too crazy, but enough to get your hear pumping and your body sweating. We started out following Mike, he hiked at a good pace, so we kept up him and got in a good workout.

With a nice 15 minute break at the half way point, we finished up in just under 2 hours. And let me tell you, I was sweating up a storm! All in all it was a great day to be out, it was nice and overcast, so not so hot, the trail was tree covered to keep us cooler, and the breeze floating off the lake was just what we needed to keep us going at a good pace. There were a few times when we didn't talk cause we needed to breathe, but other than that it was a great beginner hike. Til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!

My new Hell.....

So I've attempted to creep back into the gym. My original thoughts were to take it slowly with a class or two a week, maybe hit the elliptical, some weights.... you get the idea. Well.... it seems I shot out the cannon with both feet running. You see, I bought my Y membership last week and invited my friend Becky (whose been wanting to get back into the gym) to start out slowly with me. After our hike on Saturday, she was a bit sore, so we THOUGHT we would take it easy this week. On Sunday, we went to the Y and took a Yoga Basics class that was really good. I've never taken an actual yoga class, just did th DVD thing, so it was neat. The instructor had the lights out, the soft music playing and for an hour I twisted and manipulated myself into a pretzel. It was tough to start, b/c I'm not the most flexible person, but I loved how I felt after the class, so loose and limber. We will definitely be back for another stretch session soon.

On Monday, we started the Couch to 5k series again, she been wanting to run, so I told her I'd jog with her. Week 1 was pretty easy for me this time around :) Then on Monday afternoon I get an email from her saying there was a Spin class she wanted to take that night. Since I've never taken a Spin cycle class before, I was mildly interested and told her I was game. She picked me up around 6:30pm and we headed to the gym for our 6:45pm Spin class and boy was it HELL!!! hahaha! Oh my... I got in a real good workout with that class. We had the cycle Nazi instructor from hell and not even 5 minutes into the class I was out of breath and sweating up a storm. She had us up off the bikes for about 75% of the class, and it was a good thing too, those seats were hard! They hurt so much and made my bum numb, that I actually looked forward to when she made us stand and cycle. (*Note, bring a gel seat cushion to Spin cycle class if you ever go.) Anyways, we loved it so much, we did the same routine jog/spin on Wed, and Friday. haha! We're going to add some sculpt classes on Tues and Thurs, and do some day hiking on Saturday. Sounds like alot (and it is) but my body can handle it so far and I'm having lots of fun. That cycle class is definitely a challenge that I want to beat. So... Til next time...GET OUTDOORS!!! (or indoors, just get moving!!!) :)

Nice hike today

Aaaaahhh..... it's been a while since I've been on a day hike and it's been a LONG time since I've been to Stone Mountain State Park in NC. So I was looking forward to my summer hike. I had invited Becky, a newbie hiker, and had promised her that it would be an easy 5 mile hike. The only hard part would be the first .75 miles, where we would actually climb up 750 feet in elevation, but the rest would be nice trail.

Around 8:30am, I picked up Becky and we zoomed up to the mountains and at 10:30am we were stepping on the trail and climbing our way up to the top. Now it has been a while since I've been to this park, over 7 yrs and I took my mom last time, and alot has changed. As we were climbing up these never ending nice wooden stair cases, I was telling Becky that back in the day, we used to hike up this mountain along the rock face and had to literally hold onto roots, trees, and rocks to get us up to the top. The trail has also changed a bit, it used to be along the side of the mountain, where you had some great views for most of the way up. Now the stairs wind thru the woods and you don't get really good views til you get to the top. It's a shame they changed the trail, but I can understand why. It's safer and more accessible for more people to come out an enjoy the park. Still, it was really a workout before and you felt like you were really deserved the views b/c you were busting your hump over the rock face.

So after we reached the summit, we stopped for a break to snap some pictures, eat a snack, and drink lots of water. Then we walked the ridge a bit and started our descent down along a 200 ft. water fall. The last 4 miles were pretty smooth and easy and I think Becky really enjoyed it. Once we got to the bottom, we took a picture of the rock faced Stone Mountain we just climbed. I didn't see the usual slew of rock climbers out, but it was pretty hot. We made it down to the little outdoor museum settlement, which consisted of a barn, corn crib, garden, another building, an outhouse, and a little cabin. We met a nice man named Mr. McGrady, and he told us his grandfather used to live in the settlement and he remembers spending lots of nights in the old two room house with a loft. The property was in his family since it was granted to them in 1783 and The Hutchinson family eventually sold it to the state park system in the late 1960's. It was really cool to talk to a real live part of history. It made the little museum that much more interesting. We hop back on the trail for the last 1/4 mile and we are back at the car by 1:30pm. As we hop in the car, I ask Becky if she wants to stop and have lunch at the little country store that is famous for it's ice cream! She says yes and off we go to enjoy our earned reward. As we were browsing the little gifts in the shop, we come across this sign, right above the homemade jelly's, that reads, "Flies $1.89 each, this box." We both immediately think it's for REAL flies! and start laughing, after all it's set up right by all the food stuff, not the fishing stuff. Anyways, I snap a picture and we head out to go home. It was a perfect day for a hike, the weather was overcast so not that hot, and the climb gave us a good work out. Becky enjoyed the hike and I loved being outside. Til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!

Pepper Concert

Whoo hoo! Thursday night, Boo and I headed over to a local venue to catch the lively tunes of Hawaii's own Pepper. These boys hail from Kona, Hawaii, then moved to "the Diego" to make it big. That's San Diego for those who don't know. Now ya know. If you've never heard of them, you're missing out! The band is an awesome mix of reggae/rock/rap and those boys know how to throw down a show! It was soooo much fun. They came out to an all Baywatch Beach themed show. Sounds corny, but it was cool. They had the lifeguard stand, surfboards, sand, beachballs, and Pam Anderson cut outs. haha! Anyways, they came out in the mandatory red lifeguard board shorts, sunglasses, and straw lifeguard hats. Too Chill. If you want to hear their music/albums, check out this link. PEPPER.

The Outlaw Nation opened up for them and I found out they are signed on at Slightly Stoopid's record label. They actually covered a couple of songs from Slightly Stoopid. I really dug them. But then again, I love me some Stoopid. It was a great night, great show, and great company. Thanks Boo! Til the next time Pepper is in town... GET OUTDOORS!!!

Grandfather Mt. Highland Games

FRIDAY:

Friday afternoon I zoomed up to Linville NC and to meet up with some girlfriends for the 2010 Grandfather Mountains Highland Games. I've never been to the games, so I was looking forward to it. My friends all had Scottish backgrounds and I realized I did to. My grandmother was a Campbell so I was looking forward to learning more about the Campbell surname. Kirsten and Cathy drove up on Tues, and Lisa showed up Thursday night for the Torch Ceremony. I had to work and could only get up there for camping on Friday and Saturday. So around 2:30pm, I pulled up to Grandfather Mountain in Linville, NC and up to the check in area to get my parking sticker and my camping pass (green wrist band). I called Kirsten to let her know I was here and she told me she'd be over in a second to show me where to go. Literally, a minute later she showed up and we entered, what I like to endearingly call, "the Shanty Tent Village." Seriously, there were miles and miles of tents and RV's all decked out in Scottish Flags. It was crazy! hahaha! We pulled up to our camp spot, a nice section on the bend towards McVillage, and met up with Cathy and Lisa. After quick hellos, I unloaded all my stuff (cooler, backpack, chair.) I had given Kirsten my tent last week, so they could save me a spot next to them. It was already up, so I dropped off my backpack and unfolded my air mattress and let the pump do it's job. In a couple of minutes, I was all unpacked and my air mattress was full. Kirsten went with me to go park my car at the camper's lot and we shuttled back to our shanty tent town.

Well, as soon as we walked up to our tent site, it started pouring rain. We all huddled under the canopy and since there was nothing else to do.... we started drinking! hahaha! I pulled out the Bourbon and Lisa and I had bourbon and gingers, while Kirsten and Cathy sipped on Beer and Scotch. When the rain finally let up a bit and we were feeling quite toasty, we all ventured out to give me a tour. We met up with the Browns, a family that Kirsten met a couple of years ago, when she came down for the highland games. They were such wonderful people, they had roasted an entire turkey and later that night, stopped by our tent to bring us a HUGE hunk of it to share. After goodbyes with the Browns, we venture back out onto shanty town lane and pass by a crazy looking Little House on the Prairie wagon that was decked out as a camping tent. You KNOW I had to check it out. haha! I met the crazy owner, who was waaaay more soused then I was and he said I could climb into his Scottish Gypsy Wagon and take a look. He had actually built the wagon over 2 years and customized it for traveling. It was like a mini RV. We continue on thru tent city and finally get to the vendor area and I get a sense of the place, but by then it was 5:30pm, so most things were closing down. We made one last stop at a Jewelry Tent and got caught in another crazy rain downpour. So we hung out with the vendor for about 45 mins. They were pretty cool and chit chatted with us about the Highland festivities. When the rain let up a bit, we high tailed it back to our tent site to make some dinner. A guy named Patrick noticed our stuff was getting wet, so he offers to plastic wrap one side of our canopy tarp and we graciously accept. He saved the day, cause our stuff was dried out and it didn't rain the entire rest of the trip! haha! Pat's a nice older guy who know's our other neighbor Linville, and is staying in an RV with his son around the corner. He and his son play bagpipes and they were here enjoying the festival and competitions.

More rounds of bourbon and ginger ales and introductions with our neighbors. I got to meet Linville Rose, who was a very refined gentleman with a HUGE ass tent for just him and his grandson. I mean his tent could be classified as a McMansion of tents. It had like 5 separate rooms. He had a closet with a wardrobe rack full of clothes in one room! haha! Seriously, he knows how to camp with style. I loved Linville, he was like the grandpa that watched over all of us, but was cool enough to thrown down and party with us too. Next to Linville it was Cynthia, her husband Mike, and their three kids. They were really nice and REALLY into being Scottish. Mike had the Scottish ancestry and wore his kilt the entire time we were there. He actually taught me alot about kilts, claymores, dirks, sgian dubh's, shields, tartans, and Pict's (the blue painted warriors, like in the BraveHeart movie). So Mike was an interesting character. Not only did he school me in all things Scottish, since he's been coming down to these games for years, he knows lots of people and when they would stop by, he would introduce all of us girls to everyone. So I got to meet other die hard Scots rocking out in kilts. Literally rocking out. You see, I got to meet/see most of the members of the popular Scottish band Albannach. They would stop by Mike's tent for a beer or just to chit chat! I saw Jamesie (Bass drummer), Donnie (bagpiper), and Aya (drummer and tambourine). I also got to meet the second mayor of McVillage (you have to be here to understand) McVillage is like the "cool" camp spot where the long timers get together. Lucky for us, we were up on the bend from McVillage, so we were close enough to meet some characters. I met Darin and Erin from Canada and got a really good photo of Darin and Mike doing the Captain Morgan pose in their kilts. hahaha! Anyways, back to our little bend. The neighbors on the otherside of us were pretty cool too. Tom was an Englishman (by the way, the Scots hate the English waaaay more than the Irish do!) and Sprague, from Raleigh. They had the skimpiest set up. I mean, all it was was a small dome tent and that's it! No chairs, no fire pit, no tables, nada. We made sure they hung out with us and got to meet everyone. I totally felt like the social chair for our little nook in Shanty Tent Village.

Later on that night, we went over to the rowdy side. You see, the camping is divided into two areas, the quiet side, which everything quiets down by 10pm, and the rowdy side across the street into the woods, which shuts down around 1am. So we headed over to the rowdy side to catch Patrick's son Andy, play the bagpipes and join a drum circle. It was definitely a younger crowd and livelier side. As we hiked up (in flip flops) on a dry creek bed with tons of loose rocks, I'm too toasted and laughing too hard to notice all the times I slipped and slid on the rocks. When we get to the large bonfire, (and I mean HUGE fire pit, as in the biggest I have ever seen,) we join in the circle of dancing people and check out the bagpipers and drummers. After about an hour we decide to just head back to our own fire pit and chillax a bit. Plus it was FREEZING! It might be 100 degrees back at home, but up in the mountains it was a chilly 65. Well, when we get back, there's a ton of people already at our campsite waiting for us. So we fix some fresh drinks, and chat all night long with our neighbors and guests. Around 1am, everyone goes to sleep, but me, Darrin and Mike. This is where I learn alot about the Scottish heritage, the highland games, and weapons. I finally decide I need to go to bed, cause we have a LOOOONG day tomorrow! So around 1:30am, I crawl into my cardboard box... I mean tent. (I so missed my hammock right about then) and plop down onto the air mattress, which kind of deflated a bit over the course of the night, and I couldn't pump it back up without making so much noise with the pump, so I sagged on top of the air mattress, draped my down sleeping quilt over me and the next thing I knew, it was 8am the next morning.

SATURDAY:

I got up and because I had just arrived, decided to forgo the cold showers. So I changed clothes in my tent and since it was my day to do the cooking, I pulled out the bagels, got the water boiling for coffee, put out Advil's for everyone, and started skewering fruit for fruit kabobs. Soon, Cathy and Kirsten came back from the showers, and Lisa finally woke up and we sat in our chairs having breakfast and planning out our day. Around 10am, we headed over to the field with our chairs and watched some of the games. They also had a marathon going on that morning, so we got to see the runners enter the track area and cross the finish line. It was pretty cool, lots of people running in kilts. And we actually knew one of the runners! Daniel from back home was in the marathon race, when he came by our section we cheered loud and saw the huge grin on his face when he recognized us. So, the games. We caught the hay bail toss, which basically was a guy in a kilt, with a pitch fork, tossing a bail of hay over a bar, like a pole vault jumper bar. Then we saw the weight toss, a heavy weight tossed as far as the thrower could. We caught the herding dogs, herding sheep and white ducks. That was really cute, those border collies really get into their job! We saw a bunch of shirtless men in kilts wrestling, saw a ton of girls in kilts dancing, and then decided to walk into the groves to catch a couple of bands.

The groves were pretty cool. You walked up a little hill and over the ridge, and down into an open area covered by trees. It made for some great acoustics. We got there in time to catch a band called Trebius. Which consisted of a drummer, bagpiper, and a guitar. They were very good. Then we walked over to Grove 1, the bigger area, to catch Albannach. It got crowded fast and we only had standing room. You could feel the energy in the little "holler" as soon as the band took stage, (which the stage was a giant boulder, very natural setting, kind of what you would think it looked like back in the day in Scotland). Once the music began, it was mesmerizing, almost primal. The drum beats just took over and I felt the music. I really got into it. Later on that night Mike told me that if you have just a drop of Celtic blood in you, as soon as you hear those drums beat, it will awaken the Celticness inside you. I totally believe it. It was definitely an experience that I can not describe other than very primal, very raw, very tribal..... Anyways, I really enjoyed Albannach. I wanted to buy their CD right away, but I held off and told myself that if I saw them tonight and I felt the same strong, raw, stirring, feelings, then I would buy it.

After the music we decided to take a break and walk around to see the Clan tents and grab some lunch. . The Clan tents were set up around the track, while the festivities happened inside the track on the field. We stopped by the Scottish food vendor and I got a meat pie, I was too chicken to try the haggis or the Scottish Eggs (google either one and you'll see why) and my verdict is... what I expected. Pretty plain food., just some meat wrapped in a pastry. We then headed down to the Woodlands tent for some good NC BBQ (vinegar based sauce is the BESTEST!). We hauled our goodies back to our campsite and ate lunch there on our table.

After lunch, we filled up our "water" bottles with some amber colored liquid and headed back to catch more of the games. Lisa and Kirsten wanted to catch another band, so Cathy and I went to the games. While we walked around the field, we walked passed some of the Clan tents and I actually did the whole "Sorcerer and the stone" thing at one of the Clan tents. The kilted man asked me what I believed to be most important to me and I said it was my little family. Then he asked me to pull the sword up out of the stone, and I did! I was grinning like a silly kid when he made me a "Lady" and pinned a button on my shirt. I know, it's the corny, but it's the silly things that I love. hahaha! Anyways, after touring most of the Clan tents, (some even had complimentary shots of scotch!) we caught a couple of Caber tosses (telephone pole tossing) and then headed over to the music groves to catch some more music. We watched Albannach again and I got a great picture of Jamesie, up close and personal. haha! I mean I got up right in his grill and snapped away. He was a good sport about it too. AND I was still digging the music. I knew I wanted the CD now, but I wanted to wait til the concert tonight to make sure the raw passion I was feeling wasn't the amber colored liquid from my water bottle!

Around 6pm, we shuffle back to our campsite and because it was my turn to make dinner, I put Jeff (a neighbor) to work on getting the coals on the grill hot, while I assembled the marinated beef and veggies into kabobs. I also put out the tortilla chips and black bean and corn relish/salad I made for everyone to snack on. So while everyone (we had a nice crowd follow us back) was sitting around the fire, refreshing their drinks and munching on my dip, I started grilling the kabobs. We are laughing and relaxing, when Linville decides that he wants to get a group photo of us girls. I suggest getting a group shot of everyone, so we all gather up our cameras. I spotted a random guy walking by and grabbed him with the promise of a beer if he is would to take our photo. He deserved that beer too, cause there were about 12 cameras out for him to shoot our picture! hahaha! After the photo shoot, my kabobs were ready and thank goodness I had enough for everyone! I got some great compliments on the dinner. Since the rule is, if you cook, you clean, while I was cleaning up, everyone was chit chatting away, waiting for the concert that night. Cathy helped me out alot and I was able to finish up faster than I thought. By now, Kirsten had switched me to Gin and Tonics, now I thought I didn't like gin, but these were delish! They went down like water. Around 8pm we finally head out to the main concert event area (the track) to catch the concert that night. Well, Kirsten and I take our sweet time and tell everyone we need to pack some "provisions" for the night and that we'll meet up with everyone there. So the group takes off and we go about packing a day pack with ginger ale, bourbon, scotch, gin, and tonic. You know... the essentials. haha! On the way up, Kirsten and I were doing the "I love you girl", hugging each other, almost about to cry, bonding thing, when we get almost to the gate entrance. I mean we are so close I can see the stage! and she goes, "I can't find my camera". Without skipping a beat, I say, "Well lets go back and get it, I need to refresh my drink with ice anyways," and we walk the 1/2 mile back to our campsite. She scours her tent and finally finds her camera, while I mix us a couple of gin and tonics, and off we go again. Well, we get right to that gate again and she has forgotten her jacket. I laugh and say, lets go back cause it's going to get cold tonight, plus, we need to refresh our drinks. We stumble back, still doing the "I love you girl", and she grabs her jacket while I make us another gin and tonic. Off we go again for the third time, walking that 1/2 back up to the gate, and about half way there, we forget something else, I can't remember what it was, but we both burst out laughing and walk back to the campsite. By this point, it's 9:20pm, the concert has already started and we haven't left the campground area. As we are leave our campsite, we see Lisa and Cathy walking back. They were getting their jackets, so we decided to walk to camp with them, then all of us walk up to the concert. We finally enter the gates and the music is pulsing in the air. We find our camp chairs smack dab in the middle between the two stages. It was really a perfect spot. We all plop down and start dancing in our chairs, enjoying the music, and taking silly pictures. The concert is a compilation of all the bands that were their today and the headliner is Albannach. Well, Albannach finally got on stage and started playing and they were amazing. Right then and their I vowed to buy their CD the next morning.

After the concert (what we caught of it), we head back to our campsite around 12pm. We are still wired and Lisa, Linville, Patrick, and I decide to head over to the rowdy side to see what's going on. On the way there, we are stopped by a girl and guy, who looks familiar, but I can't place, handing out cherries that were steeped in some grain alcohol. So I do the polite thing and take a cherry from a stranger as they tell me about the highland games in Gatlinburg TN next year and how Albannach will be playing. Then it hits me, the guy is Donnie, the bagpiper from Albannach! I'm celebrity stunned then and can't focus to say a thing now. After they leave, I tell Patrick that we just met Donnie and he laughs at me. We continue on to the rowdy side and find Patrick's son, Allan, playing bagpipes around a fire pit for a crowd of people. As we mingle, a guy that Kirsten met, Dan, asks where Kirsten is. We say she's back at our campsite passed out in her tent. We all decided to go wake her up, so we walked back down the dry creek bed, slipping and sliding everywhere, walk across the highway, and into our campsite. We peered into Kirsten's tent and whispered (and giggled) "wake up!" She did, laughing at us and we all continued to have fun. Cathy is still chit chatting away with a few people around our fire pit, so I join them for bit. Around 2am, we decide to call it a night and everyone headed back to their campsites. As Lisa and I were cleaning up the campfire, Jerry, in nothing but his red plaid kilt and flip flops, walked up and asked me if I want to go over to the rowdy side and party some more. I politely tell him no, like 15 times. I'm wasn't going over there that late, and especially not with his half naked self! I think he finally got the hint when I turned off our strung up Christmas lights and crawled inside my tent. It was a good day, but I know I'm going to feel it in the morning.

SUNDAY:

The next morning, as I had guessed, was a rough one. I got up around 8am, donned on my sunglasses, and started packing up. It was the last day and we were leaving that afternoon. I deflated my air mattress, roll up my sleeping quilt, and packed up my backpack. When I stepped out my tent, I saw Cathy almost packed up. She needed to leave earlier than the rest of us. Kirsten made us breakfast that she called kitchen sink and Mike our neighbor called "bubble and squeak" (which is a real Scottish/English dish. But the name makes me hurl. It means left overs in one pot that usually bubbles up and makes a squeak noise when cooking it.) She mixed all the left over veggies we had with eggs. (Tomato, avocado, onion, garlic, mushrooms, and eggs) and it was actually good. I topped that off with a couple of Advil and some coffee. After breakfast, Cathy left, and the rest of us went to retrieve our cars to loaded them up. Once our cars were all packed up, we decided to walk around the festival one last time, then hit Douglas bakery for some treats to take home. We caught the closing bagpipe parade and then walked down into the grove so I could buy my Albannach CD. We hit Douglas Bakery and I loaded up on some orange cranberry scones for me, and some Scottish oatmeal/chocolate chip cookies for Boo. Then we finally end up at the flag tent where I bought some flags to hang in my bonus room at home. I got the Old Scottish flag, an Irish flag, an American flag, and a Welsh flag. Now all I need is a Costa Rican flag and a Bolivian flag to finish off our heritage collection. Lisa, Kirsten, and I slowly, and wordlessly walked back to our campsite one last time. We said good bye to all of our neighbors, hugged one last time, and by 12pm, we were on the road headed home.

It was an amazing weekend. It opened up a whole new appreciation of Scottish heritage for me that I can't wait to share with my dad. He needs to know his heritage. Hell, I may even get him a kilt. haha! I had so much fun with my NC girls and look forward to doing it all over again next year, once my liver has had a chance to recover. I found an amazing band, Albannach, that I really dig, and I met some great people that taught me alot about being Scottish. This weekend totally took me by surprise in how much I really, truly enjoyed learning what it means to be Scottish. Til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!