Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Camping at Grey Fox

Campsites on the hill. I took this photo as we were leaving. We camped in a different area.

This was our site. I rented a minivan to haul all our stuff. My daughter and I shared a large tent (in front of the minivan) and a "gazebo" tent. We cooked out on a propane stove, bringing food enough for a month. The white tent in the distance is the kids' activity tent, and the field behind our tent was usually full of kids playing with circus toys from the red-and-white striped tent.

The kids' play area, from the other direction. Our tent is behind the person with the green shirt and khaki pants. Once a ball came flying through and landed in our gazebo, but on the whole it was amusing to have the kids nearby, and their noise was a good cover for Doris's and my occasional fiddle/cello playing.


Our neighbor's site. They had a mini-car, a mini-tent (behind the mini-car), and a mini-gazebo. Later they put their tent inside their gazebo. This photo was taken before our friend Doris joined us, parking her pickup truck in the space between. Doris had a truck tent, which is set up in the back of the truck, so she had a very small camping footprint, kind of making up for our big one.


Not everyone camps with two cellos, three violins, and two violas.


All packed up. The people on either side of us had already left. You can see that the land is not level, but this was the flattest tent site we had had in three years, and the closest to the main stage, workshop stage, and activity tents. You can also see how densely spaced the campsites are.

We were among the first to leave on Sunday morning. It is a long ride home and we wanted to have some time with my in-laws in Connecticut, on the way home. We ended up staying overnight, having a nice, relaxing visit with them.

2 comments:

cellodonna said...

Yowser! Looks like a busy place. I would have been lost in that sea of tents.

Your "petting zoo" must have been a lot of fun.

Maricello said...

It was busy, but not really overwhelming. There were several other camping areas, larger than the ones I pictured, but the event has the feel of a community.

I do enjoy the petting zoos. Each year it is different. This time, I got to the petting zoo site an hour early, and asked around to find who was in charge. Brian Wicklund, who runs the Bluegrass Acadamy for Kids (and authored the American Fiddle Method series), told me they had canceled the petting zoo. I sputtered and showed him the notice about the petting zoo in the program, and he agreed to let me do it. This time it was not the kids who from the Bluegrass Academy who attended, but kids and their parents from the general audience who saw the notice in the program. One girl, a cellist from the Bluegrass Academy, did stop by to say hi.

Brian W. continued to jam with others right near us, which was fun and festive. One boy, about 12, applied a Rushad E. approach to the cello. I feared for the survival of the cello, but all turned out well, and Brian W. talked about better organization "next year," so I think I will be back.