A photo essay about our Road Trip to the
Clifftop
2007 Appalachian String Band
Music Festival

Please double-click pictures to enlarge them.

Barbara's Thoughts from Clifftop 2007
or Life (aka Clifftop) Goes On

Another great year at Clifftop - even with a few major snags along the way. 

 Leslie had the whole week orchestrated well ahead of time.  A full year ago she had reserved cabin 4 for us.  She sent out lists of things we would need.  We decided on who would bring what.  She bought a brand new canopy for shade and shelter that would provide that perfect jam space.  Driving arrangements were decided on.  Leslie and Ruth would drive up in Leslie’s “Vanjo” on Saturday.  I (Barbara) would drive myself on Saturday.  We would meet up and stake out prime shady real estate.  Leslie has a camp stove. Bill from PA was coming in on Saturday and bringing fresh corn from his garden.  Perfect.  What better camping fare for the first night?  Rosemarie would arrive on Sunday night after dropping her son off at camp.  Leslie made copies of a map of the campground for us so we could post our location on the message board for other FOBers to find us.  Monday we were scheduled to check in to the cabin.    We were expecting around 16 people for our Monday night dinner party – we each had our part of the menu planned. We were set.

 On Friday, the day before our scheduled departure, Leslie emailed that she was quite ill and not able to travel.  That’s putting it mildly – she wasn’t able to get out of bed!  She was hoping to be able to leave by Sunday or Monday, but none too confident that she would be able to do so. 

 Quick change of plans – Ruth would wait until Monday in hopes that Leslie could travel by then.  I decided to go ahead and leave as planned on Saturday.  Bill decided to wait until Sunday to arrive.  Rosemarie and I decided that we could handle Monday’s dinner party on our own so Leslie and Ruth wouldn’t need to worry about cooking on a travel day.  We even thought that maybe Ruth a.k.a. Wonder Banjo Pickin’ Woman could still pull off the appetizers that were her part of the dinner.

 Saturday was a perfect traveling day.  I left at 10:00am.  The weather was perfect though thunder heads were building.  The traffic was light.  I was there by 3:00pm and amazed at how many other people were already there.  I drove down to the lowlands and was able to find a fairly flat space in the shade.  I decided to spread out my screen tent even though I can’t set it up by myself.  This way I could at least claim the space for it.  Before I had the poles out of the bag a man came over and asked if I’d like some help.  “I’d love some help.”  My whole camp was set up in minutes.  I then decided to wander around for a bit, and as luck would have it, I ran into Tom as he was driving in.  He, like me, was a lone scout trying to claim as much space as possible for those coming in later. We set up his camp and then I went to retrieve my banjo.  Tom got out his fiddle and we played as we watched the thunderstorm roll in. 

Sunday held new surprises.  Ruth showed up, but without Leslie L.  Kevin and Jan showed up but with the news that Rosemarie had a migraine and would not be coming until Monday.  Bill showed up with corn, but we didn’t have a camp stove to cook it on.  I still had a great day – I was at Clifftop.  And the new arrivals were able to set up camp as we watched the thunderstorm roll in.

 Monday – check into the cabin day and dinner party day – Ruth and I decided to go down at 10:00am and see if we could check into the cabin early.  We couldn’t.  Guaranteed check-in time is 4:00pm, but they told us to check back after 1:00.  We decided to go to the market for our last minute dinner needs.  Then we went to the picnic area at Babcock and set up an outdoor prep kitchen.  Both Ruth and I brought the things we absolutely needed for making our meal as we both expected a poorly equipped kitchen.  We had a cutting board, a good kitchen knife, a Swiss Army knife, a cheese grater and Ziploc bags.  We grated, chopped, mixed and laughed and laughed; chopping and mixing faster and faster as we watched the thunderstorm roll in. 

Monday’s storm was fast moving and over by about 2:30pm.  We went to check in to the cabin and found that Rosemarie had already checked in.  We were feeling pretty good about how things were progressing.  Most of the prep work was done for the dinner.  Ruth had some final cooking and chilling to do.  I was going to peel shrimp, put the casserole together, wash up the dishes and then take a shower.  But, we had no hot water.  Rosemarie went down to the office to report the problem and, to their credit, they responded promptly.  Then we had NO water.  They had to turn it off to fix the problem.  The water, hot and cold, was running again just before 6:00pm when our first guests arrived.  I don’t think anyone minded that I greeted them with wet hair.  The Monday Clifftop kick-off dinner was so much fun.  It is truly the guests that make a party great and we had great guests.

Most of Tuesday was spent at Paul and Virginia’s camp.  They had the perfect jamming location and Paul looked like a kid at Christmas he seemed to be having such a good time.  No thunderstorm that afternoon.  A threatening sky, but no storm. 

Wednesday was another great party – this one at Kevin and Jan’s cabin.  They hosted a wonderful breakfast.  Waffles, eggs, bacon, fruit and Howard topped it off by bringing mimosas.  After breakfast we left Kevin to clean up, others went off to Clifftop jams and Virginia, Jan, Ruth and I went for a walk through the woods.  Well, Ruth and I walked.  Jan and Virginia really see so much more than I do.  They are aware of and see what I breeze past and they take the time to examine and identify what is there; looking through field guides if they come across something they don’t recognize.  I’m amazed at the knowledge these two possess.   

After the nature walk, Virginia, Ruth and I went on a horseback ride.  Virginia says she doesn’t mind our jamming at her camp, but I think this horseback ride might have been her attempt to off a couple of banjo players.  Up and down the steepest, muddiest, rocky terrain I’ve ever been on.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, but must admit that there were quite a few times that I thought about the best way to hit and roll when I fell off.  No one fell, but I was glad that Virginia had insisted that we all wear helmets.

After the horseback ride, the remaining week became a blur of constant jams – listening to them and playing in them; watching contests and eating apple crisps and moaning about the lack of fried green tomatoes.  The only notable occurrence was the arrival of Leslie, Jill and JC on Friday.  Leslie was only, oh, about a WEEK late!  But at least she made it.

 Can’t wait for next year!!!

Barbara