Them thar hills

As I had said last week, yesterday we made our way up to the Blue Ridge Music Center in Galax, VA to see Sierra Ferrell in concert. I had found her on YouTube and then turned Mary on to her. In typical fashion, Mary quickly became an obsessive fan, and she told her friend Kate about her. And so plans were laid for Kate and her husband Kim to drive down from Ann Arbor and meet us in the hills on July 17 to hear her sing. 

Then we got there, and there was rain. And thunder. And lightning. Apparently this happens all the time up in the hills, and everybody was kind of expecting it. We were prepared enough to have brought raincoats, and Mary had brought an umbrella. Since I don't really believe in umbrellas, we only had the one.

In any case, the proximity of lightning had thrown the whole thing into question, and everybody was just hanging out, using all available modes of shelter, waiting for it to blow over.

There were some great styles in evidence. There was one barefooted guy who had dreadlocks down to his waist and a straw hat that had a curlicue top like something straight out of Dr. Seuss. Another dude had on cowboy boots and work shirt cut off at the sleaves to display a fine portfolio of tattoos. Reminded me a lot of Jack Whitebread. 

Eventually we made our way over to the breezeway by the building of the Center, where we had heard a magical little set by some guys with banjos and/or fiddles or something years ago of an August afternoon  (and where they are having performances these days from 12-4 daily, we caught some of one on Monday). Yesterday we were sitting there waiting with a family with a couple of small kids who were listening to something on an iPhone and drawing some drawings. The dad saw a rainbow and told his kids, who hopped up to see. In short order, it had turned into a double rainbow, which got them really worked up.

Then they announced that the show was cancelled, so we drove back to our AirBnb to meat Kate and Kim.