We spent the night in Carrboro, a neighboring town to Chapel Hill, with Suzie, a great friend of Diana’s. The two of them started a long career with IBM more years ago than they would admit to! Both are retired and Suzie built this beautiful house in 1999.

Morning coffee and southern hospitality . . .

 

Local boy does good . . . getting a bridge named after himself!

Soon we were on to another of John and Diana’s favorite haunts, the Open Eye Cafe to pick up some coffee for camp . . .

. . . and in true WI tradition, how about a second breakfast! emJay proves the adage . . .when in ‘Rome do as the Romans’ by enjoying grits with multiple toppings

We headed to the Webster Street Coop to do our final provisioning for the twelve campers. Interestingly, they must be catering to their “older” boomer generation customers by providing “spy glass” magnifiers about every five feet along the homeopathic/nutrition/supplement aisle so you one can read the fine print on the bottles!!!

Another good product line from WI.

John knew the store like the back of his hand, having shopped here two to three times a week during their time in Chapel Hill. Although there was LOTS of healthy produce . . .

. . .  he still knew where the goodies were kept. Vegan and gluten free too!

One last stop before heading to Merlefest was Tom’s Seafood to pick up our soft shell crabs for tonight’s dinner.

Captain Tom had just got off the boat and was busy cleaning fish.

This fellar’ needed some dental work!

Half way to Wilkesboro it was time for lunch and we stopped at Diana and Jon’s favorite roadhouse, Little Richards. emJay enjoyed the daily special, barbeque chicken!

FINALLY . . . we arrived at our Merlefest camp in Wilkesboro. Pattie and Larry, from Middleton, were the first to arrive, having driven down, and staked out our claim. Now they REALLY know how to camp. Here is a look at their 12X15 foot ‘Taj Mahal’ complete with cots and towel service!

Sometimes it’s hard to get away from work . . . but what better place for John to take a conference call than under a shade awning, in 70 degree weather. Shortly after this shot we declared the site a ‘workfree zone’ and broke out the vino.

Here is our dinner . . . enjoying the pleasant afternoon!

Tonight’s kitchen catering crew consisted of Patti, John and Rick. We got the line cooking going  as Patti rubbed garlic over the toasted baguettes. . . .

. . . .John ‘delunged’ and ‘deheaded’ the little fellars . . .

 

. . .  and Rick fried them up in a pan!

  

Three down . . . nine to go!

Say good by Charlie . . . next stop the bottom of some lucky campers tummy!

Softshell crab served on a toasted garlic baguettes with basil. Doesn’t get much better!

Pam and Terry flew in from Madison and had some “luggage delay” problems due to rerouting (sequester fallout?!). They were several hours late and got to camp JUST in time to catch tonight’s main stage headliners Leon Russell and the Charlie Daniels Band. How would they find our campsite where we are staying . . . look for the Wisconsin W!

The main stage at Merlefest features the nightly headliners usually starting about 7:00pm. During the day, at any one time, there 7-9 other stages with music available. Transportation to and from the fest, which is held on the Wilkesboro Community College, is supplied by a fleet of busses owned by the local Boy Scout troop. The busses run continuously and they come by about every 10 minutes.The “fathers” work for tips only. It must be a great fund raiser for the troop!

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Our WI contingent stakes out our claim. Jumbotron monitors provide great close up viewing and there is not a bad seat in the house!

Tonight’s headliners were Leon Russell followed by the Charlie Daniels Band. A real blast from the past. Our group was able to sing along to almost every song. The performers have aged . . .but their enthusiasm on skills remain very much in place.

By 10:30 we were snug in out sleeping bags ready to face the 35 degree overnight temps and dreaming of tomorrows breakfast burritos!