Goin' Mobile-A Dance Gypsy's tour of the country

     Up earlier than anticipated this morning given that it was nearly 1:00 a.m. last night before I got to bed. That was after a rollicking 4 hrs of high intensity dancing to the tunes of the Contrarians and Perpetual e-Motion. My feet hurt!

   Be that as it may though, I was up and ready to go dance the last hour and a half of contra early this afternoon. Today the last session was PeM with Shawn doing the calling. Only 8 or 9 dances for the session, but with each running between 10-15 mins long, it was a whole lot of dancing to do in a very short amount of time. I love these last dances of the weekend though, people have loosened up by then and the band has really started to relax and play well. There is that problem with people being a little punch drunk from being so tired, but what's a few million dead brain cells really? Besides, it doesn't really matter if you goof up a move or two in the dance.... everyone does it, and with weekend dancers they are all good enough to 'get it back' in a hurry and just carry on. So it was a wonderful time and it ended way to early, even if I probably couldn't of danced any more anyway.

    Had to say goodbye to a whole bunch of nice people afterwards and that is always hard to do. It may be that the Sunday afternoon after a dance weekend is the hardest few hours I have while travelling alone. It doesn't seem like that striking of an emotion considering I've just spent a whole lot of hours interacting with some of the nicest, happiest people you will find anywhere. So feeling a bit sad about it coming to an end seems only natural. On the other hand, it is also nice to know that it won't be very long until the next dance weekend and in between times there are bound to be plenty of fun things to do and to see.

    Speaking of which; to mitigate the feelings of self sorrow a bit, I decided to go get my 'Guys Night Out' fix a bit early. So off to the big city of Beckley to see the new Iron Man III movie. Just about perfect as far as that kind of movie goes. Lot's of gratuitous sex and violence and even a bit of a plot. A good portrayal of a flawed human being by Robert Downey Jr, perhaps a bit of character acting. He is certainly turning into one of my favorite movie actors.

    The movie wasn't out until nearly 9:00 so it was late by the time I started back to the trailer. Stopped long enough to fill the truck tank so I can get a decent start out of here in the morning. Also saw that they had a self service car/truck wash bay there so I spent a good 20 mins washing off the mud and salt from the last couple of weeks on the road. Henry looks a whole lot better now, at least on the outside anyway.

   Am aiming to head back into Virginia for at least a week starting tomorrow morning, and spend some time in the North Central area around Roanoke. Hope to stay at a local state park there called Fairy Stone SP. Sounded kind of interesting anyway. After that though I'm not sure which way I'm headed. Had planned on going over into NE Tennessee and check out the Folk Lore Center my friend Warren has been putting together there, but that is certainly in the wrong direction. Will just have to see what I feel up to when that time comes I guess. In the meantime here are a few photo's from my trip over to the New River Gorge Bridge the other day.

New River Gorge Single Span Arch Bridge near

Fayettevill, WV - April 2013

The New River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville, WV. Started in 1974 and completed in 1977 it is 3,030 feet long and 876 feet high from mean water level of the river to the top of the roadway, making it the 4th longest single span arch bridge in the world and the 5th highest.

A view from road level. I like how it just seems to grow out of the side of the mountain with all of the trees growing up and around it.

It use to take nearly an hour to drive down to the bottom of the gorge, cross this bridge and then climb up the other side. Now days it takes approx. 45 seconds to cross from one side to the other.