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

Have spent a couple of very pleasant days here in Virginia. Actually mowed some grass the other day.... something I haven't done for 5 years or so. It still makes me sneeze! But it is the least I can do to help out my friend who's place I am staying at. She has been kind enough to give me a nice place to park the trailer for a few days and has even fed me a couple of times to boot. Yesterday after working up a few photo's, note below, I even went out and trimmed some grape vines and a couple of trees for her. There's about a bazillion trees here on her place, so they all aren't going to get a 'fine grooming', but some of the yard trees are very much in need of a severe pruning.... and I'm actually pretty good at that kind of thing for some reason.

On a more 'fun' note... went into Roanoke yesterday afternoon and found more stuff for the trailer roof repair. Picked up a couple 9" wide rolls of 'Ice and Water' flashing which I'm going to roll onto both edges of the trailer as soon as it warms up and dries out enough. It's super sticky stuff and a real pain to put on, but it should do the trick I think. Of course that is what I have thought with every thing I've done up there so far. But I'm hopeful... maybe this time the leak will magically be fixed.

Afterwards it was off to Blacksburg for a house concert. A guy by the name of Nathan Salsburg, from Louisville, Ky, was the entertainment for the evening. Mostly acoustic guitar.... amazing acoustic guitar, with a few regular vocal songs thrown in. He, and a friend of his on banjo, kept us entertained for well over an hour. What I really like about house concerts is that you might pay $10 to $20 for the evening, it was $10 tonight, and in return you get to sit about 10 feet away from this amazing talent and meet and talk to them afterwards. Not that I did of course, but you could if you wanted to. It is so much better than going to a movie. So good in fact that I had to buy his most recent CD. It's being loaded up on the computer right now for use on the ipod later.

What was even better than the music though, if that is possible, is that Nathan is the curator for the Alan Lomax collection of music films and videos of American Folk Artists that were taken back in the 1900's. ( About 1920 to 1975 is what I think he said) The collection is now in the Library of Congress and he brought about an hours worth of old film taken around the south and eastern U.S., of common folk performing on their back porches or in their kitchens. What a hoot. All of it is online... just go to YouTube and google Alan Lomax. It's really cool.

So; back too late last night to do or post anything, this work stuff must be really wearing me out. But today looks good, though a little cloudy. Hope it doesn't start raining again, I just got the inside of the trailer dried out again. Time to go do some more trimming and mowing and general weed whacking kind of stuff. Life is really good at the moment. Enjoy the photo's from my trip out to Old Cape Henry Lighthouse last week.

Old Cape Henry Lighthouse at Fort Story Army Base near Virginia Beach, Virginia - Sept 18, 2013

Had to add this photo just to show that this was the very first public works project ever done in the United States. I think it is pretty neat that it was a lighthouse.

The very first lighthouse in the U.S. was built to guard and show the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay as well as Norfolk and Suffolk harbors. This light no longer works, that job is now being done by a newer lighthouse about 200-300 feet away from this one.

The front door to the original lighthouse.

From the bottom looking up.

At the top of the lighthouse inside the old lamp room. My friend Rima is standing in front of one of the windows that looks out on the Atlantic Ocean and shows the newer lighthouse.