Saturday morning and it has been a wonderful couple of days here in Morgantown WV. It was a long drive up here on Thursday, but we made it into town around 2:00 that afternoon. I dropped Rima off with all of our gear and then got back in the truck and headed for the airport in Pittsburgh. A friend from Colorado was flying in that afternoon and she had asked me many, many months ago if I would be able to pick her up and drive her down to the dance. I got to the airport about 10 mins before she called to be picked up, so it worked out just about perfect. A nice drive back down to the dance gave us a chance to catch up on what has been happening. Got the straight scoop on her trials after the rain storms and resulting floods in Colorado last year deposited about 3'-4' of silt in the front yard of her Bed and Breakfast. She is coping of course, but this week will be a good respite for her I am sure.

    The dancing has been amazing right from the first note on Friday night. Great Bear Trio has been the band I have been dancing to the most so far. But the Mean Lids are also wonderful of course. Great calling and dance partners have made for a near perfect vacation so far. Four hours of dancing to the GBT on Friday started us all out. A surprise to me was that I was actually up by 8:00 a.m. the next morning and even managed to dance all but two dances in that morning session.

    The food here, which is all included in the price, has been pretty good overall. Of course it is what you would expect from most hotel kitchens. But after 2-4 hours of intense dancing, pretty much anything that can be considered food is good. The food here has been many steps above that of course, and meal times are always a fun time to sit and talk to old friends or strike up conversations with some new ones.

    Come yesterday afternoon it was time to take a nap before the evening festivities started up again. Dinner first and then a concert before the dance. The GBT were doing the concert and Rima and I didn't actually make it to that one. We had attended the one on Thursday night which were the 'Eddy Sisters'. Two sisters who play a dozen or more instruments between them, I am so envious, but who have these amazing voices that outshine most people you would hear on stage anywhere in the world. In fact I wonder why they aren't recording in Nashville or someplace like that, and the only reason I can think of, is that they just don't have any interest. They just enjoy playing and singing with family and friends and that is enough. Of course, I really don't know any of their reasons, but since this is my blog, I give myself permission to guess until I know better.

    I'm going to take it easy for most of today I think. Rima was up early and grabbed the truck to drive out to some friends she has here in the area. They were talking about cutting up and splitting a bunch of firewood, and her face lit up at the thought of running a log splitter this morning. She's a funny girl.... but I like her anyway.  :)

    I was up until 2:00 last night drinking wine and listening to a bunch of people jamming outside the dance hall, so I'm less inclined to go out in the cold this morning. In fact I will probably take another nap this afternoon in order to be awake for more dancing this evening. But I need to find out who is playing and who is calling this afternoon and at what time. For some reason another 2-3 hours of hot, sweaty dancing sounds like fun. What a great way to spend the last week of a year.