My 65th Birthday Present - Blue Grass

**UPDATE**
I forgot to tell you about the card my wife gave me. It said:
"Through the years we've shared so mcuh together.
Tears, and even drama.
An althought we've been through so many changes,
you still manage to turn me on."

OPEN THE CARD

"Happy Birthday From The TV."

So True!

***

Okay, as I said in the post before this, I found out how to post some of the pictures.

You can see the clouds in the mountains that are part of the Application chain - and the rain.

This is the court house on the square in Blairsville. You can see that it has been raining, and just before the deluge.

The lady mandolin player in the light blue sweater had a unique way of playing the instrimunt and all I could thing of was, 'Man, I bet she could give an awesome hand job.' But the whole group had some good tunes and songs.

This is Sunday morning. What a difference a day makes.

The grandkids decorated the car for my birthday.


The kids gave me my favorite car - a '57 Chevrolet hardtop.

I won't boar you with all the people and bands we heard, but I will show you the BEST damn even of the whole weekend.


This is a tent set up outside the Hole In The Wall Cafe and it is just for jamming. Anyone with an instrument could pull up a chair and start playing. There were 4 fiddles, 3 banjo's, 5 guitars, and a base. They all played in perfect harmony like they had been playing together for years. There ranged from a 90 somehting man on the banjo to a 14 year old on the fiddle.

Then I heard the sound of an instrument that I didnt' see. I looked around and there he was.

The man was playing the strange Dobro Guitar. Love that sound. And there is the little old lady sitting there playing the spoons.

I tell ya, folks. That was the best music I have ever heard. Just a bunch of good old boys picking and a grinning.

There are many more pictures of the festival, and the trip we made to Bardstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia at 4,874 feet. Now I know that is the equivalent of a morning tent-pole hard compared to other mountains, but it has some great views. You can see NC, SC, TN and on a real clear day, KY. You can’t see the little dotted lines that separates the states because the are in the valley. The temp never gets above the mid-eighties in the summer and can go down to 24 degrees below in the winter. I can show you those pictures sometime.

But for now, I had a great birthday even though I wasn’t in it emotionally. Except for the music. You can’t not tap you foot and feel the rhythm when the banjos are rolling and the guitars are a picking and the mandolins are a strumming. The only American made music we have. Got to love it.