Palatka, Fl Rodeheaver Boy's Ranch Bluegrass Festival

The great Boomer reporting:

			What a great week everyone had at the Palatka FL Bluegrass Festival at the Rodeheaver  Boy's Ranch. We drove the Boomer Bus down from Bay Minette on Wednesday the 18th and took with us Nita's sister Sheila and husband Les. Nita wanted to do something special for Sheila's birthday so we decided to take them to the bluegrass festival.  They enjoyed them when they lived in Michigan and now in Leakesville, MS there aren't many music festivals close by.

The Rodeheaver's  Boy's Ranch (initially Rainbow Ranch) was founded in 1950 by an Evangelical  minister named  Homer Rodeheaver, , as a ranch for school age neglected,  abused  and/or abandoned boys   They live at the ranch with fostered parents, attend school and perform  farm chores.  The ranch is a 501-3 ( C) organization that does not rely or receive any government support for it's operation. It is strictly run on contributions or funding from supported events.The bluegrass festival is just one of the means for doing this. The ranch is located about 20 miles South of Palatka, FL. Homer's Motto: "It's better to build boys than to mend men" Click on link for more information.  Rodeheaver Boy's Ranch

 The festival started on Thursday. The slate  of singers included : Kody Norris, James King, The Bluegrass Brothers from Virginia, Larry Sparks, Jimmy Fortune from the Oak Ridge Brothers, Daily & Vincent,The Stevens Family, GoldWing Express, The Gibson Brothers, Dry Branch Fire Squad, The Seldom Scene, The Primitive Quartet, Cody Shuler, Little Roy & Lizzie, Marty Raybon, and Dry Branch Fire Squad. GoldWing played a tribute to all the veterans at the festival with "America the Beautiful" and had all of us  come to the front while we  all sang it. Must have been 100 or more veterans there.

The featured performers were Rhonda Vincent & The Rage,  and  Gene Watson with the Farewell Party  Band. What a line up of wonderful bluegrass entertainment that was and the featured artist singers, Rhonda Vincent and Gene Watson were stand up performances. Rhonda has numerous awards since she began at the age of three and is well known as " The Queen of Bluegrass". Gene Watson, also a well known award winning  singer and song  writer sang most of his big hits that  included "Should I come Home or Should I go Crazy" and "My Farewell Party"

Rhonda and Gene performed some duets : " Together Again",  "Walk Through This World With Me" and " " "Sweet 'Thang" , then  Gene sang  a tribute to his recently passed on good  friend George Jones with "He Stopped  Loving Her Today".  We were so pleased with the entire line-up and it's hard to remember all of the songs they sang. Dementia? lol. This was undoubtedly the best Bluegrass Music Festival I've ever been to and I've be2n to quite a few of them. Thank you Bill Monroe for introducing  it and reintroducing the Mandolin   at the Grand Ole Opry way back in 1939. You were a genius. He was  credited with being one of the  founders of Bluegrass for many a year and was known as the "Father of Bluegrass"
Read his bio at: billmonroe.com

While there Jesse met a couple people he had served with in the Navy. One, Lloyd, had been at NAS Pensacola Sherman Field at the same time and the other, Kris Hancock, was a retired Aviation Ordnance LCDR. Kris owned a ranch outside of Palatka and the "Gotta Go" Sanitation Company that  provided "dump" services for RV'S at the festival. It's really great meeting old friends and it seems that he has them all over the states. Guess that goes along with having 32 1/2 years of service.

The weather was good most of the time. We had a storm front come through that had a bit of wind and it rained all day Sunday driving back home.. At a rest stop on I 10  Jesse had the opportunity to help a fellow RVer with pumping up a simi flat tire. Aubrey had been to the festival and was on his way home in Chipley FL. Isn't t it wonderful making new friends?