The Boomer Bus: April 2015

Steep Canyon Rangers

Steve Martin, yes the actor, plays with and supports a Bluegrass Band called the Steep Canyon Rangers. I didn't know he was a musician until one day I saw and purchased a CD featuring him and when I played it , I thought it was great.

We had the opportunity to attend a performance of his band at the American Theater in Phoebus, VA. Phoebus is a small city that dates back to when Fort Monroe was built in Hampton Roads along with Fort Wool on Rip Rap Island, across the entrance to the Elizabeth and James Rivers. Between the two, they provided protection to Norfolk, Phoebus and city of Hampton prior to the Civil War.

The performance was really outstanding. The first half was pretty much traditional bluegrass, but, the second was mostly new music they had created and seemed to be a mixture of bluegrass and classical. At one point , I thought they were serenading like the Italians in Venice does. The fiddle became a violin and the Mandolin sounded Italian They even had a percussionist playing with the band. The base guitar was played with a bow string instead of the fingers for some of the songs.

While we thoroughly enjoyed their music, I, at one time thought that maybe they were trying to create another genre of music. The violinist had a similiar, yet different, rendition of Orange Blossom Special" because it was called a different name. Confusing?, yeah me too. They received a standing ovation and returned to perform two additional songs before exiting the stage.

Prior to the performance, we drove through Fort Monroe and marveled at the condition of such a structure. It took 15 years to build it (1819-1834) It was originally opened as a fort in 1815 and is now a National Park and Museum (Casemate Museum). Many homes are still occupied with Army (and civilian?) families.The Chamberlain Hotel is still active. I think it was converted to civilian use several years ago (military lodge?). The senior officer quarters (0-5 and above) appear to be mostly empty.We must return and visit the Casemate Museum soon.

We took pictures of Fort Monroe, a beautiful historic memorial. Hope you enjoy.

Crossing the moat on our exit of the interior of the fort.

Seems the last blog we wrote was about our trip to Sarasota, FL FMCA Ralley, so I'll try to updat all our friends (all over the USA and Canada) about our ramblings.

We left Bay Minette, AL March 25th and met up with our son Jeff ( Anita's) in Live Oak, FL which is near I-10 and I-75 intersection where we had the pleasure of meeting Jeff's friend Aimee, who is a lovely and most friendly lady. She can be known as "The Farmer's Daughter" since her family owns a large farm in mid state, producing several kinds of vegetables and fruits. The strawberry crop this year produced some of the largest strawberries I've ever seen and absolutely delicious. I just couldn't get my fill of them. We bought a flat (trey-12 baskets) from a different fruit stand and just "pigged out" for a week.

We enjoyed a visit to the Swanee Music Park but didn't attend the festival the previous week.

Jeff

Aimee

Anita with Jeff & Aimee

Tom

Holly

We stopped overnight in Lexington, SC and visited with our daughter/son- in- law Jenny and Rick and grand children(and great grand children) then traveled on to Martinsville, VA to enjoy a NASCAR Race at the Speedway.We awoke to beautiful weather for the drive and it awaited us in VA. Clear skies and just warm enough with a sweater for watching the race. Of course, we had our reserved seats up high between turns one and two where we can see almost the entire track. What an exciting race it was. A couple surprises the last few laps gave us a start, and Denny Hamlin won after our favorite drivers ( Kevin Harvick, Jimmy Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Gordon) had their problems.

On to Chesapeake, VA to stay for a couple months to visit with family and friends and to get medical check ups. I've had a PET SCAN for my cancer but won't get results for a couple weeks. Otherwise, got a green light from my regular MD. Had some dental work completed as well. We were able to get one of our old lots in the RV park and are somewhat comfortable.

We had cracked a windshield while traveling from Vidalia, LA (across the Mississippi River from Natchez, MS) to home and we had our insurance send a new one to Chesapeake so we could get it replaced. So, day one here we had it replaced and boy, does it look good. We had a million + sand/rock chips from our trip to Alaska last Summer so it needed replacing. You would have thought someone had used sandpaper on it plus all the chips.

Entertainment wise we attended a stage production of a tribute to Hank Williams Sr in Phoebus, a small suburb in Hampton. Thoroughly enjoyable musicians and the Narrator left nothing out in his story about Hank's life. Strange though, as I can't recall knowing he was born with Spina Bifida and the pain from that was the initial crux of Hank's problem. He even included the sordid details of Hank's relations with his mother and his wife, to include the fact that Hank had a daughter out of wedlock. Hank died in the back seat of a Caddilac on the way to AL to regroup with his band. The Coroner ruled it as a heart failure

We drove down to the beach front to attend a "She Crab Soup Cookoff" but were unable to get tickets. The huge crowd along with the really small serving cups along with the ticket price made it a bit worthless anyway. SO, we drove to Margie's and Ray's Crabhouse on Sandbridge Road to lunch on She Crab Soup and Calamari. The She Crab Soup was very creamy and thick and was absolutely delicious. MAN! was it Good. We each had a bowl and ordered some scrumpous Calamari with a tasty spicy manaria sauce. At the top of my list. We shared Grilled Flounder with hush puppies that was also very good.