Here we got Pat, Jim, William and Richard. They’ve been meeting every Sunday on the back deck for the last month and we hope to continue through the summer. As you can see, we are placed 6 feet apart at all times.
Archive for the ‘Banjo’ Category
Sunday Jam!
Sunday, June 21st, 2020The Plague Months, Day 31
Tuesday, March 31st, 2020Oct 13, 1992 Cashel and Killarny
A long long way to “The Rock” of Cashel and lots of the Irish High Cross pictures. “The Rock of Cashel is an ancient royal site of the kings of Munster and first attained importance as a fortress. Its origins as a centre of power go back to the 4th or 5th centuries”
We were here in 2017 and took a boat out to Innisfallin. Look here for that post.
The Scanllion’s B&B was our post while in the town on Dingle and as it was near the inlet of the Dingle Harbor, they (The Scanllions) were excited because you could see a dolphin swimming in the inlet. I don’t thing the town had a name for it, but eventually they settled on the name of “Fungi”. (It’s the nickname of a local fisherman, they say)
OK; 3433/173741 = 1.98 ! The index is rising! This is NOT good.
These pics are out of sequence; This is Tides Reach in the Mumbles. The headland is thought by some to have been named by French sailors, after the shape of the two anthropomorphic islands which comprise the headland: the word “Mumbles” may be a corruption of the French les mamelles, meaning “the breasts.”
When we were in Dingle we stopped in at O’Flaherty’s Pub. It’s the place I played banjo with two young uilleann pipers.
OK, this was Alison’s idea to go to the Gower Peninsula in Wales, UK (also known as the Mumbles). She read a novel by Susan Howatch called “Wheel of Fortune” where the main character goes out to the “Worm’s Head”. SO we trecked out to the ‘Head and made it back alive.
End of RAGBRAI
Saturday, July 27th, 2019
So, if you are reading this blog, the posting order is correct, but you see everything in reverse order, so you see the last day first, and the first day last. Get it? Anyhow, it seemed that there were plenty of raccoons out on the streets. Good for “Team Roadkill” , a bike team who likes to prop up roadkill with beer cans, beads, lip stick for the enjoyment of the other riders on the route. This looks like a young raccoon who obviously had a fake ID if you can notice it has an “Over 21” wrist band and a Ragbrai rider bracelet!
I always fear the last town because I operate the sag wagon for our team on the last day and I never know what the traffic will be like leaving town. Turns out, Keokuk had a good exit road out of town. I had plenty of time to entertain the riders coming in to town.
Charlotte Moorman. That’s who I thought of when I put my banjo next to the deep sea diver. Who’s Moorman? Someone wrote a book about her. See here to learn more. I actually knew Charlotte in the early ’70’s and played on stage with her at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois. Those were weird times indeed!
The End is NEAR
Friday, July 26th, 2019
In the town of Houghton, Iowa (fun fact: The locals pronounce the town as “HUFF-ton”) they had an attraction called a “Redneck Pool”. It seemed appropriate to join in as the only banjar player to play in something called a redneck pool, so I did. Near by a local group was serving ice cream with a home-made chocolate sauce. It was damn good!
We did the pass-through in Salem and I played banjo on the porch of the museum. One of the docents there named Mike said I should stop by the next town of Houghton and play some banjo for Betty Jo. It took a while, as I was in the redneck pool and broke a string on the banjo, but I got it back together and headed off to the John Deer dealer where Betty Jo worked. The dealership was off the route about three blocks and as I approached, I can see this woman standing outside wait to hear a banjo! Mike was not sure it was going to happen but then there I was. Some people have to work in these towns and miss out. Not Betty Jo!
A wonderful stop on the route was called the Geode State Park. It was a beautiful park and worth visiting again. At the park I met the woman (A music teacher named Jenny Peters ) who brought here ukulele with her on her bike. Here we are jammin’ some tunes.
Now this is redneck swimmin’ ! This mud beach was still a ways from the final town, yet there were still people out in the river and maybe 300 more in Geode park. just chillin’. I left the park and wondered how late the rest of the pack was going to hang?
I’m sure that there were still 200 people back at Geode Park when I arrived in Middleton. In fact, I was late getting into this town, so the rest of route had NO SERVICES from the Ragbrai crews or the Iowa State Patrol ! No sense hanging around here, I headed out to Burlington with the rest of the pack (what was left of them) to have dinner with my crew at 8:10 PM!
Side trip to Salem
Thursday, July 25th, 2019
Sue’s great, great, great grandfather lived near Salem, he was a Quaker and had a role in setting up this station on the “Underground Railroad” .
We made a special trip out to Salem BEFORE the hoards of bicycles came through the next day. We warned them! There would be over 20,000 riders coming through your town eating and drinking everything in sight!
After Lacona, I don’t remember
Wednesday, July 24th, 2019
When I travel with the banjo attached to my hydrator pack and someone sees it and says “Hey Mister, can you play us a tune”, I always stop and play something. It seems to make their day. It is also the reason why I’m so late coming in at the end of the day. Fun Fact: I didn’t drink any beer while on ragbrai. Sure, if it was 103 degrees out, I might, but we had unusually cool (for Iowa) weather. The people in Lacona were very nice, and offered me some beer, but I said “No Thanks, I only drink vodka”. The next thing I know, this guy goes back to a freezer and brings out a fifth of nicely chilled locally made vodka! Swell Vodka was the brand! Swell Vodka: “Drink to your wealth, Toast to your health. Drink SWELL straight from the well.”
So I had to stick around Lacona for a while so I could pass around some Swell vodka with some new found friends. A passerby thought the bottle label said “SWILL” : “Drink SWILL straight from hell”.
Stopped at the Pork Chop man’s location after Lacona, but I can’t recall what happened next. I vaguely remember dragging my ass into the last town.
On to Des Moines
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019
We were at an Air B&B near Des Moines for two days so this allowed me to take a bike trip into town…
Oh, yes, we must visit the shrine of the Ragbrai Banjo. Because it’s there!
Menlo, Stewart, etc
Monday, July 22nd, 2019
Played some banjo near a veterinary clinic, met some nice people and learned that the next town on the route had a Bonnie and Clyde history.
It seemed appropriate to visit the local museum and play some Foggy Mountain Breakdown for the locals. Some of the Bonnie and Clyde gang were captured in Dexter, Iowa.
So, I met Sherry from Oxnard in Walnut the day before, and now John Condon of the Buck Hollow Band today! So far, so good!
Our First Day!
Monday, July 22nd, 2019
OK, now we will start the ride, well rested and dry because we spent the night at a hotel in Walnut, Iowa. Who could blame us?
Is this a carousel or a merry-go-round? Actually, there’s really no difference between the names although a merry–go–round is simply that spinning playground fixture for kids.
Laughing Buck Banjo
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2019Banjo talk to the little farmers
A presentation at the Laughing Buck Farm
Here I am showing a tack-head banjo made from a wooden bucket and a broom stick. The strings are not gut strings (but maybe next time I’ll make some) but are weed whacker string.