yoga on the road: pickin' in the panhandle

Before last week, I wouldn't say I was a much of blue grass fan... our event in West Virginia opened my eyes to all sorts of new music! We had all been anxiously awaiting the event in West Virginia and it was well worth the wait!

Since our event was on a camp ground, our crew decided to rough it for a week and spend some quality time in the great outdoors. Since we planned to camp for most of the week in West Virginia, Sunie and I found a great Bed & Breakfast to rest our heads for one night, before the rugged week ahead. We drove down one windy road after another to finally find our destination, Cider Mill House B&B. This B&B is on a huge farm with cows, chickens, goats and hundreds of acres of land. Our hosts, Kat and Ed, served great home-cooked meals and created a sense of comfort that our usual sterile hotel room severely lacks. Almost everything they cook is local and made from scratch. During the day, we spent time reading in the rocking chairs on the wrap around porch, hiking through the short trails around the farm, feeding the goats our leftover breakfast fruit...it was quite lovely, if I do say so myself. I had never been to a B&B, but my experience at Cider Mill House was so great that I will definitely take that route again.

After resting and relaxing at the B&B, we were off to our next stop... Lazy-A camp ground. The event in West Virginia was called, "Pickin' in the Panhandle." Rightfully so, once I learned that "pickin" is what you do with string instruments and "panhandle" was referring to the part of the country we were in. The blue grass festival was Saturday and Sunday, but we arrived early to camp a few nights in the woods, before the chaos of the music festival started. It sounded like a great idea... until we got there and we were the only campers on the entire camp ground for the first two nights! Now that its over I can admit, it was a little creepy being out there all alone. At night, there are sounds coming from the woods that you don't hear every day. Lucky for me, I am a heavy sleeper. Once I actually fell asleep, I slept like a baby until sunrise. Being the only campers those first few nights was pleasant and disturbing, all at the same time :)

There are certain aspects of camping that you learn to love, once you are out there. For example, cooking over a fire... sure, it is a challenge to get a good fire going, at first. But, after building a strong fire, preparing your meals over it, and sitting around the fire to enjoy your meal, you feel a huge sense of accomplishment. In fact, its the whole idea of simplicity that I love. You don't need 10 different cooking utensils or kitchen gadgets to make a healthy, hearty, tasty meal. Now don't get me wrong, we did go out and buy our food before camping... so, we weren't completely roughing it or anything. But, its still fun to use simple tools to prepare a feast. Cooking a meal outside is total entertainment! It kept us busy each evening. During the days, we hung out by the creek most of the day. It was nice to have nothing to do and no cell phone service. At first, I felt disconnected...but after a day or so, it felt really good to be out in the middle of nowhere, enjoying each and every minute of the day.

Friday night, people started showing up for the festival. One by one, tents were popping up all over the camp grounds. We set up our event and made our way back to our camp site for another dinner by the fire. We made a few friends that night, but went to bed pretty early, since the crazy-blue-grass-fun started on Saturday morning. We woke up to dark clouds and rain. It rained and rained all day, until about 5pm. We were slow at our event, but the rain didn't seem to bother those die-hard blue grass fans. In fact, my tent turned into the hot spot for the musicians to warm up. There was a band contest that day, so each band was eager to find a dry spot to warm up. Somehow, my tent became that place. It didn't stop my from doing yoga, though... if anything, it made my tent more fun! Doing yoga to the sound of live music is not something you will ever hear me complain about! In fact, it drew a crowd over to our area and added the right amount of excitement to what we had to offer. Many of the musicians even promised to come back Sunday morning to take a yoga class... which they actually lived up to! If was a fun day. Once the rain let up, everyone was thrilled to get back to the "pickin" area of the camp site for the real fun to begin - the jam sessions :)

The best part about camping at a music festival is the friends you make throughout the event. We ate together, played together, partied (just a little bit) together... it was a blast. At one point in the night, there were 10 string instruments kicking all at once! We had the pleasure of hanging out with some of the best blue grass musicians at the festival, in my opinion. We stayed up all night, listening to them sing their hearts out while pickin' away. I definitely gained a whole new respect for blue grass music. The instruments have such a detailed and unique sound. The lyrics are down right funny. And the musicians themselves are some of the most fun I've experienced yet! As you can tell, I loved every second of it!

On Sunday morning, we all felt a little rough. We were very happy to see the sun shine, though, that's for sure! We made our way over to our event site and were happy to see people flooding our way for their morning cereal and yoga class. It was a perfect venue for Kashi to be doing the Day of Change event. Everyone loved having us there and we couldn't have been happier ourselves. This event definitely makes it up to the top five, thus far. I would love to go back next year, even if it's on my own buck! Too much fun...

When it was time to pack up at the end of the event, no one was really ready to leave. I was a bit surprised, given that I had never camped for 6 days before! In fact, I don't think I have ever made it past 3 days. The truth is, once you are used to being outside all the time, and if you have the right camp gear... camping is great! Now, our crew is looking for other opportunities to camp. I bet we will find ourselves eating by the fire a time or two again soon :)

So, West Virginia....my what a beautiful state. The people, the music, the nature... its all pretty fantastic, in my opinion. Rave reviews on this one!