Another getaway to Cottonwood Falls

Well it was back to the Flint Hills for us last Friday.  Can't seem to stay away.  On our last visit, when Mike photographed the prairie fires earlier this spring, we found this wonderful old motel in Cottonwood Falls - the Millstream Motel.  We knew we wanted to come back and stay there - so we did!  Cottonwood Falls has live music every Friday night out in front of the Emma Chase cafe - a pretty good excuse to go I'd say!  We were lucky to get the "cabin" for our overnight stay.  It was so cute!

This little motel is right on the Cottonwood River.  The grounds are so pretty. Here's Mike up on the balcony of the lodge building photographing spider webs.  The lodge building has rooms on the top floor.  The lower floor is one big space that I really wanted to see!  Apparently no one goes in there.....

 

 There was once a mill right here by the falls.

The whole place was covered with cottonwood fluff!  It looked like snow flying through the air.  I loved how it got all caught up in the spider webs - sure to confound the spiders!  Yeah!

Great fishing from the bridge over the river.  This little guy caught a bass, and he had already caught two before this!  He was pretty proud of his catch, and he really wanted to show me how he cleans and fillets the fish - but I just couldn't watch.  Wimp!

 

I know I said we went to Cottonwood Falls for the music - but let's just say that the motel and our cute little cabin turned out to be the highlight of the trip!

Cee-gar Box Gee-tar Groove

Several weeks ago we were thoroughly entertained by The Rick Bruner Band at the Classic Bean in Topeka.  It was the highly anticipated debut of Rick's new cigar box guitars made by Wichita Sam!  Yes, we're talking an electric guitar made from a cigar box!  Talk about havin' a bad case of the blues...  oh my we are talkin' a truckload of the blues!

The neck of this one is an old broomstick cut in half.  Here's a picture of the entire thing with Rick fixin' to make it cry for mercy!  Have Mercy Rick!!!

Here's a different one...

...also with AMAZING sound in the capable hands of Mr. Rick Bruner!  Mercy Mercy!!!

The whole show was great, non-stop, rollicking fun.   Here's a rather bad picture of the boys in the band...

 

Rick teasing the Stratocaster.....

and Rick's great soulful singing...(I think he's singing the GWB song at my request...)

 Love those boots and the playlist!

And for one night only... as a special bonus attraction.....tah dah!!!  Back-up singers!!!

These little girls were ready to step in and be back-up singers if needed.  Just about as cute as it gets!!!

Thanks Rick and The Rick Bruner Band for a great evening!  Hope it happens again soon!  Mercy!!!

Mountain Music

Twelve of us just spent a wonderful long weekend in Mountain View Arkansas.  The town was full of musicians and music-lovers.  The courthouse steps, the park, the street corners and the front porches were full of musicians of all ages just pickin' and grinnin' and entertainin'.  Those of us there to listen could roam from group to group with our camp chairs and enjoy the great sounds - and stop off at the food booths for delicacies like fried green tomatoes!  I don't even have a picture of the tomatoes - they went too fast!

Here's Jane and Joe on the front steps of one of the old B&Bs in town...

Most of the music was "old-timey" - lots of fiddles, mandolin, banjo, harmonica, bass, guitar.  There was a great bass made from an overturned wash bucket and one string.  It sounded fantastic!

 This group had several young players - both were just great!  Too shy to look up very often.  This kind of music gets passed down from generation to generation - so it was wonderful to see these young guys.  We saw lots of kids - singers, players,dancers.

 

These little girls were so cute!  And the guy got up there and danced to every song!

This was one of our favorite groups - Gone South.  They have all known each other for years and come to this festival every year.  This bunch of old hippies now includes bankers, pediatric cardiologists, pilots, you name it!  There are several more members of the group who don't show up in this picture (sorry!). 

The parade was Saturday morning - it was quite the event!  Kids, politicians, animals, marching bands, floats, flying candy and old-timey music!

 

I loved this old car - that's an early version of an auto air-conditioner in the window.

This guy walked this poor cow all over town.  Here he is in the parade.  As you can see, the crowd loves it...

And what's a parade without a kangaroo...

 and a firetruck...

and horses...

Here's some of our motley crew right after our spontaneous rendition of Happy Trails to You at the end of the parade.  Somehow it just seemed right.  Accompaniment by Becky and Carol on the kazoo.  I see Ray, Joe, Joe, Mike, Beck, Bobby, Kay, Melva, Jane and Carol.  Where's Fred???

Saturday afternoon several of us went out to Blanchard Springs Caverns which is nearby.  Mike and I chose to explore Mirror Lake and the stream, springs, and waterfalls.  The water is kind of tidy-bowl blue in the lake - apparently an effect of the bat droppings in the cave.  (You can't drink this water.)  Fisherman were pulling trout out of this lake by the handful - guess it is OK to eat the fish???

Here's Joe demonstrating the true meaning of boot-legging.  Mountain View is in a dry county!!!  So, you gotta do what you gotta do - or drive over to Fifty Six (that's the name of a town), in the next county!  We did not go thirsty.  Some of our rooms at Jack's Fishing Resort had adjoining screened-in porches so it was a great place to gather the group - like to discuss boot-legging.

The guy a couple doors down had two baby raccoons.  They were really adorable, at least for now. 

Many Thanks to Becky and Ray for all the planning to get us all there!  Hope to be back next year!