July 4th on the Blue Ridge

[NC Steve]

If things go as planned, SC John and I will be meeting up around noon in Boone, NC next Friday, and after lunch and a bit of site-seeing, meander on down the Parkway to Willville by mid-afternoonish. Hopefully there may be some fireworks or other interesting doings in Meadows of Dan, or more probably,  Stuart or Floyd, VA. If not, sittin' around the campfire with good friends and a few cold ones works wonders for what ails ya too.

Anyone else who's interested should try to join us, en route or at Willville.
Aida & Graham? Jonathan? Drag Fritz and  the other TVR boys along if you can make it.
Hope to see a few of ya there [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[msbuck]

Well, we've been talking about the next trip up.  We were hoping to go this weekend, but it didn't work out.  We know the Urals will be there in a couple of weeks, but I'm anxious to go NOW!  So maybe we can make it up.  I have a couple of gigs (jazz band) on the 3rd and 4th, but we should be able to come after that.  It's worth the trip to hook up with John again!  Maybe we'll even ride the bikes up and CAMP for a change this year.      

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

I have a couple of gigs (jazz band) on the 3rd and 4th,

I didn't know you played an instrument, Aïda!  And jazz to boot!  I won't dare guess at the style.  

[msbuck]

I'm a trumpet (well, actually cornet) player in a Big Band style local jazz group.  And man, it's FUN!!  [smiley=beatnik.gif]

[SCJJR65]

Now, I'd pay good money to see you up there on stage, wailing away on your coronet!  Cool cat!!   8-)

[KHAN]

A friend and I rode up to Willville this Saturday and returned to the Pisgah Forest area today.  He rode his 750 Monster and I had the LS.  Good ride up even tho' one has to loop north or south around the Asheville area to get past the closure at Mt. Mitchell.  We rode some great roads out in the Burnsville area and finally came on to the parkway at Linville Falls.  Breakfast was at Famous Louise's there, just before the parkway (southside).  

There was another short detour near highway 321.  The rest of the ride was good.  And camping at Willville was great.  A local rider, Mike, led us on a really good ride on Sunday, and we stopped for some good old time music at Billy's place out on route 57.  Today was a quick pace home as we both had things to attend to this afternoon.

The LS ran top notch, and did a respectful job of keeping up with the Monster and Mike's SV1000.  I might be selling the bike however, since it just seems a bit small for six-foot me.  Neck pain (from an injury) got to me a good bit today.  I'll be sure to post it here if I do decide to sell.

Hope you have fun on the ride and please tell Will and Mike (he hangs out at Will's a lot) that John and John from Pisgah Forest said "hello".

[msbuck]

Khan, sorry we are missing each other by a mere weekend!  I know Mike well.  He's a local there (he moved there because he fell in love with the place) and definitely knows the roads to ride.  Although I haven't ridden with him much.  I like to take my time and smell the roses, Mike's a little sportier.  Sounds like you had a great trip.  Hopefully we'll meet up at Willville sometime.  You should post here on the forum when you'll be there and you just might get a couple of folks to show up...

John, you'll just have to come up to Raleigh (Fuquay-Varina, actually) sometime when we're playing and you can hear us for FREE!  8-)  

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

John, you'll just have to come up to Raleigh (Fuquay-Varina, actually) sometime when we're playing and you can hear us for FREE!  8-)  

I plugged "Big Band" into my Pandora player here at work.

Then the cleaning lady came in to clean the floor, so I switched it to Latino, just for her!

(I'm fickle...)

[msbuck]

Hey Rob, that Pandora is pretty cool, dude!  [smiley=beatnik.gif]

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Yeah, it works out real well here at work!

[nhmaf]

I could take one look at Aida and tell she was a brass player !

I play saxophone and some guitar myself.

Maybe some day we could manage to get together an R65'ers band.

I really like the old swing stuff from the Ellington, Gillespie, Herman bands,
but  I also like a fair amount of the "modern" stuff, and funk/fusion and
big band blues, too.   At the moment, the only band that I am playing in is a
community band, we have some fun and play everything from Sousa marches to
band arrangements of classical operettas and everything in between.   We have fun, but the
skill level of the band is degrading over time (I think that the average age of the membership is climbing fast), and
we have about 70 musicians.

I have tried several times over the past 10 years to form a jazz/funk/fusion group, but every single time the
bass player quits on me, and things disintegrate from there.  It is always a different bass player, too - I don't
know what it is about those guys... 8-)

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Have you ever heard of this guy, Stephane Grappelli?


[size=9]clicky[/size]

Set up a Pandora account, and plug his name in, and be prepared to dance!



to find my profile on Pandora (to see the weird stations I have set up!) go here and enter r651979 for my profile name.

[nhmaf]

Yes, Stephan Grappelli and Jango Reinhardt have been two BIG names for a looong time in the international jazz music scene.
Very innovative in their time, extremely talented, and many many music students own and study their recordings.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

I was totally clueless to this deep European vein of jazz until two days ago!  I'm in heaven (again!).

[NC Steve]

Yeah, Stephane Grappelli has been around for decades, and played with the best of the best, in jazz, fusion and rock too, including such folks as Lou Reed and John Cale.

But anyway, back to this July 4th camping thing  , looks like at least 4 of us from the board here are headed up in the morning, as well as a few others from the Roanoke, VA area, from the Twin Valley Riders, great bunch of guys. It's looks to be a fine ol' time on the BRP and the VA mountains.

Anybody else that can make it, please head on up, down, or over!  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]