This is Walker. Walker lives in Beaufort, NC, which is pronounced “Bo-Fort.” (If it were pronounced “Biew-Fert” you’d be in an entirely different town in South Carolina.) Walker’s humans are named Carlos and Hope and they have a band called the Beaufort Blues Project (1st pronunciation), or BBP.
We’re expecting to be back to Vermont in less than a week. As we close in on the end of our time on the road, our schedule is losing a lot of the elasticity to which we’ve been happily accustomed (and wouldn’t my English teacher have been proud of that phrase?*).
With Memphis in the rear view mirror, we knew we’d have to pick up the pace a bit to visit a few people and get back to VT before the snow flies. Although up to this point neither of us had ever stepped on Mississippi or Alabama soil, we had to resign ourselves to visiting these states as more or less a drive-by, and make plans to visit again in the future.
Continue reading “Scratching the surface of the Deep South I: Mississippi”
We just spent three days in a basement in Memphis, TN. Had a great time.
I have two cousins who live near Nashville with their families. They don’t know each other, though.
…this happened:
From RMNP, we headed south to Leadville CO, the highest incorporated city in these United States, and the westernmost point on our journey. It’s two miles above sea level, and the temps dropped into the mid 20’s both nights we were there – our first encounter with sub-freezing temperatures since we left home. We woke up to snow at the higher elevations (above about 12,000 ft):
Since we were coming through the Boulder/Denver area, I got in touch with a couple of my Blues Guitar Unleashed friends who live nearby. Sue and I had a great afternoon with Chris and Frank. Chris generously hosted us all, providing both lunch and jam space. We played through a bunch of blues standards, switched around on various instruments, and tried a few things out in preparation for “The Show” (that’s my name for it), the annual BGU Live gathering which we will all be attending in Memphis in early October.
Dayton O. Hyde is an author, conservationist, rancher, cowboy, former rodeo clown, photographer, and the founder of the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary in Hot Springs, South Dakota. He is also my uncle. A college buddy of my dad’s, my “Uncle Hawk” introduced his wife’s older sister to my father. The sister soon thereafter married my dad, and a little later became my mom, so that introduction turned out to be an auspicious event for me and my brothers, if nothing else.
We’re trying out our newest technology upgrade – that black rectangle on the lower right in the photo above. Works great! Read on for a few details on how and why we wound up with this system.