Winfield 2011

So, Winfield this year was a very different experience from the usual.  For one thing plans kept changing about who was going to go, for how long and for which days.  Originally I was planning to go Friday and Saturday like we have been the past few yrs.  Then I quit my job and my new job pushed back my start date so funds were getting tight and Greg decided not to go at all and just let me go for one day.  I was wanting to go on Saturday and catch a ride with someone, but when I talked to my parents they said they also wanted to go only one day, but on Friday instead of Saturday.  We made plans for Luke and Aaron and I to ride with them to Winfield on Friday, but as we got closer to the day the weather looked gloomy.  Thursday my parents called and said they had decided not to go to Winfield at all but that they knew my cousins Melanie and Greg would be going just for Saturday and maybe I could get a ride with them.  Mellanie and Greg said sure so I decided to leave Luke home and just take Aaron with me because I wouldn't have as much help carrying things or watching the boys without my parents.  Friday morning I woke up to the phone ringing and ringing.  My parents had been up a lot the night before changing their minds!  They wanted to go on Friday after all but only from 3pm-10pm, did I want to go with them.  It was a hard decision but eventually I decided to stay with my plans to go with Mel and Greg and to send Luke with my parents on Friday.  That way Luke would get to go but I could hopefully go for a longer day and it was supposed to be more rainy but 10 degrees warmer on Saturday.  My parents and Luke had a good time, but it was cold, overcast and misting the whole time so they ended up coming back early.  Saturday it rained a bit on our drive there but by the time we got there it was clearing up.  It was a little chilly but not too bad and we headed to stage one to look for the rest of the Regier clan. 

The first to get to stage one that we saw were Dwayne and Ruth!  We also saw Ken and Amy and family, Daniel and Sarah, and Miriam with some friends of theirs, and later still Peter, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures while we sat with them. 

We got to Winfield during the Mark Allen Wade Trio's set and stayed for Tom Chapin and Friends, Hot Club of Cowtown, and Michael Martin Murphy with Pat Flynn.  During the last group Aaron was pretty tired but having a hard time sleeping because of how loud it was so he and I went and walked around a little and that seemed to do the trick.  Then Aaron and I went over to stage 3 to hear the end of the New Song Showcase, where the winner of various new song categories get to preform their songs on stage.  (By that time it was sunny and nice and warm, Aaron was down to a t-shirt and he had started with two sweat shirts and a blanket.)  There was a pretty funny song called "I wanna be your Barbie" that won the humor category and the last group that won the "none of the above" category looked like they were having a blast up there.  I wished I had taken a picture, because they were all 50+, were wearing shirts with the sleeves ripped off or overalls, and had LONG hair and beards.  They may have not been the tightest band I have ever heard but they sure were a fun group to watch and I wouldn't be surprised if they show up at Stage six sometimes. 

After them Beppe Gambetta came on stage.  He is one of my all time Winfield favorites, I never get tired of his sets.  He is a very talented flat pick guitarist and sings a lot of really beautiful songs both in English and Italian.  He is also a really great story teller.

Halfway through Beppe's set I spotted Andrea, Jill, and some more of my cousins down front so we went to sit with them.

After Beppe finished we all headed back to stage one.  Andrea held Aaron some more while we listened to Kenny and Amanda Smith and then I went to get an Indian Taco for my supper and came back in time to hear Marley's Ghost.  

We have a picture of Luke gnawing on an apple at his first Winfield too, just look at pics in Sept. 2008.

By the end of Marley's Ghost's set it was starting to rain and the announcer told everyone that some severe weather was coming through and that they were going to shut down the stage until it had gone on past us.  Everyone was running for their cars and I was with Jill Schmidt and some of her friends and had no idea where Mel and Greg were.  I tried calling Mel but she didn't answer her phone and she apparently tried calling me but for some reason my phone was going straight to the answering machine.  Then I called Ben and he was with Mel and Greg and they said they were headed to their car.  Jill and her friends and I had already headed out towards their car which I thought was in the same basic area as Mel and Greg's car and just then I thought, I better start looking in cars that look like theirs because all I could remember was that it was white!  I had no idea other than that.  At the moment I thought that I was just about past a white car so I turned back and looked in the back window and sure enough, there was Aaron's car seat in the back seat!  Thank goodness!  Mel and Greg made it a minute or two later and we took off.  All the Regiers were planing on going to a local church, but when we got there it was locked.  The Regiers decided to head to a gas station but we decided to start heading home and then if it got a lot better we could always turn around when we got to Wellington, just out of the path of the storm.  When we got to Wellington we saw a beautiful double rainbow!!!

And sunset...

We stopped at a gas station and McDonald's/travel center.  Greg and Mel hadn't eaten yet so we all got ice cream cones to wait for the storm to pass and then decide what to do.

The storm did get most of the way past but it was still raining in Winfield according to family reports and we decided to just go on home.  It was sad to not get very much time at Winfield, but we didn't want to be cold and wet either, so we talked and listened to Bluegrass music all the way home.  This was the first yr I didn't get to hear John McCutcheon at all and I also really wished I had been able to hear the Wilders and Eileen Ivers group (she was the fiddler on River Dance).  Anyway, that was my Winfield Adventure this year!