Bezabor: Storytelling Festival, Landsford Canal State Park, Home Again (posted from home)
Sunday, April 2-
Today was to be a nice sunny, 65-degree day and tomorrow a rainy day so I decided I needed a motorcycle ride. I rode south to the Shank’s Mare outdoors shop along the Susquehanna at Long Level. I like to check every once in a while to see if they have any good kayak deals but not today. Afterwards I stopped in at Starbucks for an affogato-style mocha-frapp and I picked up a New York Times for Labashi. She likes to read the arts section and enjoyed reading them at some of the coffee shops where we stopped to connect to the internet during our recent trips.
I got home mid-afternoon and it was so nice I had to do something outside. I thought I’d go to a local park for a walk but didn’t want to get right back on the bike so I decided I’d do another walk over to our ‘local’ video rental store. That took me a little under four hours for the ten-mile round trip and I was a tired puppy by the time I reached home.
That evening we watched the first film of Kieslowski’s “The Decalogue” and then our first episode of “24”, season one. We were almost immediately hooked by “24” and stayed up late to watch two more episodes before going to bed.
Saturday, April 1-
Today we left for home. We thought we’d drive halfway home or perhaps a little more but once underway we realized that it was only 500 miles and we could push on through and sleep at home tonight. We left around 0830 and pulled in our driveway about 1800. Unloading the van only takes us about twenty minutes or so and we finished that up and had supper, then watched a little bit of television before going to bed.
Friday, March 31-
The storytelling festival had events for local schoolchildren through the day today so we were on our own until 1900. We drove out to Landsford Canal State Park. Upon entering I was less-than-enthusiastic about paying four dollars to enter without knowing whether there was anything to see but took a leap of faith. We first went to an old-looking building which has the park office on it’s second floor. There we found two rangers and there we stayed for the next hour or so talking with them; they were absolutely fascinating. We learned about the Rocky Shoals Spider Lily which is a rare and endangered species and the park has the world’s largest known colony of them. The rangers showed us picture after picture of the lilies as well as pictures of local wild life. When we happened upon a picture of President Bush they explained that he had visited the park as governor of Texas and had jogged the canal trail then showered in their primitive little bathroom (and one of the rangers confided that he had kept the bar of soap that Mr. Bush had used and someday he might just sell it on Ebay). Ranger “Al” was quite a talented guy. He had wonderful pictures, including a 270-degree panorama he had taken. He also did some taxidermy and had made the impressive flying barred-owl mount which hung from the ceiling as well as an intricate full osprey skeleton. The skeleton had been brought in by a park visitor in a bag and Al had assembled it on a perch to look like the skeleton was just starting to take off, wings spread, head perfectly positioned for balance. As we prepared to leave we saw some wasps flying around the inside of the windows and they told us that they kill the wasps each day and at night the white-footed mice eat the wasp bodies but leave the wings. And sure enough we could see pairs of wings-- probably a dozen pairs or so--- lying around under the windows right where the wasp had fallen.
We then hiked the Canal trail and learned about the Catawba-Wateree canal system built in 1820-1835. On the way back we took the Nature Trail and stopped briefly to rest when Labashi noticed a yellow ribbon tied along the stream. After our experience finding eagle’s nests marked by red ribbons in Florida, we now look around whenever we come to some marking like this. And today it paid off—across the trail and behind us was an eagle’s nest with a bald eagle standing guard above it. After taking a few pictures we moved on and sharp-eyes Labashi caught sight of a well-camouflaged brown water-snake on a branch. After looking at several pictures of water snakes on the web, I believe it was a northern water snake. It may have been a dark color-variant of the brown water snake.
After our visit at Landsford, we headed for the Sumter National Forest but that trip turned out to be a bust. We really didn’t have time to get into the backcountry and the road we took through the park went through a depressed area so we turned around and went back to Rock Hill.
That evening the storytellers were Beth Horner, Bill Harley, and Diane Ferlatte. Bill started things off with a funny story about the Teacher’s Lounge and Beth told several stories about her family and brother back in Missouri. But the treat tonight was Diane, who told slave stories about Br’er Rabbit and accompanied them with lively songs that you just had to join her in singing.
By the time we got back to our Wal-Mart parking lot, it was time to turn in.
Thursday, March 30-
After our arrival in the Rock Hill, SC area today, I dug out my listing of wi-fi free spots for South Carolina and found there’s a Panera Bread Company in Rock Hill. I’ve had pretty good luck with Panera (a notable exception was my connection difficulties in Ocala, FL) so we decided to have lunch there while I uploaded my blog entry and checked our mail. Labashi updated her paper trip diary and read the local paper while I worked online and then while I read the paper she went through her list of things she wanted to look up on the internet, typically information about the new animals or plants or artwork we are seeing on our trip.
We then went over to York Technical College where the storytelling event was to be held and hung out in the parking lot.
Today’s storytellers were Beth Horner and Bill Harley but we were first entertained for an hour by Polecat Creek, a really good bluegrass band. The banjo player, Riley Baugus, played and sang on the soundtrack to Cold Mountain and told a funny story about his work with director Anthony Minghella and on his song “Cuckoo Bird”.
Beth Horner told us several short stories then went into a very long one called “The Silver Spurs”. It was a long, rambling story about a four year old girl, Minnie, who watched her father go off to the Civil War to fight for the South. The title comes from the child’s last view of him and the silver spurs he wore as he rode out of her life. We learn that her father’s original commitment ended and he was forced to continue fighting. He was promoted against his wishes in order to force him to stay and he was eventually killed in battle, having never had a day of leave despite his desperate attempts to be allowed to go see his family. Years later, a family friend by chance saw the distinctive spurs on display in an Iowa business. A brother to the little girl (by now she was a grandmother) went to investigate and found that the spurs had been taken from the body their father by the business-owner’s grandfather. The spurs were returned to the family, who treasure them to this day. Our storyteller then spoke of meeting her great-grandmother Minnie when she (the storyteller) was a young child and the first time she heard the story of the silver spurs.
After that sobering story we met Bill Harley, who followed up on Beth’s story with “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, an incredible song about Gallipoli:
(Please see http://www.pogues.com/Releases/Lyrics/LPs/RumSodomy/Waltzing.html)
That floored me. I didn’t know what to expect next. We had seen the write-up for Bill which said he’s a family-oriented storyteller so this opening surprised us. Bill then went on to tell a story about growing up in his home town of Indianapolis. He brought back vivid memories when he spoke of Andy Granatelli and STP and Parnelli Jones and told us of organizing and competing in a doomed neighborhood bicycle race. The tone reminded me of Jean Shepard’s “A Christmas Story”, where kid Ralphie tries to convince his parents that a Red Ryder BB gun is indeed the perfect Christmas present.
That evening we had a surprisingly-quiet night in the Rock Hill Wal-Mart parking lot and caught up on our reading.
Sunday, April 2-
Today was to be a nice sunny, 65-degree day and tomorrow a rainy day so I decided I needed a motorcycle ride. I rode south to the Shank’s Mare outdoors shop along the Susquehanna at Long Level. I like to check every once in a while to see if they have any good kayak deals but not today. Afterwards I stopped in at Starbucks for an affogato-style mocha-frapp and I picked up a New York Times for Labashi. She likes to read the arts section and enjoyed reading them at some of the coffee shops where we stopped to connect to the internet during our recent trips.
I got home mid-afternoon and it was so nice I had to do something outside. I thought I’d go to a local park for a walk but didn’t want to get right back on the bike so I decided I’d do another walk over to our ‘local’ video rental store. That took me a little under four hours for the ten-mile round trip and I was a tired puppy by the time I reached home.
That evening we watched the first film of Kieslowski’s “The Decalogue” and then our first episode of “24”, season one. We were almost immediately hooked by “24” and stayed up late to watch two more episodes before going to bed.
Saturday, April 1-
Today we left for home. We thought we’d drive halfway home or perhaps a little more but once underway we realized that it was only 500 miles and we could push on through and sleep at home tonight. We left around 0830 and pulled in our driveway about 1800. Unloading the van only takes us about twenty minutes or so and we finished that up and had supper, then watched a little bit of television before going to bed.
Friday, March 31-
The storytelling festival had events for local schoolchildren through the day today so we were on our own until 1900. We drove out to Landsford Canal State Park. Upon entering I was less-than-enthusiastic about paying four dollars to enter without knowing whether there was anything to see but took a leap of faith. We first went to an old-looking building which has the park office on it’s second floor. There we found two rangers and there we stayed for the next hour or so talking with them; they were absolutely fascinating. We learned about the Rocky Shoals Spider Lily which is a rare and endangered species and the park has the world’s largest known colony of them. The rangers showed us picture after picture of the lilies as well as pictures of local wild life. When we happened upon a picture of President Bush they explained that he had visited the park as governor of Texas and had jogged the canal trail then showered in their primitive little bathroom (and one of the rangers confided that he had kept the bar of soap that Mr. Bush had used and someday he might just sell it on Ebay). Ranger “Al” was quite a talented guy. He had wonderful pictures, including a 270-degree panorama he had taken. He also did some taxidermy and had made the impressive flying barred-owl mount which hung from the ceiling as well as an intricate full osprey skeleton. The skeleton had been brought in by a park visitor in a bag and Al had assembled it on a perch to look like the skeleton was just starting to take off, wings spread, head perfectly positioned for balance. As we prepared to leave we saw some wasps flying around the inside of the windows and they told us that they kill the wasps each day and at night the white-footed mice eat the wasp bodies but leave the wings. And sure enough we could see pairs of wings-- probably a dozen pairs or so--- lying around under the windows right where the wasp had fallen.
We then hiked the Canal trail and learned about the Catawba-Wateree canal system built in 1820-1835. On the way back we took the Nature Trail and stopped briefly to rest when Labashi noticed a yellow ribbon tied along the stream. After our experience finding eagle’s nests marked by red ribbons in Florida, we now look around whenever we come to some marking like this. And today it paid off—across the trail and behind us was an eagle’s nest with a bald eagle standing guard above it. After taking a few pictures we moved on and sharp-eyes Labashi caught sight of a well-camouflaged brown water-snake on a branch. After looking at several pictures of water snakes on the web, I believe it was a northern water snake. It may have been a dark color-variant of the brown water snake.
After our visit at Landsford, we headed for the Sumter National Forest but that trip turned out to be a bust. We really didn’t have time to get into the backcountry and the road we took through the park went through a depressed area so we turned around and went back to Rock Hill.
That evening the storytellers were Beth Horner, Bill Harley, and Diane Ferlatte. Bill started things off with a funny story about the Teacher’s Lounge and Beth told several stories about her family and brother back in Missouri. But the treat tonight was Diane, who told slave stories about Br’er Rabbit and accompanied them with lively songs that you just had to join her in singing.
By the time we got back to our Wal-Mart parking lot, it was time to turn in.
Thursday, March 30-
After our arrival in the Rock Hill, SC area today, I dug out my listing of wi-fi free spots for South Carolina and found there’s a Panera Bread Company in Rock Hill. I’ve had pretty good luck with Panera (a notable exception was my connection difficulties in Ocala, FL) so we decided to have lunch there while I uploaded my blog entry and checked our mail. Labashi updated her paper trip diary and read the local paper while I worked online and then while I read the paper she went through her list of things she wanted to look up on the internet, typically information about the new animals or plants or artwork we are seeing on our trip.
We then went over to York Technical College where the storytelling event was to be held and hung out in the parking lot.
Today’s storytellers were Beth Horner and Bill Harley but we were first entertained for an hour by Polecat Creek, a really good bluegrass band. The banjo player, Riley Baugus, played and sang on the soundtrack to Cold Mountain and told a funny story about his work with director Anthony Minghella and on his song “Cuckoo Bird”.
Beth Horner told us several short stories then went into a very long one called “The Silver Spurs”. It was a long, rambling story about a four year old girl, Minnie, who watched her father go off to the Civil War to fight for the South. The title comes from the child’s last view of him and the silver spurs he wore as he rode out of her life. We learn that her father’s original commitment ended and he was forced to continue fighting. He was promoted against his wishes in order to force him to stay and he was eventually killed in battle, having never had a day of leave despite his desperate attempts to be allowed to go see his family. Years later, a family friend by chance saw the distinctive spurs on display in an Iowa business. A brother to the little girl (by now she was a grandmother) went to investigate and found that the spurs had been taken from the body their father by the business-owner’s grandfather. The spurs were returned to the family, who treasure them to this day. Our storyteller then spoke of meeting her great-grandmother Minnie when she (the storyteller) was a young child and the first time she heard the story of the silver spurs.
After that sobering story we met Bill Harley, who followed up on Beth’s story with “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, an incredible song about Gallipoli:
(Please see http://www.pogues.com/Releases/Lyrics/LPs/RumSodomy/Waltzing.html)
That floored me. I didn’t know what to expect next. We had seen the write-up for Bill which said he’s a family-oriented storyteller so this opening surprised us. Bill then went on to tell a story about growing up in his home town of Indianapolis. He brought back vivid memories when he spoke of Andy Granatelli and STP and Parnelli Jones and told us of organizing and competing in a doomed neighborhood bicycle race. The tone reminded me of Jean Shepard’s “A Christmas Story”, where kid Ralphie tries to convince his parents that a Red Ryder BB gun is indeed the perfect Christmas present.
That evening we had a surprisingly-quiet night in the Rock Hill Wal-Mart parking lot and caught up on our reading.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 15:19
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