Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Grape Festival, Day Three


Saturday, July 26: we were up by our usual 7 a.m. hour. Breakfast was Mother's homemade quick breads....date nut, banana, and pumpkin...along with grapes, cantaloupe and peaches.


About 9:30 a.m., Hubbie and I went to the festival. Mother opted to stay at camp. According to predictions, the temp was to rise into the high 90s, but this morning was fairly pleasant.


On our way to the festival, we looked for a farmer's market, where we could buy tomatoes. We were told that the vendors gathered in the town square, but we saw only one, and he was selling watermelons.


So we stopped to fill up with diesel again, and then went on to the festival. Despite several signs declaring that no dogs are allowed in the park, we saw all sorts of breeds there. Maybe the ordinance is lifted, or least relaxed, on festival weekend.


Today, I bought a festival t-shirt that I can wear to exercise in. It's shocking pink, with a grape cluster/festival logo. However, it isn't dated, and the back doesn't sport business advertisements, as the annual t-shirt does. I like this plainer one much better.


Hubbie bought a festival wine glass; in so doing, we were able to sample as many wines as we wanted for free. There was no danger of drinking too much, though, since samples were so small, and Hubbie and I shared those.


Today's festivities included several grape stomps, a grape pie eating contest, a waiter/waitress contest, where contestants filled large, plastic, stemware with what looked like Kool Aid, placed the stemware on a plastic tray, and tried to carry the tray to another point, where they then had to try to pour the liquid into a small-mouth jug.


Some adults, but mainly kids, participated in the stomps and contests. I snapped pictures of the contestants, and after the pie-eating contest, an older gentleman commented that he'd forgotten to bring his camera and could I send him the pictures I'd taken of his granddaughters. I advised him that I do charge for photos, and he agreed to pay. I'm frequently asked to provide snapshots that I take, so I think I need to set up a website for selling them. Right now, though, I go ahead and email them and trust the customer to be honorable and send me payment for whatever photos that are chosen. So far, this has worked fine.
Around noon, we headed back to camp, stopping at the roadside fruit stand to buy a half bushel of peaches. Today, there were also tomatoes for sale, and we bought several.

After lunch, we headed back to the festival. This afternoon, we enjoyed the entertainment, which included a very talented and professional African American singer. Other entertainment featured a country and western band and singers, and a band that played and sang 50s music.


I'd brought along cold lemonade, handheld fans, and wet wash clothes to help keep us cool in the heat of the afternoon. While it was indeed hot, it wasn't as oppressive as Friday night. We only stayed about an hour or so, though, before leaving to go to one of the wineries to pick up bottles of white and red grape juice for Mother.


We were back at camp by 3 p.m. I felt pretty wilted by this time, so I took a shower, and then we decided to nap before suppertime. Supper was turkey bacon, lettuce, tomato and Vidalia onion sandwiches, sauteed potatoes, and black eye peas.


After supper, we sat outside for a while. All was calm, except for a train that trumpeted and snaked its way along the track on the other side of the lake. About 8 p.m., we went indoors to play Skipbo. Hubbie won two games, I won two, and Mother won one. At our Thursday night game, we each won one. Sometimes, we are each convinced that we never win, but when I keep track of games, it turns out that we all do our fair share of winning.


Just after we went to bed, we heard thunder and saw lightening, so Hubbie went outside and rolled up the awning in case of wind. The storm skirted us, though, and we didn't even get a drop of rain.

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