BEGINNER PEDAL STEEL GUITAR

This...is George. He plays rhythm guitar, harmonica, and what is essentially an electric mandolin for The London Flush.

The London Flush is a great Yardbirds cover band out of Eugene. Sounds pretty limited, I know, but they put on a great show! The first time we saw them, John, the bass player, was doing a cool acoustic blues set to open the show. I'll never forget his rendition of "Love Potion No. 9."

How did I get to know these folks? Well...that goes back to high school and one of my first boyfriends, the incomparable Jimmy D. I had a great group of misfit friends in school, but the greatest and some of the closest were my boys, the boys from Barnstead, a town 25 minutes south of our regional high school, tuition students because their town had no official high school of its own. (Small town NH, what can I say.) Some of the best times of my life were spent in Barnstead. My husband was a Barnstead guy, introduced to me through my Barnstead boys. One of those boys was Jimmy. We called him Jim then. Tall, skinny, long black hair in a ponytail. I always loved the tall skinny guys with dark hair. Jimmy was sweet, soft spoken, but brilliant with a quick wit and keen ear for music. Jim played drums in a metal band then, I guess we all had a metal phase. And for a while we dated. He was always sweet and darling, except when I talked about going to prom with him he about choked on his cigarette in my bedroom and said, "proms suck." That was the end of that discussion, he still thinks proms suck, FYI, though he admits maybe he should have gone with me anyway. We've discussed it recently, I was officially his first girlfriend. Should Patrick dump my ass, Jimmy is my plan B. (Haha...in seriousness, I'm very fond of his girlfriend Maranda.)

We were out of touch for a number of years, Jimmy traveled about the country, grew dreadlocks down to his ass, grew a gigantic beard, learned woodworking and how to build custom cabinets, visited 46 states, followed Phish for a time I believe, and as so often happens...he landed in Eugene. I got married, lived an uneventful if not tragic life. A couple of years ago I was back in touch with my friend Amy, and we planned a weekend to Vegas. Turns out she was in touch with Jimmy, got us back in touch with each other.

We stayed up all night on the phone catching up more than once. Sadly, he couldn't come to Vegas with us, but when he was in NH for a visit that summer I threw a huge party in my backyard. By 4am we were all around a campfire in the firepit, beers and perhaps other things being shared, and a spontaneous drum circle erupted which is still the cause of great mirth for some of us. Jimmy was back in my life for good, it seemed.

And now on to Oregon...he and I made plans for me to come out and visit. I needed to start over, he loved it here, thought I might, too. He at the time was looking at moving to Portland to live with his girlfriend. Next thing I knew, life being what it is, instead of visiting Jimmy I was staying with Patrick. Long story short, I would have wound up in Oregon either way. But now I have two amazing men in my life here. My Patrick, and Jimmy.

Jimmy has long given up the hair metal, and now can be found strumming an acoustic guitar or even playing a concertina. But he still plays drums, and wound up in this killer little band out of Eugene with four other hilarious, talented, interesting, entertaining guys. I travel to Calapooia Brewing in Albany about once a month to see them.

Calapooia has yet to serve me a beer I wouldn't drink PITCHERS of, AND they have mini corn dogs and tater tots on the menu. The place ROCKS. London Flush puts on one hell of a show. And some time this summer, Patrick and I are packing the dogs in the car, driving to Eugene, visiting the Raptor Rehab Center, and then partying all night with the band, before we crash at Jimmy's and then do bbq lunch the next day at a place that serves Kool Aid in mason jars.

Life here in Oregon is becoming quite excellent for me. And nights out like this past Saturday, shooting the band, seeing a friend I've known now for more than half my life (seriously, 16 years now), and amazing local beer? ROCK ON.

And go see London Flush!

Flat top guitar, mandolin and the lady on a the far left with a voice straight from West Virginia. Excellent Blue Grass. Some watched from the bleachers; some brought folding chairs; others sat on the park lawn under the protection of a big old cottonwood tree.

Our first stop in Weiser was near the city center where a stage was set up in a grassy park, craft and food vendors, lined the south end. We roamed the fiddlers' village for quite awhile before finding our way out to the Weiser High School gym where the fiddling was was going on. We were treated to some excellent music and talent sitting under a large cottonwood tree when a little rain moved through.

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June 23 -25, 2010 My wife and I decided to attend the annual fiddlers’ contest in Weiser, Idaho. In the spirit of the “journey” can many times be as enjoyable or more than the “destination”, we decided to take a looping “road trip” to and from the Weiser fiddler’s festival.

Day one we traveled “back roads” to Wendover campground along the Lochsa River on Lolo Pass (the Idaho side). We camped in the back of our pickup truck and really enjoyed our stay. A nice camp host (Bill from Lewiston, Idaho), dropped by and donated a few dry white pine firewood logs to our camp. We returned the nice gesture by dropping some “camp” raspberry and chocolate muffins by for them. Nice people.

Day two we left camp early and backtracked a bit to the trailhead for some nice hot springs. We arrived early and crossed the Lochsa on the pack trail bridge and took the quiet lovely hike up Warm Springs Creek to two large hot springs pool (1.5 mile hike).

We passed the hotter lower pool and settled into the upper “bath warm” clear, sandy bottom hot springs pool. A couple of deer, visiting the area for the minerals in the soil in the area, were our only company.

After our relaxing hot springs soak we hiked out, drove over Lolo Pass. We drove the Salmon, Challis, Stanley, Lowman route and finished the day by getting a cabin for the night.

Day three we drove down the Payette River drainage and over to Weiser, Idaho. We really had a lot of fun at the fiddlers’ festival. We walked, watched blue grass, country singers, and then out to the Weiser High School gym to watch the Grand National Round 2 competition. We got to see 18 of some of the best fiddlers you would ever want to hear play. One of the best, who has won the event several times and I had seen perform on a PBS television show, was a finalist as was his sister.

We watched all 18 compete and my wife enjoyed a bowl of strawberries they were selling at the concession stand at the high school. I LOVE fiddle music and this was the first time I had attended the Weiser competition. I didn’t know quite what to expect, but it was very “audience friendly”. The judges sit in a different room so they don’t see the fiddlers they are judging, nor do they know the name of the fiddler.

After the round 2 competition we watched some of the “young adult” competition, and then we returned to the city center fiddlers’ village venue, to eat a “light” dinner (I went for a BBQ pork sandwich and baked beans).

We left Weiser and crossed below the Brownlee dam, intending to drive up Forest Service road 59 and camp on the upper Imnaha River and drive home via Joseph, Oregon the next day. Driving up Pine Creek in the direction of Halfway, Oregon we could see the evidence of a massive flash flood in the area, so when we arrived FR 59 and saw the “road closed” sign, we weren’t completely shocked.

When we stopped for a short while in Halfway, Oregon a lady showed me aerial photos of the six or so major road washouts caused by the flooding in the area this year. It might take them awhile to open the road again.

Accepting the “change in plans” we drove to Baker City, got on the interstate and headed on home. Fun times…once again.