May just flew by. The weather continued to be on the coolish side with only one day over 100 degrees. We went fishing with our friend, Jim, on Folsom Lake. They are constructing a new spillway at one end. We watched as the graders worked on leveling a hill to prepare the space for it. The new Folsom Dam Road is just on the other side of where the spillway will be. Since the lake was pretty full, we could see the cars as they whizzed by. It was a nice boat ride but produced no fish. The fishing reports concurred with our results.

My amaryllis bloomed again. This year not only the white ones but also the reds. Again, I did nothing special to force them to bloom. So, my friend, Pat, was right when she told me to just stick the bulbs in a big pot and leave them outside. I did find that they don't like the full Sacramento sun. So they are in the back where they get afternoon shade.

The Gladding McBean Factory with architectural pieces arriving for repair or replication

Early in May, Marilyn treated me to the Gladding McBean event, Feats of Clay. Feats of Clay operates only from around the last weekend in April through the end of May. They offer a variety of tours of the factory and a clay art competition.

We took the "A" tour of the factory where they make everything from terra cotta sewer pipes to contemporary ceramic art. The factory is located in Lincoln, CA. The terra cotta comes from the area. It turns out that in the 1800's, Lincoln was a coal mining town. In fact, we were told that the area under the city is rife with tunnels from that era. The people in town expect that one day, one of them will collapse and suck in whatever is located on the surface.

 
The old elevator still in use - looking up the elevator shaft to where we are going

The factory is still a working plant, so you get to see it in action. We went early on a Tuesday morning and there were only 5 of us on the tour. The main building was constructed around 1875 and the elevator still functions. It works on hydrallic power and was like being lifted in a wooden crate.

 
Walking sown the aisle between the beehive kilns - different kiln for the arts

 
A beehive kiln - terra cotta sewer pipe stacked in a beehive kiln

One area is filled with the kilns. There are the beehive kilns used mainly for the sewer pipe and more modern kilns used for the art pieces. Originally, the kilns were fired by wood but now it is natural gas. The smoke stacks in this part do not carry smoke out but hot air. As we walked down the aisle, you could feel the heat from the kilns that were in use.

 
Our docent explaining a procedure - one of the early logos for Bank of America

Architectural art is a big part of the factories out put. In fact, buildings all over the world are adorned with it. The Bank of America ship logo can be seen on the old Bank of America building in San Francisco. They have also added garden pottery to their lineup with large beautifully glazed pots at large (in the thousands) prices! I guess I will have to pass.

 
Adolphe's office - more of the architectural art pieces

Head of the art department at one time was a man named Adolphe. One day he went home for lunch, laid down to take a short nap and died. They sealed up his office and left it as a memorial to him. To this day, it remanins just as it was on the day he died.

 
An old kiln is now used to exibit art - This year's Feats of Clay Art Show winners

In the kiln area, one of the old beehive kilns was turned into an exhibit area where you could view more of the art from the competition. The walls were spattered with glazes and stuff from its long use. On the top floor, the winners of the competition were exhibited.

It was a very interesting morning with a lot of information on not only the history of the area but also the process. Next year, I plan to go back and take the "B" tour which goes into glazing and other areas we didn't see.

 
Tyler approaching his jump - And there he goes!

This was the first year that Tyler decided to participate in track. His events are long jump, high jump and triple jump, He amazed everyone by making the regional track meet. Gordy and I went out to watch the semifinals. Lo and behold, he made it to the finals in the triple jump. Unfortunately, Gordy and I were out of town and missed them. I can't remember where Diana said he ended up.

 
Delta Divas in the Jazz Parade Front - and Rear views

So this now brings us to Memorial Day. As we have done for so may years, the Delta Divas marched in the Jazz Festival Parade in our finest bikinis. It really is a lot of fun. We had a kooky marching band in front of us and participated in some of their patterns (although not very well).

   
Benny Goodman Tribute band - Wester Swing Band - Sister Swing's USO tribute

Gordy and I spent Saturday attending the festival. We saw a number of different jazz styles. They had a Benny Goodman tribute band which was quite good. We didn't know it, but Jim and Marilyn were at the same concert. There were so many people we never saw each other.

 

The last band we saw was Mick Martin and the Blues Rockers. The have this fifteen year old wunderkind, Kyle, on the harmonica who is fantastic. Mick Martin also plays harmonica but now, he steps back and just lets the kid rock. Kyle has played informally since he was about 10 or 11. This year, they said he is now part of the band.

Gordy and I waving to the web cam at Topaz Lake

On the Wednesday after Memorial Day, Gordy and I packed up the RV and headed to Topaz Lake. Our friend, Mike Burnsworth and his wife Mary, have been going there for the last 30 years. They meet up with friends, fish and party from the end of April to the middle of June. So, we headed out to meet up with them. When we got there, we found out that Mary has been having some medical problems so they weren't going to be there the whole time. However, Mike had told his friends all about us. Mike was there when we arrived and introduced Gordy to everyone. Then he left to get back to Mary.

 
1st day and Gordy goes fishing - Mike and me in his boat

The first day, Gordy went out with John fishing for about two hours and caught two fish. The next day, John took me out and Gordy went out with another guy, Bob. John and I caught one stick fish, one four incher and 4 keepers. Gordy had 5 fish. So that made 9 for me to clean.

 
My fish and me cleaning fish

The fish are planted trout but because of what they eat in the lake, their flesh is red like salmon. In talking to Mike's friends, I found out that most of them filet and skin the trout. This is because they catch so many fish that if you left the fish whole, you would run out of freezer space. Wil showed me how to filet the trout. I did okay given the fact I had the wrong knife. The first ones I tried got really beat up. So, they became fish tacos.

 
The fish cleaning station and the clean-up crew reports for duty

I created a bit of a stir because I did the fish cleaning. In this group, its the men who do it. One of the wives wanted to set me straight. I told her about Gordy's aversion to messy things. They all laughed at the story.

The cleaning station at Topaz Lake is over a little creek. It comes complete with its own cleanup crew so no part of any fish goes to waste. The birds seem to know when people are going to start cleaning fish. The sea gulls assemble just before the first fisherman arrives. When the sea gulls start getting scraps, the white pelicans move in. It was a source of entertainment to watch them compete. Sometimes the sea gulls would swoop down and get the pieces only to be trounced by a pelican. Other times the pelicans would have their scraps stolen by the gulls.

 
Sunrise at Topaz Lake - Hail storm

The weather was pleasant. In the afternoon, the clouds would gather. Most days, we would watch it rain across the lake. A couple of times, we were in the path of the rain. One day was this incredible storm with lightning and thunder coming at the same time, hail as big as marbles and a torrent of rain forming streams in the camp ground. We found out why most of the awnings were set up to be lower on one side when the camp owner came running over to our site and dumped a big pool of water out of ours.

Mike and Mary came back on Saturday. Mary is tired but okay. She will have a few more tests in the following weeks to diagnose the problem. We did get to go fishing with Mike and caught more fish.

An interesting thing happened the last night we were at the campground. A rented RV came in (you can tell them because Cruise America is printed all over it with the phone number to call). I looked at Gordy, laughed and said, "Here come the Germans!" When we were camping in the VW, invariably we would end up next to a German couple in one of those RVs. Well, they ended up camping next to Mike's space. The next morning we asked Mike if he knew them because the girl looked just like Danielle who works the ice house with me at the bluegrass festival. "No," said Mike, "The were a German couple." ACCCKKKKKK . . . they found us!

We returned from Topaz Lake on June first and had a couple of weeks to get things ready for the bluegrass festival.

 
The unofficial campground hosts - Chris Stuart and Backcountry

We took the RV to Grass Valley the weekend before the festival because Gordy decided to once again help with the stage. The area where we have camped for about the last 10 years was already full. Gordy did manage to find one slot in front of a trailer. The guy in the trailer wasn't too happy about us parking there but let us stay. Turns out we had met him before at Steve's "barn". So he and Gordy had HAM radio and music to talk about.

In the past, RV camping at the festival (except the full hookups) had always been crowd-in-where-you-can-find-a-spot. In talking to a lady I know, I found out that since last year, if you want any hookups, you have to reserve those spots, occupy them on Friday a week before the festival and pay for 3 nights. No one had ever mentioned that to us. In looking around, I noticed that the RVs were spaced like an RV camp. It didn't have the old friendly feeling.

Another change that we didn't know had happened was the Bluegrass Association now takes over the fairgrounds as of Sunday. I got busted for having Buster there. They didn't run me out since I was leaving on Monday but I was chastised.

 
Jim is ready to play - Joyce displays the 78 LP

I returned to the festival on Wednesday. Every morning I did my duty at the ice house. I was paired with a new gal, Carol. Carol was a bit pushy but we got along okay and I had fun. One change is Bill bought a programmable cash register. He did an easy format for us to use. Carol knew there should be a better way, so it became her mission to read the manual and tell Bill how he should program it. Luckily, it gave her something to do. So, she did the money and I got a lot of exercise fetching the ice. It is truly the coolest place at the festival.

The afternoons and evenings were spent enjoying some great music and visiting with friends. Rich and Marilyn came to the festival again this year. They tent camped. Marilyn's cousin and some other friends also were there.

 
Matt & George and their Pleasant Valley Boys - the Stairwell Sisters slap dancing

Our friend, Jim Allison, is now playing with The Pleasant Valley Boys. They do an old timey style. We listened to them play on Vern's Stage. For fun, they produced a souvenir 78 LP of two of their songs. We were amazed that someone still had the equipment to make it. The problem is, who has the equipment to play it?

This year, the Bluegrass Association had three stages. The smaller two operated when the main stage was idle during lunch and dinner breaks. It was mostly California bands on the smaller stages. I think I enjoyed them more because they were intimate.

 
Jamming at Jim and Joyce's camp - Gordy, Rich, Marilyn and their friends at Vern's Stage

Jim and Joyce had a barbecue on Friday. They did tritip and the rest of us brought sides. The tent camping area is the same fun mixture of people. Lots of good jamming happened. We saw people we haven't seen for a while and had a great time.

Gordy says this was the absolute last year he will work on the stage. The stage crew leader, Ron, says he too is changing jobs. He wants to do the ice house next year along with a bunch of the other guys on the crew. On Saturday, the emcees started calling out for more volunteers especially for next year's stage crew. Ole J.D. Rhynes said, "The average age of the stage crew is 71. We need you younger guys to pitch in."

I'm not sure what we are going to do next year. Especially with the change in the camping situation. We did have a great time with friends and music. So, only time will tell.

So, that's where we are.

Thanks for stopping by,