Review of GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN..........
WOW! What a games!
Allan and Heidi Thompson, Tom and I went to the games field to set up but it was incredibly windy and we couldn't do more than drop some of the stuff under the tables and cover it hoping Friday's weather would be better. The location is beautiful and the four of us, plus Sherry Anderson and her co-worker Janis, had rented a house in Seven Devils, NC with the most gorgeous long range mountain views I've seen since we left Switzerland a lifetime ago. The wind was a bit much, but it kept it lovely and cool during the day and perfect for sleeping.
Thursday night was the Calling of the Clans and we were ably represented by Allan and Heidi. It had been windy beyond belief and rainy all day, but the rain held off for the evening except for just enough to give everyone a quick drenching
Lots of photos were taken and I believe we will be getting one of Allan and Heidi for the next newsletter. We were surprised that more of the participants didn't dress as specified in the letter we had received from the games committee (kilt and jacket), but they were allowed to participate anyway. Many games would have disallowed them.
Friday morning Allan and Heidi got to the tent early and had it pretty well set up when we arrived. We helped decide what should go where, which books to put out, etc. It was still so windy, we had to put bean bags on the opening edge of each book to keep them closed. It was a good day with 2 new members and sales of t-shirts. I hadn't realized that Friday was actually a major festival day here because at most games, Friday just has some dancing or athletic elimination trials with music in the evening. Here, it was a games day!
Friday evening was the formal reception....well, not for us as it turned out, but for those who were closer or arrived early.... We got all gussied up and ready to go and were driving down the MOUNTAIN when a tremendous storm hit. Branches and debris were blowing across the road and onto it. I said we should just turn around and go home, but my intrepid husband said 'Maybe it will blow itself out by the time we get there so we drove on. We did finally get there and discovered we had to park at the bank down the street from the motel and it was running 2 deep water and still raining pretty hard. We sat for awhile I told him the shoes I had on would not like wading through water. We called back to Heidi and Allan at the rental house and they said we had no power and they couldn't see any lights on anywhere on the mountain. So, we got the parking guy to let us drive up to the motel front so I could turn our tickets in (so at least they would know we tried) only to discover they didn't have any power either. The ladies at the door were eager to send everyone to the food tables as they couldn't heat/cool any of the food now, but we explained that we had come through falling debris and knew we had no light at the house (and no candles/flashlight that we knew of) and had to go. So, back into the car and off we went. Arrived back at the house Allan and Heidi had hurried and taken showers while the water was still hot and we got dishes done and got our phones ready to use as flashlights. About 1 ½ hours later, the lights flickered on and we heaved a giant sigh of relief. Note to self be sure you take a flashlight when you travel! Off to bed with the fans/air conditioning running and a happy hubby.
Saturday, Allan, Heidi and Tom worked the tent. I was a bit under the weather, so stayed to hold down the fort. As it turned out, it was a good thing because our daughter, grandsons and one's girlfriend arrived. They had planned on doing the games on Saturday but got there too late to justify the cost, so they would stay overnight nearby and go to the games on Sunday and march with us in the Parade of Tartans. Sherry and her friend, Janis, had arrived at the games in full 18th century regalia and were happy to get to the house and change into comfy clothes. Everyone got introduced and Allan and I cooked up a bunch of paninis for all maybe not the best menu, but the Margaritas Janis whipped up made up for anything we were lacking. Actually, we had turkey/cheese paninis, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, drinks, chips.....not a bad deal! Had a great time telling stories on each other into the evening. It had been an extremely busy day for those at the games and we called it a fairly early night. Lots of t-shirts were sold, we sold out of crests and kilt pins, and got 6 new members in the 2 days so far. We knew from the other clans that Sundays are really pretty slow, so we weren't planning on much activity which was OK we'd had a great weekend already!
On Sunday, the six of us trooped off to the games on a staggered schedule Allan and Heidi got there early to get a good parking spot, and Tom, Sherry, Janis and I drove into town and caught the shuttles up. It's an odd setup for the parking at the games you can only park up at the games if you have a clan tent or are a vendor....and you have a choice when you sign up and pay for a clan tent to have 1 'come and go' parking pass or 2 all-day parking passes. We got the 2 because we had 2 cars to go. What we hadn't realized was the you can't get out at all if you have the all-day because they park you so closely, it's a matter of peeling off cars to get out. So, we shuttled because one of us had to get back to take care of the dogs and 6 hours is about their max waiting period
It was much slower than Saturday, but we had a chance to talk to a lot of people and handed out a lot of cards and membership apps, so we were still a bit busy. The parade was OK if you don't buy two tents (one for clan business and one for members to sit in up by the activities) you can't get near enough to the parade to take good photos. I found that really disturbing because not all clans can afford two tents...but, that's what they do. So, we don't have much in the way of photos of the clan marching in the parade of tartans. Ian Kiser joined us at the tent after the parade and showed us his mother's embroidery work of the clan crest and a photo of an entire coat of arms. Really beautiful work and we will be discussing with her the possibility of her doing embroidered shirts/polos/sweatshirts/etc. in the not too distant future!
We left on Monday morning feeling like we'd had a very successful weekend lots of fun, visiting, meeting Thoms from all over (including a new member from Hawaii) and had recovered more than our expenses. What more could you ask? Well, as it turned out, on Tuesday, while we were printing up new forms for the next games, the fuser in the clan's laser printer burned out. Granted, the printer is a good 7 years old and has been a work horse for all those years....still....it was a downer from our happy days. We can't complain about it, but.....well....darn! (Update: Success! Bought a reconditioned fuser and it seems to work fine for under $90!)
So........Grandfather was a new experience and we plan to go back next year. Allan and Heidi have some friends with 2 sons who want to come and we will probably have part of our family there again...Ian has promised to help at the tent too, so I think it will be another good weekend. If you could have come and didn't, you missed some great times, perfect weather on Saturday and Sunday, and a chance to learn more about your clan. Maybe next year??
Our new banner came out a bit "wrong" - the crest is smaller than it was supposed to be.....we have another on order. But, it's still pretty!
Recent Posts
