It takes two hands to blog…

There is an old sailing expression, "one hand for the ship, one for yourself" which relates to using one hand for hauling on sails and one hand to prevent yourself from falling to the deck far below.

Unfortunately, blogging is not a one-handed operation. For the past two weeks I have been so involved in the preparations for Floyd’s Grand Re-Opening weekend that I have not had time  to blog about them. Now I am trying to catch up.

The Grand Re-Opening celebration ran from Friday through Sunday and involved Gallery openings, a Friday Night Jamboree with Wayne Henderson and The Looping Brothers, a Saturday Ice Cream Social put on by the Chamber of Commerce and a concert by King Wilkie, and a Sunday concert by the psychedelic country rock band, New Riders of the Purple Sage.

To add to the carnival atmosphere, the Carhartt Swat truck which is a high tech clothing showroom on wheels was parked across from the Floyd Country Store and provided an opportunity for the boys (and girls) to test their tire-changing and bull-roping skills.

The Grand Re-opening refers to the fact that both the Winter Sun building and The Floyd Country Store have been extensively rebuilt and refurbished and are great places to bring visitors.

Gretchen and her partners in the Art Under The Sun Gallery had a fantastic opening weekend, and well they should have, because they had worked non-stop for many weeks getting the Gallery painted and set up for business. My task was putting up the track lighting and I could not have done it without help from Mike Limke and Bill Smith.

Here is a glimpse of the the trio who played during the opening and behind them you can see the custom counter built by Mike Limke, which is a work of art in itself.

The Floyd Country Store was packed on Friday night and the crowd overflowed onto the street. As usual, there were visitors from far places at the Friday Night Jamboree. At least one came from Australia and another from New Zealand. They both received souvenir hats from Woody Crenshaw, the friendly proprietor of the Country Store.

Meanwhile, out in the Floyd County countryside, Laurelsong and Luke Staengl celebrated their marriage in a beautiful and moving ceremony along the river that borders their farm. The alternative community and international guests partied until the wee hours to the music of John Winnicki and Sonic Safari.

Click on images to enlarge them