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| Where else would a Mermaid be the central figure on a Blues Poster? |
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| We knew some of these guys but we were the most excited to see Trombone Shorty again |
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| Black of course were the most popular T's and they sold out first. |
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| We were glad to have a dry place to enjoy the Blues since the Rain forecast was 60% all weekend. |
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| The party filled up on Sunday |
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| The pier was light up in Blue for the event, I took this from Vinoy Park, site of the Blues Fest. |
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| We got lucky and were invited to the 1st nights after party. Right now I can not even remember this dudes name but he was really good! |
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| We have not been out this late in a very long time but who could refuse the free invite? We got there about 11 pm and left with the music still going strong about 2:30 am. |
We saw a flyer in the boaters facility about the Blues festival and right away the Admiral looked up the contact number for the organizers. We drove over to this House on the corner of Martin Luther King and about N. 36th ave. It was a Lawyers office but there was a small sign outside about the Blues fest so we walked in and asked if they still needed volunteers for the Festival . She said "Yes, we need some for Friday and Sunday from 4 pm-10 pm". We said we would take both nights so she took our information and told us to report to the volunteers tent on the North side of Vinoy Park on those dates.
The weather forecast was 60% rain for the whole weekend so we packed our ponchos and wore shoes good for mud. The attendance for Friday was sort of light, about 50% full but the every band was really good. We were not real busy with about 6 persons manning the T-shirt Tent, all were veteran volunteers and knew how to enjoy the Festival without a few T shirts getting in the way. We had a place to sit in a tent close to the bandstand and did not have to be concerned if it started raining but it never did. It was just a nice overcast day sparring the music lovers from sunburn. We were excited to see Dicky Betts since so many people were there just to see him. Something happened and he ended up in one of the St. Pete Hospitals so His son along with several of the other Artist did a fine job of covering for him and you could hear the allman Brothers throughout the park. About when we began to shut down the T-shirt Tent one of the head dudes rode up on his golf cart and asked us all if we would like to go to the After Show, We said Yes!, thank you very much and he handed us two tickets to get in along with instructions on how to get there. Fortunately is was a venue within walking distance to the Marina. We left the Blues Fest just after 10pm and went back to the boat to regroup. Put on our walking shoes and went to the oldest theater in Town but they have done some updating to the building and it is still Ginnin.
We had to find seats in the back since the music was louder than this little place was meant for but we found a spot where it worked out on the back row right in the center. We had a great time, lots of people dancing in the rows and partying. By 2pm I started to deflate a bit and we decided to go after the next song. We managed to leave by 2:30 but the music was still going strong.
Saturday we slept in and did not even think about going over since we both knew we needed to store up some endurance for Sunday. Sat. was another fine overcast mild day and so we were looking forward to Sunday since the weather forecasters here are no better than Dead Wrong Dale in Corpus Christi.
We were looking forward to hearing the Royal Southern Brotherhood with Cyril Neville since we had heard the whole Neville family in New York City years ago on the Plaza at the World Trade Center.
These guys rocked, everyone was groovin. Finally Trombone took the stage and the moment he hits his first note the place was standing and rockin....He came on about 8:30 and by 9pm I was checking my Radarscope App on the Iphone as you could see a approaching storm in the distance. By 9:30 everyone was already wet. We closed up the T-shirt tent and everyone started to exit. The Admiral started towards the music, They had cleared the stage but all the horns come down into the audience and continued to play in the mud, a huge crowd circled the band and it could have easily been a New Orleans scene on the streets there. No one cared about the rain it was just fun.
We are in the midst of making final preparations for our gulf crossing. My mind has been centered on getting Wand'rin Star ready for the trip and to make sure I had a committed crew. John Furlinger committed for sure early so I just wanted one more to make the watch schedule easier (it is a baby boomer thing). Johny mentioned he would help but a Female Star arrived in his universe so he could not commit to make the trip. Bill Wilson wanted to go but could not overcome his obligations at work. I sent out a all points bulletin to recruit a third crew and due to the increasing short notice I could give people everyone I knew had other commitments.
Maureen Stotland sent me a Facebook message and volunteered for the trip but I wanted to make sure she knew what she was committing to so we met Carey and Maureen at the Saturday morning market and afterwards they came over for a basic 101, 102, and 103 on the systems aboard Wand'rin Star. All checked out so we plan to depart St. Pete May 8th on the afternoon ebb tide or the best next weather window after.
See Y'all in Corpus Christi Soon.
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