Tuesday, June 14, 2011

American Heritage Music Festival - 2011

Our Oklahoma City Chapter of Good Sam's, The Modern Wagoneers, headed east to Grove, Oklahoma for the 14th Annual American Heritage Music Festival. Seven couples participated in the excursion and all rigs but one caravaned together to Grove.

We stopped for lunch in Tulsa and were welcomed by Good Sam's State Director, Bettye Franz, and her husband, Edward, who helped direct parking as we all pulled our rigs into the Cracker Barrel lot. Bettye and Edward are not only very nice people, but they also bring a fresh and enthusiastic spirit to the Oklahoma Good Sam's organization. We were honored that they took time from their busy schedule to have lunch with us at Cracker Barrel.



We camped on the shore of Grand Lake at Cedar Oaks RV Resort, which provided us an air-conditioned meeting room for meals, games, and our monthly meeting.



The Resort has beautiful grounds with mature shade trees and level pads.



The temperature hovered around 95 degrees, so we all tuckered out quickly, even Maynard:



Susan prepared sandwiches and snacks in the coach, but most meals were had in the meeting room:



Friday evening was a "pot luck" dinner with marinated grilled chicken breasts as the main course . . . .



Saturday's fun included a cruise on Grand Lake via The Cherokee Queen II, a 108-foot long, 3-deck paddle boat with 2 dance floors that can accommodate 300 people. The following is an assortment of pictures from the cruise:



Once the vessel was underway, Bill and Phyllis took to the dance floor . . . .






Suz and I served as "Wagon Masters" for this trip, so planning was left up to us (mostly to Susan, I just went along for the ride). We visited Grove and the American Heritage Music Festival this same time last year, and it impressed us so much that we wanted our travel group to share the experience. Jana Jae, of "Hee Haw" fame, now lives in the Grand Lake area and sponsors the Festival each year. It consists of a fiddle and clogging competition, followed by an evening of country music entertainment.



Above, the Grand Champion Cloggers perform during Saturday night's show. Below, are Bob Fjeldsted & The Round-Up Boys, who play western swing in the tradition of the late Bob Wills.



As they say in Jones, America: "A good time was had by all."