Sore Roots Trip Log--Day 0
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Robert & Laura
Apr 6, 2012, 8:42:54 PM4/6/12
to robert...@googlegroups.com
Sore Roots Trip Log--Day 0
April 6, 2012
Bellevue, Washington
Look out! It's us again
Yep, we're at it again. This time, we're packing our bags for Jolly Old England (or Joe) with a dose of Scotland tossed in for good measure. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon (Seattle time) and touching down in the land of fish and chips about mid-morning Sunday (Tea time).
We're attending a music camp called "Sore Fingers" in a town called "Kingham" (which might very well be where Henry VIII had all his pigs raised). They have lots of classes on Old Time American Music and also Bluegrass. Laura's going for the advanced autoharp classes and Robert's going for the beginning bass (like the guitar, not like the fish). And since we're American, we'll be experts! As long as we can convince them that Homer & Jethro are Old Time.
After a week of playing "Wildwood Flower," we'll re-pack our bags and board a train north to Scotland. Robert's paternal grandmother was born in Scotland (on her marriage certificate her occupation is listed as "Spinster"). Plus, we've taken up Scottish Country Dancing in the last few years and we're hoping to find some local clubs with a Ceilidh we can Ceirash. And, hey, it's Scotland. There's bound to be something interesting going on.
Which brings us to the name of the trip: "Sore Roots" See, because we're attending "Sore Fingers" music camp and Robert has some roots in Scotland and…
Yeah, well, the "roots" part doesn't really work because most of Robert's ancestors for the last 200 years were born in the US of A. Robert's great-great-great-great-grandfather, also called Robert Gidley, was born in New York in 1792. And on his mom's side, well, let's just say that first winter in Plymouth was pretty rough on them.
[Note: if you want to know your ancestry without having to do a lot of peering at old records and rubbing gravestones, arrange to have Mormon ancestors. They are top-notch at this and will cheerfully share that information with everybody they are related to. Robert's maternal grandmother was one of nine (ten?) sisters who trekked across the desert from Salt Lake City to Arizona to found the city of Mesa.]
So, it's not like Robert has any deep Scottish roots, and we're not about to spend a day traveling to Grandma's ancestral hut in a small village called Oldhamstocks (pork seems to be very big in the UK…). Plus, Grandma probably went to a lot of trouble to leave, so it doesn't seem very respectful to come on back and say "Hi" to all the losers she left behind.
Anyway, we're still calling it "Sore Roots," because we (Laura) couldn't come up with anything better and the deadline is here. If inspiration strikes, we'll change the name midstream--won't be the first time. An earlier trip log had a different name every day.
Okay, we have a few new folks with us on this round of the Trip Logs, so we'll explain the basics again.
Item 1: You can't reply to this message. If you do, it'll just get bounced back. We're the only ones who can post to the list, as we want to respect everybody's in-box and not clutter it with a bunch of random messages. We efficiently put all the clutter in one random message and deliver it in bulk. You can, however, e-mail us at rob...@robertgidley.com or la...@lauragregg.com. We'll check mail as we can.
Item 2: If we don't amuse you, or you have an actual life that is more interesting than what we're doing, you'll see an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each e-mail. Just click on it, and you're off the list. We won't mind. Heck, we probably won't even notice. We didn't know half the people on the list when we looked at it recently (except you, of course, our oldest and dearest friend).
Item 3: These messages come to you daily. We'll aim to get them out each night, which is about mid-afternoon on the West Coast. If one doesn't show up (once we got caught in a porn filter because Robert used "rat-bastard" as an adjective once too often), you can go on-line to look at it.
Go here: http://groups.google.com/group/Robert-Laura
Or just google "Robert Laura Trip Logs"
Disclaimer: It's possible that England won't have a Starbucks every 100 yards, which means that trying to find an Internet connection *could* be an issue and we might miss a day. But frankly--we've sent trip logs from the heart of Juarez, Mexico (The World's Most Dangerous City™) with no problem. We even managed to send them from the wilds of Helena, Montana where we hitched a ride into town and Laura distracted the nice jewelry store clerk while Robert rewired the phone system so we could dial into our e-mail system. So we're not too worried.
Item 4: We try to keep each one short.
And on that note...
Robert & Laura
Sore Roots Tour
April 6, 2012
Bellevue, Washington
Look out! It's us again
Yep, we're at it again. This time, we're packing our bags for Jolly Old England (or Joe) with a dose of Scotland tossed in for good measure. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon (Seattle time) and touching down in the land of fish and chips about mid-morning Sunday (Tea time).
We're attending a music camp called "Sore Fingers" in a town called "Kingham" (which might very well be where Henry VIII had all his pigs raised). They have lots of classes on Old Time American Music and also Bluegrass. Laura's going for the advanced autoharp classes and Robert's going for the beginning bass (like the guitar, not like the fish). And since we're American, we'll be experts! As long as we can convince them that Homer & Jethro are Old Time.
After a week of playing "Wildwood Flower," we'll re-pack our bags and board a train north to Scotland. Robert's paternal grandmother was born in Scotland (on her marriage certificate her occupation is listed as "Spinster"). Plus, we've taken up Scottish Country Dancing in the last few years and we're hoping to find some local clubs with a Ceilidh we can Ceirash. And, hey, it's Scotland. There's bound to be something interesting going on.
Which brings us to the name of the trip: "Sore Roots" See, because we're attending "Sore Fingers" music camp and Robert has some roots in Scotland and…
Yeah, well, the "roots" part doesn't really work because most of Robert's ancestors for the last 200 years were born in the US of A. Robert's great-great-great-great-grandfather, also called Robert Gidley, was born in New York in 1792. And on his mom's side, well, let's just say that first winter in Plymouth was pretty rough on them.
[Note: if you want to know your ancestry without having to do a lot of peering at old records and rubbing gravestones, arrange to have Mormon ancestors. They are top-notch at this and will cheerfully share that information with everybody they are related to. Robert's maternal grandmother was one of nine (ten?) sisters who trekked across the desert from Salt Lake City to Arizona to found the city of Mesa.]
So, it's not like Robert has any deep Scottish roots, and we're not about to spend a day traveling to Grandma's ancestral hut in a small village called Oldhamstocks (pork seems to be very big in the UK…). Plus, Grandma probably went to a lot of trouble to leave, so it doesn't seem very respectful to come on back and say "Hi" to all the losers she left behind.
Anyway, we're still calling it "Sore Roots," because we (Laura) couldn't come up with anything better and the deadline is here. If inspiration strikes, we'll change the name midstream--won't be the first time. An earlier trip log had a different name every day.
Okay, we have a few new folks with us on this round of the Trip Logs, so we'll explain the basics again.
Item 1: You can't reply to this message. If you do, it'll just get bounced back. We're the only ones who can post to the list, as we want to respect everybody's in-box and not clutter it with a bunch of random messages. We efficiently put all the clutter in one random message and deliver it in bulk. You can, however, e-mail us at rob...@robertgidley.com or la...@lauragregg.com. We'll check mail as we can.
Item 2: If we don't amuse you, or you have an actual life that is more interesting than what we're doing, you'll see an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each e-mail. Just click on it, and you're off the list. We won't mind. Heck, we probably won't even notice. We didn't know half the people on the list when we looked at it recently (except you, of course, our oldest and dearest friend).
Item 3: These messages come to you daily. We'll aim to get them out each night, which is about mid-afternoon on the West Coast. If one doesn't show up (once we got caught in a porn filter because Robert used "rat-bastard" as an adjective once too often), you can go on-line to look at it.
Go here: http://groups.google.com/group/Robert-Laura
Or just google "Robert Laura Trip Logs"
Disclaimer: It's possible that England won't have a Starbucks every 100 yards, which means that trying to find an Internet connection *could* be an issue and we might miss a day. But frankly--we've sent trip logs from the heart of Juarez, Mexico (The World's Most Dangerous City™) with no problem. We even managed to send them from the wilds of Helena, Montana where we hitched a ride into town and Laura distracted the nice jewelry store clerk while Robert rewired the phone system so we could dial into our e-mail system. So we're not too worried.
Item 4: We try to keep each one short.
And on that note...
Robert & Laura
Sore Roots Tour
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