This weekend we have a group of A-liners staying at Wagon Trail Campground.  They’re having an A-liner rally.  They’ve been coming in throughout the week, but today most of the rest of them arrived.  “What is an A-liner?” you might be asking yourself.  I grabbed a picture off Google images to show you:

A-liner camper

This group has all sorts of things planned for the weekend.  Already this afternoon there was an A-liner training.  It started outside, but when the people got rained on they moved into the adult lounge:

Training in the lounge

In the meantime, the game room was being used by a group of musicians that only play together once a year when they come to this rally.  There were two guitars, a flute, and two different kinds of dulcimers.  I asked about the dulcimers and the man I spoke with explained that the large dulcimer is called a hammer dulcimer.  It’s an ancient instrument that’s been found in archaeological digs.

Hammer dulcimer

The smaller dulcimer is called a mountain dulcimer.  It’s the kind that was played (and probably still is) in the Appalachian Mountains.

Mountain dulcimer

The man I was talking with had a set of songs written down so I requested a few of them I was familiar with and I sang along.

I asked for Amazing Grace, I’ll Fly Away/Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and Simple Gifts.

This was the man that explained the dulcimers to me.

It looked like so much fun!  Mark wants a hammer dulcimer now.

Looking for music

The mountain dulcimer player

Ginni could play both guitar and flute.

The lead singer

The group playing together

Crowded as the room was, there were people there listening and videoing the group:

To my left…

To my right…

And even Judy working in the office (through the open door)!

It was time for me to go home, but I stopped to chat with folks who were waiting outside for more arrivals to come in and visiting with each other.  Nice, nice people!

Cheers!

A little guy named Hercules who was staying warm in a sling around his human’s neck.