Bluegrass Turns Us Crazy

The Broyles-Daigle family loves Rocky Grass.  In fact, it is the best day of our year.  Every year.  Rocky Grass is a 4 day bluegrass festival in Lyons, CO.  Due to our aggressive approach to festivaling, we traditionally only can handle a one day pass. 

I was so happy to have Miss Caroline Younts join the bunch again this year. 

In my opinion, Rocky Grass surpasses the Telluride Bluegrass Fest because its river is super cool (in more way than one). 

Some families have church time together, or sports time together, or even meal times.  But for the Broyles family, our primary yearly bonding happens in the river.

While my parents played games, my sister stalked me until she dunked me.  If you've never had a wild woman with a stick chase you through a river, you have never experienced true terror. 

 She won.  Like always. 

And, as any true love birds would do, my parents attempted to float down the river holding hands.  Can I get a collective "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh"?

If you are looking for laughter, friendship, tranquility, originality, fiddle playing, dancing, competitive card playing, or delicious food then Rocky Grass is your spot. 

WARNING. High levels of bluegrass festival entertainment will turn mothers into this:

It's not for the faint of heart. 

Marek's Home? Score!

Not all friends are created equal.  I hate to be overly honest, but we all know it is true.  Some friends are temporary or situational, and some friends are the 25 To Life kind.  And there are those friends who can make anything memorable, and Marek Rewers is definitely in that category.  

Marek started out as just my high school boyfriend's buddy, but throughout college and after he's been a great provider of laughter and camaraderie.  

So, when I heard he was home for a summer vacay - I forced him to hang out with me.  Well, actually I forced him to rearrange every piece of furniture in my apartment.  And then hang out with me.  He loved it. 

And we decided to be true locals - we went hiking. 

Marek is the type of person who increases the experience of the outdoors through educational videos at rest stops.  Totally worth it.  I mean, this buffalo is inspirational. 

Navigating was a bit confusing on the mountain roads. 

Me: "Marek, what road are we looking for?"

Marek: "Ok."

Me: "Did you not understand my question? What is the road's name?"

Marek: "Ok." 

Eye roll.  Turns out, he was right. 

The signage is this area was a little repetitive, but informative. 

After such a long hike, I wanted a little refreshment.  So we stopped at local Sit-n-Bull Saloon. 

The prize wheel out front left nothing to be desired.  It knew just what we wanted. 

We didn't win. 

But we did go meet Janette. And the 4 motorcycle men who were sitting and shooting some bull at the Sit-n-Bull. 

I ordered a diet coke.  Expecting a cup. Or can. With a straw.  Silly me, Janette handed me this for free and sent us on our way:

Thanks Janette! I hope I win the hot date next time, she's pretty great.

I am a firm believer in the importance of ice cream, and luckily so is Marek.  We enjoyed some at my local ice cream shop.  

Bear even showed off some gangsta dance moves. 

What a great day.  What a great state to live in. Come play with me again soon, Marek!

Excuse Me, But Your Thrashing Is Keeping Me Awake

The last night of any extended trip is always hectic.  Packing. Planning. Panicking (in my case). 

We turned off the lights of our Prague hostel room to 8 empty beds.  Allison and I secretly hoped that those beds would stay empty until the morning. 

Surprise!

These boys joined us at about 4am, and were all members of a unique brotherhood of outrageous sleepers. 

We had sleep talkers.

We had a plethora of snorers with a variety of vocal ranges (who interacted melodically with the sleep talkers).

We had sleep thrashers. 

We even had a sleep walker, who was limited in his abilities because he was top bunk. So he just sat up and down repeatedly in his sleep.

I wasn't even mad.  Just impressed. 

Goodbye Europe.  You're always an experience. 

Hiking With Katniss

The final stop of Eurotrip 2012 was Jicin, a small hiking town in the Czech state of Bohemia.  I prepared for visiting Jicin the way that all seasoned travelers prepare: I completed a bunch of puzzles of the town sites. (You can too, here!) You can only imagine my excitement at being in the center of my favorite puzzle picture!

We named this picture "Big Square, Tiny Emily".

I would not say that Jicin was hopping.  Mainly because we didn't see a single local for the first 15 hours of our visit.  Not one. Maybe they were intimidated. 

But we came to hike, so the next day - hike we did!  

This part of Bohemia is known for its extensive hiking paths and "large rocks".  

If only we had known what we were in for. 

We were told from the beginning that the only way back to our hotel is to hope you find a train station.  No specifics.  Just try and find a train in some random village and take that back.  

So, off we went.  Hiking from ancient castle to ancient castle, by way of the large rocks. 

Along the way we feasted on the local cuisine: fried lard in the shape of sausage and potato cakes soaked in oil.  To be enjoyed with a cold beer mixed with Sprite. 

It turned out that the castle we wanted to see was about 7 miles away and a rumored train station was about another 4 miles after that.  

So, we did what you might expect: we put the Hunger Games book on tape on speaker from Allison's pink iPod.  Then stowed it in my hoodie for easy listening. Because even best friends run out of things to talk about when hiking alone for 15 miles. 

After about mile 9, we realized that we probably were in the arena and needed to protect ourselves.  So Allison reenacted the sure-fire survival technique outlined in book one: (spoiler alert!)

I laughed until I cried. 

The Trosky castle was definitely worth the 9 hour hike.  From the turrets we were able to see the Czech countryside for miles around. 

We even took some engagement pictures!

Although we had made it this far, no one could really promise us the location for a train back to Jicin.  

So we played a little game called: Please Lord Give Us A Train Because We've Been Walking For Almost Ten Hours And Don't Want To Walk Another Three Miles To The Next Town. 

It's an older game.  You might not have heard of it. Hasn't really been played since the time of the Pony Express and the Industrial Revolution. 

And it turns out, we won!

I would like to thank Katniss and Peeta for keeping us sane.  

And the weather, for requiring me to hike in skinny jeans.

And the train, for choosing unlikely villages to stop in.   

To Jicin, for resisting the urge to learn English.

To an incredible memory. 

But most of all to Allison K Peterson, who asked me to go hiking with her.