Piearchy

Last weekend we had some surprise visitors--some friends from Minnesota's Iron Range. Kevin and Sela were taking a road trip (which we discovered via Facebook) and just happened to be traveling through, so we invited them to stay with us on Saturday night. 

It just so happens that Troy had entered the Charlottesville pie contest (also a benefit for a homeless shelter). He had to turn the pie in on Sunday morning, which ended up being kind of a challenge since Saturday with our visitors was a really fun but late night. He didn't actually start making the raspberry chocolate chiffon pie until around 7 am...

Sela is a singer/songwriter who must require little sleep. She got up and played guitar and sang for Troy in the kitchen--surely inspiring the process and then later assisting with the mad pie preparation. When I woke up, the kitchen was chaotic and they were both delirious. It was complete piearchy--that's for sure.

But the results were still beautiful and tasty.

The contest pie!

Contest and test (tasting) pie!

Ready to hit the road after a pie breakfast and packing some Robot Roast Coffee.

Unfortunately, Troy's pie didn't win. He received some serious criticism from one of the judges (who we found to be a little pretentious). We were told we could go down to the basement to sample some of the competition. Since the judges only took a small taste of each one, there was a lot of leftover pie! Interestingly though, by the time we went downstairs, Troy's pie was nowhere to be found (though there were many others left). Troy's pie had already been eaten, which proves to me that despite the judge's ample criticism, it was still a spectacular pie.

Festy Fun

A former student of Troy's called him a couple of week ago to say that he had tickets for a big music festival in the nearby mountains but wasn't able to attend. He didn't want to sell his tickets, he wanted to give them away. He thought Troy might enjoy the festival.

Troy and I had already been thinking about going to the Festy but really couldn't afford the tickets ($100+/piece for 3 days of music and camping). We were thrilled to receive this incredibly generous gift, and determined to make good use of the tickets! We scrambled to prepare and then the next day set out on this little mini-adventure.

The Festy is curated by the Infamous Stringdusters, a bluegrass band that really impressed us. This was the festival's second year and it featured a wide variety of music, workshops, yoga and more. It's a really well organized, incredible event and gave us some good ideas for BradFest.

Troy with some of the many wonderful food vendors in the background--everything from pig on a spit to "Hippie wings"

Sarah White and the Pearls (with our friend on bass--Michael Bishop)

The String Dusters with members of one of our favorite bands from the fest, Rubblebucket

Rubblebucket, a great band that puts on an incredible show. Check them out!

One of the coolest camping set ups

I hadn't been to a music festival in a number of years. We lucked out and got a nice camping spot beneath some trees. It was interesting to see all the different folks who came out for the fest. We were camped between some kids who were just barely 21 and some older gentlemen who brought their instruments (including a mandolin and upright bass) and jammed out all afternoon on Saturday. People came from near and far, we met people from VA, MD, NC and NJ.

The overall environment was really friendly and people were obviously just there to have a good time. We feel really fortunate to have had this experience. We hope to make it back next year, and to convince some friends to come too!