ON THE ROAD WITH IOWAN’S BOB & SHEILA EVERHART JULY 16. 2012

ON THE ROAD WITH IOWAN’S BOB & SHEILA EVERHART

 
     “We been doin’ some hard travelin, I thought you
knowed!”  Bob & Sheila Everhart have made a big weekend of it. “I
have to say, we put some miles on the little Pontiac,” Sheila said.  Our
first gig was in Garden Grove, Minnesota.  This is an extremely
pleasant place to have a bluegrass festival, and Chuck Stearman and his
crew from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America
put on one heck of a nice old-timey music festival there.  We enjoy
going there (have been for five years now) because that part of
Minnesota likes bluegrass music, and they like the ‘roots’ of bluegrass
music too, which is what Bob and I play.  The audience numbers looked
about the same as in the past, but it appeared that maybe the RV campers
were down a little.  We were there on Thursday and Friday, and then
made a mad rush to get to Coon Rapids, Iowa, to perform on the Carroll
County Fair.  We really like this one.  This county fair was nearly
history, and then a group of concerned ‘rural’ folks got it all back
together, and we get to play there.  We did two shows on Saturday, one
at 1pm and one at 3pm.  Then it’s a mad rush to get all the way to
northwest Iowa, near Remsen, to perform on the Juhl’s “Damascus Road’
Festival.  We were on at 7pm Saturday night, and then a couple more
shows on Sunday.  So, I guess you could say we’ve been doing some hard
travelin.”
     “Sheila’s absolutely right,” her husband Bob piped
up.  “I drive the RV in the winter time and Sheila drives the car in the
summer time, so she really racked up the miles.  But it was super fun,
even though it was pretty hot.  We get used to the heat, it just takes a
little precaution, drink plenty of cool liquids, stay out of the sun’s
rays, and don’t overdo anything.  The air conditioning in our car
doesn’t even work, but we got  by just fine.  Of course our hair
‘blowing in the wind’ didn’t look all that great, but we love Iowa and
it’s beautiful rolling hills.  We saw lots of corn that looked good and
we saw lots of corn that doesn’t look like it’s going to make it.  We
even passed through a couple of showers during our travels, but we sure
could use a little more rain please.  We’re keeping the air conditioner
on in the Oak Tree Opry, because we have a super-terrific show coming up
Tuesday, July 17.  The “Roys” one of the most exciting acoustic
traditional country and bluegrass groups are stopping by in their big
black bus to do a show starting at 7pm.  We’ll have a nice full house
for them, even though it’s a Tuesday, so we’re looking forward to that.”
     “Dad sure knows how to pull off a budget lunch,”
Bobbie Lhea their 15-year old daughter said.  “There’s a really nice
place to eat at the Juhl’s festival, in an old hog-house.  Well, it
don’t look like no hog-house now, but dad had some coupons that allowed
us to have lunch, so when he handed me one, he said, “Here Bobbie Lhea,
it’s your budget lunch.”  Well, I did have a nice treat.  They had
‘tavern’ sandwiches, which I thought were really good, though I didn’t
know why they call them ‘taverns.’  One of the servers said she was from
the south, and down their they call them sloppy joes.  I know dad has
been talking about the Roys coming to the Oak Tree Opry in Anita, but
one of my favorite groups is the ‘Roes’.  They’re from Minnesota, and
they’ll be with us on July 20.  It’s going to be a fun week.”

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