National Storytelling Festival

Amy, Colleen and I roadtripped to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN this past lovely Autumn weekend in search of changing foliage, clever tales and a taste of Appalachia.

These are pictures literally taken while either in the car or stopped by the road.
The colors are turning in the mountains. It's truly beautiful and much cooler just a few hours east.

We stopped at a gas station along the way and made note of the ancient tanks.
Amy and Colleen walked inside and overheard the attendant inquire to his friend,
'Is she taking a picture of the gas tank?' To which his friend replied, 'Looks that way.'

Have you seen The Gilmore Girls? Good. Then you know all about Stars Hollow.
Jonesborough is Stars Hollow. But imagine a very special Gilmore Girls when Stars Hollow hosts the National Storytelling Festival and 10,000 people come.

Krispy Kreme, the preferred deep fried dough of the South, brought this portable donut factory
and sales unit to the festival. Normally, I'd be horrified at such commercialism, but the Krispy Kreme people donated 100% of their proceeds [that's not profits... that's proceeds] to the
National Storytelling Network. Pretty impressive for some flour, sugar and lard.

There were six different tents set up around town. Each tent held about 1000 people.
It's amazing to me that this many people love stories as much as I do.

Here are the hordes of storytelling fanatics, I mean fans, scurrying to their next tent
during the thirty minute intervals between tellers.

In exchange for free weekend tickets, we volunteered for a morning. While Amy toiled in the gift shop, Colleen and I were assigned train track guarding/warning duty. This involved a lot of standing around and talking to the locals who provided some pretty amazing stories on their own.

This small sign was posted in the grass nearish the railroad tracks.

It's to warn people that they could get run over by a train if they walk on the railroad tracks. At first, I thought it was a little silly, but then Colleen and I watched a car nearly get hit by an oncoming train.
The trains sound a lot farther away than they actually are.

This is one of the cute shops on Main Street. The Wedding Loft. I think that's Cinderella in the window.

After seeing this place, Colleen's pretty sure she's going to get her wedding dress there.

I looked up while taking the photos of the Wedding Loft. And what should I see, but a real bride.
She asked me to send her a copy of the picture.

To complete the quaintness, there were carriages available for rides around town.
Perhaps this one is waiting to Cinderella to the ball.
Or that bride to her reception.

The two gentlemen sitting in front of this gorgeous quilt told me that they had whipped this together the day before. After writing all the books that were on the table. Everybody's a storyteller in this town.

Another beautiful quilt.

As we left one of the many art galleries, I noticed these stairs leading up to a design studio. A man walked up them as I was taking the picture and told me that they are the seven elements of design. It is satisfying to me that the designers use these elements to climb up to their work each day.

A few weeks ago, I heard a story on NPR about Moon Pies which included an interview with Dr. Ferris.
I decided then and there that I must add this to my southern epicurian repertoire.

My very first bite of a Moon Pie. Yum.

Colleen, Amy and I eagerly awaiting one of our last stories by David Holt. He played music in
O Brother Where Art Thou. He also plays a mean banjo.