Those days when you can sleep are so nice.  For me, that meant sleeping in to 7:00.  Sascha wasn’t there with a wet nose and the alarm wasn’t trying to tell me something.  Now if the housekeeper doesn’t try to roust me out before I’m good and ready, it will be glorious.

I think the walking and a couple of beers in the evening helped to ensure that I slept well. Even the thunderstorm that I occasionally saw when I opened my eyes in the middle of night didn’t disturb the rest I got.

I got up and wrote up the blog for yesterday this morning as Rich continued to sleep.  Around 9:00, he finally rolled over and asked the time.  We got ready and went to the Palm Court in search of breakfast.  We had the buffet where we could get the meats, French toast, eggs, and fresh fruit needed to start the day.  All of that with a cup of hot coffee is enough.

Since I decided not to navigate the concrete canyons here in search of a parking lot with an empty space, I did valet parking.  That meant that we needed the valets to get our car so we could retrieve the chairs and other items needed for the Blues fest.  They didn’t seem to mind since it was slow at the moment.

Getting all of our stuff back upstairs, we prepared to go out into the world and visit Covington, KY.  We went back down to the TANK stop and boarded the trolley that went to the other side of the river.  The driver dropped us off right in front of the MainStrasse Village sign.  From here, it was a half block to the village.

MainStrasse is the German village on the Covington side of the Ohio River.  A lot of the shops, restaurants, and bars that are European. We went into the Linden Noll gift shop.  This little shotgun house was filled to the brim with German, Austrian, and Polish items.  I found a Bavarian hat for Rich.  The one he had gotten in Munich was way too small.  So, of course, I had to have a hat as well. The poor lady running the store was having a really bad, but taking it pretty well.  We finally sorted out things and got on our way.

One cool think was Mike’s Antique Guitars. The building was a really old theater from probably the 1960s.  Mike was taking pictures of a guitar when we entered so we got to wander around and just look.  If you were a starting band with no equipment, Mike could hook you up.  He had some very interesting pieces.  I wondered if it wasn’t a museum more than a shop. 

We continued to walk around the neighborhood looking at architecture and the different stores.  We ended up in the Mutter Goette neighborhood.  This name came from the large German Catholic church that was there.  Mother of God.  It had a beautiful copper dome that was all patina covered. 

We walked back to Main Street and entered The Cock and Bull public house.  It was a modified English pub.  The food turned out to be very Americanized, but OK.  The beer selection on tap was pretty extensive.  We settled in with an array of appetizers and drank our pints.  The place was pretty crowded when we arrived, but had definitely thinned out by the time we were done. 

On the wall was an explanation for the name of the pub.  In England, the two oldest pubs are The Cock and The Bull.  Since news traveled with the travelers on the road, these two locations always got the news first.  They each started enhancing the stories a bit to be more important.  This is where we get the term a cock and bull story.  Or is it?  Maybe their wall story is the cock and bull story.

We walked back to the shuttle stop and hopped onto the TANK trolley headed back to Cincinnati. Time to rest up and get ready for the Blues fest.  Rich got his afternoon coffee on the way up as we went through the tower shops on the first floor of the hotel.  I’m writing this blog as he prepares to raise his caffeine levels, which I’m sure, had fallen dangerously low. 

More to come tomorrow morning as I finish the report on Friday in Cincinnati.

So now it is the next day.  I got to sleep in again. I got in time to take a shower and get ready for breakfast at 10:00!  That’s fine.  I don’t sleep in often and it was after midnight by the time we got back and settled in for the night.

We’ve been walking everywhere we go or using the TANK bus to go over the bridge. It’s always a great way to see a town.  It’s about a 25 minute to walk to the park…  Not too bad.  The chairs were starting to get heavy by the time we got to the park though.

We found the Will Call table to collect our tickets, which was right next to the Performers Check In.  Rich poked me and said that Super Chikan was about 3 or 4 people ahead of us. I think that he’s just wishful thinking.  But when the gentleman reaches the table, he turns out to be Super Chikan himself with his daughter! Can’t beat that for up close, but not personal yet.

We get our tickets and head for the gate. But we ended up having to wait for the last vendor truck to leave the grounds before we can go in. Turned out to be the port-a-potty truck.  When he clears the gate, they let us in. 

We walk to the main stage and find a prime spot on a little rise that will allow us to see over everyone’s heads.  Just the tall people standing up front will get in the way.  There are one or two of those throughout the night. Checking the schedule, it looks like we have some time before the first act.  Rich heads out for drinks.  I get a water and he looks for beer.  This fest came prepared with the best beers.  They are serving the local microbrews.

Cincinnati is trying to revive their beer history.  They are creating some of the old beers in the styles from long ago and working to rebuild the brewing neighborhood as it once was.  This means that when you go into most of the local establishments, you can get some of those beers.  The fest was no exception.  I recognize the name Hudepohl from when I was a kid.  Apparently, they have started brewing the style from the last 1800s.  I thought that was really cool.

The first act of the night is Scott Yakopcic.  He won the local Cincy Blues competition solo award and is going on to Memphis in February to complete in the International Blues competition.  He was pretty good.  He is a great guitar player who can handle some of the old blues songs. His own songs will develop, but just aren’t quite there yet.

Then Super Chikan takes the stage with his all female band, The Fighting Cocks.  This is the guy Rich came to see.  Rich and Rick had seen him at the Chicago Blues Fest a couple of years back and Rich has been a fan ever since.  We had hoped to see him in Clarksdale when we were there in January, but he was out on the Blues cruise.  I hadn’t seen them, so this was going to be new for me.

Super got started with his set.  He played a guitar shaped like an old car.  It might be even be a 1934 5-window coupe; we don’t know.  He was impressive though.  He plays with a lot of skill and dances around the stage.  But the surprise was the keyboard player, LaLa.  She is part Jerry Lee Lewis and part Joe Crocker.  She wraps her legs around the keyboard stand and hangs over the keys.  She plunks around and makes some interesting contortions.  But all the while, she is pounding out some fantastic music.  How does she do that!?

At the end of the set, Mike (the emcee) starts making a slashing motion across his throat for Super to quit.  Instead, Super kicks into another song.  Why not?  We’ll all rocking in the audience.  Finally, Super says that Mike doesn’t mean quit, he means he’ll slit Super’s throat if he doesn’t get off stage right now.  So that ends Super Chikan for the night.

Rich heads out for more beer and to look at shirts and merchandise.  While he’s walking around, some guy sees the Cat Head Records t-shirt Rich is wearing and stops him to talk.  Cat Head Records is a business owned by Roger Stoli back in Clarksdale, MS.  He has a store and promotes the blues as a business. He’s very knowledgeable in the blues world, writes books, promotes shows, and passes on knowledge to the rest of us.  Turns out, this guy who stopped Rich was Roger’s roommate in college.  He’s so excited to see something from Roger’s store.  He asks how Rich came by the shirt and they talk for a while.  The guy shows off Rich to his family and says that Rich knows Roger!  Well, in a way Rich does.  I thought it was cool how that 6 degrees of separation worked in there.  Another up close and personal.

So the night moves on and Sista Monica takes the stage.  We’ve been hearing Monica on the Bluesville station on XM for a while.  I thought she might be interesting to see in person, and she was.  She has this big and wonderful voice with such a great sound.  The Sista Monica band is full of wonderful talent as well.  After a couple of songs, Rich goes off to buy a CD and returns with one.  She does everything from start to finish to produce her own music.  That’s totally amazing.

At the end of the set, she says she will be at the merchandise tent to sign things.  Darn, bought it too early.  Rich tries once to get a signature, but she wasn’t there yet.  She’s still back stage with her mother, whom she brought out on stage toward the end of the show.  I wander up later and find her sitting at the tent.  She signs the CD cover to Rich.  This is another up close and person I didn’t expect.

So it’s getting really chilly sitting on the grass at this time of night.  I’m wearing shorts and freezing.  Rich just wants to watch a little bit of the last act, which is Webb Wilder.  A lot of the people around us have pulled up stakes and packed it in for the night.  The grassy knoll is getting pretty empty out there.

Now this guy is someone Rich used to listen to when we first started dating some 20 years ago.  The band gets started and it’s more along the lines of Rockabilly than blues. But that’s OK.  Finally, Webb plays “Human Cannonball”.  Yep, this seems to be the song most people are waiting to hear.  As Webb calls it, these are the true Wilderians.

With that, we pack up the chairs and head for Pete Rose Way to walk back to the hotel.  When we get closer to the stadiums, there are a lot of people out.  Still can’t tell if the Bengals did well tonight or not.  The Holy Grail Tavern is packed and flowing out into the street.  The police have barriers up to keep cars from hitting the partiers.

We continue up the hill and over a couple of blocks to the Hilton.  It’s really quiet and we head up the elevators to our room.  I had a great time and learned a lot.  We had a lot of up close and personal experiences today.  Time for bed though.  Night y’all.