Hot Times at Delfest!

We finally made it to Delfest, the bluegrass festival, this year in Cumberland, MD.  We've been meaning to go to this particular festival since it's so close to home (only 2.5 hours) and we could bail if we needed to.  Luckily, our good friends Sue and Evan had their VIP-ness in effect and were all set up by the time we got there:

Evan got jealous of Carter's habitat and decided to usurp.  Carter wasn't pleased.  

But the music: Sierra Hull & Highway 111 and The Infamous Stringdusters on Friday night.  During the Stringdusters set (which was shaping up to be excellent), it started raining buckets and everyone had to take cover, so we headed back to camp:

Carter and Dad enjoying the canopy after the soaking mess.

Carter got a little scared during the thunderstorm, but as soon as it stopped raining, he was happy as pie.  Speaking of pie - the strawberry pesto pizza we had from Pie for the People was delicious.  After Carter went to bed and we dug trenches sufficient to keep our campsite dry, I went back to the festival to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Del McCoury trade up tunes then Old Crow rocked the "late night."  Or as late as I was willing to hang anyway.  I came back to find Carter and Mimi snuggling and asleep in the tent with the freight trains rumbling by about 50 feet from our camp.  There were a couple of times when he woke up during the night: the drunk folks coming back after the headline act at midnight, then again when the drunk folks came back after the "late night" set at 3am, and then again when our (very nice, but childless) neighbors decided they needed to solve the world's problems at 4:30.  We decided that next year we will arrive early enough to make it into "Family Camp" where it's quiet at night and louder early in the morning - live and learn.

Saturday brought sunny heat and more happy music: Trampled by Turtles, among others.  We hung out for a while at the concert arena, but Carter started getting sorta fussy and hot.  I ended up going back to camp to try to cool him off, but he never could get comfortable or take a nap, so the situation escalated a little bit.  

Attempts to cool the kid.

It was about this time that we decided between the heat and rough night's sleep that Carter was going to implode if we stayed another night, so we went back for one final act: Railroad Earth.

They were awesome and Carter rallied for another hour or two - mostly because Mom finally took him to the middle of the mud puddle for some dancing.  

All Done

But then, as we feared, he lost it.  We beat feet back to camp, rounded up the mules and rode into (away from) the sunset.  We were planning on staying one more day, but it was just too hot for the little guy.  There were plenty of other babies at the festival, and I guess we should have asked some other parents about coping strategies, but we decided it was best to just leave before we passed the point of enjoying ourselves.  I think next year will be a little easier since his thermoregulatory mechanisms will have had a chance to mature and he'll be able to communicate his needs a little better...  All in all, we had a good time with good friends, good music and good food.  We'll go back next year with a little more parenting experience (and possibly an air conditioned RV!).