Great question! It is quiet for a few days…and really clean. But then come the dancers! We run rentals most weekends from August to the beginning of October (before the first freeze). Camp apparently is greatly sought after by dancing groups who want to put on “dance camps”. All of them are wonderful, but the old faithful of our groups is Old Farmer’s Ball, which put on an event called “Splash Dance”, a contra dancing weekend that actually runs from Thursday to Sunday. They are amazing and fun people who have their program down to a science! My wife and I love to sit up in the balcony of the Mike and just watch the dancing. Now I’m no dancer, but it is truly beautiful! The dancing looks a lot like a cross between old ballroom dancing and country style square dancing. Lots of spinning and circling with fiddle music and a person “calling” the dance.
After the Old Farmer’s Ball we had another group in August that was the Stiletto Dance Camp. These were a group of Salsa dancing ladies who were also delightful. They had workshops during the day and then big dance parties at night. I made some fires for them at the tepee where they made s’mores and had a “camp experience” in the midst of salsa lessons.
Then last week we had Veritas Christian School stay at camp for three days. We ran activities for them like swimming, battleball, archery (I taught this), and the original sultan of fun, Steven Owens, even ran Sockwar for them! Then we took them on trips one day to kayak, to play in swimming holes, to climb, and it was just like a normal camp day (but in September). It made me miss camp a lot.
Just this past weekend we held a fish fry for Jay Watson, who is running for a judge position locally, and that was a lot of fun too. He is a friend of mine and he loves to camp! We usually go fishing together once or twice a year. Great guy! If you live in Black Mountain, you should vote for him! I certainly will.
Other groups that we have had in the past have been Volvo employee picnics, various men’s weekends (from churches), A group of Girl Scouts from the Piedmont area, various weddings, an African dance camp, a belly dance camp, and a group of herbalists (who loved all of the flora and fauna on camp).
So we stay busy when you aren’t here to keep our minds off the fact that we miss you guys.
Happy Camping,
Director Dan
