King Biscuit Blues Festival 2023 is in the Books! We had a Great Time!

Javi and John at KBBF 2023

Last week I attended the King Biscuit Blues Festival 2023. Eddie and I left Wednesday, October 4 at 6 am and arrived mid-afternoon in Helena, Arkansas. I had a great time with family, friends, and listening to some great music. Missed not having Carrie or Corrie at KBBF, but hopefully we will have them join us next year.

Corn Dog is Lunch

Not only is the KBBF a time for visiting, listening to music, and having fun, but it is also time for eating some great street food. I did not go crazy this year, but I did have some good eats while at KBBF. The picture to the left is of me eating a corn dog that I sent to Carrie and Corrie who were missing out on the good eats. Along with the corn dog, I had a Gryo, tamales plate, fresh cut potatoes, fries with meat and cheese on top, and a variety of other good eats. Those are the ones I can remember. Oh, we also had catfish from the VIP tent that was really good. We had breakfast each day we were there too along with Bloody Mary's which helped to start the day right. Thanks to Amy, Liz, and Michael for getting the various eats for breakfast ready for us each day. 

Selfie with TBo and Javi

You might wonder what we do when we are working the KBBF, well, we carry equipment on/off the main stage. We run errands as needed. Between acts, we are able to enjoy good music and company. To the right is a selfie with Javi and TBo while listening to music. Sipping your favorite drink and enjoying good music, it is a great way to spend the day.

Selfie with Eddie on Main Stage

Snapping pictures of the bands is fun and I meant to do a whole lot more than I did this year, but I did manage to get a number of selfies while at KBBF this year. I realized as I am writing that I neglected to get a selfie with Shi although I did get some pictures of him with others that I will include later in this update. 

We hang around the main stage to help where we can and watch to carry items to and from the main stage. This year I helped a little bit with parking as vehicles came into the parking area and needed to be secured. After getting the musicians on the main stage, we help with positioning equipment needed, amps, and then we make sure they have water for their set.

Selfie with Bart at KBBF

Hanging out in the back of the stage or along the side enjoying things is what we do. It is a good time and we have fun interacting with the acts too. Again, I realized I did not take any pictures with any of the musicians. This is usually something that Carrie does when she attends. For me, I am lucky to get selfies and pictures of some of the acts. 

TBo and Shi Run the Show

The stage is run by Shi (Eddie) and TBo (Tommy). Shi is the stage manager and TBo manages logistics of the stage, parking, beverages, etc. Good news this year I do not recall seeing TBo, or Shi, upset about anything or at least nothing that got to me about something being wrong. Overall, the whole festival ran smooth this year. The picture to the left is of TBo and Shi on the main stage watching over acts and the crowd.

At Leslie's for Breakfast and Drinks

Picture of Crowd at KBBF

See the full photo set from King Biscuit Blues Festival 2023 on my Flickr account.

Looking forward to next year to be back at the King Biscuit Blues Festival. It is hard to believe 2023 is in the books. Until next time, have a great rest of your week!

What a Fall.... Recap and New Long Post

Well, as I mentioned, it has been a while since I really posted anything to my blog. What is a blog if I never write anything. I know..... it is just empty space that is out-of-date. Perfect! That's what I have here.

Well, as you start looking around the site trying to find content, you will see that the forums no longer work either. I have not had the time, or motivation, to work to resolve that problem. I would like to have another forum on my site, but it is just not that important right now. So, anyone looking for the forums are getting a page with a error message. I did fix up the photo gallery a while back and I am happy with how it turned out. Everything else, well, has just been the same for the past

two something years. Great!

OK, no on to my update which I have been meaning to do for sometime now. The last time I posted anything meaningful to this blog was back in August. I recapped what had happened over the Summer. I spoke a lot regarding my golf game. Well, my golf game basically stopped in late July. My elbow was hurting so much that it forced me to go to the doctor. I had it checked out and then had to go to physical therapy (PT). After all of the PT, I have not played any golf. I missed it a lot, but hope to be able to get back out to play in the Spring. Granted, we have had a lot of good days recently that I should have been playing, but Carrie and I have had something to do every weekend in October.

The Fall semester started back in August. It was a fun start to the semester with a major upgrade at work. We upgraded MyWashburn and our email systems. This caused a few weeks of tense times at work, but it eventually was resolved. We are running on the new version of MyWashburn, but our email system is still running on old hardware. The good news is that with this new upgrade, my Blackberry syncs with email (read, deleted, and moved) as well as with the calendar system. It is very nice! I am hoping to be able to keep it for years to come as it does cost money to use the service.

September was a busy month... in fact, the next two months were extremely busy! Carrie and I were on the go both September and October. It was a fun kind of busy though, so we did not complain. September we had football games just about every weekend for Washburn. I think during the course of the season I only missed about one game which was the first one of the season. We made it to all the rest.

The other big news for September was that my friend, Javier, came back from Costa Rica. He came back on Wednesday, September 23. Brenda, Cheri, Eileen, Carrie, and I rented a limo to pick him up from the airport. It was great! He was completely surprised and we all had a great time! We drank the whole way there, the whole way back, and into the evening. The good news was that I took the next day off of work to run errands with Javier. (Carrie's idea and it was a good one!) We have had Javier living with us while he is renting out his house and trying to sell it since September 23. We are having fun and he is also helping us to eat healthier as well as motivation to work out. His mother is coming to live with us on November 13 for three weeks for Thanksgiving which will be fun. Carrie and I will be gone during some of that time though traveling to Law Vegas, but we are looking forward to having her with us. I know Javi will enjoy it too!

The first part of October brought the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival in Helena, Arkansas. It was a great time! Of course I drank a lot and ate too much, but it was fun! A lot of great music and it is always fun to see everyone each year. Chad and I went down this year while Corrie and Carrie had fun in Houston. Yes, Carrie bought purses (notice plural)! Oh well.... There were many great bands. We did have a nice day on Thursday. Friday was rainy and cold... Saturday was just cold! It was a great time though and I enjoyed it once again. I believe this was my 5th year to attend the festival and I am already looking forward to next year! I am hoping that next year, Carrie and Corrie are able to make it. I have only been to the festival once with Carrie. I know she has a great time in Houston with Corrie, but it would be good to go to the festival again with her.

November Carrie and I will be heading to Las Vegas. This is our forth time to Vegas. We are looking forward to it. We will be meeting Chad and Corrie there for the second time. We can hardly wait! We leave Thursday, November 19 and return Tuesday, November 24. We both work one day and then of course there is Thanksgiving on the 26 and 27. We planned it that way! We will be doing some gambling, but not a whole lot. We usually split up $100 or so between the two of us and gamble with it until it is done... Or until Carrie doubles her money and pockets the first part she started with. Me, I usually go through everything we start with and then I watch her play. Gulp! We will be going to a show, but we are not sure which one yet. We got our hotel rooms for really cheap, but not as cheap as what Chad and Corrie got theirs at. They stayed at the place before, so they get member benefits. Oh well!

The football season is starting to end. The Kansas Jayhawks were not anywhere close to what they were hyped at doing this year. We have lost four straight with the most recent last weekend against Kansas State. Reesing has not looked good at all for the past four games and we are on a bad slide. Doubtful we will win any of our last three remaining games with as bad as they are playing and it does not look like any bowl games are in the works for KU this season. I have heard rumors that Mangino might be on his way out. Funny how he does so good for so many years and then he has one bad year... they want to get rid of him. Geez!

The Washburn football team was alright this year. Not great, but not bad. They missed out on playing in a bowl game as well. Their season is done and now we start basketball. Javier and I need to get to some Washburn basketball games this season. I still want to go to a volleyball game, but we never seem to start looking at those until it is too late.

Well, that is a long recap of what has occurred the last few months. Again, I am going to try and update this more often. If nothing else, than with a short message to say where I am at. Have a great rest of the week and I will chat with you later....