How far would you travel to go to a concert for music you really love? In early November I noticed that my favorite Hammered Dulcimer musician Joshua Messick was going to have a Christmas concert. Having a love for Christmas music and for Joshua's music, I was excited to think about the possibility of going. Only, at first it didn't seem like we'd be able to, it's about a 12 hour drive, and that wouldn't be so great with our youngsters (especially if it were a very short trip). Things quickly fell into place though, and so we decided to go for it! Grandparents took the kids and we left on Wednesday morning. In the evening we arrived slightly more than halfway at a friend's place in Kentucky. Tom showed us around the new church he's pastoring, and Gela wowed us with her hospitality and cooking. We served alongside them in Romana, and it was nice to catch up.
The next day we finished up our traveling to North Carolina, and our first stop was the Community of the Cross in Black Mountain. This is the HQ of our beloved PRMI, a ministry we work with a lot at church. It was a lovely day so we wanted to hike around on their beautiful property before it got dark.
We hiked up to ascension point, the highest part of the property. The views were better than normal because the leaves were all off the trees.
It's such a beautiful area, we've always loved waterfalls so we had to stop by this one.
It was great to see friends from the ministry and to see the progress on their building projects as well.
That evening we enjoyed dinner out with Joshua and his wife Stefanie, we really connected and enjoyed their company very much! I've talked with Josh many times and even bought my Hammered Dulcimer from him, but it was so nice to finally meet him in person!
Friday morning, the day of the concert, Joshua invited us over to try out his Dulcimer and to see his studio. It was a really fun time, I loved the instrument! It's one that Joshua designed, called a Dulciforte. The sound was amazing and it was really fun to play, I have dulcimer envy now.
I have a lot of practicing to do before I'm deserving of this instrument though, but boy do I ever hope that I can own one someday!
During the middle of the day we decided to take a hike, so we a trail nearby, because it said it had a great mountaintop view...
What do you think, was it worth it? We thought so! The sign wasn't kidding when it said "Hard" though!
On the way down we questioned our sanity a little, we aren't in shape to climb mountains, but the reward was too hard to pass up! The leaves made it really slippery, but with the help of some big sticks we made it!
That evening we went into town and they were having a special Christmas celebration where the businesses were all open with treats. Everything was decorated wonderfully and it was a really inviting.
Our last event of the trip was the concert, and it was so fun! Two hours of wonderful music on the Hammered Dulcimer, Stephanie joining in on the Celtic Harp, and a friend, James Kylen on percussion.
The concert was totally worth a 12 hour drive! We did get the award for having driven the farthest to attend, and Joshua played one of my favorites at my request: Woodsong Wanderlust. So many great songs and a very fun atmosphere, complete with a lot of personal stories and shout outs. We traveled back home the following Saturday, our friend Stephanie watched the kids at our house until we arrived. We are really thankful to Joshua and Stephanie for their hospitality and for making this such a fun time for us! Also for all those that watched the kiddos that made this possible for us. Even though it was a lot of traveling in a short time it felt so nice to have this time away, we felt very blessed.
By the way, please check out Joshua's music, I really think you'll like it as much as I do!
