32nd Annual Strawberry Park Bluegrass Festival

Sorry I have not updated recently, but this is the most hectic week of the year, with Memorial Day Weekend ending on Monday and Bluegrass starting on Thursday, it leaves little time to work out the details. We also had a big school picnic on Tuesday. Hope to get the holiday weekend photos up soon. Trying to figure out how to accept credit cards at the gate for the BG Fest for those who miss the notes about "cash only at gate." The weekend weather looks good, but Thursday is iffy. Brock's 2nd birthday is June 2, but we are celebrating on Sunday, since he was a BG weekend baby. Jen has done all the work, so I need to pick up his present sometime before Sunday (Tractor Supply is just a few miles away). Time to get a little rest, as I will be at the gate for much of the next 96 hours. Looking forward to a great line-up of Bluegrass performers.

Here Comes Memorial Day at Strawberry Park

After gradually growing crowds throughout the spring season, the big one is now upon us. Actually, the big 3, as we have Memorial Day, a 2-day respite (with school picnics on Tue & Wed), our Bluegrass Fest May 28-31 and then Cajun/Zydeco on June 4-7. With a beautiful sunny day, we did open the pools for those who were arriving a day early. Many CT state workers have Friday off as a "furlough" day, so we had about 30 campers checking in early for the weekend. We will start limited mid-week pool hours next week, with all pools open this weekend with extended hours. Looks like a decent weather forecast, with maybe some showers overnight on Saturday---hope to get the bonfire in on Sat night. The mowing crew has been busy all week, and things are looking green and trim. If any seasonals or owners are wondering about car passes, we will be doing them right after the festivals, as everyone needs a wristband for the music fests anyway. This is the first completely full weekend, as all sites are full, including tent sites, w/e/c sites and sites with sewer. We do still have a couple of rentals available (cabins are full, but some RV and Park Models were open as of this entry). Just the opposite for the festivals, as the rentals tend to fill first...with a few sites left for bluegrass, and a few more for Cajun/Zydeco. This weekend also brings some interleague baseball action, as well as NBA playoffs (little upset in Cleveland last night--must be the SI cover jinx). On the local sports scene, we enjoyed our first minor league game of the season on Tuesday night. The Defenders are away this weekend, but home next weekend. Not sure if we will have enough brave souls for pool volleyball, as the water temps have not climbed too high, with some cool nights recently. Will be posting plenty of photos from the weekend, but probably not until after the weekend is over. Have a good one!

Carnival Weekend Photos

Giant Paper Chain Building

Greased Pole Climb Champs

Bungee Flipping

Face Painting

Curious Critters

Rock Wall & Water Slide

Hypnosis Show

Egg Toss Champs

Dancing to Don Donegan at the Bonfire

Mr Magic in action

With Memorial Day now upon us, Carnival Weekend has passed. It was a little earlier than normal this year, for while it is always the weekend before Memorial Day, that holiday is as early as possible this year (May 25)...so next year will be a later Carnival and Memorial Day Weekend. The weather held off fairly well on Saturday, except for that little passing shower during the Carnival. The threatening sky did cause us to move the Steve Wronker hypnosis show under the Rec Center, and as always, plenty of volunteers (but not too many adults). Our egg tossers took a long time to break a tie, so sorry the photo is quite dark. We were happy to have our first bonfire of the season, but the mist kept a few folks away. Sunday was not nearly as damp as was predicted, but it was quite chilly. We hosted a picnic for Three Rivers Community College, and the cool temps kept a few of them from attending. Our Bingo crowd on Sunday was much smaller, but we still had a good turnout for the Mr. Magic show and the Noah's Ark stuffed animal building. As always, my apologies if photo captions are not quite aligned with photos--still figuring that out. Wonder what the record is for most consecutive walk-off victories...as the Yanks have 3 straight.

Carnival Weekend is almost here

This coming weekend is one of our favorites, as we have our first bonfire of the season on Saturday night, Steve Wronker makes his first appearance of the year, and we have carnival games, a rock wall, face painting, Mr. Magic and more. For the first time, we will have some "Curious Critters" at the field during the games. Sharon in the office is deathly afraid of snakes, so you won't see her bringing the grandkids anywhere near that display. Hoping for nice weather..and it looks like just maybe a few scattered showers. We are now into the busy season for school picnics, with our first outing this past Tuesday, and more picnics next week. On Sunday, Three Rivers College will be here for an outing (Matt L is taking some classes there, so he can attend...or work). Also, Jon M (Pills, to many) graduates from college. Congrats to him, as well as Justin V, who has worked the pools and activities for a few years now. He also graduates this weekend, and has mentioned that far fewer grads have "real" jobs lined up...so we may see him (and others who graduate) this summer. Hard to believe that Memorial Day is only a week away, followed by our two big festivals. Ted Lehmann has posted his preview of the Strawberry Park Bluegrass Festival on his blog, so take a look. http://tedlehmann.blogspot.com/ We always appreciate his insights, and have utilized some of his fine photos. Couple of kid thoughts...for the first time, Brock was able to indicate that he has a little sore throat, and actually wanted some medicine last night. Also, we are at wit's end in trying to figure out what happened to our camcorder. Sadly, we are thinking that Brock may have put it somewhere that only he can find it (hopefully not into the trash). It has been a couple of weeks, and we are starting to lose hope. We have a few weeks until his birthday to find it (or to buy a cheaper replacement).

Mother's Day Weekend Photos

Greased Pole Climbers

Egg Toss Ribbon Winners (very impressive distance in the finals this weekend)

A few crazy swimmers

Hope all Moms had a wonderful Mother's Day Weekend. Jen brought Brock to his first circus on Saturday, and while she received flowers and some chocolate covered strawberries (as well as cards and her complimentary breakfast), she did end up cooking on Mother's Day, as she made dinner for her mom (and the boys). I will owe her a dinner out this week to make up for it. Quite the breezy Sunday, especially at Bingo. We had some nice Bingo crowds all weekend, including over 200 players on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. As noted in yesterday's post, congrats to the raffle winners. Despite the chilly temps, there were a few kids in the pool this weekend, and it now looks like all pools are ready to go for the summer. Also, our Egg Toss finals were the longest tossers of the season. Many plans are being made for the upcoming Carnival Weekend, with face painters, balloonists, inflatables, our first bonfire, hypnotist Steve Wronker and much more. Hoping to have the activity schedule posted by Tuesday, which is also our first school picnic of the year. Mother's Day dilemma...if your birthday fall on Mother's Day, and you want to celebrate it by going away for the weekend with a friend, does that take precedence over seeing Mom? Tough call. I am sure your perspective depends on if you are the Mom or the offspring.

Happy Mother's Day...and congrats to Marie B for winning the $2500 raffle!

While we will post more photos of the weekend on Monday, just taking a moment to congratulate our raffle winners and wish all Moms a Happy Mother's Day. The grand prize winner was Marie Bigos on Site 25, and she won $2500. Second Place and $400 went to The Teague Family from Warwick, who was here for the Spring Special. Third Place ($300) was awarded to the Cswerkos from Torrington, while the Nadeaus from Wolcott won $200. The $100 prize was the only one that needs to be mailed, as Valerie McDonald from Winsted was not here for the drawing. Congrats again to all winners, and thanks to the SIDS Network and Chuck M for sponsoring the raffle.

New 2009 brochures have arrived

In an attempt to be a little "greener", we have scaled down the glossy 40 page brochure into a smaller, newspaper-style publication. While it does have fewer photos (we are encouraging folks to visit the website for info), it has all the critical info, such as a color map of sites, the rules, the cable channels and more. Be sure to pick up a copy at the office or at the gate. The major pool work has now been completed, and we have begun filling more pools. For this Mother's Day Weekend, there will be at least one of the adult whirlpool spas, as well as the diving pool open for all ages. We expect that the L pool will be open by next weekend, and hope to have the adult pool also filled by then. The rain on Monday & Tuesday delayed pool work until later in the week than we had hoped. In case you have not noticed, the menu for the grill and creamery is posted on the website (and can also be found in the new brochure). It is nice to see more of our snowbirds returning from FLA. The lawn crew will be starting to mow on May 11 now that Bud is back to supervise them (and Mary is back to supervise Bud). Speaking of two of our most loyal Yankee fans, it was a tough night in the Bronx on Tuesday. The rain mostly held off, and while there were plenty of strike-outs from Joba (Jen loved the goofy scoreboard animation every time he recorded one of his career-high 12 k's), those first 5 batters of the game created too big of a hole. No photos yet--I have to check with Jen to see if they came out OK (our view of the scoreboard was partially obstructed, thankfully). Just a reminder to pick up those breakfast tickets for Mom, and be sure to get her a raffle ticket or two for the big $2500 drawing on Sunday. We are currently receiving our annual visit from the fine folks from Woodall's, and hope to continue to earn the industry's highest possible ratings. Just a quick reminder that due to the Bruins playoff game, the Sox and Rays will not be on NESN Friday night (and they have the Sunday night ESPN game). Although I have not read the details, looks like A-Rod was not the only slugger using performance enhancers...I just wonder if Papi's drop in production is in any way related to Manny being gobe (not as an added bat in the line-up to protect him, but as a possible provider of something more). Last note...best wishes to Jerry Remy of NESN for a speedy recovery.

Free Breakfast for Mom & $2500 Raffle

Mother's Day Weekend is just a few days away, and the long term weather forecast is much better than the short term (hoping to avoid a long rain delay in the Bronx tonight, as Jen & I are headed to the game). If you have not yet gotten a Mother's Day present, we offer the following options this weekend: ceramics with Ron & Arlene on Saturday--make mom a lovely figurine; Bingo all weekend (buy Mom's cards); breakfast on Sunday (sure, we provide a free breakfast buffet, but you could either deliver it to mom or take care of feeding the kids as well. I know I am looking forward to the buffet); $2500 Raffle on Sunday--tickets may be purchased until 11:30AM on Sunday, with the drawing at noon. First prize is $2500, with additional prizes of $400, $300, $200 and $100 to be awarded. Each weekend reservation receives a free ticket (including those campers on the 6-weekend "spring special"), while additional tickets may be purchased for $10. Unlike many raffles, your actual odds of winning are much greater with this type, since it is not like 5000 tickets are being sold. In fact, last year's raffles featured odds of winning the grand prize at better than 1 in 250. The activity schedule is posted on the website, and Friday night's movie is "Hotel for Dogs", which is not really thematically connected to Mother's Day, but should be fun for the kids. Well, off to the big city. Will try to post a few photos on Thursday--hopefully of the scoreboard, if the result is better than last night.

An Enjoyable Oldies Weekend at Strawberry Park

Photos of the Classic Cars

The Outriggers

Shirley & The Band

Our Oldies Karaoke Contest Winners

Egg Toss Ribbon Winners

Despite a dreary forecast, Saturday turned out to be a fairly decent day...nice enough for some to take a dip in a very chilly swimming pool. While we had a decent Bingo crowd, we had a great turnout for the various special events of the weekend, including the Classic Car Show (the Camaro was voted King of the Prom), the Oldies Karaoke Contest and the concerts with The Outriggers & Shirley Alston Reeves. Earlier in the day, a woman spoke to me about her Dad being invited up on stage at a Shirelles concert in Biloxi at the Air Force base back in 1971. Coincidentally, that same Terry ended up correctly answering my "Shirelle's Trivia Question" (regarding the music from "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" and the dance sequence with Sylvester and his girlfriend shaking to "31 Flavors"), so he was invited on stage once again to receive an autographed photo from Shirley. Sunday turned out to be a decent morning, but a little dreary in the afternoon. The weather caused our Old Fashioned Picnic to be cooked at the Grill & Creamery, and over 100 campers enjoyed discounted burgers and dogs. Sunday also featured our annual Unit Owner's Meeting at 1PM. After showing the new Strawberry Park video that appears on the website (and on the Outdoor Channel), the meeting lasted a until about 3PM, with discussions ranging from golf carts to leaf raking to everything in between. As always, we thank those who offer valuable input. Looking forward to the Outriggers returning this summer for a few Sunday night poolside shows, as well as a couple of Saturday appearances. The next couple of days look a little dreary, but I am hoping for some decent weather tomorrow night, as Jen and I are headed to the new Yankee Stadium. The long-term forecast is good for the upcoming Mother's Day Weekend, which features a free breakfast buffet for Mom on Sunday at the Grill & Creamery.