High up on a mountain, deep in the heart of Kentucky, lives a spirit of bluegrass music that is hard to describe in words. Poppy Mountain in not just a place. Its an event. An annual bluegrass festival that happens the third week of September. People come from Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio, Alabama and all around the world to the largest bluegrass gathering in the United States. They come not just to hear great music, but to experience the Spirit that lives on the mountain. I'm not talking about a ghost or anything like that. The spirit I'm referring to is a feeling that surrounds you as soon as you top the mountain.

For me, the experience of Poppy Mountain began in 2002, when I went camping there with my family for a week. We arrived on Sunday evening, even though the festival doesn't actually start until Tuesday, and runs through Saturday night. However, the mountain opens on the 1st day of September with a big bomb fire and a hugh gathering of friends from years past. There are hundreds of people who get there on the first of Sept. and don't leave until after the festival, which would be the fourth Sunday of Sept.

When I left Poppy Mountain last year, I was depressed for a week. It is a place where once you get there, you never want to leave. I vowed that for as long as I live, I will always go back to Poppy Mountain every Sept. And, from the end of the festival last year until the start of it this year, I counted the days and talked about the mountain to everyone I knew. I couldn't wait to get back.

Well, I did make it back this year and it was awesome once again. My kids and I left Newark on Friday evening when I got off work and we drove to my parents house in Chapmanville, WV. First thing Saturday morning, my kids, my parents and my younger brother loaded up the camper, the four wheeler, the golf cart, the instruments and just about everything but the kitchen sink and headed on our way to the mountain.

When we arrived, we were greeted by friendly folks at the bottom of the mountain who collected our money, gave us an armband for the week and sent us on our way to find our camping spot. We didn't need to search for it though. We knew the best spot on the mountain to be if you love bluegrass pickin, is Jammin Ridge. There are more than 3,000 hook ups for campers on the mountain but there's plenty of space for probably 10,000 camping spots without hookups. Jammin Ridge is one of about 9 ridges on the mountain. When you camp on Jammin Ridge, you can plan on not getting much sleep because the music never stops on that ridge.

The best of the best in bluegrass music is always on stage at Poppy, but the best of the best can also be found off stage in the late night jam sessions. There are musicians at the jam sessions that out play, out sing and out last many of the ones who perform on the stage and often times, the best music is heard at 3am around a campfire or under an awning. You can bet that those jam sessions happen on Jammin Ridge and you can bet that my younger brother Ray will right in the middle of them.

Ray plays lead guitar and sings lead in a band called Union Ridge. His band played on the showcase stage on Wednesday so the whole family was certainly in the audience to cheer him on. There was even one moment where Ray dedicated a song to me and I just stood there watching him with tears rolling down my face.

The showcase stage is located in a huge open pole barn. The stage is actually in a loft and people sit on old couches, chairs and wooded benches that are located around the barn. Bands on the showcase stage are playing for no pay but they do it for the love of the music and a chance to get picked up as a main stage act for next year's festival.

For those who don't necessarily live and die for bluegrass music like my family and I do, there are plenty of other things to do on Poppy Mountain. There's horse back riding, mule and buggy rides, trolly train rides that will take you all throughout the 1000 areas of majestic beauty that simply enhance your visit. And there are trails throughout the grounds for use by four wheelers, golf carts, horses, motorcycles or just plain walking. There are least 5 ponds to fish in, swim or paddle boat and the mainstage barn has bingo and pool tables. There's even a Poppy Mountain Taxi Cab that runs all hours of the day and night and there's meter running on this taxi.

Vendors come from miles away to set up for the whole week and sell novelty items, food, snacks and of course music CDs, tapes and books. For little ones, there's a playground with very unique antique cars to play in as well as the normal swing sets and teeter-tooters that you'd find on any playground. My kids and I spent some time in that area and their favorite was the monkey bars.

The main stage plays host to the biggest bands in bluegrass. Some of the greats that have stood the stage are, the "father of bluegrass", Bill Monroe, Ricky Scaggs, Alison Krauss, The Country Gentlemen, The Lonesome River Band, Ernie Thacker and Rt. 23, "Dr." Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Larry Sparks, Rhonda Vincent and the Rage and the host band for Poppy Mountain-IIIrd Tyme Out.

Even though the main stage pulls in the biggest names in bluegrass, my family and I spend most of our time on Jammin Ridge, listening to my brother Ray pick one of his Martin D-18 or D-28 guitars and sing in the middle of the jam sessions. It's nothing for us to be standing under the shelter on Jammin Ridge at 4am any night of the festival. I think my average bed time during Poppy Mountian week is about 6am. There were many mornings this year that I saw the sun come up and boy is that a beautiful sight to see on top of the mountain that sits in Rowan County Kentucky just off I-64 and East of Morehead on US Rt. 60.

I grew up on Bluegrass music as a child. My dad used to wake up the whole family on Saturday mornings playing songs from the orignal bluegrass musicians such as Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley. But I didn't begin to love bluegrass music until Ray started playing it. I went to my first festival three years ago in Coeburn Virginia for Ralph Stanley's "Home on the Hills Festival." After that, I was hooked on bluegrass for life. My dad's early attempts to hook me on bluegrass had finally paid off. And now, I'm a "grass lover, country through and through," just like the song says.

The spirit of the festival on Poppy Mountain comes from many things. I love the fact that when I went back this year, I saw old friends I had met last year and met new ones this year. These are people who won't just say howdy. They'll stop and talk to you for as long as you care to chat. You learn about their families and where they are from and how long they've been coming to the festival. I traded emails and phone numbers with at least three new people this year.

I know that many people's idea of a vacation is lieing on a sandy beach somewhere and I too love the beach. But, during the third week of Sept. there's no place in the world, I'd rather be than bluegrassin on top of Poppy Mountain.

Time spent with family and friends mixed with the love of bluegrass music and late night jam sessions make up the "spirit of Poppy Mountain." It's what I will always hold near and dear to my heart and I thank my dad for planting the seed of bluegrass music in me as a child and my brother for bringing it to life years later. Now, I start counting the days until Poppy Mountain 2004. As they say on the mountain, "Happy Poppy!"