Gentlemen of the Road Stopover: Guthrie

I'm a little late with this post, but several weeks ago James and I headed to Guthrie, Oklahoma for Mumford and Sons' Gentlemen of the Road tour.  We left Wednesday night after work and made the roughly five-hour drive to just north of Oklahoma City.  We set up camp about 10pm and took a little tour of the venue.

It was really exciting to see the stage set up for the first time, but of course our first stop was for beer.  We misunderstood the rules of the campground and didn't bring any drinks with us, so we paid the hefty price for a twelve pack of Mustang Brewery's special edition Stopover Session Ale.

Thursday afternoon we made the walk a few blocks into the old downtown.  All of Guthrie was decked out for the stopover and it was so much fun to see all of the signs, shop windows, and just general enthusiasm for the event.

We ate lunch at the Blue Belle Saloon... 

and caught a group of "wild west" re-enactors in the middle of a gunfight!

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors (one of my very, very favorite bands) played on the downtown stage that afternoon.  Besides Mumford and Sons, they were the highlight of my trip.  Unfortunately Ellie had to stay with their baby, but the show was great anyway.  We got to meet Drew (again) after the show and get an autograph and photo.  (I'll spare you that photo since we had been out all day in nearly 100 degrees!)

It sounds terrible, but we did spend a lot of time at our little campsite.  We had great "neighbors" and with the crazy heat, we needed the time to rest during the day.

 Saturday afternoon, we camped out at the main stage to see Alabama Shakes (amazing show!!) and get a good spot for Mumford and Sons.  We took a quilt and I may or may not have caught a quick nap in between sets.  This was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. :)

We weren't very close to the stage (I'd rather enjoy the music than fight to keep my position) but it was an awesome show.  Mumford and Sons played an almost two hour set, including an incredibly long encore and two Beatles' songs with special appearances by all of the other bands from the tour. 

 I had read what others said about previous stopovers before we went, but I truly didn't expect to have such a great time.  The music was incredible, the historic downtown was right up my alley, and I really, really enjoyed the time with James.  I definitely wouldn't rule out another stopover next year!