Wednesday, July 1st, was my birthday, so we went and did laundry. Not too exciting, I know. We just bummed around the motorhome the rest of the day. No meals out and I still had to do the dishes. Lessons on Thursday needed a change of pace. Brian broke the class into five sets of four dancers thinking it will help people not be so confused. It seemed to help. It also got more dancers involved and helped pair up angels and new dancers. He also did a Sicilian Circle with two couples facing each other.
On Saturday, July 4th, the club held a barbeque and potluck supper before the dance. A few of the new dancers came for the meal. Brian called the dance with only the calls that they had learned. There were two squares dancing, and everyone took their turn filling in the squares. Brian had purchased a headband with red/white/blue pompons at the grocery store that morning and wore them when calling the dance.
Brian continues teaching three nights a week. Debbie went into the dance hall on Wednesday the 8th to sort through her fabric scraps and get her projects cut out. We went to the fabric store on Thursday to get come fabric that will complete the projects. I now have to cut this new fabric to the same size as the old fabric. Then I should have everything ready for the crafting weekend this October.
We drove to the towns of Springerville and Eager on Friday since Brian didn’t have any dances or lessons. These are two neighboring cities that blended together. Along the way, we passed through a road construction zone that had the highway down to one lane. So, we had to wait our turn to travel through the construction zone. However, we didn’t see anyone working, except for the flagman and the driver of the pilot car. There did appear to be some new guard rails, so that must have been what they were working on. We didn’t find anywhere to stop except for a restaurant for what we thought was going to be an early lunch. However, we got there before they started serving lunch. We ordered breakfast and then headed back to the motor home. After Brian took a nap, we fixed supper, went to do laundry and stopped at the grocery store for a few items before returning to the motor home. We found out later that we should have stopped at a hardware store, so we’ll have to make another trip to Springerville at a later date.
Several club members are at the dance hall on Saturday morning to continue to get ready for the big dance festival this coming weekend. They have been clearing out items from the yard, cleaning the dance hall and putting up decorations. It sounds like it will be a good weekend. The Saturday night dance had over three squares in the dance hall. Brian’s cough had returned so he had Blake Bjordahl call one time (he does one tip every Saturday dance normally) and Carl Truszynski do the plus tip to help save his voice.
Brian and I went into the dance hall on Wednesday to help get the hall ready for the festival. Right after lunchtime, it started to POUR!! It lasted for about an hour, Nothing came into the dance hall, but it did overflow the gutters. They really need the rain so it was a good thing that it rained. Brian and I were going to get groceries after supper, but it started to rain again. We stayed home and we are hoping to get to the store in the morning.
The “Cool Mountain Festival” has begun. Brian called the Trail’s End dance on Thursday night. There were six squares dancing on the first tip. This tip included the new dancers and was called at their level. There were five squares dancing for the rest of the evening. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Some of the new dancers stayed and listened to Brian for the rest of the evening.
An ice cream sundae social followed the dance. Dishes of vanilla ice cream were served, along with all the fixings to make the sundaes.
We met with Vernon and Kayla Jones for supper on Friday night. They had brought some new speakers for the dance hall with them and Brian helped them get set up before the dancing that evening. Vernon also called the first tips of the morning on Saturday, doing a workshop on the new Plus calls that moved to that list, followed by some time for each of the other callers in attendance to call a tip. Lunch was served by the club members after the morning dances.
The afternoon was set aside for round dancing workshops and dances. The rain returned just as we were planning on going into the dance hall for the evening dance. The space between the two doors isn’t too far, so we didn’t get too wet. There were about 10 squares dancing, even with the rain. Brian and I danced one tip on the lower level while the rest of the dancers were in the main hall. After the dance, ice cream treats were served.
Sunday morning and there are still five squares dancing this morning. Several local callers are doing the dance. Vernon and Kayla came over to visit and thank the dancers for coming to the festival. There were still four squares dancing at the end of the morning. We have met so many new square dance friends that we are really looking forward to next year’s festival. Now it’s back to our regular schedule, teaching on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and Brian calling the dance on Saturday evening. My thanks to all the members of the White Mountain Rim Rompers for all their hard work this past weekend.
On Monday after the festival, it rained very hard in the afternoon with some hailstones falling and hitting the truck and the motorhome. Very noisy! Brian opened the door on the motorhome since it had cooled off. And wouldn’t you know it, it started raining again. Then the power went out. Luckily, we had been meaning to start the generator, so Brian started it. Only took a few tries to get it running. Then about ten minutes later, the power came back on. The rain has stopped for now; we’ll see how long that lasts. The Plus lessons have been cancelled for tonight, so we don’t need to worry about them.
On Tuesday, we went to Heber, AZ to the Zane Grey Clubhouse to watch some live music. One of the square dancers played his guitar and sang during the show. This is a little building in the middle of nowhere. I was surprised as to how many people came. There were about 10 performers for this week’s show. They played songs from different genres, and it was fun to find this little building in the small town of Heber.
Don’t take Burton Road! Brian took a wrong turn out of the dance hall parking lot on Friday to get to the laundromat in Taylor this morning. No problem, there’s another road to Taylor off Highway 260. We turned on the GPS, and it told us to turn onto Burton Road. Thinking it will just take us to the correct road, Highway 77, we followed it. It was paved for the first one-half mile, then dirt road for the remaining five miles. Not just dirt road but wash boarded dirt road. We could only go about 15 miles per hour to avoid creating a dust storm and throwing rocks against the truck. We were getting to the end of the GPS instructions only to find out that it was taking us to the same road as the dance hall. Basically, we went in a big circle! We won’t do that again. But we got to see a different part of Arizona countryside. Not any different looking than any other view in the area, but we learned our lesson.
One afternoon, we went to the home of one of the Rim Rompers couples, Cheryl and Carl. Brian had put out an email asking if any club members had a drill press. We needed some small holes drilled in our new Callerlab badges. They had answered him indicating that Carl had one in his garage and that we could stop over when it was convenient. We were able to go over there on Sunday, the 26th. Brian and Carl went into their garage while Cheryl and I went into the dining room for conversation while waiting for the guys to finish. Afterwards, the guys joined the ladies in the dining room for more conversations. We thoroughly enjoyed their company and stayed longer than we had planned.
We had planned on going grocery shopping afterwards, but it was getting late, so we stopped at Dairy Queen for supper. That seemed to take longer than it should have, but the food was fresh and hot. Upon returning to the motorhome, we saw a skunk running away from the dance hall and a deer around the corner of the dance hall. As we proceeded carefully to the motorhome, the deer ran to the back of the dance hall and joined three other deer. They just stared at us as we parked the truck beside the motorhome. We had not seen any wildlife around the motorhome yet, so it was fun to see that many deer up close.
Brian took the truck into the RV repair shop to have them look at the driver’s side taillight. One of the brake lights kept burning out. They were able to research the issue and get it fixed. We went to supper that night with Al and Shirley. We went to a local restaurant, Buffalo Bills. It has a western theme in both the restaurant and the brewery. The location has several stuffed buffalos, buffalo heads and a western museum. The food was good and we stayed for two hours talking about things back in Minnesota. We stayed until they closed the restaurant.
On the way back to the motor home, we could see what looked like an approaching storm. There were several lightening flashes way off in the distance. We were hoping for some rain at the dance hall, but alas, no rain came. So, it’s still very dry around the dance hall.
We drove into town on Thursday this past week to get Brian some new pants. We had a leak in the bleach bottle, and two pairs of pants got bleach spilled on them. There is a J.C. Penny’s store along White Mountain Road and he found two pairs in his size. Brian got his hair cut that day too. There was a waiting list for his haircut, so we went to J.C. Pennys while waiting for his appointment.