September, Last Month in Show Low

We had the last Mainstream workshop on Tuesday, September 1st. There were six dancers who came for the workshop. They told Brian which calls they wanted to practice and they felt better about the calls at the end of the evening. It was great to see the new dancers come out for more floor time and to review the calls.

On Wednesday, we didn’t go anywhere. Brian and I stayed in our night clothes all day. Brian worked on his websites, and I worked on my Diamond Art project. I finished up the last of the little refrigerator magnets that evening. It’s good to get them almost finished. I just need to spray the sealer on them.

We had our breakfast on Thursday morning, and Brian went to clean out the back seat of the truck while I showered. We are headed to Springerville again this morning. Al and Shirley are riding with us today; it will be nice to have some company. We’ll be sure to stop at THE hardware store in Springerville. It’s supposed to have lots of old-fashioned hardware stuff and some souvenirs. We made it into Springerville and stopped at THE Western Hardware Store. You may not have known that you needed something, but they sure had it. We didn’t buy much but it was fun to look around. Along the way, we saw some free-range horses and cattle. They were far enough away from the road, so we weren’t in any danger of hitting them.

We had lunch at the Trailriders Restaurant in Springerville after our shopping. They have very good food, and the prices aren’t too bad. Brian and I were there the last time we drove to Springerville. They have a table set up right as you enter the restaurant with places set for service members who didn’t make it home from the various wars. There is a spot for donations on the table. I have seen a place setting for one at some VFW’s or American Legion, but I hadn’t seen one for this many people.

We dropped Al and Shirley back at their place. Well, sort of. The management was having a tree trimmed and the truck blocked our way back to their place. They decided to walk back rather than finding another way around the tree trimmers trucks. We thoroughly enjoyed their company today. 

On Sunday the 6th, we drove to Tucson so that Brian could attend a meeting of the Southern Arizona Callers and Cuers Association. He was also invited to call during the benefit dance that was held in the afternoon. We traveled through Globe and stopped for a break in Winkleman. Along the way, we saw a sign that indicated that the Biosphere 2 was nearby. More information about the Biosphere can be found at About the Facility: Purpose & Evolution | Biosphere 2. It is owned by the University of Arizona. Sounds like a very interesting place to visit someday.

We arrived in Tucson and arrived at the home of our hosts, caller Tom Crisp, and his wife Gina. They have a trailer on the property for visitors. It was very gracious of them to let us use the trailer so that we didn’t have to pay for a hotel room. We got settled in the trailer and rested before dinner.

Monday morning was the meeting. I wasn’t going to go over to the dance hall, but Brian saw that Dennis and Terese Farrar were already there. I went over and talked with Terese until the meeting started. She was working on a quilt pattern and had brought along the pieces to get pinned and sewn together. Brian and I went back to the trailer for lunch and took a short nap after the meeting ended.

The dance started at 3:00 and there were over five squares of dancers in attendance. There were two other callers at the meeting/dance including Rick Gittleman and Dean Singleton. The dance was a benefit dance for another caller and his wife who is fighting cancer. After the dance, there was a BBQ with hamburgers/hot dogs and a pot-luck supper. No one went home hungry and there wasn’t much leftover food. The dancers must have really worked up an appetite! Brian stayed in the dance hall to socialize while I headed back to the trailer. I found the Jeopardy Masters Challenge on the TV and watched a couple of hours of the shows. I hadn’t seen the show since leaving Bloomington in the spring. We said our thank you’s and good-byes on Tuesday morning and headed back to Show Low.

We had taken all our food out of the refrigerator before we left for Tucson and let it defrost.  We opened the motorhome door rather intrepidly, not knowing what we would find. Would there be water all over the floor?  Nope, everything had melted into the dishpan luckily. Brian turned the refrigerator on and we headed out for supper. Wednesday was an easy day for us. After the line dancing in the dance hall was done, we went and retrieved our food from the fridge in the dance hall. It was nice to see a defrosted refrigerator and food back in the refrigerator.

It’s been sort of a slow week for us. We’ll maybe not. We helped Blake with his Plus calling on Thursday night and then went out to dinner with Blake/Jennifer and Chris/Patty at the Show Low Café. We treated them to dinner to thank them for their support during the summer. It rained very hard and hailed on Friday afternoon. Very noisy in the motorhome between the rain and the hail hitting the roof. I noticed that there was a fly hanging on for dear life on one of the motorhome windows. On Friday night, we met Carl & Nancy at the Show Low Café for supper. This café is a popular spot, especially on Friday nights for their All-You-Can-Eat fish fry.  We were lucky to get a table right away. The food is good, homemade and very reasonable.

The Saturday night dance was the last night for Carl & Nancy on the mountain. The club celebrated by bringing in two special callers, Jake & Elwood. The budget to bring them was nil, so the club had to settle on having Blake and Carl dress up as the Blues Brother and they called a tip together using Blues Brothers songs. Everyone enjoyed the surprise callers. Only two more dances left for Brian before we leave the mountain and return to Minnesota.

For Sunday supper we met Al & Shirley at Grumpy Jake’s BBQ.  This is a place that both couples have wanted to visit and just haven’t made it there yet.  The food was tasty and there was much more than one person could eat on our plates. I suggested this restaurant because I had wanted to drop off this sign that I found in the motorhome since it seemed to fit at the restaurant.

Monday morning, we went into Taylor to do our laundry and guess who showed up? Al and Shirley in their matching Ford Maverick truck. They have a blue one and we have a grey one. It’s fun to see these two matching trucks together. We sat and talked until our laundry was dry and then Brian pulled over one of the other chairs and we talked some more. Finally, it was time for us to head back to Show Low for some errands, so we headed back to town and left Al & Shirley at the laundromat.

Later that afternoon, after our naps, Nancy contacted me to say that she was still in the dance hall sewing the new curtains for the dance hall. Brian and I grabbed my sewing machine and my projects, and I spent about a couple of hours sewing.  The prongs behind my machine to hold the spools of thread were bent and when I tried to straighten them out, they broke off.  So now, I have my spool of thread inside a plastic cup.  But it seems to be working fine, for now. I did get two table runners completed that day.  I still have lots of sewing projects for an upcoming crafting weekend back in Minnesota.

Here it is, September 23rd already. We went to breakfast with Al and Shirley one more time before we left the mountain. Brian went to Super Cuts for a shampoo, haircut and mustache trim. They have been good to him this summer. We did some other errands and headed back to the motorhome to begin packing things up. Not an easy task when you have been stationary for four months.

The next morning, we took the motorhome and the little propane tank that we burrowed from the square dance club to get them refilled. We decided that having the external tank was working out very well, so we purchased a new tank for our own use back in Minnesota and in Texas. Brian got a call to possibly do a dance in Bemidji for the 2007-2008 dance season. After some back and forth phone calls, he settled on a date. Then it rained all night, very loudly!

Friday, the 25th, was a free day for us. We continued packing things up. Neither of us got out of our pajamas that day. No dirty clothes to wash! On the morning of the 26th, we went and did one last trip to the laundromat and grocery store. Now we have enough food to get back to Minnesota. We watched a movie that evening, The Sheep Detectives, so now we know why the chicken crossed the road. You’ll have to watch the movie to see why.

The last dance for the summer season was that evening. There were just over four squares of dancers with a few visitors watching. It was great to see so many people at the dance. In addition, a square dancer had donated many petticoats, dresses, tops and shoes. They were free to take with you, and I did see many items going out the door that evening.

Sunday morning, we packed up the inside of the motorhome and turned our attention to the outside. We disconnected the water, electricity, sewer hose, put the new propane tank in the back of the truck and pulled both vehicles to the front of the dance hall to connect the truck for towing. We were on the road by 8:00 in the morning and were on our way back to Minnesota. We waved goodbye to the dance hall as we pulled away.

The directions led us through Springerville AZ along Highway 60 on the way to Sanra Rosa NM for our overnight stay. Along the way, there was a LARGE load vehicle coming at us. There were about five highway patrol cars traveling along with the vehicle. It appeared to be the bed of a very large dump truck, like the ones that get used by mines these days. We had to pull over on the shoulder of the road as far as we dared and we waited until everyone had passed by.

Along Highway 177 (between Hwy 60 and Interstate 40), we passed through the El Malpais Conservation Area. We didn’t get to stop at the La Ventana Natural Arch Recreation Area, however. This is a natural stone arch on the side of a mountain. On the left side of the roadway were some very black rocks. Lava rocks maybe? We also saw a sign indicating that there had been some flooding in the area. Flooding, we asked, it looked pretty dry to us.  Just up the road a couple of miles, there were several pools of water beside the roadway, and some dirt appeared to have been cleared from the shoulders of the roadway. Now we get it! We arrived at our overnight spot at Love’s RV Park in Santa Rosa just in time to get a short rest and then we headed over to Carl’s JR restaurant for supper. On the way back from supper, we stopped at the truck to retrieve my sunglasses, but the truck wouldn’t open. We had to use the emergency key on our fob to open the door. We called AAA and they came to jumpstart the car. Brian let it run for a little bit and left it unlocked overnight.

Monday morning, we packed up the motorhome and headed to Shamrock TX for our next overnight stay. We stayed at this campground on our way west last June. We didn’t have too far to go so we slept in a little bit. But we were on the road again by 8:00. We stopped in Tucumcari NM for gas and just before we got back onto Interstate 40, there was a very loud screech in the motorhome. We pulled over on the side of the on ramp to try to figure out where it was coming from. Not the smoke detector, not the fridge, not the slide out either. I tried the air conditioner/furnace buttons, turning each one on and off again. That seemed to do the trick as the noise stopped. Back on the road again.

Along the way, just before Amarillo TX, we saw what we termed a “Tractor Parade”. There were four older tractors traveling together on the frontage road. Very cute to see. Just east of Amarillo there was a tourist trap, the Slug Bug Ranch that had several VW's that had been spray painted in many different colors. There were several cars stopped and people were taking pictures of the items.

We drove by the restaurant that advertised a free 70-ounce steak. I think that you also had to eat a salad, baked potato and maybe some other foods in order for the meal to be free. We were going to visit the Buc-ees but couldn’t get into the correct lane to exit the freeway. Oh well. We stopped at a beautiful rest area by Alanreed NM. This rest area is done in a mix of southwest and art deco buildings. It was very open and airy and had several transportation-related porcelain signs on the walls.

We reached our campground just outside of Shamrock TX and got settled in for the evening. Part of the trip to the campground from the highway was on old Route 66. Now for a good night’s sleep and an early start tomorrow morning heading towards Wellington KS.

We left the Texas Route 66 Campground around 7:40 to light rain. We got everything put away, just in time. It really started to pour as we left the campground. In Yukon, OK, we passed by Garth Brooks Blvd. This is just outside of Oklahoma City. We saw several working oil rigs along the side of the road. We also saw a Yellow & Black Tesla truck and a Pink & White Ford Bronco. Quite a sight to see on the road. We arrived in Wellington, KS at the Hickory Hollow Campground. This is a large campground that looks like a great place to spend the summer. But again, it was just starting to rain when we parked the motorhome.