6-7 We’re Home

 

Camping at I35 R.V. Park in Waco

After a marvelous three days of square dancing we had to say good-bye. We stayed at a very nice R.V. Park called I35 R.V. Park in Waco. The facilities had a room to do laundry, bathrooms with showers, swimming pool and spa, continental breakfast and the sites were full-hookups. The continental breakfast had eggs, bacon, sausage patties, toast, orange juice, apple juice, milk, cereal, coffee and pancakes if requested. The breakfast was great. We were back home by 10. We unloaded the Minnie, dumped the tanks and got it ready to go back to storage. We spent the rest of the day relaxing.   

6-6 Texas State Festival

 

Today was actually the Texas State Festival, where square dancers came from all over Texas and dance until they drop. All day long there are different dancing activities lines-contra, round, plus, mainstream, clogging and teens. The activities started at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 11:30 p.m. with a lunch break at noon. There was a fashion show at 1 and dancing resumed at 2 until 4:30. The opening ceremonies for the dance started at 6 and dancing resumed at 7:30 until 10:30 but the teens continued dancing until 11:30. During the lunch and dinner break we went back to the I35 R.V. Park to eat and take care of Flo. The festival was great and ran smoothly where there was a different caller every fifteen minutes and we danced to callers we never danced to and some we had. Larry and I danced all day and had a ball by the end of the night our feet were killing us and we were dead tired.

Our friends from Waco dancing plus moves

More plus dancers

6-5 Pre-Festival Activities and Dance

 

Waco Convention Center

This year was the first time they had dancing during the day on Friday, Louis and Dorothy were in charge of signing people in, Larry and I helped them out. It was a little slow so Dorothy told Larry and me to go and dance. One room had mainstream tips by the callers from Heart of Texas and Austin and another room had Brad Caldwell calling tips for Advance and DBD (dance by definition). Larry and I danced one song of mainstream and the rest of the morning dancing DBD. After lunch we danced a couple of hours of plus. In the evening we danced mainstream and Hot Hash, which is dancing fast to mainstream moves and plus moves. Larry and I had fun dancing the two tips of Hot Hash. Mike Bramlett did the calling during the dance and he was outstanding. John Becker did the cuing for the rounds between square dancing tips. By the end of the day Larry and I had danced six hours and were exhausted but we are had a great time.

 

Dancing a Plus tips with Louis

Dancers dancing some Advance Moves

Mike Bramlett and his wife calling during the dance

Larry (the one in the pink hat) dancing a mainstream tip

6-4 Trail End Dance

 

Round Dancing to Michele Vieira cuing

Today the State Square and Round Dancing Festival started with the Trails End Dance, there were nineteen squares. The callers were Matt Barnes, Brad Caldwell, KO Jeans and Wayne Weston, the cuers were Michele Vieira and Wayne Weston. The dance started out with Pre-Rounds and in between each square dance tip there was a round. After the dance they had a fund-raiser called Caller Idol to raise money for a lesson grant program sponsored by the TSCA. This year three callers participated in Caller Idol they were Brad Caldwell, KO Jeans and Wayne Weston and the MC was Matt Barnes. KO dressed up like a woman and sang a couple of songs, Wayne sang a couple of old country western songs and Brad sang a couple of songs. The last song Brad sang he sang it in six different singers voices. After each song a caller sang he was judged by a panel of three and then a bucket was passed around for the audience to vote with quarters. KO and Wayne raised $98 each and Brad raised $198. Caller Idol was very entertaining and the dance was great.

Barbara and Jo Bob modeling their outfits

The judges for Caller Idol

KO singing to one of the judges

Wayne singing one of his songs

Brad imitates Elvis

KO singing to Matt

6-3 Taking It Easy

The Texas Square Dancing Festival is this Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Waco, Larry and I are going to be there. Larry made reservation in February for Midway Campground but on Monday they called and said that the campground was closed due to flooding. He called around and found a RV Park off of I35 that had openings so now we have a new place to camp. The last two days we have been taking it easy. Yesterday we went grocery shopping and I cleaned the house, while I was cleaning Larry rebuilt a few small fans we use in the refrigerator to keep it from icing up and Flo kept him company. We worked on getting the Minnie ready to go on the trip. While we were doing this Flo slept in the Minnie. After getting the Minnie ready I cooked a couple of casseroles to take with us. The only thing we need to do is load up the refrigerator in the morning.

  

6-1 Sundancers Dance

Finishing Up the Minnie

It's a beginning of a new month, the rain is gone and the sun is shining. Today Larry finished waxing the Minnie. He could do most of the front with his other ladder but he couldn't quite reach the whole front so into the garage he went for his extension ladder. As he was finishing up the Minnie he noticed that the foil on the patch by the antenna was coming up so he had to get up on the roof and fix it.

Round Dancing to Lucy Pate recording

 In the evening we went square dancing with the Sundancers. This week there were enough people for ten squares. We danced every square dancing tip and between the tips people round danced to a recording of Lucy Pate cuing.

5-31 Washing and Waxing the Minnie

Washing the Minnie

Wow!!! The rain has finally stopped and for the last four days Larry has been working on washing and waxing the Minnie, I have helped him when he needed it. We haven't washed and waxed the Minnie in a long time and while we were on our trip we drove through rain and killed a lot of bugs. . The first day it was very humid and overcast so Larry scrubbed all the bugs off. While he was doing this Flo and I kept him company, he had to stop when it started to rain. The next day we went back outside and Larry continued washing the Minnie. It was so filthy Larry ended up washing it twice and by the time he finished washing it he was exhausted. He applied the wax with a little buffing wheel and then we wiped the dried wax off. We ended up doing one side and called it a day, it was too hot and humid. Today it was cool so went back to waxing the Minnie, we worked on it for over three hours. The only thing left is the front section above the cab, we will do it tomorrow.

washing the front of the Minnie

washing the roof

washing around the awning poles

cleaning the door frame

washing the side of the Minnie

washing the wheels

Flo keeping us company

waxing the top of the Minnie with a buffer

buffing the bottom of the Minnie

Friday, I fertilized the yard while Larry was washing the Minnie. Today was a beautiful day so when we finished waxing the Minnie Larry and I decided to treat for bugs. We had very busy day.