Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #4 – A Busy Week & Then a Fun Outing!

 

Sunday, January 21^st., 2023…… Today would be busy! We were up and out with the dogs early. Temperatures are more manageable these days. Temps today would be in the 50s. Yaay!  We got the dogs fed, then ate breakfast. We hung around the house for a bit. I went in and got some items out for the upcoming square dance weekend, and then settled in to watch the football games I taped yesterday. Then it was time to change again and then got off to the Salem dance. We were by ourselves for this one. Judy and Lynn chose not to double down today, like we were doing. The dance was really fun. My favorite caller up here is Daryl Clendenin and although he wasn’t the featured caller, he did get to do a couple of guest tips, which he always makes fun. Of course we always had mistakes in our squares. These are mostly students for the beginner dances. Some haven’t finished classes yet but still it was a fun afternoon. We left a bit early so we could have some time to put our feet up before we left to go to the graduation. Boy, was that fun!  Both Penny and Cherrelyn came to see Cathye go through the graduation and get her certificate. I hadn’t said a word about the ‘fun squares’ the Club had set up for the graduates. I wasn’t sure what they had planned but I knew what we did to the classes in SoCal when they graduated. Turns out it was much the same!  They made them (and me because I was Cat’s partner) go through some interesting ‘tests’ in the squares. But all was in fun and everyone had a great time. There were 4 or 5 class members missing, but we had this pic of 12 of the graduates. (the caller and the activity chair are in this photo in case you are counting heads!).  Afterward, we had cake and sparkling cider and then cleaned up before heading off to Pizza Hut for an afterparty. And then home and a soak in the spa before bed. It was a long but fun day!     

Monday, January 22^nd., 2024…… We slept in late this morning so we decided to skip the gym. Cathye is still pretty sore from the three-dance weekend!  After we do our housecleaning, she plans on a day off today. My job today was to go out to the motorhome and run the heater. I also did some checks of other systems that we will use this weekend. I discovered that I wasn’t getting any furnace heat from my AquaHot system. Turns out it needs water and my on-board tanks are empty and the water lines to the rv garage are shut off. So, I will have to hope it works on Thursday when we hookup at the fairgrounds.  If not, we have an electric auxiliary heater and since we will be on 50 amp there, we (and the dogs) should be ok.  Forecast says no freezing lows to worry about. We also got all of our square dance ‘outfits’ out and packed in the rig. I loaded up all of my other clothes as well. Cat needs to wash and then will gather and load hers. I watched the other football game I had taped (wanted the Bills to win – bummer!) as well as supercross and went over a checklist in my head about what we need before we leave.  Cat made meatball and quinoa and mixed veggies for dinner and after we settled in and caught up on some taped programs before hitting the spa then hitting the bed.

Tuesday, January 23^rd., 2024…… We were up and out this morning but we had no agenda until later in the day. Most of our stuff is packed in the rv and we are going through our checklist of those last-minute items for later. The weather is pretty nice these last days. Rain is expected for the weekend but there are breaks which we hope will be on Thursday morning and afternoon when we head out in the rv. Later in the afternoon, we headed off to our square dance workshop. We only had about half of the normal attendees today. Guess they are getting ready for the festival! We had a light dinner and watched tv and talked about what to expect with the festivities. We can see the festival booklet online (it’s 21 pages) and we can see the days, times, events, and callers so we can plan our days. We hope to get a printed copy when we get there.  

Wednesday, January 24^th., 2024…… Not much today. We have everything loaded and we are ready for tomorrow!

Thursday, January 25^th., 2024…… We were up and going early this morning. We walked the dogs and then went to the gym and also to breakfast today because we had everything else ready. Check-in time at the fairgrounds isn’t until 1:00pm but I wanted to leave the house at noon for the 30 minute drive.  We loaded up the dogs and headed there. Since it was only 15 miles or so, Cathye drove the Enclave so we had room for others if needed.  When we got there, we found there was no one monitoring the gate so we headed in and got set up. We have 50 amp and water but no sewer. With our tanks, we can do four days no problem.  I ran into a problem with the remote satellite dish. The satellite dish mounted on the roof is out of commission and we have to use the remote dish until I put out the $2500. for a new one. I worked on trying to get a signal for well over 3 hours! No luck. I tried different cables and a direct hook up to the box. Still no good. I finally gave up. I think the lnb on the dish is bad. It has fallen over several times and even though you can’t see damage, I think it’s broke. But after all this work, I made the decision to finally get going on getting the replacement roof dish! As I said, the gate was open. There were only a handful of rvs in when we got there, but they soon filtered in. I didn’t count, but I’m guessing that almost all of the 70 spaces were filled. We walked around and checked things out. The Oregon Federation has been putting this festival on for over 50 years and they have it organized very well. The halls were decorated and easily found. We met up with a few Club members and then went back to the motorhome to rest and relax. No tv, so we went out to Walmart to get a couple of dvds. We also got some cooked chicken from the deli for dinner. When we returned, I worked on trying to get the dvd player to work on the system. I didn’t have any luck there either! Those two systems are separate so there is no common issue with the problem.  ??  So, we spent time on our phones and with the dogs. Later, it was time to get dressed for the evening’s festivities. We went to the Mainstream hall and had a great time!  The dancers there were seasoned and in each square we told them Cat was a beginner, and they looked out for her and ‘guided’ her through most of the calls. Of course she messed up! But, hey, that’s part of the learning curve. The other dancers told her they were beginners once upon a time and they had the same issues. After a bit, we left for the evening and came back to the rig and called it a night.     

Friday, January 26^th., 2024……  Judy and Lynn rested in their hotel room and we rested in our rig this morning. We made our own breakfast and then went over to see what the vendors had to offer. Of course we bought stuff!  We spent so much time there, I forgot to take pics!  We came back and put all of that away. We also plan on visiting the resale clothing building, but that won’t be open until later in the evening. Personally, I have never seen used clothing offered at a weekend festival or convention where they also had vendors there.  I think that’s an unusual arrangement, given they are competing for sales. But they set it up so they only opened the resale clothes building after a full day when only the vendors could sell. Plus, there was only one vendor selling clothing. We went back to the rv and had dinner and then went back in for another round of dancing. Our Friday outfit…

We met up with our fellow Club members and danced with everyone. We tried to go find other dancers. We took some time to go get in line before they opened up the resale room. Of course we found more stuff. It’s priced so well we couldn’t pass things up! Here are pics with Cathye and Judy including one with Charlotte, our Club caller, who was shopping there too!

We went back to the dance after that. As I said, we tried to mix it up and square up with other dancers in the room. Later in the evening, a couple came up and the lady grabbed my hand and asked me to stand and give her a hug. She had on her mask so I didn’t recognize her. It was Louise! She was a member of my beginner’s class back in 1984. Her and her husband moved to Oregon shortly after that and then divorced. Louise didn’t dance for a while but soon got back into it. She’s been very active for many years with her club down in Medford. She introduced us to her new guy and I introduced them to Cat. We danced a tip and visited awhile, before they headed back to the Plus hall. It was sure nice to see her again! We headed back to the rig to let the dogs out and then stayed in to put up our feet and call it a night. Fun day!       

Saturday, January 27^th., 2024…… This morning we were up and going early. I walked the dogs in the rain while Cathye made breakfast. The weather hasn’t working out too well the last few days. We’ve had to dodge showers going in and out all day. But that didn’t stop us. We made the rounds of all the halls in the buildings and danced on and off all day. Later, we came back and changed and after the girls got here, we all left to drive to Pop’s Branding Iron for dinner. We had reserved a room for 35 and were joined by our fellow dancers from Corvallis who had 25.

It was fun!  The Club always does a tip in the restaurant so we could all earn our Pop’s badge dangle. After that, we all headed back to our places to get dressed for the evening festivities. It was mask time! We made it to the hall in time for the first dance of the night. We stopped long enough to take some pics with our masks on…

 

then jumped into a square. This is what the halls looked like even after a long day!

Both the Mainstream and Plus halls were well attended. I think the total attendance was a little bit over 900 dancers! That’s big for Oregon! We also went to the new dancer’s hall but found that was extremely exasperating!  A lot of confusion when more than one or two folks in a square struggles, and that makes it really hard to get through. But you just smile and try to make it work!  We went back to the Mainstream hall and after a full night mostly in there, I felt Cat did great!  She worked hard and it showed. When we finally left there, she was exhausted.  We got back to the rig and sat up for a bit before calling it a night. We were both feeling the muscle aches and both took Tylenol before bed.  

Sunday, January 28^th., 2024…… (I’m adding Sunday here so I can recap the entire weekend.)  We both had a great night’s sleep last night. The rains were light and let up early this morning. The original plan was for me to bring the rig home while Cathye went directly from here to church. But she wanted to go back to dance some more for more floor time and to say she danced all four days!  They had one room in use for a dance this morning where everyone danced Mainstream level.  Cat could do that. We didn’t have to dress up for this one so we headed over. We only danced a short while before deciding to head back and get the motorhome ready. No more rain in the forecast so we got lucky when we unhooked and headed home. We got home around noon and got everything unloaded and put away and also got laundry going. Once that was started, we could rest for the afternoon! It was a great weekend, but it is nice to be back home!  We ate leftovers and caught up on our own taped shows. I watched the two championship games. I didn’t like either of them - I wanted Detroit vs Baltimore in the Super Bowl. Didn't get either! Oh well!  After that, we watched a couple of shows together until heading out for a relaxing soak in the spa before calling it a night..