Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #21 – A Busy Week!

 


Sunday, May 19th., 2024…… I guess Cat didn’t sleep well last night. First thing this morning, she talked to her daughter in New Hampshire. She is a respiratory therapist and knows about her symptoms. Cathye read the findings to her and Terisa said not too serious. Definitely needs to be addressed though. Most likely her doctor will prescribe a beta blocker or something and refer her to a cardiologist. She went off to church. She had been previously asked to deliver the communion verse for today’s service and she had written that up and gave it today. I am so proud of her!  

When she got back, we only did a few things around the house. We still need to get our stuff together for our Memorial Weekend trip down to Grants Pass. Mostly dog food and clothes. We’ll go shopping later in the week.

Nothing else going today, so later in the day, Cat went over to visit with Lynn and Judy who both have medical backgrounds. They said the same thing as Terisa. They even looked up some of the verbiage in the report and that made Cat feel a lot better.  

Monday, May 20th., 2024…… HAPPY BIRTHDAY COREY!  Today wasn’t the best of days. No health issues. But it will cost me. Keep reading...  We started out with the gym and breakfast. We took two cars because Cat had a meeting with her financial guys. Tom texted her that he was working today and would get back to her about tomorrow if he make it. Corey and family were coming over later for a pizza birthday party for Corey. It is supposed to rain tomorrow and today was going to be nice so we decided to mow. I saw Cat out by the grass pile and she had the hood up on her mower. I still don’t know what happened but it wouldn’t start. She said there was smoke coming out. So, we swapped her out on the other mower and continued. That one needed air in the front tires so I stopped to hook up the compressor. When no air came out, I twisted the fitting and it broke off in my hand. So, now I have two issues to deal with. I think I can fix the air compressor but I need to go up to Cascade Power and see about getting the  tractor in. Damm!

Anyway, Corey’s little party was fun. The grandkids sat in the spa after we had pizza and cake on the deck. And then went to work on a 'Fairy Garden'


When they left, Cat settled in and fell asleep on the couch and ended up going to bed early, while I came in and worked on and posted my blog.  

Tuesday, May 21st., 2024…… This morning, after our walk and feeding the dogs and breakfast, Cathye got picked up by Judy and Lynn and they headed out to go plant shopping. Turns out they would be in Stayton (about 15 miles from here) and explore various plant sales and vintage shops. Later, I headed off by myself to go to our class. There were only a few of us there today. This is a continuous workshop so folks drop in and out as they can. Cathye likes the work and Charlotte works on anything we ask. Later in the workshop, Cathye got dropped off and got to dancing. We went back home and unloaded the plants and since it’s raining right now, she will have to put her planting plans on hold until we get back from our trip this week.  We spent the rest of the afternoon in the house but we were able to get a lot of our things ready to go out to the motorhome. Dinner, tv and spa and then bed.  

Wednesday, May 22nd., 2024…… We wanted to go help out painting the float for this year’s circus theme for the parade next weekend, but we needed to prep our coach and get it stocked up and ready for tomorrow when we leave. I think we have almost everything except for some food items. For those (bread, milk, etc.) we’ll just go to the store down in Grants Pass. I think we’re ready!  We watched some tv but were in the spa and then it was an early night.

Thursday, May 23rd., 2024…… Grants Pass and the Josephine County Fairgrounds is 180 miles from us. That’s about 3 ½ hours give or take. Check-in isn’t until 3:00pm so we didn’t need to leave until 11:30am or so. The drive was super nice/ Temps down there are in the 80s so it warmed up from where we started. We met up with Carl, our friend from the local club, who was campground coordinator. He quickly got us parked and we set up the power and water and the slideouts and then the satellite roof dish and we were set. We got the a/c going for the dogs but took them for a long walk to check the place out. This is an old-fashioned fairgrounds, built in 1927, so the buildings and the grounds had seen some history. But, later,  when we able to see inside the dedicated square dance hall there, we knew it was going to be a great venue! We rested for a bit, then got a text asking if we wanted to join some folks for lunch at Sizzler. This would be the organizers – our friends from SoCal, David and Dawn Mee – for our square dance cruise coming up next February. 


Turns out there are several couples from this area who are going too!  Three of those couples joined us today. We got to know them and we look forward to dancing with them tomorrow! We came back to the coach and rested for the day. We did take a drive around the downtown area to check it out. The Boatnik festival is held every Memorial Day and is famous for the drag boat and hydro boat races. Of course with that, come the crowds!  We saw pictures from years past where the bridge on the main street as well as all available shoreline is overrun with people trying to see the boats. We decided to pass on that.  Once we got back, we settled in for the night and watched tv and then walked the dogs and then called it a night.   

Friday, May 24th., 2024…… Hard to believe it’s been four years since we lost Lydia. It was nice to hear from friends and family on this day.

I didn’t sleep well last night. That usually happens the first night we are out. We were up and going and I walked the girls while Cat made us coffee and breakfast. The dance isn’t until 7:30pm so we kicked around the campground for most of the day. We did go out to Red Robin for dinner. Later, we changed clothes and headed the 200 feet to the dance hall doors. Like I said, they have a beautiful hall and they are very organized. Dawn cued the rounds and David called the dance. He did SSD/Mainstream with every third tip Plus. That worked well for Cathye as she got to sit out a bit and catch her breath a bit. We stayed until the end (10:00pm) and headed home. Before we left, David and Dawn asked those going on the cruise to come take a photo...



Later, Cat said she really likes dancing to David. At lunch the other day, she shared the calls she always struggles with (Scoot Back, and Walk and Dodge) so David made it a point to do those calls over and over while watching her from the stage. I think she felt better about it after the practice. We came back and changed out of our square dance clothes and walked the dogs, then watched a few minutes of tv before we called it a night

Saturday, May 25th., 2024…… Saturday they do workshops. Mainstream didn’t start until 1:30pm so we had more time to relax this morning. We didn’t have to dress up for the workshops which was nice. David is very creative and made the hour fun. He had us in various unique formations and did the calls from there, which I love!  Cathye wants me to talk to him about coming up to call for our Club! (footnote – I actually did later even though I knew our Club really couldn’t afford to bring in an out-of-state caller.) Later, we went back to the evening dance, which was really nice. I think this Club, who never really has danced to David and Dawn before, will be booking him again.  


Sunday, May 26th., 2024…… As is our typical Sunday morning tradition, I went out and got us breakfast!  In the hall, they are busy again this morning. Three workshops today.  After the Round Dance and Advanced workshops, they moved on to alternating Mainstream and Plus for the afternoon. That would be the end and all went away very happy!  We have already pre-paid for next year!  I mentioned we only had 4 of us camping in the fairgrounds. The guy parked in front of us lives in Salem and wanted to head home today to avoid any Memorial Day traffic tomorrow. We saw later that the other two had left as well. We were the only ones there now!  I had asked and found out there wasn’t an rv dump station anywhere on the grounds but they told us about a park just down the road where we could go and dump (for a $5.00 fee). So, we decided to go take a ride and check it out. At our senior center camping group meeting last week, we told them we would scout out prospective campgrounds in the Grants Pass area for the group to camp. I think they are shooting for August. Since we won’t be recommending this fairgrounds, we wanted to check out other places and this would help to do that now. We found the park and saw it was very nice. It’s right on the Rogue River too!  We spoke to the lady in the office and she confirmed that they have spaces for our group (10-15 rigs) for that timeframe. So, we will report back at least something positive.  Oh yeah, no public rv dump!  No worries, I can dump when we get home. We headed back home and ate dinner and watched tv until bedtime. It was a long weekend and we still have another travel day tomorrow, so it’s not over yet - but we have truly enjoyed our time so far.  We were happy to be able to take advantage of this opportunity to dance and socialize with David and Dawn. We also talked up our Strawberry Festival and at least a few couples are coming up to dance with us next weekend, including my old friend, Louise Voss, and her guy!      



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