Monday, May 27th., 2024…… Memorial Day – Remember it’s
not for those who served – that’s Veteran’s Day – it’s about those who gave
their lives for this country!
We were up and going early this morning. Nothing else going on for the square dance festival and no one left in the fairgrounds. We hooked up the car and headed out. The drive through Grants Pass was uneventful – I guess everyone was on the river watching the boat races! – so we got out of town and headed up I5 and had a smooth and easy drive back home. Since they didn’t have a dump station at the fairgrounds, we decided to just go home and use ours there. That means I just had to pull in the driveway and line up the tanks with the cleanout pipe. I unhooked the car and then hooked up the hoses and dumped the tanks. No problem there. BUT, when I was backing out of the driveway to turn around so I could back into the rv garage, I forgot about Rick and Judie’s mailbox! Yep – took it out to the ground! I got it back in place but saw the welds holding the stand to the mailbox were broke, so it wobbles. They have one of their home security cameras mounted inside the box which picks up motion when the mail is delivered. Well, I gave it motion! Rick heard the alarm in his house and came out. He was very nice about it and we talked about me repairing it or him having someone do it. More on that later… Later in the day, we received a delivery from Wanda, our Club president. She had two 5-gallon buckets of strawberries. Four of us are splitting these. Cheryl told us to put theirs out so they would defrost to make them easier to divide. So, we set them both out in the garage and will split ours tomorrow too. Once we got everything unloaded and clothes in the washer, we rested for the day. It was a long weekend and very enjoyable and relaxing, but I guess we were exhausted from all that relaxation! We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the house.
Tuesday, May 28th., 2024…… Today, the work begins for the Strawberry Festival. Lebanon has been doing this festival for over 75 years, and this is ‘the’ big event of the year for them. Somewhere (we heard several bakeries were involved) there are tons of cakes being baked for “the world’s largest strawberry shortcake”. Interesting side note I read is that the city always trying to compete for the title is none other than Garden Grove, Calif.! They have not yet gotten remotely close - ours weighed 5,700 pounds and served about 16,000 people – theirs was 1,200 pounds and fed about 3,000. Hits home because the Rustlers, my square dance club there, danced across the street from the GG Strawberry Festival every year!
As I said, the work begins today. The carnival rides and fair booths are going up at Cheadle Lake Park and barricades are being dropped off at strategic locations along the parade route to be deployed on Friday. Personally, for us, we have nothing scheduled today. Except for our workshop. We also got out one of the strawberry tubs and set out to divide them. Turns out I was easily able to scoop out our half, which we put into several freezer bags. We did make an appointment to have the air ducts cleaned out. Ours look pretty good but the price also includes the laundry exhaust and the in-house vacuum system. That system hasn’t worked right since I moved in. I suspect it has a clog in it somewhere. Cathye has never even seen it in use. Hopefully, they can find and fix the problem. I think they come sometime next week. After class, we stopped at the store and then headed back home for the rest of the day.
Wednesday, May 29th., 2024…… The only item on our to-do list
today was to empty and clean the spa. Luckily for us, there is a drain line
that I can attach the hose to and it’s an easy run out to the lawn. It usually
takes a few hours to drain and once that was done, we went in and changed out
the filter, then scrubbed and polished and then it was ready to refill. We also
made arrangements to drop off the other tub of strawberries at Mike and Cheryl’s.
We visited for a while, then headed back home. Later in the day, we fed the dogs, then drove
up to The Point in Sweet Home for drinks and a nice dinner. Then it was back
home for some tv and then the spa before calling it a night.
Thursday, May 30th., 2024…… The weather
is really nice these days. We do occasionally get a little front that comes in
with some sprinkles, but for the most part, it’s sunny and warm. We walked and
fed the girls this morning, then headed out to the gym and then to breakfast.
Kristi told us they will be closed on Saturday. They are right on the parade
route and I guess they want to enjoy the festivities too! While we were sitting at breakfast, I called
our neighbor, Rick, and we discussed the mailbox repair. It was decided that he
would have someone fix it and would (at my insistence) then give me that bill
to pay. After we got back, I headed over
to Cascade Power Equip. to see about our now inoperable lawn tractor. Turns out
it was a week or two short of one year when we bought it, so if it’s an engine
failure, it will be covered. I told them I was busy this week but when I got
home, I went straight to work and got the flatbed trailer out and between Penny
and Cathye and myself, we got the tractor pushed up on it and tied down. I
headed back and dropped it off. When the guy looked at it, he said it was
seized. If it was the engine, we are covered, but if it’s the clutch, it might
not be covered. They have it on the schedule for next week, so I won’t know
anything for a while…
While I was delivering the
tractor, Cathye was working on her sliders for tonight’s potluck. She is also
baking a strawberry rhubarb pie to donate to the ‘baked goods only’ auction on
Friday. We are going to take the sliders
with us later today to Rachel’s house where the float is now parked so we can
build it out and decorate it for the parade. We had to transfer it from its road-trailerable
stage, to its float stage, which went well. I had never seen the float before
and was told it was pretty cool. They spent some time engineering it and it
showed! We got the floor frame unfolded to make it a full 12’ wide platform and
the roof up in quick order and then decorated the whole thing with tinsel,
banners, etc. This is a shot from the garage where folks were blowing up
balloons (which will be going on on Saturday when we are in the staging line).
We are hard at work on the stage area.
Once we were done, we got home and found we were both exhausted. I was the tall guy who had to do all of the overhead work so I was really sore in my back and shoulders. The spa tonight sure helped!
Friday, May 31st., 2024…… Today was hall decorating day. After our normal morning routine, we joined the group and helped unload the Club’s dedicated box trailer. They have a ton of stuff that needed to come out and get set up. Mostly, it was the racks and bins of clothes for the vintage square dance clothing sale. We set up all of that as well as the rest of the hall, including serving tables and chairs for the dancers. We went home and rested for a few hours before Cathye went to work on yet another potluck dish for dinner before the dance. She made a beef stroganoff that was gone in no time! Once we ate, we cleaned up and set up the floor for the dance. Tonight will be Charlotte’s last official dance before her retirement!
At break time, they presented her with a quilt that the Club ladies
had made and we all have signed.
She will no longer be calling anywhere but will continue with the workshop classes for the senior center. She is a super lady and will be missed! She wants to write a book and will be attempting that now. But she plans to be at all of our dances so she’s not going anywhere! She had some guest callers and the dance went well. The baked goods auction did well too. We bought some homemade bread and also homemade cinnamon buns. Cat’s pie was the big winner and sold for a whopping $25.! After the dance, we came home and went straight to bed. Long day!
Saturday, June 1st., 2024…… Here comes another long day! We were up early and walked and fed the dogs and had our coffee and breakfast. We needed to be dressed and ready and at the senior center parking lot by 10:00am. We took a couple of pics while we waited for our shuttle to the float,
which was now staged on one of the backstreets. Shaun and most of the dancers were there. Frank went over some safety measures. He needed a person at the front in case our driver had to brake hard. We also practiced some combined figures that Shaun was planning. No twirls, switch out when needed, and keep smiling! We were ready! I don’t know if I mentioned the size of this parade! For a small town of 18k, it is a BIG deal! We were number 68 of 135 entries! So, it took a while before we got moving. Cathye and I were in the second group and went in after the float turned down Main St. Turns out dancing on a moving platform is NOT one of Cathye’s strong suits! She got a little nauseous and was from that point on, relegated to being the front person and playing the parade princess (complete with the wave!) as we slowly motored down the road. I had only seen the parade once or twice so I was shocked to see the folks stacked side by side and 3-4 deep watching us as we went by! I think the whole town and surrounding towns were there! Of course Cathye knew a ton of them and was happily waving and yelling back at them! Penny texted me a couple of pics she took. Unfortunately we weren't dancing when we went by her! Cathye is in front on one, I am sitting at the back in the other one!
Other pics from the parade, including the biggie cake!
It was fun but we were all pretty beat when we finally got to the parking lot at the end. I think it was maybe two hours or so from start to finish but I lost track of time so I’m not sure. We immediately made quick work of stripping the float and transferring it to trailerable status again. We hitched a ride back to the senior center and our car and immediately left to come home. Cathye was much better. We rested for a bit, then I needed to start my spaghetti for the dinner tonight. I managed to get everything cooked and assembled together in our crockpot and we were ready for the evening! The food was well received and the dancing soon started. Our guest caller (Jim Steele) was an old hand at calling and is well known for calling fast. Personally, I enjoy the fast-paced calls, but the rest of the floor had trouble keeping up. So, after that first tip, he was asked to tone it down for the newer dancers. It helped but it was still a faster paced dance than the folks in the area are used to! Here are a few pics from the night...
In addition to the used clothing, they also had a silent auction. The organizer really outdid herself this year! They probably had over 100 items which folks could place their written bid on. Nothing that most of us were impressed with, but of course Cathye found some items she placed a bid on. I guess I got caught up too. I ended up with two steel-lined coffee mugs for $1. ea. (for the motorhome) and paid a whole $4. for 12 plastic tropical drink cups (for the deck). Cathye got 5 or 6 items that she was the winning bidder on, including a weighted blanket, an airplane neck pillow, and some baskets. At tonight's dance break, the Club presented Charlotte with yet another honor - a lifetime member award!
Once the dance ended, we found
Marilyn, who we were dropping off at home on our way, and headed out. Carl and
Louise, who were staying with us after the dance, followed us and got parked
and settled in to their room. We sat out in the living room with a round of
Fireballs and talked for a bit. Cathye was pooped out and headed off to bed and
we kept going until 1:00am! It was nice to catch up with Louise and spend more
time getting to know Carl. Here’s a couple of pics of them at our dance tonight, one in a square and one round dancing. …
Sunday, June 2nd., 2024…… Today was breakfast at the hall and then cleanup day. Some of the Club members put together scrambled eggs with biscuits and gravy and oj. I think I counted over 25 people who came to partake in that and to help clean up the hall and pack up everything and load the trailer. Carl and Louise joined us for breakfast and after that, we said our goodbyes, and they headed back down the road. They were going to meet up with friends at a square dance class graduation in Roseburg on the way back to Grants Pass. We closed the hall doors then left to come home after another busy morning. We were officially done for the festival! The Square Circlers are now officially ‘dark’ for the summer. The next beginner’s class starts in Sept. Of course Cat and I will still be going to other areas where they dance through the summer. Cathye has all of the calls now and does really well, but we both need to keep fresh! As I mentioned, once we were home, we were done! We had a nice morning and afternoon until we left again to go help out at Shaun’s beginner’s class this afternoon. But after that, we were home for the day and evening. Tv and spa and then early to bed.
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