Sunday, July 20th., 2025…… Nothing on the agenda for today except more
prep for tomorrow. I got all of my clothes loaded and worked on my meds and
stuff to go out tomorrow. Cat has all of her things out there except for her
meds. We will load the fridge tomorrow morning. So, we had a chance to relax
for the day. Randy texted later to say that Steve and Monica got back home in
Scottsdale and he was doing ok.
Monday, July 21st., 2025…… This morning the plan was to meet
up with Mike and Cheryl at the Chevron station on hwy 20. I had ¾ of a tank
which would get me all the way up and back, but I wanted to top off beforehand.
We got on the road about 9:30am and made the drive up through Portland and then
along the Columbia River, past Mt Hood and made it to Wild Horse Resort and
Casino RV park, just outside Pendleton OR. On this trip, we will hook up with three
others to go on to Spokane for the USA West Square Dance Convention, starting
Wednesday night. Right after we got in, Nate and Lizanne pulled in. We will be
here for two nights. Cheryl and Mike and Cathye headed over to the casino and
got players club cards (Cat already had one). I stayed home and talked with
Nate and Lizanne, relaxed, took care of the dogs, watched tv, then went to the
pool for a bit. Later, Cat came back a winner!
She started out with $100.00 in and came back with a slip for $100.87!
Yaay! Hey, 87 cents is a winner! We played cards with Mike and Cheryl and then settled
in and watched tv and went to bed.
Tuesday, July 22nd., 2025…… I remembered a nice place we went
to for breakfast last time we were in Pendleton, (called The Saddle), so the
six of us went there this morning. Still good. After that, we drove into town
and went past the entrance to the underground tour we will be going on when we
return here on the way home next week. Well, I made the right turn to go there only
to find it was one street short – and was a ONE WAY STREET! Yep, I went the
wrong way! I scooted ahead and made a quick left into a parking lot and escaped
danger. Phew! After a lot of joking, we made our way over to the Pendleton Wool
Factory. This was Cathye’s and my second time there. But this time, we were
able to go on the factory tour. We saw how they load the wool from spools and
get them to the looms and we also saw how they weave the patterns and produce
the beautiful product from there! Here are pics, including the world’s largest
blanket…..
We will meet up with
Tim and Melissa later in Spokane when they get in by car. That will make 12! Most everyone went over to the casino. This
time Cathye did win…
Wednesday, July 23rd., 2025…… All 5 rigs pulled out together this morning and caravanned to Spokane. We stopped a few times so the rest could get gas, plus one more stop at a rest area for lunch. When we made our way into Spokane and found the fairgrounds, we got checked in and parked. We have large, flat grassy spaces. Plenty of room! We set up a central area and ate and played cards. Later, we headed over to the trail-in dance. This was in addition to the convention (and cost extra $$) but was put on by the three headliners for the weekend. We enjoyed dancing to Adam Christman (my favorite caller from last year at Seaside), Dan Preedy, and Doug Davis.
They were among the 33 callers and cuers scheduled on the docket for the three day festivities, which will begin tomorrow morning. Here is a flyer for most of them…
After the dance, we came back to the rvs and settled in for the evening.
Thursday, July 24th., 2025…… Since we had 3 days of dancing, I
knew we had to pick and choose what we did and when we danced. Each of us would
be able to go on our own schedules and for us, today was spent shopping and
waiting for Shaun to call. I think he had 4-5 time slots over the duration of
the convention and we made sure to be there to dance to him and support him for
all of them. He did an excellent job! After he calls, we try to speak to other
dancers on the floor. None had never heard of him but all really liked
him! He is up and coming for sure! During the dancing, I was able to touch base
with California and former California callers, Andy Allemao, and Mike Sikorsky.
Mike taught me A1 back in the day and remembered our group from his class back
in 86. I also got to visit with Jim and Judy Smith, caller and cuer from SoCal. Nice to catch up with long-time friends!
So, all day and evening was spent
in the halls, walking the pups, eating (lunch and dinner) and playing cards. We
were tired when we got back and went right to bed!
Friday, July 25th., 2025…… More of the same today. We
watched the 4 remaining traveling exhibition groups (who were all here at the
same time!) do their special shows for the crowds. Here are some pics from the
weekend….
Later, we all left and caravanned
to dinner at Outlaw BBQ. It was excellent!
Cat and I split a rib dinner, with enough for leftovers! The rest of the
group all said they enjoyed their meals as well.
We got back in time to dress for
the evening’s festivities. Days are casual dress and nights are square dance
clothes. We brought different outfits for each day.
Saturday, July 26th., 2025…… Last day for the convention. We all went in to
dance to Shaun and then spent time in other halls and with other callers. We
started out on Thursday with Hex Squares with Andy Allemao, who went over the
basics for this new to everyone type of dancing with six couples instead of
four. Knowing Andy from SoCal, I knew this from back in the day, but it was fun
to do it again and help the others. Today was full on dancing the new style. It
was one of our highlights for the weekend! Later, we said goodbye to Mo and
Toni, who were heading out to meet friends. The night’s highlight was the grand
parade. We found our Oregon group (31 in total but only 12 or so in the march)
and went in with all of the states in attendance. The USA WEST consists of 8
western states, but we had visitors from a dozen more (furthest was from New
York!). We danced our fill, and stayed until the end of the night. We got in
one giant circle and thanked everyone for the weekend. Next year the convention
is in Loveland, Colorado. Don’t think we will go but you never know! Here are
pics from the weekend. There are videos on Cat’s Facebook page if you want to
see more. Lizanne taped Shaun doing The Crawdad song and got all of us dancing.
Cathye added it to her FB page. It turned out well – go check it out!
More on the rest of the trip next time.....
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