Labor Day Square Dance Weekend

2-5 Sep 2011

Circle 8 Ranch Campground

Near Cle Elum, WA

Our Aliner Sport in Site 35 at Circle 8 Ranch

C.J. and I just began square dancing again on 1 Jan 2011 after a twenty-five year hiatus.  Back then, we had been dancing Challenge (C-3) Level which entailed two-to-three nights a week of practice and dancing.  That was a bit much for two teachers, to say the least, and when hang gliding came along we gave dancing up for a new addiction. 

Now that we have a mini-RV (Aliner pop-up trailer), a square dance weekend at a campground seemed like a fun way to both camp and dance.  The major concern was that we would be missing some great flying.  As it happened, Saturday was blown out or too east, and Sunday turned out to be not so good either.  Monday – well, we’ll see.  We will be pulling out of here at noon anyway so there may still be flying in our future this Labor Day.

(dance hall at Circle 8)

2 Sep, Fri – We hooked up the trailer and left around 1730 and found little traffic until we hit some slowdown at Hyak and along Lake Keechelus.  Still, we pulled into Circle 8 at 1814 and found our slot right next to an enormous RV.  There were lots of trees but the sites were pretty much cheek-by-jowl with each other.  Not a problem; we’re here for the dancing, not a wilderness experience.  We heated up supper and cleaned up in plenty of time to get to the “trail-in” dance at 2000 called by Kevin Thommaier and Ray Brendzy, the two callers for the weekend.  All dancing, except for an hour on Saturday devoted to Advanced, was at the Plus Level, so we did not have much difficulty once I got over not having danced for a month. 

3 Sep, Sat. – It was cooler than expected overnight and the furnace felt good in the morning when we got up at 0800.  By 0900 it was warm enough to have breakfast outside on the picnic table liberated from Kevin and Linda’s campsite.  There was no rush because there was an hour of clogging workshop followed by an hour of round dance wkshp, before the 1.5 hr square dance workshop starting at 1100.  We had been considering flying in the afternoon but reports indicated it wouldn’t be worth the drive to Rampart or Saddle. 

So we were on hand for the “shotgun start” of the potluck dinner.  Close to 200 people were seated at tables in a circle at the dance hall with their potluck dish in front of them.  At 1730, the signal was given for everyone to stand and move to the right to fill our plates (or, in the case of most veteran potluckers, sectioned trays!).  It was a pretty effective method and eliminated the long time spent standing in line waiting to get to the buffet table, or waiting for your table to be called.  The evening dance began at 2000 (1930 for pre-rounds) and everyone was wearing traditional square dance dress.  At 2200, after the dancing, there were root beer floats, followed by several skits which were offered up as an “after party”, including a team of seniors pitted against some young dancers who attempted to identify TV clips from each other’s generation, e.g. “Animaniacs” and “Lone Ranger”.

(hot dog feed set up at Circle 8)

4 Sep, Sun – It was cool again.  Someone said the temperature in the morning was 38 deg.  We ran the furnace for a bit and prepared breakfast inside the trailer.  There was pretty much the same schedule as Saturday until 1300 when we had a big hotdog and corn feed with lots of salads and chips and desserts potluck style.  We shared our picnic table with a couple of other couples whom we had not met before.  Then there was a Wiffle-golf tournament all the rest of the afternoon.  C.J. caught up on some sleep she had missed last night since we didn’t do the golf contest.  There was no potluck dinner this night but we didn’t need another big feed, anyway.  The evening dance was fun but didn’t seem to be very “plus”– certainly not compared to the all-position routines that Kevin uses at the Tuesday workshops and on Casual Fridays.  A slide show of the weekend followed the dancing.

5 Sep, Mon – We got up around the same time but didn’t have to prepare breakfast since there was a pancake feed in the dance hall from 0830-0930 – some were blueberry pancakes, too!  Back at the Aliner we started packing up and got everything ready to go except disconnecting the 110V, 15 amp AC (Our neighbors were plugged into the 30 amp service), and hooking up to the Trooper.  The trail-out dance featured guest callers who were present for the weekend – Steve Rossseck, Andy Garboden, and Tom Clymer.  As soon as the last “Thank you!” was finished, we hurried out to hook up and get on the road before the crowd.  It was not a problem since it appeared that many folks were staying for another night or, at least planning to eat dinner together at the Mexican Restaurant in Cle Elum.  Traffic on I-90 was slow as far as Easton then picked up to near-normal speeds.  We considered stopping to see who was flying (or thinking about flying) at Rampart, but the wind, while westerly, seemed a bit strong.  We did spot Ben de Lisle near the bridge as we crossed Gold Creek.  We got home around 1245 and got unloaded and cleaned up.  There were a few things we had forgotten but C.J. has notes so we won’t forget those things when we take off for our big trip later this month. [Later we heard that the hang glider pilots had good flying at Rampart.]