On Down the Road at Lake Georgetown, Texas

We stopped in Deming, NM for a few days to dance with the Good Times Squares.  We were surprised when Rusty and Lovetta Wright (Club Caller and wife) presented us with a beautiful cake for our 32nd Wedding Anniversary.  Beautiful white icing with red roses and “Happy Anniversary, Ron and Anita”…and me without my camera (which is rare)!

Leaving Deming, we headed for Georgetown, Texas, for a visit with granddaughter, Cassandra, and friends, Donna and Glenn.

On the way, we found a delightful little RV park near Balmorhea, TX, Saddleback RV Park.  No amenities to speak of, just an attractive place to park.  The owners are trying to create a wildflower/bird/butterfly refuge, and have devoted 5 acres to native plants.

Each site is separated from the next by a median of cacti and other plants.  Our site happened to be next to a watering tank for the birds.  We spent quite a bit of time during the afternoon we were there watching the birds through our window.

     

We spent a week at Lake Georgetown, TX, in the Jim Hogg C.O.E. park, (named after a Texas governor). 

Donna and Glenn brought their motorhome up from Kerrville to join us.

         

We visited granddaughter, Cassandra, and her friend, Logan in Austin, TX.  They gave us a tour through the State Capital Building.  The building is very impressive; sadly, I was once again without my camera, but pulled a few images from the Web.

   

Granddaughter, Cassandra, also joined us for much of the week.  During her visit, we checked out Pioneer Days in the nearby Round Rock, TX.

   

We had beautiful weather for walking across the dam, down the trail to the spillway, and along the lake edges.

     

  

The week provided a great break from road; at its end, we headed onward toward Indiana.

Square Dancing with Friends

It’s always fun to return to our Square Dance “roots”, the Deming, NM area. Using Deming as the hub, we usually dance in Las Cruces, Silver City and Deming. 

Sunday night, Ted Clements was calling in Las Cruces for the Circle 8s.

Monday night, we drove to Silver City with friends Bill and Liv to dance with the Silver City Squares, but I forgot to take the camera.

Tuesday evening we danced in Deming with the Good Times Squares.  Rusty Wright is the caller for the small club. 

Square Dancing with Ron and Anita

We try to find square dances as we travel. From Benson, AZ (covered in a previous post) we moved to Deming, NM. Arriving on Saturday, we picked up a square dancing friend, Bill, and drove another 60 miles to Las Cruces for the Southwest New Mexico District dance. The Southwest District consists of clubs from Alamogordo, Las Cruces, Deming, Truth or Consequences, and Silver City. Seven clubs were represented at the dance. Rusty Wright was the caller, and Jim and Linda Klein cued for the round dances. Dancers filled the floor at the Belton Bridge Center, home of the Blue Bells Square Dance club.

Later in the week, we danced with the Good Time Squares at Deming. Several years ago, while staying in Deming, we saw a flyer for 3 free square dance lessons. We decided to give it a try, and had our first five square dance lessons with the Good Times Squares and their caller, Rusty Wright. We try to dance with the group each year as we pass through. A small club, we only had one square this week.

While in Deming, and the next week while staying in Silver City, we danced with the Silver City Squares. Fred Beem is the caller. This area has lost 3 callers in the past five years to retirement or death, so Silver City is encouraging several of its members to become club callers.

Before leaving the area, we spent a few days in Las Cruces and danced with the Crossfires, a Plus Club, and the Circle Eights.

The Crossfires meet at the Belton Bridge Center in Las Cruces:

The Circle Eights meet at the Munson Senior Center:

Ted Clements calls for both the Crossfires and the Circle Eights.

Dancing at the Derby City Festival

The Derby City Festival dancing was on Thursday evening, Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and evening. Headliner for the weekend was national caller, Dee Dee Dougherty-Lottie, from Minnesota.

Here are some shots from the Festival:

One of the many callers:

There was also lots of round dancing:









There was dancing Thursday evening through Saturday evening:

Palomino Record Company - Shepherdsville, KY

We spent a week at Grandma’s RV Park in Shepherdsville, Ky with friends, Jim and Helen. Fellow square dancers, they sold their house to become full-timers at about the same time as we. We enjoyed the week with them.

Two more couples from our Bedford, IN, club, Stone City Squares, Merian and Wanda, and Ives and Carol joined us on Thursday for the weekend festival.

Friday, we all visited Palomino Records, the company which makes 98% of all square dance records. The owner, Tom Dillander, who is also a caller, was a very entertaining host.

He walked us through the entire procedure of making records, from the melting of PVC pellets to the finished product. Click on this photo of the warehouse for a slide show of pictures taken during our visit: