Rally Weekend

This weekend was “Rally in the Valley”. The annual event that my square dance club hosts. I missed it last year because it was the same weekend as my parents twenty-fifth wedding anniversary so I was determined to go this year. I’m really glad I did.

It was a LOT of dancing, especially since we’ve been off since mid April but it was a blast. It started Friday evening with a “Trail in Dance”. Square dancing is a way of life for a lot of people. You can pretty much hop in your RV and just go from festival to festival all across the country. If you do that for a few years in a row, you end up making friends and then the next time you come back it’s just like a big reunion. The hall where my club dances is actually part of a school and it is right beside a ball diamond and playing field. By Friday evening there were almost three dozen RV’s parked out there! In all we had around 130 people attend, which is actually pretty small for an event like this but it was a comfortable size for our hall.

Friday night our resident caller, Bill, was on duty. It was a really fun dance and I even managed to get my parents to come out and watch! I’ve been dancing for a year and a half and they have never seen me. I prepped them for this event by talking about it a lot in the weeks leading up to it and when I left on Friday I made them promise to come. They only stayed for a half hour or so but the point is THEY CAME and that was HUGE for me.

Saturday we started with a continental breakfast and then had a morning “pajama dance”. After that I had a few hours to kill so I hit some scrapbooking stores and wandered the mall for a bit. In the afternoon we had a “plus” workshop and a “rounds” workshop. When you start dancing, you are at the “basic” level. Within a year you can move up to “Mainstream” over time you learn “plus” moves. As of our last practice in April I have officially done all of the “plus” moves. I’m far from dancing at that level consistently though so it was good to practice. Plus it gave me a chance to get to know the guest caller, Brent. The rounds workshop was WAY over my head. We only just started a bit of it this year so I am very, very basic on it. It was fun to watch though.

Saturday evening we had a potluck dinner (which was YUMMY :)) and then the Saturday night dance. Very, very fun. I got home around 11 but of course it takes awhile to unwind so I probably fell asleep around midnight.

Sunday I was up at 7:30 and headed back out for a pancake breakfast and another morning dance. (BTW, the hall where I dance is about 20 minutes from my house so it was a fair bit of back and forth). After that I headed back home and went to church and then went BACK out, this time all the way to Minter Gardens. The weather was really crummy but there were some tents up and we had free admission into the gardens. We danced for about an hour and a half and then everyone packed up and went home. I took the opportunity to wander the gardens a bit. If I remember I’ll try and upload some pictures. I haven’t been out there in probably 15 years so it was really nice.

Sunday afternoon I had plans to meet up with my friend Terri for dinner. I want to give a quick shout out to her too. I don’t dwell on who does or doesn’t read my blog but I have to say, it is nice to hear someone say “Yes, I heard about that. I read your blog!!!” Terri does it often. Thanks Terri :D BTW, I still don’t have your cell number… ;)

After dinner I headed home and met up with my family and we went and saw the Davinci Code. I’ll put my review of that in a separate post.

So, as you can see, it was a busy weekend!!! This week is shaping up to be crazy too. My plans for tonight are to head out to Janis’ for a quiet evening and go to bed early!

~Heidi