Another slow and easy day. Still raining though it may stop sometime this evening they say. Driving was a real bummer today, seems like it was mostly just me and every big rig in the country out there on the highway. Most of them seemed to take delight in passing me up and throwing great gobs of spray and road crap all over the windshield. After 5 hours of it I decided to give it up for the day. Spent a few hours in a McDonald's reading the comics and sorting out all the pictures from the dance last weekend. Some of which are posted below.

   After a couple of hours there, it was back on the highway for another hour or so. Actually made it all the way into New York state before pulling into another rest area, but there is still about another 100 miles to do tomorrow before reaching my final destination. On the other hand... there's only another 100 miles to go tomorrow before I get to Fort Klock.

   The real good news is that it is suppose to clear off and warm up a bit by tomorrow morning. After two days of solid rain it was beginning to feel like I was back on the Oregon coast. Looking forward to feeling the sun again and having to wear sunglasses. Here are some pictures of last weekends contra dance the 'White Water Whirl'.

Here is the building we danced in. Built by the CCC's in the late 1930's, it was a wonderful old wooden building. Very similar in design to the one I danced in at the Dance Romance weekend, this building is a little better finished, had some nice covered porches and several large doors on each side that could be opened for cross ventilation.

All of these pictures were taken Sunday morning around 10:00 a.m. This one shows the band, The Avant Gardeners', playing a short concert for those people who are awake or still in attendance. The stage size and location were a real asset to the dance and the sound quality was surprisingly good considering the hall is this huge open space.

A view of the stage from the other side. Note the neat little balcony overlooking the side of the stage as well as one of the large side doors that could be opened up for ventilation.

A view of the other end of the hall. Like the building at Dance Romance this one also has a beautiful stone fireplace complete with a hand hewn wooden mantle.

A waltz while the band and caller are busy shifting from the concert into dance mode. The floor here was really pretty good, no soft spots to speak of, and while worn, not sticky or slippery. It did have an interesting shis-s-s-ing sound whenever we were all dancing, but you soon learned to ignore it.

Another picture of some of the people waltzing.

A nice view from the balcony over the stage. It gives you an idea of the size and shape of the hall and dance floor. Note the big open doors along the side of the room. On Friday and Saturday night there was barely room for us all to dance. By Sunday though you have a lot of people who leave early because of commitments, long drives or just being tired. What you have left though is all the hard core dancers. We were all tired also, but we don't care.... some of the best dancing is often done at this last dance of the weekend.

Lining up to get ready to dance the 1st contra of the day. Here we have two lines made up of two sets of couples, more commonly referred to has 'Hands Four'.

So the dance has started and the skirts are starting to twirl. Here you have your basic 'swing'. (Often proceeded by a 'balance', but not always).

And the last picture of this series. I had to go put the camera away and get ready for the end of this dance so I'd be ready to find a partner and get into the next one.