I was up pretty early this morning, quite a feat in it's own right since I didn't get to bed until after 2:00 a.m. last night. I've been hooked on a couple books recently, and it was a matter of just not being able to put it down. Even now it is calling to me back in the trailer, but I am trying to finish up a few other things before succumbing to the call of it once again.
    The reason for being up earlier than I should of been was that the last session of the Florida Snow Ball contra dance weekend was starting at 10:30 this morning. I wanted to be over there in time to dance as many of the dances as I could. The dancing was everything I thought it would be. The first half was anchored by the 'Syncopaths' doing the music. There must of been at least 200-250 dancers still in the hall and it was 4-5 long lines for the whole hour and a half. The second half had the 'JEMS' playing with calling by Cis Hinkle. I did have to sit out two of the dances, my feet were starting to hurt, but it was hard to not want to dance them all. As always, it seemed that some of the best dancing of the whole weekend happened during this last session. So now I'm done, my feet hurt and my back aches somewhat and I probably need a nap. All will be okay in the end though, and it will only be a day or two before I am looking forward again to the next dance.
    Right now though I am eating a late lunch after doing some grocery shopping before hand. I hope to be back at the trailer in the next hour or so. As it is now bright and sunny out, and almost warm now the the wind has calmed down, it might be time to go out and watch the sun set over the Gulf.


 Contra Dance Week in Ely England - April 7 to 16 - Part XIII

We continued our sightseeing outing by getting back on the bus at Castle Acre and driving on to the town of Cromer up on the NE coast of England. Not so much a sea port as it was just a town on the sea it had a nice old feel to it as we walked into downtown from the bus park. I feel in love with all of the old brick buildings.

A typical street in the old part of downtown Cromer.

Eating lunch at a local pub with fellow dancers and friends. I had shepards pie along with a nice pint of some local English brew they had on tap.

Looking along the strand with part of the North Sea in the background.

They had a nice public pier jutting out into the water where alot of people were sitting on benches eating lunch and enjoying the warm sun. There were several small shops out there selling knick-knack's and food. They also had a Royal Navel Lifeboat Service station out on the very end.

You could go into the actual station and wander around and read all of the signs they had hanging up that explained who and what they were. I was surprised to find out that this stationed was an all volunteered entity, the people that went out on calls being local fishermen for the most part. What a nice way to give back something to the community you belong to.

Many years ago the U.S. and British Coast Guards had very similar heavy weather and surf lifeboats. These were all 44' MLB's, Motor Life Boats, similar to ones I ran long ago when I was in the U.S.C.G. It appears that the two countries have diverged a bit in their boat design with the U.S. going with a new 47' long design, that I hear is wonderful to drive and work on, but will never replace the 44's I drove. This British design in kind of interesting and looks like it is a capable boat also. I would love a chance to go out on one, but alas I don't think I'll go out on the ocean and get into trouble in order to do that.

brk*