Our First Camping Trip

 

Our First Camping Trip of the Year (May 17-19, 2025)

 

So, here we are, back home again after the beginning of both the camping season and the square dance season. We combine the two activities as our calendars permit and I explain below. We are dancers at the group known as the North Woods Stompers, formerly a part of the National Square Dance Campers Association. After several years of a slow decline under the aegis of the national camping and square dancing group, we decided to begin dancing without the unnecessary oversight of the national group. This weekend’s event was the first dance of the year for our now independent dance group and it went off without a hitch. Surprisingly, we remembered most of the steps that the Caller/Cuer* called, making the dancing pleasant.

We are now dancing at a campground just south of Harrison, Michigan where the campground features a covered pavilion with a dance floor. The new owners of this campground, known as the Hidden Hill campground, were congenial hosts who have made several improvements, including a host of gardens with flowers just now coming into bloom. We expect to use their facility for all of our upcoming dances this year.

Two new dance couples joined us in Harrison, Michigan for our first dance of the year, a Friday and Saturday dance under the direction of our Caller/Cuer. The pair of new dancers are recent converts to square dancing who seemed to fit in nicely along with our long-term dancing friends. The dance included just enough new steps to make to make the dances challenging for both the newcomers and us old-timers.

 

*For the uninitiated, the Caller is the leader of the dance who directs dancers to perform a series of movements in a four-couple square. The dancers spin or twirl their partners as well as others in the square at one time or another depending upon the dictates of the Caller.

Both square dancing and round dancing (the name used for ball room dancing where dancers sashay around the dance floor) to the instructions given by the Cuer. Marjorie and I include ball room dancing in our skill set as a consequence of the several years we have spent trying to master the art. Unlike square dancing with its set routines, round dancing features a variety of dances like the waltz, two step, cha-cha, rhumba, and whatever other patterned dances the Cuer favors.

The dancing is not immediately demanding on our bodies in the sense of speed walking or running or some other strenuous exercise. However; after several hours spent on the dance floor, Marjorie and I realized that we were tired when we returned home. Then we began the task of emptying our camping trailer with the left-over food, bedding, clothes, etc. After we finished that task and were ready for the sofa, Marjorie peaked out our living room window and told me to look at our flag pole.

I did. It wasn’t in the same state that it had been when we left. Nor was it in the same state of being that it had been for the previous 22 years. For some inexplicable reason, the pole had fallen to the ground and the American flag was laying in the dirt. Whoever heard of a flag pole suddenly deciding to topple over for no apparent reason?

This couldn’t do. I decided there was nothing for it other than beginning the repair immediately, by retrieving the flag, analyzing the failure of the pole, cleaning and re-hanging the flag and making at least a temporary fix to the pole. The task took the rest of the afternoon and my tired body completed it only with a required routine of grumbling with a few swear words thrown in.

I hope our next camping/dancing trip will be as enjoyable as the last one without the flag pole incident.