Block Party at Lake Rousseau

They day we were moving our motorhome to Lake Rousseau RV Resort in Crystal River, Florida, someone from the campground called us to tell us they had made a horrible mistake.  They had booked us into Site 40, which is the site where a band would be playing for their block party scheduled for Saturday.  Being the fun-loving people we are, we told them that that would be no problem, we love music, and we can endure anything for 3 or 4 hours.

Today (the day of the block party) came and, about 9:00 am, we could see the early signs of setup for the party at the office across from our site:

This being a snowbird RV park, there are more than an average number of retired people, and these birds can be expected to arrive early for a party.  We were shocked, however, to see that one happy camper set a new record for how early she brought her chair to save a place -- 2.5 hours before the party began!

As it turned out, the campground management moved the band over to the office porch, but our little shelter was refit as group seating for lots of yakking senior citizens.  Perhaps it would have been better to have the band beside our rig.

Ten o'clock came -- an hour before the party was scheduled to begin, and the gray-haired pot was bubbling, right out front of our home:

The activity wasn't just across the campground road.  Oldsters hawking their wares and baked goods were squatting right next to our window!

One of the big events at the block party is the election of a new Dog Mayor, which has been a tradition for the last three years.  The odds-on favorite in this horse race was Chewy, who glad-handed the crowd and pandered to them with his dancing paws before the official ceremony began:

Each Mayoral candidate-dog had to make a campaign poster.  This was Chewy's:

Chewy was not without challengers.  The dark horse in the race was Miss Molly, a pure-bred Australian sheepdog (according to her owner), who has the sweetest disposition --

-- a trait which, however, was not at all apparent when Miss Molly jetted over to our site out of nowhere to pounce on poor little Ruby cat, traumatizing Ruby for our entire stay here.  Apparently Miss Molly, who is the Official Campground Dog Host, is so well behaved that her owner never keeps her on leash.  Make that:  "so well behaved, except in the case of cats."  Be that as it may, Miss Molly is a sweetheart, and we decided to split our votes between her and Chewy.  As it happened, Chewy won.  It was probably his tuxedo.

The band that did not set up on our site is a local group known as the "Bad Kitty Band."  Don't bother Googling them, because there seem to be approximately 29 different bands with that name.

Their lead singer has a good, raspy,  bluesy voice that reminded us of the lead singer for the Sidekicks, a local Poconos band that played the very last time that we camped at the old WT Family Campground in Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania.  She took a turn singing remotely from the road in front of the office:

Here is the band's logo.  Reminds me of Ruby on a bad day.

However, when they brought out their t-shirts for sale, we couldn't resist buying them.  Gotta walk Ruby in a Bad Kitty t-shirt.

Lunch was served at the block party.  Kathy ordered a (very juicy and tasty) burger (without bun) and ate it sensibly on a salad.  David, however, enjoyed the dietary sin of a very scrumptious cinnamon bun:

The rest of the party was sittin' and singin' and chattin' with neighbors.  We had the most popular spot for the music (not to mention the only picnic table in the area), so we had serial guests sit and talk with us.  Our favorite was Arlan, from Massachusetts, an RV veteran, who regaled us with stories about Civil War battlefields, RV'ing the Lewis & Clark Trail, and various and sundry other Baby Boomer historic trivia.

The party broke up about a half hour early, just in time to avoid the afternoon rain showers.  Put another Vagabond Adventure in the books.