Catching Up: Cowtown Jamborama

Cowtown has come and went again. Even though I know what makes it special is that it is just once a year, but still it would be so nice to see people from out of town more often. The lead up was a little more interesting this year as Maeg, Merinda, and I coordinated the housing for the event.

I take vacation for Cowtown, so I was able to attend everything, and it began on Thursday night at the Elmwood Park Pavilion.

What time is it? COWTOWN JAMBORAMA TIME!!


Looks like a pretty good place to have a dance.


The floor was not exactly danceable, but the crowd was.

As the dance got over Merinda and I got a call from Steve at the airport. So we left to pick him up. They had a we're really not kidding no stopping policy in front of the terminal at the airport, so Steve jumped in the car while we were slowly rolling along. Poor Merinda fell asleep as Steve and I talked about Utah, and where he was living. We drove up to Troy and Merinda's, where I met Amanda and Isabel from Kansas City. Finally after visiting with Steve for a while, I went home.

Friday during the day I took four classes. One was Pure Balboa with Peter and Mia, obviously I can dance Balboa already, but learning anything Bal from Peter and Mia is like learning how to paint from Pablo Picasso.

Here Sarah learns a new move under the watchful tutelage of The Cow.


Anna discovered that the old apple a day adage didn't work as well as she wanted it to.


Mia: "Peter, that guy with the camera is kind of weird."

After the classes we met up with a bunch of people at China Buffet. Well half of us showed up at one time, then the rest much later. It was one of those rare times that I did not take "all you can eat" as a personal challenge.

The Friday night band, The Little Harper Big Band, a derivative of the Omaha Big Band, turned out to be fantastic, even better than that. I was quite pleasantly surprised. Between that, shopping at Carol's Closet (I got a new suit coat), and dancing with new people, it was a great night.

Amazingly enough, Audrey Hepburn showed up to the dance. (This picture is already at #36, with a bullet, on my all time views list on my Flickr account.)


Personally I think Ben should have got more sleep. Trisha should have been leading, he'd have woke up.


Mandi and Joe are in disco heaven baby.

The late night was downstairs at the Eagle's club and had an available meal cooked by the staff. It included the most butter laden hash browns in the history of mankind.

Saturday morning classes were performance routines, and I was not interested, so I stayed in bed. I actually considered skipping the day classes altogether, and go to the Apple Jack festival in Nebraska City, but those plans fell through. Eventually I got over to the classes and was pleased to see how many newish dancers were going to the beginner Lindyhop classes.

No, don't look at Jenny and Liz, it's Jillian in the background that counts.


Lauren and Ben learn some Frankie moves in Peter and Mia's Savoy Sampler class.


Steve has a camera and a smile, and isn't afraid to use either.

After classes, I actually went home and napped. This was going to be the late night out, so I wanted to make sure I was prepared. The Southside Aces were playing, so Robin and I conferred, and we agreed to stay out until 0300. Ready, set, go...

Robin grabbed my camera and took quite a few shots, I wondered where my camera was, but I sure can't complain about the picture quality.


David and Maeg show off more moves in one picture than I got in my whole repertoire.


Kate likes it so much in Omaha, she wants me to leave.

Robin and almost made it to our 0300 goal, it was 0257 on my car clock when I pulled into the parking stall.

In a thoroughly unprecedented in 2009 event, I missed the Sunday morning classes. That hasn't happened since every other Cowtown Jamborama that I've been to. Weird, eh?

I know why Frank and Joe are doing this, but I don't know why ... you know what I mean?


Check out the new fall lineup on the Jitterbug channel.

The Sunday night dance was held at the The Old Mattress Factory, so in between the end of classes and the dance VK and I had dinner ... at The Old Mattress Factory. I usually have a talent for picking good things off of a menu, not this time, I finished VK's sandwich, but saved a little room for the Omaha Jitterbug Corn Eating Contest.

I was in no particular hurry, so I only ate four ears of free corn, and got this really cool hat too.


Matt let all of his past Corn Eating victories go to his head.


It's hard to eat corn when you are giggling.

I was not particularly interested in winning as much as I was in free corn on the cob. Casey was sitting next to me and she put cinnamon on her corn on the cob, I tried it and it was good.

The band for the night was Rebel Fever, the band that usual plays downstairs at the Eagle's club on Friday's. They played mostly country and old time rock'n'roll. It was fun, and they were good. Plus a football game on the television.

Jenny Jitterbugs cuts a rug, or a wooden floor, or something. You can bet she knew all the words to the songs.


I'm unsure who the referee is calling a penalty on. Make sure you dance correctly.


Here is the picture, but I still can't picture Katie with straight hair.

I finally took off about 2300. Thus ended Cowtown Jamborama (for me) 2009. I heard it kept going later, but I'm sure I was in bed by then.

So many new friends. So many hours of dancing. So much fun. So many pictures, here are mine, Matt's, Maeg's, Jillian's on Facebook and Steve's on Facebook.