For the fourth year in a row we ventured to the Green Bay, Wisconsin area to participate in the Pulaski Polka Days festival from July 19 through 22.
We started out the day as usual packing our most comfortable shoes and clothes in anticipation of hot humid days of dancing. The weather in Wisconsin had been a blistering 100 degree with heavy humidity the week before. We were ready to wait in the tedious security lines at DIA. We slipped through a line packed with families with eager kids ready for adventure toward the A concourse in about 20 minutes. So far so good.
Frontier had dropped it direct flight to Milwaukee so we were on Delta through Minneapolis to Green Bay. So far so good. They even gave us a small bag of peanuts, pretzels or cookies. Landing smooth. Waiting on the tarmac for a slot to deplane, not so good. Fifteen or twenty minutes later we scurried off the plan to high tail it to the next plane bound for Green Bay. Thank God for moving walkways.
Arriving at our gate with minutes to spare we learned the plane was delayed for a while. That while turned into 3 more hours. The festival started at five and we wouldn’t be arriving until close to eight. Se la vie.
Stan hurriedly checked out the rental car as I collected our luggage. These planes are so small that they offer to store your carry on luggage down below. That works for us. The only reason we carry them on in the first place is to save time in check-in and the $25/bag surcharge.
The advantage to traveling to the same place several times is that you pretty much can find the hotel quickly, change shoes and scurry down the road to Pulaski for the last two hours of polka music. Cars were parked far into the neighborhood on the streets and parking lot next to the festival was full and cordoned off. Continued driving slowly and entered the parking lot of a local business next to the festival and found one of the few remaining spots.
The festival was jammed packed with the younger set as this was dollar day. A new attraction that had kids in five foot round plastic bubbles rolling in a big tub of water gave us a smile. When I say big tub, I mean about 30 foot across big. The music blared at high decimals from the two large tents crowed with people. We walked between the crowd to the back of the tent and around the side where we would enter the dance floor more easily. As we surveyed the grassy area beside the tent full of puddles, the trumpet player from the Marosek Brothers band told us it had rained some. They really needed the rain and it would be soaked into the grass by tomorrow. The weather was a cool 65 degrees with no humidity. Couldn’t be better.
We knew from the plane ride over that Colorado was parched from the severe drought conditions this summer. Wild fires in the mountains close to Fort Collins had taken acres and acres of forest and ~300 homes had burned. In the mountains near Colorado Springs a fast moving blaze burned another 300 or so homes giving the people but minutes to run out of their homes with dogs and cats to escape the blaze that followed the whims of the 60 mile an hour winds. Fields of corn dried crispy on their stocks with no or low harvest potential. The rivers and streams ran swallow due to low snow pack this past winter. Aquifers full of water were restricted from pumping that precious water due to government restrictions and ownership of the water rights. The farmers had petitioned governor Hickenlooper for a reprieve in the drought year to save the crops from disaster. He sided with the state Engineer and legal team to restrict usage of water wells.
Flying north east the land changed from brown to lush green. The fields of Wisconsin might have suffered with less water, but they were still green.
Enough of the country’s weather woes.
The music was loud as loud can be. I put in a patch of rolled up Kleenex to mask the sound and save my ear drums. Still through the blare the beat goes on and thrills your heart. The youngsters from the New Generation played to the crowd of slightly intoxicated youngsters that crowded the stage up close to bounce and sway to the music. The dance floor was filled with the Wisconsin style dancers dressed casually kicking up a storm. No formal dancing shoes for this bunch. They wore tennis shoes, flip-flops or bare feet on this make shift wooden floor.
We spun around a few times wishing that we were younger and my knees were more flexible. I blamed it on the sticky dance floor. We caught a glimpse and had a chat with Jackie and Bob that we had traveled with to Poland a few years ago. Tall Elaine from Colorado was also at the festival staying at her parents’ home in Green Bay. We were treated to fireworks that lit up the darkened sky.
We loved the Maroszek Brothers who played the traditional Honky style polish music. It was worth the trip to hear live music from such talented musicians.