Week 30 wrap: 9/10/22

Tassie has started with a bang – our 30th week on the road, our 50th event, our two biggest event attendances of the trip to date, and Claire assuming permanent Hobart Tuxedo attire ie puffer jacket due to her intense hatred of the cold.

Our first Tassie bootscoot was a demo at One Care Rubicon Grove on Tuesday, where we had the residents toe tapping and clapping along as we busted out some of our favourite dances to 80s classics. On Wednesday afternoon, we headed east to St Helens. Kate got her tongue tied in the car while attempting to say ‘I can see the sea but can the sea see me’, with this stumble predicted by Claire to be from a lack of sleep, turns out it was instead because of a lack of water. Things improved once Kate swigged a few gulps down (Mt Franklin, do you want to sponsor us?)

We stayed with Jo and Ross in St Helens, which involved a ranch style meal, homegrown raspberries, and a farm tour, and headed into town on Thursday town to teach at the Festival of Wellbeing, run by the Break O’Day Council. We left shortly after our set to get back to Westbury in time for our hoedown there that night. Without even being our designated ‘big’ Tassie event, we had 102 people in attendance, well fed by 18 casseroles cooked by local line dancers the Bootscooting Bunnies. An enormous effort!

After staying with local bootscooter Anne and husband Bob on Thursday night, we headed off to brekky with the Bootscootin Bunnies on Friday, hosted by walking quote machine Gay Hall. Gay lives on a property adorned with 43 vintage tractors (largely collected by husband Royce), cooks the best scrambled eggs ever and ensures they don’t look like ‘savoury custard’ and very proudly has a photo of her and Eddie McGuire stuck to her dishwasher. We were in stiches laughing with this fab group all morning, made up by only a few OBEs (Over Bloody Eighties, a term invented by Gay).

Still laughing our heads off, we drove south to Hobart, picked up our donated boots from Blundstone (wow!), and headed out to author Rachael Treasure’s property Ripple Farm Landscaping Healing Hub in Richmond, with the shearing shed on the property the location for Mutton Muster and Blues Buster. Having grown up with a framed autograph of Rachael on Kate’s desk, this was a pretty big fangirl moment for Kate, but her voice miraculously didn’t venture into a dangerously high frequency only able to be heard by dogs.

Rach and partner Dan had done the most amazing job with the venue, and we are so grateful to the many pairs of hands that made light work in the leadup to the day and on the night. We ended up having 101 people in attendance, so Westbury, you’re still number 1 spot, but only just! Kate and a splinter had a faceoff, won by the splinter, but tweezers and bandaids on Sunday helped the situation improve.

We’re hitting the road north this week, with events at Rosebery, Smithton and St Helens. Having spent three nights staying with Rach and Dan, our stuff is now everywhere – one of Claire’s bags now contains carrots, kwells, a shirt, a hair dryer, trail mix and a headlight. A swift sort out will be required before leaving!

Yours in bootscootin,

Kate and Claire.