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1300 MIles to New York

Plymouth Fair:
Anticipation for the super long drive after the three shows on Sunday has kept me a bit anxious all week.  This was the one drive nobody would look forward to, 1300 miles in an rv pulling a trailer from western Iowa to way upstate New York.
But we still had a few days to go.
During the whole run we never had an audience less than 200 and had a full 700+ most the time.  Big or small the audiences' reaction have been wonderful. We have been blessed.

Victor and the fire bo staff

fire hoop

Dogs life

Cicade's former skin left on a crate

 Come Sunday we attended church service at the main stage at the Plymouth Fair.  The message was based on the rich young man who wanted to follow Christ but his wealth was his stumbling block. "what is holding you back from following Christ?"

After three shows, the last ending at 9:45pm the kids packed up in record time and we were hooking up the rv to the trailer. But the trailer was in an odd position. Thanks to a kind vendor who moved the trailer into a better position we were on the road an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of schedule.   Our first jump was just 4 hours to Waterloo KOA where we pulled in around 3AM.  We got three hours sleep and was back on the road to NY early.  Surprisingly I wasn't as tired as I expected, Prayers answered.
We drove another 14 hours and passed through six states before pulling off just over the boarder of PA into NY where we had a chance for a few more hours of shut eye.  Earlier that day Mami and Miles and Titus took off from KY heading to NY. By the time we pulled into our KOA site in NY they were pulling into a motel about an hour ahead of us.
The next morning came fast. We left an hour earlier than Miles and the group and we all met up a couple of hours later along the route  I90. We pulled off on the thruway at a service area and exchanged kisses and hugs only to bounce back in our vehicles for the final three hours or so of driving.
We pulled into Gouverneur St Lawrence County fairgrounds a little after noon and was greeted by, Don, our boss for the next few days. He was a very kind man and very helpful in showing us our lot and getting us anything we needed.
 Our spot was a little out of the way behind some rides behind us, behind a restroom trailer and the Maple Shack on one side, beside the carney's bunk houses on the other side and a small parking area directly in front of us. No one found our show by accident. That is why the multiple announcements of our show helped bring in the crowds.
We had over a dozen fans from other upstate NY fairs come and visit us over our five day run. The Tweedie family (from the Delaware Fair) came in various numbers over two of the days. Really great people. Ethan T. had dinner with us one night as he took in three shows.

 Gouverneur is a pretty cool little town. It has a lot of the greatest old buildings and the homes along the main street are so cool. We visited the downtown are while our laundry was being done. We discovered the man who named the lifesaver candy "Lifesaver" and ended up owning the brand and moving them from cardboard tubes to tinfoil and wrapper was born here.

 The laundromat was located right next to a pizza joint so we enjoyed some slices of some very nice NY style pies while waiting.

 While traveling we find some very interesting things in the form of food. At the Price Chopper (a bit of a stretch given the real prices, albeit not the most expensive grocer we've been to.) we found zombie hotdogs. I didn't have to look at the ingredients.

While in Gouverneur Miles and the kids made a change in Miles' Bullwhip routine....I was out and the kids took my place holding the finger traps that Miles whips. Victor came up with the idea of having fingertraps in his mouth and each of his ears. See the video on the link below:


Video of Miles' New Bull whip trick with Victor Jr.
https://www.facebook.com/victor.kent.3/videos/10213968674798875/

We ordered a butter churn and bought some heavy cream and made homemade butter for the first time ever. It was fantastic. Never had butter that fresh.

While shopping in Ny I was surprised to see an Amish man and his little girl selling stuff from their cart. We bought some fresh bread and a couple of pies.  Amelia said it was the best pie she ever had.

After a fantastic week in NY which included reconnecting with Mami and the boys we spent Sunday traveling to Mannington West Virginia. On July 29th the river that runs through Mannington Flash flooded. The fairgrounds and a good portion of the town was underwater.  Below is a picture of the fairs grounds on the 29th.  The following picture is the same buildings just a week later.
I am blown away with how fast this community rebuilt, repainted, and restored the buildings.

They didn't wait for anyone to come and help them, they pulled up their boot straps and recovered. I was told everyone helped everyone. No need for the government. Imagine if all communities worked like this. I am just blown away.

First day in we had to hit the laundry again. Here is a sign in the laundromat.  They spelt "washer" the way I pronounce it. Nice.  The sign next to the one below is just outside the laundry.

 First night at the fair Little Miss Mannington was a guest in the audience. She honored me with a picture after the show.

 The flood a week ago had the crossroads in front of this sign closed and the water covered a couple of feet over the bottom. 

Miles left Monday afternoon to head back to KY and pred the robots for the 10 day fair in IL. He will meet up with Kyle F who will do the robot . I will join them next week.

Well, I have much more to add as the week progresses so I will update you soon.

Breamer and Plymouth

Sorry for not posting for a week. Weak wifi or G4 service and scheduling has kept me away.
But I'mmmmmm Baaaaack!

Since the last posting we finished up in Cherokee, drove back to central Iowa, then back (through Cherokee) to Le Mars on the Western most side of Iowa.

The last couple of days at Cherokee went swimmingly. We had good crowds and very nice weather. The badly needed rain only came on the first day of our stint there. The whole of western Iowa has been in need of water for some time. Unlike our visit here four years ago when there was flooding of the Missouri river and massive rain showers it is as dry as California right now. Even turing as brown as Cali.  

We attended church services at the fairgrounds on Sunday Morning.

It was held by the local Presbyterian church.
After church Olivia and Amy goofed around with their friends.

One of the fair managers brought the Sultan an overgrown broccoli stalk.  He was quite happy with it. 

Every fair has its unique games and activities for kids. The local fire department comes out the the fair in Cherokee and they have water fights with fire hoses.  The goal is the move a bucket along a wire to the opponents pole using the hose to move it and to drenge the other side in a move to distract them. 

We said our goodbyes and moved out last Sunday right after the last show because our first show in Waverly (Breamer Fair) started at 2pm the next day.   Once again we had to dive white knuckled and double fisted as HWY 3 is in sad sad sad shape. We pulled into Waverly on Sunday night around 11pm.  Our good Friend, Eric V. , who works at the fair, met us and helped us settle in. (Eric and his family have been good friends for several years now. We have stayed at their house several times.  Mami, and the kids) got to take turns and "drive" a corn combine a few years back. That made Mami a big John Deere Fan.   (By "drive" I mean sit there an look outside since the computer and satellite were doing the driving. )  We set up on Monday morning and did three shows on Monday and Tuesday (six in all).   It was nice to see old fans and friends like Marty D and Steve D as well as the Dean family.  Eric's family also came out. Mami loves Eric's mom and missed out on a visit with her this year.


Here are some random pictures from the Breamer Fair.

Olivia in Action on the lyra. 

Amelia hooping 60. 

Victor proving his feet are unprepared. 

Going up the machete ladder.

Showing off on the machete ladder

Help me break out of this joint. (no grass to eat at this place. )

Post show magic wand magic trick lessons. 

Hoops!

Belly busting bricks on nail bed. 

Dynamic Duo meet and greet. 

Posing with Mrs Dean. 

I am the champion shouts our very own Forgetful bear. 

Santa????? In July?????

Amy hanging around. 

Balloon Snack.  Wait til that passes. 

Fire hoop

More fire hoop

Shoving light bulbs through an audience mom. 

Yup, they went through. 

Olivia and her long time buddy, Buttercup

We had to have a couple of trailer tires changed out, seems load class C tires wear out fast, so we went to Waverly Tire. They guy met us at the car ( By the way, Eric lent us a utility car for the two days.) he took the tire and had it changed by the time I paid for it...less than  8 minutes.  These minions are out in front of the store.

Thanks to Eric and his family the use of the car allowed me to do laundry at what has become our regular laundry stop in central Iowa and to do some grocery shopping. 

Olivia loves to stilt. 

Iowa corn from a road side truck.  I was told they sold the best corn in the area....they were good. 

We slept in Waverly then early Wednesday we started back out the dreaded hwy 3 and shook, bounced and rambled back west to Le Mars. Plymouth fair is one of our favorites. Don't get me wrong we love Breamer and Cherokee and the other fairs we have done out here but Plymouth has huge crowds.  I don't think I have ever seen a crowd under 100 people. The average is 300-500 and we have seen it max out at numbers we couldn't count. First year here we had one bleacher, three by the end of that run. The next year five bleachers...now seven, and a huge area for folks tto also sit on the ground with lots of standing space around the sides. 

We have a couple of traditions out in Plymouth. One is to visit the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Salon. Well's Blue Bunny is made here and sold nationally at grocers.

The second tradition is lunch one day at the Pizza Ranch. (That is a chain in Iowa and MN...could be elsewhere too?)  Since we are without a van we walked the short walk to downtown and through the old streets past the old buildings with wonderful cornices and architecture. All the alleys, we discovered) have murals on the walls.  And not a few.....look

These are just a few.

They are all over town. We didn't realize that at first, we thought is was just one street. The girls called that alley, "Hippy Street".  Then as we walked we discovered it was in almost every alley in downtown. 

Since we don't have a chase vehicle until Mami, Miles and Titus meet up with us in upstate NY we have been fortunate for a couple of things. Like, in this town there is a Fareway, the grocer that takes you back to the 50s where there are real butches and everyone wears a white shirt and bowtie. 

We have also been blessed with local folks who have given me a lift to pick up things like cement blocks to break on Victor's tummy.  A local biker, who also has an F150, named Mongo and his bride, gave us a lift to get the bricks here is Le Mars.  

Since we haven't a car, just the RV, when we pull into a town we hunt out a Walmart and do our general shopping before we head to the fairgrounds.   If we can find a home center or builder supply that has a parking lot able to handle the rv and trailer we will stop there too for bricks. 

Here are some fun pictures:

 Moe the Pig Dog

 I found a triple chocolate fudge cake mix at fareways for 75 cents (Betty Crocker) and Amelia made Victor a belated birthday cake using the rice cooker. 

OK....there maybe some stories I have forgotten to tell so I will save them for the next entry. 

SUnday we do three shows 4, 6, and 8pm. Then we pack up and have 36 hours to get to upstate NY. That is a 19.5 (according to gps) hour drive add a couple of more for stops and add one more for time change.  We start at the St Lawrence Co fair in Gouverneur, NY Tuesday after 4pm. Keep us in your prayers for safety and no mechanical issues.   Mami and the rest of the gang will catch up with us there.