Made it to MA! Three more shows done! Some on NC.

Here is a photo Mrs Cole of NC sent to us of Princess Sayako doing Cynthia's sword Suspension.

After doing the show in NC we got a short night sleep and hopped in the RV and Van and started a trek that would take nearly 17 hours and cover 8 states. It would, for the most part be a pretty uneventful trip except that it was Olivia's Birthday, she turned five and 25 miles from our final destination we would hit a dramatic traffic jam.

Olivia would not want on her bday. We had a cake and presents and phone calls came in from Cynthia and her grand parents. It would, in fact, roll into today too. First, let me tell you about the cake. In an earlier blog I mentioned I bought a cake the day before her bday in NC. We would finally get to eat it in what Uncle Eddie would call, "a Chinese Fire drill cake eating party". Since we were on a cross country 850+ miles drive with little time to spare we stopped at a rest stop in NY, jumped out of the vehicles and (finding a picnic table) sang "happy birthday", took pictures, and cut the cake. Then we all took our pieces of cake and jumped into our cars and took off. The whole affair took less than 10 minutes. Olivia thought it was fun. It is definitely a story to remember.

I had bought her presents a few days earlier when we were in ME. She wanted a Zoozoo pet with a Mohawk. That is what she got...in fact, she got two. She gave one to her brother. (She noticed it had a tiny flaw in the hair and so it was not worthy and Victor got it.)

We were less than 30 minutes from Norhthampton, MA when hwy 91 became snarled in a pretty bad traffic jam. A really big accident had North bound lanes completely blocked. I used my smart phone to find an alternate route and off we got. If we had waited it would have taken over an hour to go through the detour the troopers had set up. We got out and around and ended up on a back road the cars from the detour would be also redirected to. So we were bumper to bumper for another 45 minutes until we were dumped back onto 91 just past the crash. We were so glad to see the hotel when we got there past 11pm. As some of you know Titus doesn't handle stopped traffic or stop lights well. He whined and cried so we entertained him with silly songs like "Great Green Gobs", "On Top of Spaghetti", etc. Even Sayako in here broken English joined in. It was loads of fun.

Here is our set up at the 3 County Fair. We will run the banner line a little longer tomorrow. It was humid and we were all tired to run the whole line today. Hurricane Earl (turned out to fizzle in comparison to the news warnings) did provide much humidity for us up here. The cloud cover kept the sun from making it unbearable.

Where is Alf here in Asheville at the New Life Community Church?

Uncle Eddie and Miles belt it out as they sing Happy Birthday.

Olivia's Cake. Turns out she only likes icing. Like me she doesn't care for cake much. But she was very grateful . Tonight at the hotel she had chocolate ice cream and was VERY grateful

Jim poses with a couple who watched our show and had good things to say about it.

OK...what is Golombki?.....

.....Cabbage rolls!

Across from us are racing pigs and the Adams' Tigers. They and their cats are nice.

There is one more note I have to make. I dropped the boys off early at the fair and left the girls and Titus at the hotel to get more rest. Then I ran around town familiarizing myself and picking up supplies. I found my bank, the grocer,the Wal-mart and the liquor store. It was when had finished running around I got a panicked call from Miles that James had whacked his big toe with the sledge hammer and was in bad sorts. James took the phone and eased my worries by telling me that though he totally ripped his toe nail off and smashed the skin up a bit his bone was fine and he didn't need medical help. The fair manager took him to the first aide station who bandaged him up but he didn't need the emergency room. I have been warning the boys about setting and loading while wearing flip-flops. Well, today the warning became a rule.....no flip flops. Steal toed boots might be a good idea too. In spite of the injury Jim did the shows and did stilt walking.

Northhapton, like most of MA, is a blue state area. It is liberal and there is a big homosexual presence. It was obvious by the rainbow flags and the people the moment we got into town. It is also a college town. Outside the town is rural and a bit of ag. So in many ways this place is similar to New Paltz, NY where we performed last year. As many of you know I use humor in the show and just what kind of humor (political, edgy, slap stick-ish, etc) is decided after I have had a chance to get to know the people and do a couple of "test" shows. Well, the crowd is very responsive but they take jokes about being Democrats coldly. However, jokes about Republicans are welcomes heartily. So no more of that. They don't seem mind "gay" humor, probably since I am from California. All other jokes are fine.

People drive kike maniacs here. And they will wait for a close to the store parking place a long long time to avoid parking way away from the store. The Wal-mart parking lot is tiny and the store is really strangely laid out. Even though the parking lot is less that a 1/4 of a football field in depth a lady actually waited (blinker on) the entire time I was in the store to get a parking place close to the front of the store. I parked way out 25 yards from the front of the store, near the street, where few cars were, and was in and out before she found her spot.

All three shows went well and more than 20 people came and saw all three shows...that makes them offically stalkers. A good term with us, unless I have a lawyer next to me.

Oh, another note. The pig race announcer sounds exactly like Joe Peski. So when he is talking it sounds like "My cousin Vinny" across the midway.