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Calico Haunt (week 2 day 2) Cold and WIndy!

Windy cold and windy. We are in the high desert and it was cold and windy all day.

In spite of the weather my aunt and uncle came out to see us. So far we have seen just about everyone in their family (Jay, Patricia, Marvin, Emris, Taulin, Lucky and Larry, Kris, the kids) this year and none of my own family outside my parents. Oh, well. Everyone is busy these days. Maybe Thanksgiving, right?

We did four shows today and filled the chairs in every one. Still the park wasn't as busy as last year in my opinion. Most everyone had to wear jackets today because of how cold it was. Since it's a costume event that killed the whole theme since a skeleton in a parka is odd.

In between shows the kids played on the hillside. One of the perks of Calico. They have been working on that wall all weekend.

Great thing is the wall and hill don't need batteries and the technology is old. But they have a blast.

See! he's having a ton of fun...a ton of rocks worth of fun.

A quick snap shot of the stage layout. It's tiny but we squeeze a lot in.

As you might know we have been performing here for 15 years. During that time we have built up quite a fan base. In EVERY show there are at least 10 people who have come to our show multiple times. One group of dads and daughters (six girls) have been planning there trip here for three months and all the girls have been saving and looking forward to getting their "Calico Kitties" . (A Calico Kitty is the skunk puppet-toy we have been selling for years.) Others have a collection of the wands we have been selling all these years. They have one from every year. We've become a tradition. It is a ton of fun for us too.

Calico is cool!

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Tightrope for all! Week 2 Day 1 Calico Haunt

Week two Day one of the Halloween Haunt at Calico Ghost Town...our 15th year! Even though our first show wasn't until 5:30 we got to the town around noon and as the big boys set things up the little ones and I walked around the town. We visited Janet, the pottery shop owner. She is the one that gave us Belle...or more correctly she was the go between. Belle got to see her old friend the black toy poodle, Big Boy. She chased him around the shop a bit. Big Boy originally knew Belle as the meek nervous puppy. But she has come back as a more confident, unafraid dog. She does get a little rough with him. Still she loves to see him so much.

After setting things up all the kids practiced the tightrope for a couple of hours. Even Olivia and Amelia got into it. (next video blog)
Then Jim and Nick hung around back stage a while.
In preparation for trapeze school the boys did pull ups and chin ups. Miles topped everyone with 20. Jim pulled off 8 and Nick did 6. The average person can do 1-3. I can do one!


Before the start of the first show I notice two kids with "top hats" so up they came for a three person shot. We are pretending to hold tea cups.


Even though it wasn't on the schedule we did a night show tonight. It was a decent sized crowd but they weren't an overly rambunctious group. Still no one walked away and the crowd just continued to grow until it ended. Sales were good and compliments were plentiful So good night!
And with that...Good night!

Back In SoCal Again! Casting Call.

Well, after another 8 hour drive due south we are back in Southern California for Calico Ghost Town's Halloween Haunt's final weekend. A few years back they made it a two weekend deal. It's gotten to the point that I could do the drive in my sleep. But since, the CHP swarms California Highways for state fundraising I try not to sleep while driving. Got the late late drive Sunday night so I will have to be careful.
Weather good, driving conditions generally good. So the drive went smoothly.
I know how boring of an entry in the blog can this get. Well....we play with the cards we are dealt.
One interesting and potentially good or bad news is we were once again contacted by another production company to participate in a casting call for a developing reality game show of sorts. We turned down Wife Swap again a month ago and now we get this offer. I will investigate this then decide what to do. I'll let you know when there or if there is anything to report.
To top the night off we had dinner at a 50's style dinner (chrome and checker flag design joint) tonight. Ran into one of the characters from Calico there (he's staying at the same hotel). If you saw our last video blog then you know Henry Fencepost, aka Bill Wright. We had a great chat about the history and characters of Calico. The town has a great and vibrant history.
Our fist show is at 5:30 tomorrow.

Calico Haunt (day3) Ghost Busters Here There and Back Again!

Though today is Tuesday and we return to Calico in 2 days I failed to submit at Sunday report from Calico, mostly because I was driving home at the time I normally write reports.
Sunday at Calico was nice in many respects but one in particular stands out. Not the weather, because it was windy like all the other days and abnormally cool. It was, for the first time since I don't know when we did NOT have a 10AM Sunday show. They were notoriously sparse but always on the schedule. But, since we didn't have en evening show for the first time since records have been kept the night before the point of any early show on Sunday is slightly less dramatic.
Regarding the picture to the left....nothing to regard, Miles and Belle posed and someone took their picture. Probably James.

The following pictures were taken by James as he could not stop raving about the cool Ghost Buster costumes he saw. They even had a speaker in the get up that played the Ghostbuster theme. Their packs lit up and made other noises as well.

NERDS!

Yes, yes they are.

Who ya gonna call?

I am getting old but pumped on sunflower seeds, coffee and gum and lively conversations with Bill I did the nearly 9 hour drive home from Calico after doing the three shows on Sunday. Fortune smiled on us since we left our show and trailer there and only had to pack things up a little instead of preparing it for travel. That made our departure much earlier than it will be this weekend coming up.

Good news is we have been granted evening shows1 Yeah....now watch we will get stuck with a 10 AM Sunday show!

While on our three day off we are all taking the time to get the house in Oroville ready to sell. Last week it was new cabinets in the kitchen. This week we re-graveled in front of our house and put gravel for the first time around the sides of the house and along the back fence. That forced us to do a lot of clean up that we have been sweeping under the carpet for years. (Pun intended.) it really looks pretty. A little turf, a nip, a tuck and it will be beautiful.

Miles took a couple of math tests today on top of the gravel loading and ground flattening. At least Jim got the chance to meet with a few friends this morning on top of Oroville Dam.

The little ones mostly did school work for the day. Mami is a task master whenit comes to education.

I rebooked the Wisconisn Chocofestival today so I will see all you yubbers in May! Cheers.

Lizards,Shows, and the Town Drunk

Day 2 here the first weekend at the Calico Ghost Haunt 2010. After the first show JP (show with Olivia on the left) showed us a lizard he caught here. He was even nice enough to let Olivia hold it. We have watched JP grow up over the years. His father is a ranger down here and has been here since our first performance here 14 years ago.

After the last show today I asked the audience how many people had seen 3 or more of our shows either this weekend or over the years. About 50 people raised their hands. So I invited the "stalkers" up on stage after the show to take a picture with us. Notice the plate of spaghetti in front of me.....

It's a costume. Impressive.

It was windy all day today. kinda of cold too. Maybe we should roast Al Gore since Global warming wasn't doing it's thing today. We were in coats and jackets all the way up to our first show at 12:30 and we are in the middle of the Mojave. I didn't get a sun burn but I did get wind burned. Feels similar but without the radiating heat of a sunburn.

My Uncle Larry who lives in nearby Barstow came out ti visit today. He sat through two shows and as always was our biggest cheer leader. My aunt wasn't feeling well and couldn't make it. We hope she will feel better and join us next week.

There are a lot of acts up here this year. One is a Freak show or Sideshow performance down in the Silver bowl Stage. They have sword swallower's, glass walkers, bed of nails, and glass eaters. They even have a guy who lifts heavy object with a dull hook in his eye-sockets. Then he balances on a spear. A real freak show. We have met all the players and they are a very interesting foursome. They are indeed very nice folks.

Jim Wright, AKA Henry Fencepost, the town drunk, worked a little routine with Miles....Miles whipped his clown nose off his face with his bull whip: Thar will be on our video blog soon.

Calico Ghost Haunt 2010--tarantula migration---old friends.

Today is day one of the Ghost Haunt and load in day for us. I personally didn't have a very good sleep last night so I was lethargic for most of the morning. Before heading over to Calico we had to hit a couple of stores for supplies. One of those stores was Frosty's Donuts in Barstow. I have written about them before and have even had tid bits on them in our video blog. they are the best donut makers on the planet...bar none. If you don't believe me set your GPS for Frosty's on Main Street (Rte 66) in Barstow and try them....great coffee too. I've been waiting for those donuts all summer. Naugatuck, CT has the best paper thin crust pizza and Barstow has the best donuts.....
While loading in the show we came across a tarantula passing our stage area. It's migration time and year after year we have seen them. But this year Ranger Wayne Hartel (a great musician by the way) showed us how to handle them and we picked one up. The pictures to the left tell the story.

Bill has a new Facebook picture here. Bill Jackson, good friend, magician, teacher. But his toupee is terrible.

This is Janet Jones who owns the pottery shop in Calico. If not for her Belle would not be our dog. She was the go between who arranged us getting Belle earlier this year. Belle poses with her ol' friend.

Talking about old friends. Earlier in the day as I gave Bill a tour of the town I told him of the days when a young man named Andy used to do medicine shows and did the arrangements for some of the Halloween Haunt. Low and behold he showed up tonight at our show. In full regalia. It was old home week.

It was an easy day today. We had only one show. Usually we would have a night show each day but they have a hypnotist performing lower down in the town (our stage is at the top of the hill) in what was traditionally our nighttime show spot. The top of the hill was truly a ghost town by 7:30. I am sure that didn't make the vendors at the top of the hill happy. Traditionally they would make a killing in sales as we woulod pack the Livery Stage area and the crowd would stuff their faces with food and drink as they waited for the show to start, during the show and as they left. I'm sure they lost big bucks tonight. Besides we like performing the night show. Still we had a good sized crowd for our time slot (5:30) and we will have 3 shows for the next two days...still no night spots....the best time.

The Rock shop ladies gave our little ones each a light up skull sword as presents today. What can I say, the folks here are kind, generous and sweet.

It's strange to be back at the hotel this early. Tomorrow we will be a bit later as we want to watch the hypno-show. Since the performer is unknown to me and my hypno-friends, I am to give a full report after seeing him.

Business: I have spoken with a talent manager and we are starting a dialog for things to change here on the business end of our show. Just starting....

Have a few other irons in the fire that I can't talk about now but will share with you as time goes on.

Calico-The Drive down

OK, so we have driven nearly 30K miles this summer so what is so exciting about an 8 hour drive from Norcal to SoCal. Nothing much. It was pretty tame. Sure we ran a little late since the kids' bladders seemed to be smaller this trip. Uncle Bill (Magician friend Bill Jackson) joined us. It's his first time going to the very cool Calico Ghost town. And I got a very sweet email from Cynthia where she thanked us for the care pkg of cookies and stuff. It was a touching note and moved me.
Uncle Bill told me that the landscape (off hwy 58 in the Mojave Desert) reminded him of a trip he and I made almost 15 years ago to Death Valley and later Pahrump and Vegas. "Back in the days when I was young and handsome and had elegant style". In other words, I was young, brown haired, which I slicked back with gel, and wore a Fancy black tux/tails with sequins. He has a good memory and told me of conversation I have long forgotten or suppressed. It is fun to have him along. Since, Nick, our tech guy, is off to Socal for his granny's b-day there was an open spot in the van so Bill could come.
Talked with our realtor in Berea, Ky and we are in discussions about the house we blogged about way back in September. Nothing really deep or exciting to report....yet.
The hotel we always stay at in Barstow didn't have us on the books and so a bit of time was lost once we got here trying to figure out what happened. Fortunately the clerk knew us and checked us in under the clients Direct Bill. After reaching our show-boss it turns out she has us at another hotel this time and forgot to tell us. Sooooo, we will stay here this weekend but be at the other joint next weekend. Crazy life huh?
The kids start trapeze school in two weeks.
Carl's Jr for dinner.....
First show is 5:30PM tomorrow night. While back up in Oroville we have some of the family staying behind and new security camera's and alarms since James' car was broken into last weekend when we were in SoCal....can't wait to shake the dust of that town off my feet. So discouraging and disheartening.

I Feel like a Yo-yo!

We just drove in from SoCal three days ago and are on our way again. Three days before that we drove through SoCal on our return from Oklahoma. And after we get back on Monday, three days later we will go down again. if we weren't 8 hours away I would take the Rv and stay down there.
We are performing at Calico Ghost Town's Halloween Haunt. This is our 15th year! Always a blast. they take an old silver mine and turn it into a haunted mine filled with goblins, ghouls and monsters. Then there are the umpteen old fashioned arts, crafts and games the town offers. They read Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" by camp fire. And of course they have us. It's the only time we perform at Calico after dark. Always fun.
The best thing are the costumes. Sure we get tired of the "Scream" , "Blood Pulsing Skeletons", etc. But every so often there is that person who put a ton of though and money into simply spectacular costumes. But the quick costumes can be fun too, like Mermaid-man from a few years back. He will always be my favorite.
With our expanded stunts and tricks this year will be even more exciting. We are taking the tightrope so that will be awesome.
On other notes, I made reservations for Trapeze school for Jim, Miles, Victor Jr., Amelia, Olivia and our tech man Nick. They will take to the sky in November.
I also had a chance to catch up a bit with my dear friend JC Dunn today at our favorite Chinese place in Oroville, Tong Fong Low's. The owner, Sandy, has become a good friend to us and took our order personally spending a great deal of time chatting and joking with us. Good people. It has been 4 months since my kids have seen Uncle JC and they wee so delighted to see him. Jim bought JC's car a couple of years back and still owes him more. But you wanna hear what JC did. He gifted it to Jim. I mean can you believe that? What a guy. I would rather Jim pay him off but I know JC and he is hard headed about being generous. Thank you JC.
One thing JC and I discussed was our once a year to the Magic Castle. We have been doing it for 2 years now and are setting the plans for 2011. Even if my family moves there is no way in the world I would miss going to the castle with JC. I could go on my own anytime. But I have to tell you, it ain't the same. JC is a long time, live time, member and has stories. Oh, the stories, of the good old days when Dai Vernon, JC Wagner, Bruce Cevron, and the others haunted the place...when they were alive...now they just haunt the place. And the acts we see! wow.
On the home front we are fixing the house up to be sold. We are doing a massive gathering of junk to toss away, junk to donate, junk to yard sell, and junk that will move with us. Thses past three days it was the Kitchen cabnets...put them in ourselves (Miles and I). As I type this Miles is painting the ceiling in there. Jim is ironing and arranging the costumes for Calico, and the kids are to stoked up to sleep. After all they love Calico Ghost Town.

Silverado Days 2010...

Alrighty then....Where is Alf?

We pulled good crowds at the Silverado Days Festival and we had a great time. To prove it...we are beat!

Yesterday I wrote about "A Touch of Soul BBQ" ..here is a shot of it.

In front there was an old John Deere Farm Equipment of some type. We love John Deere.

And teh food we ate there.

This is the Anza Community Hall we squeezed our show into. It was packed.

While waiting to set up the boys posed for girls as they drove by on the hwy.




Backstage at Silverado days today the kids goofed off a bit.

Posing with Silverado Sam.

Another pose with a more wooden Sam.

The girls limbo as a steel drum band played.

In our Show Tj becomes Buena Parks most recent circus performer.

Buena Park-Silverado Days - Discovery

It's hard to believe that this time a year ago a film crew was following us around the hotel I am quietly sitting in right now. The whole family, Mami and Titus included, were here. And everything we did from ordering a pizza to walking downstairs to get our bags was scrutinized by cameras and microphones and a very kind director/producer overseeing it all. We made some friends and learned a lot about reality TV those three days.
Today it is quiet. Same hotel. But with ghosts of last year popping up as a familiar spot where we were interviewed or where a memorable scene played out. The ghosts are quiet and have no cameras. After our long day today I am glad for the quiet. Right now the kids are bathing and getting ready for bed. No need to tell them what to do. Even the five year, Olivia, is a veteran. Don't bother daddy, just get ready for bed. Hotel voices, remember to use hotel your hotel voices.
As you can figure out for yourself the sizzle reel (that's what they call a test reel) didn't bear out any kind of show for us. I learned from the top guy at Discovery Studios that the reel never was even edited. He gave me a few excuses; we are too nice a family, not New York Enough, too Milk toast. I think that was true but I think the tons of technical things that went wrong (lost audio and video due to a crashed hard drive being one) and the fact that not all of us effervesced had more to do with it. After this long 4 month tour that included some really exciting stuff including strange foods, neat people and historic or weird places, not to mention the troubles that popped up and the interested assortment of personalities that joined us for a month, two weeks, a day, I think Discovery Missed out on a great opportunity with us....but, hey, that's just me saying, you know!
Our hotel stay in Temecula (there are no hotels in Anza) was OK. Check in was tough as the clerk wanted the credit card holder to sign in (our client booked it and had her card on the rooms). I played tough guy and convinced him it was well worth him just using the card she gave him as I wasn't going to give him mine. He would've charged her card had we not taken the rooms so why couldn't he charge her card when we did take the rooms? Dumb dumb dumb.....not him, the rules! Anyways it worked out fine.
The only problem after that was lack of sleep. I woke up every single hour on the hour all night long...I seriously saw every hour from 11PM to 7AM! I functioned fine today but around 6pm I was irritable.
We found a BBQ joint near our hotel and ate there from brunch, " A Touch of Soul". On their sign they even had a Biblical reference, MATT 6.33 "First seek the Kingdom of God..." The food was great and the two folks working there were really nice. I highly recommend the Brisket.
We then drove into Anza, a small sandy desert town. And set up the show. This year the high school wanted to overcharge the city to use the theater so they used the town hall. It was 10 foot ceilinged and tiny so our tightrope and some stunts had to be cut. Still a good crowd showed up and we nailed the show. I must say due to my lack of sleep there were a couple of times I felt like I was phoning the show in. I don't think anyone noticed. High compliments were paid all around after the show and we loaded up. We then drove down to Beuna Park (about 2 hours away) and found our hotel. The one I opened this blog with.
Last year while we were here there was a group of college kids here. They are back! We are on the opposite side of the hotel this year and there are not complimentary bottles of water like last year, but otherwise all is the same.

On the Road to Anza

Our post names can sometimes sound like old Bob Hope Bing Crosby films. This week it is "The Road to Anza". Since Anza is 10 hours away form our home base we had to drive down today or else wake up at 2am tomorrow morning and drive down. Since we have a late drive back Saturday on into Sunday we decided the 2AM thing was out! So we left a the leisurely time of 10AM this morning on a slow drive down. I wanted to time things so we would miss the majority of LA area traffic. And for the most part we missed it. There were only a couple of bottle necks but it flowed pretty nicely.

I wish I could say the drive down was and adventure....or maybe I really don't because adventures often turn into expenses or headaches. So the drive was just slow and tedious. California has a really dumb law where big trucks and cars pulling trailers drive at 55 and all others at 65 or more. I call it dumb because those of us forced to drive slower end up holding up the cars that can legally go faster and create traffic wolf packs. It really ticks some folks off that we slower vehicles (by law) are following the law and we are rewarded by those other drives with the "California Howdy" in the form of a birdy or middle finger salute, sometimes coming with a horn honk. After traveling so many states where there are no such laws it is tough to keep the van down to 55. So I set the cruise control and in my head heard elevator music the entire drive. We saw 23 cops today!

One of the delights of driving long drives are some of the talk show hosts I get to listen to on the radio. In Southern Cal Tim Conway's (from the Carrol Burnett Days) son Tim Conway Jr. has a talk show with a ton of humor, political satire and games. One game he has is "What the hell did Jesse Jackson Say". He plays a clip of something Jesse Jackson said in a speech and callers call in and try to figure out what was said. It's hilarious. His regular Schtick was interrupted by a high speed chase going through the LA area and as required by social law down here each twist and turn is described by every TV and radio station. Tim's callers even have fun with the chase and the game melding the two. One guy called in and pretending he was the guy in the white car that was being chased said, "Can you repeat the clip, I couldn't hear it over the sound of the sirens behind me." The next caller pretended to be a cop chasing the guy saying he had turned down the siren so he could hear the clip and guess what Jesse had said. Great laughs! The thing is there are so many car chases down here that people make great sport of them. Last time we were down this way we watched one on TV. It's amazing how mesmerizing they can be.
Our client booked us at a hotel a little lower than the standards our contract states. To top it off the clerk wanted me to pay for it in spite of having the credit card info of the client. I had to turn on the tough guy routine and all went the way it was supposed to after that. I got the rooms I needed and little clerk didn't get to see my real tough guy character....that's when I beg and plead nearly in tears.

Watonga Cheese

In spite of Friday Night Lights (local High School football) and a concert near by we drew a big crowd...just a couple of seats shy of selling out.

The crowd was awesome. They laughed and laughed and clapped and really played the part of a great audience.

I will post more tomorrow. Just know it went very well. We enjoyed local cheese and we sent out lots of Strolling acts. Going to do the parade tomorrow. Cheers.

Oklahoma, where the winds come sweeping down the plain.

We have arrived in Watonga, OK, a town the to the eye looks like it probably did in the 1950s. A very cute little old town with people actually named Andy and Barney. Where people sit around the antique store shooting the breeze. A town where not a single building looks like it was built after 1970. It's magnificent. Many of the people we have met fit the town to a T. We went to a market and the faces of the employees looked like they jumped off the pages of the Saturday Evening Post.

The folks are friendly too. The Okee accent is here, we are in the heart of OK after all. The "yes sir" and "no sir" is here as well.

Our hotel has a little mini-golf on it's property. The owners, Anita (and I forget the man's name) are grandparents and understand what little kids want. So While Jim stayed back and rested his broken rib the little ones got a few holes in. Only $2.00 each, you can't beat that.

To give Mami a break it was microwave night...here is our own hungry man Miles.

We will be doing some strolling acts throughout the day tomorrow. We will have a big show at their Liberty Theater right in the center of town on Main St. Right behind the theater is the fire-department. They share an ally. This old crank start fire-truck is from the 1920s and it was the first motorized vehicle in Watonga. There is even a picture of it parked in front of the theater we will perform at in the 20s.

The seats are all original and really classy. Yes they have be reupholstered and repainted but they are still the originals....look at the castings.

The stage is not humongous but it is very nice. The painting of the theater is very 1920s...gaudy. Isn't it great?



Magic Jon is the local magician and he paid me a great honor by coming out to say howdy as we loaded in. He is a very nice man. I also got to meet his wife, a country singer, very lovely. We had some great chit chat and laughs as the kids loaded in the show.

We start tomorrow.

I am writing this from the RV. Tonight I get it all to myself. Everyone else has hotel rooms. Yes! OK, I am not completley alone. Bobbi and Belle are keeping me company. They had better be quiet.

The drive from Amarillo was about 4 hours and went fairly uneventful Though the start had a threat of danger. We always grease the bearings of the trailer every couple of thousand miles. This morning one of the grease fitting broke of at the thread whent hey took the gun off. Had they not noticed the grease could've run out and burned out the bearings. Those of you who remember the blog back earlier this year remember us nearly loosing a tire on the little trailer when it's bearings burned out. had to replace the axle. Well, a tire store man told us about a fix it joint around the corner. When we got there all the mechanics were out to lunch so he lent me the easy-out tool and I paid 36 cents for a new fitting and we changed it ourselves. We lost only 20 minutes (most of that was finding the place) and 36 cents. Could have been worse.

Just a note we are now members of the Kentucky Fair Assoc., The Georgia Fair Assoc., The Texas Assoc of Fairs and Expos, The New York Fair Assoc., and the Outside Business Assoc. With membership in Assoc for PA, FL, OH, MN, WI, Western Fairs, IAFE, AZ and NC in the works. See you at the conventions.

The stars at night, are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas!

With the hopes of seeing the big balloons overhead we left Albuquerque in themorning around 11:30AM. We saw none and soon understood from radio reports the balloon race for today was canceled due to possible thunderstorms....strangely the only place we could see there were clouds were right over the balloon area. Oh well.
The drive seemed a little long though it was only a five hour drive. We went from the mountains around Albuquerque to the high desert to the prarries of the panhandle of Texas. We decided to try a new campground. It's nice enough and the lady running it is really a Texas rose. Friendly but Texas tough. I gave her one of our post cards when we checked in. Before long the word has spread around the camp that we are there. She came by our site later on, before we headed off to dinner and asked for more cards. She was giving them away to people she thought might use us someday. Wow.


She gave us an extra site for our van and trailer at no extra cost. Cool!

In the many years we have travel through Amarillo we always talked about going to the Big Texan restaurant. You may know it from TV, most recently Man Vs Food. They have the 72oz steak challenge. If you finish it and it's sides you get it for free...if not you pay $72.00.

We found out that the Big Texan would send a limousine with big horns on the hood to pick us up at the camp and bring us back. We did it.

The place is like a Texas theme park. Everyone is wearing cowboy wear most with sheriff badges; from the owners to the bus boys.

There is a fake ghost town and neat little attractions around the place and a big gift shop. Inside there are cute things like the giant rocking chair you can sit and take a picture in. It really is a theme park of sports.

The servings were humongous and almost all of us finished our plates.



We decide to go all out and order rattle snake and Rocky Mtn Oysters (Bull balls) for appetizers.

They were out of snake but they had plenty of oysters. I abstained but everyone else tried them We didn't tell Mami and the little ones what they were until they tried them...great video footage. The picture to the left are el torro's jewels.



Down the hatch!

Of course James had to demonstrate his skills and people began to come over and request him to balance things so they could show their young (left) or take a picture.

One of the owners (pictured with the beige shirt and stuff on his belt) gave Jim permission to use one of the chairs. BTW you may notice the timers on the wall behind Jim...those are for the 72 oz challenge...only one hour to eat that much meat and side.

After seeing that the staff cleared a table. The manager announce to the house what was about to happen and every phone camera and regular camera was out as Jim balanced a very heavy table on his face. Though, it isn't the heaviest thing he has balanced.

Mami finished a 20 oz T-bone!

For desert kids got to have ice cream or a cowboy hat....gues what Olivia and Amelia chose. She found those glasses at the last fair.

Tummies full and wallent empty we have come back from the Big Texan. We will sleep well...or have heartburn...I'll let you know.

Day off with a long wait and a short drive.

(Fire whip)

The SNMSF is over and we are in Albuquerque with fairly strong winds and a slight threat of thunderstorms in the forecast. We got out of Las Cruces at nearly 3pm after waiting all that time for the person with the POBox key for the fair to be located and then contacted. We had two very very very important pieces of mail due last Friday to the Fair's PO Box. On Friday and Saturday the office told us the pieces of mail weren't at the PO yet. Turns out when i spoke with the manager no one had been to the PO since Thursday. The office misspoke? Our hope was to have the mail by this morning and get on our way but instead we spent the day mulling around the prisoner clean up crews and an empty fairgrounds. I had a headache the size of New Mexico but that was relieved when it was reported that the girl with the key was on her way with our mail. I'm not angry with the fair or the management, though I wish the office would've been more honest or whoever wasn't would've been. Also found out that our FEMA reject trailer that was meant as a replacement for a hotel room ala our contract...you know the one that had a broken gas pipe, leaked inside and outside with grey water and had a few other problems I mentioned before. Well, the company who loaned it to the fair thought it was just going to be used as a changing room. So we were given a less than livable one. To the fair's compliment their facilities crew did get hot water running in it and with the exception of the wet carpet every time they showered it turned out OK.
Just wanted to show you Miles does well on the wire too.

Double Volcano

Buttercup

Mami and Buttercup after the show. Audience folk can pet and take pictures with him.

OMG is she OK?

Yeah!

Nick.

This is one of the many things we did to kill time while waiting for the mail....frisbee, playing with the dog, email, and the like were also on the menu of stuff to kill time. I hate waiting.

This is the same shot position of our staging area minus the stage...see a couple of blog entries back for the first shot with the stage.

Kids who became Las Cruces' newest circus performers from yesterday.