MORE PICTURES BACKSTAGE AND ON STAGE

Victor triumphant...but a few minutes earlier he had real police handcuffs, 1890 Smith And Wesson Leg cuffs on and was stuffed in a canvas bag sealed with a bar and locks.

Le Mars is a great little town and it seems to be doing economically well. the people seem pretty happy and the fair is awesome. BIG crowds, especially at the last show.

Le Mars is home to several large companies and is a big Milk and Ice Cream production town. In fact big fiberglass ice creme cones decorate many storefronts and sidewalks. Each painted to fit the business or area.

Tomorrow we hit the road unlike we have done in quite a while. By 10PM we have to be hauling out. By noon Monday we need to be in Indianapolis and by 3pm EDT we need to be in Winchester, KY for shows at 6:30! T|Google maps says 14.5 hours. I'm thinking 16...hoping for 16. It's gonna be crazy. Please, all, pray fo our safety and skills.

Local Paper has us in it

Le Mars Daily Sentinel: Local News: Plymouth County Fair Full of Entertainment (07/29/11)

Pictures

We made the local paper in Le Mars.

The added two more sets of bleachers and we still filled those and overflowed...and other record crowd day.

We were visited by our friends from Waterloo, Eric and Vaughn, all day and by our former Oroville friends (now our Iowa friends) Margaret and Dan Streebeck.

Mami and Titus performed today.

The kids played Frisbee like crazy with their new friends and their new Frisbee (freebies at the fair).

I had a stomach thing most of the day but felt better to enjoy the spaghetti dinner (lunch was Jambalaya.

Great day....a bit hot in the afternoon.

The pix of the flood is hwy 29......the one we didn't take.

Victor Fixes his frisbee with his duct tape...he is duct tape king.

There are also pix from the "stalker party" at Beech bend Park...sorry for being late.

Plymouth County Fair Day One...record crowds.

We are here and we are set up. Even though the fair didn't start for us until 4pm we got to the grounds around 11 am and the big kids went to it (by it I mean setting up.) The little ones stayed at the hotel and did homeschool. Mami was proud of Victor because he really did a good job as teacher for Olivia.

Meanwhile I did office work in the RV then running around getting supplies.

I know , it's not a glamorous report tonight.

However, some cool things did happen.

First on the not so cool side. It was a bad back day for me and I had to stay on pain pills for the day. Those soft hotel beds are killing me so I am back at my comfy "just right" bed at the RV tonight.

Now for the good. Our friends from Waterloo, IA, Vaughn and Eric, drove the 4 hours here to visit with us. It is always good to see them. They are staying with me in the RV tonight. They helped a lot with the tear down tonight and with the sales with the large crowds we had.

All three shows were packed. But the third show was overflowing standing room only. One fair board member told me it was the largest crowd they ever had at this stage. We broke a record. Cool!

James added a stunt that got tremendous crowd reaction. He took a hundred pound park bend and balanced it on his chin. The crowd really did go wild...it was cool.

All three shows, like I said, was packed and boy were they happy crowds. It didn't matter what we did the crowds really seemed to love us. PTL.

Cynthia made a great stir fry for dinner since Mami stayed at the hotel today since there was a 50% chance of thunderstorms....didn't happen.

Oh, and it was very nice weather wise. Sure there were a couple of hot humid moments but the clouds kept it from getting too hot.

I will post pictures tomorrow.

In Le Mars

OK, so up river of the MO River they had record snowfall this winter, then record rainfall this spring, and more rain this summer...all this means is that all 7 dams along the river between here and the source of the river have to let out more water than they have ever had to do or North Dakota becomes a giant lake. So instead all the farms along the Mo river from ND south get turned into lakes. That includes parts (big parts) of interstate 29 along West side of IA. As a result what would have been a 4 hour drive up from St Jo, MO to Le Mars turned out to be a 6 hour drive along hwy 71, a rural hwy...which is in reality a network of roads where sections are called hwy 71. We got to see the heartland and lots of corn and soybean fields....lots of fields!!!

On top of the flood warnings that were constantly popping up on my smartphone there were high heat warnings (normal for summer in IA). The humidity really puts a drag on the engine...no engine likes 100 degrees and 70% humidity. And to make my RV mad at me I put BP gas in it. BP 89 octane has ethanol and my RV hates that stuff. Dumb me put it in and my "service engine" light came on again. No power loss or noises, it has happened many times before. But it is just disconcerting to see that light on. Especially since it has been handling so well after having the rotors replaced in KY.
All together our 13.5 hour drive turned into a 17+hour drive. I hope we can keep those hours down as we drive the 900 miles back to KY for the fair starting Monday...we finish her 9pm on Sunday night and start there Monday eve. Wooo-doggie that is going to cut things close...Nick, CC and I will sleep very little Sunday-Monday!

Titus tipped his chair over, he likes to do that. But this time he hit the edge of the nightstand at the hotel in MO this morning and like all head cuts it bled pretty good. It was only a tiny cut, thank God, but it was not the way I wanted to start the day.

I feel bad about something. As the kids loaded the cars for the trip this morning I strolled out to the main road by a gas station and a coffee shop. A man and his teenage son had a gas can and drove a beat up RV asked if I could help them with gas...even just a little. I said no. I gave a lame excuse and went on. Most the time I do that...OK all the time. But this time there was a gut feeling that maybe I should've helped......"When did I see you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or without gas?" I went back only in time to see there old worm out RV pull away. I called after them but they couldn't hear me. I felt bad about that. Sometimes it is prudent to not help because it really isn't help (I've met to many cons) but this time it felt different.

Tomorrow we will go to the fairgrounds early to set up the show. The shows aren't until 4 6 and 8 and we are using their platform (which will help not having to pack up ours on Sunday rush load). So far all the people we have run into have been pretty nice so I anticipate a great show. The fairboard loves Jim and he had a fond reunion with them. He had met them at the convention in January.

We will have old friends from Oroville who now live in Council Bluffs, IA visit on Friday. Tomorrow our friends from Waterloo will visit and on Saturday Midori's friends will visit. So we have fans and friends coming in....exciting.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/10-year-Kent-Kid-Breaks-Record-and-Updates.html?soid=1104935934669&aid=IjHnnE53Wos

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/10-year-Kent-Kid-Breaks-Record-and-Updates.html?soid=1104935934669&aid=IjHnnE53Wos

Long drive

Thought it would be a fast drive but what should've been 8.5 hours to St Jo, Mo turned into nearly 11 hours...bad choice of roads and a really incompetant McDonald Manager lost us quiet a bit of time. The harsh humidity also put a drag on our heavily loaded vehicles. But we are here and it looks like our 4 hour drive tomorrow will be longer because the Mo River flooded parts of the hwy we need to travel. UGH! Keep us in prayer....and those who have losses from the floods.

Monkey Butt has been getting a lot of attention on our trailers and Rv...thumbs up, comments at stops, and such were plentiful today.

Bye Bye BG

Last day at Beech Bend. It was fun but now it is time for some new scenery. It was a normal morning with normal strolling and normal shows. Nothing out of the ordinary or unique about any of the shows. They all went fine though. The kids and the stalker kids had a stalker party with cupcakes and juice and party poppers after the second show. Right after the last show everyone jumped on tearing everything down. The kids, mama, and daddy all went back to the hotel while the rest of us packed everything up. Time went by pretty fast and after much sweating and moving of stuff we were finished in two hours. Pizza was our reward and I'm sure everyone was really tired after everything was said and done. It's off toward Iowa tomorrow. I don't know how far we are planning to go but we are saying goodbye to KY for a week. I'm super tired to its bedtime now. zzzzzzzzz...

(above posted by Cynthia)

Miles Cynthia Lukas Jim Nick Midori report

7/24 (Sun) @Beach Bend Park

Today the park opens hour later so it was nice for us to have an extra hour to sleep and relax at morning. We had better weather than yesterday, little windy and less hotness. It was a last day of Brandon performs with us... it's sad to loose him. He is always cheerful, challenging and helpful both on stage and backstage. Today we also had a special guest performer form Beach Bend Park, Grant has been practicing whips -taught by Indiana Miles- and show his result on third show today. It is impressive how kids gain new skills in short term. Bamboo trick is getting smoother each time. Victor and Brandon didn't like wearing skirt-type costume, but girls loved to add a flower on hair. (Bell does too!)

Hello, this is Miles, today was good, but it was a little sad at the same time. It started as any other day started, and it was as humid and hot as the other days this week, so it was pretty much a normal day. Except today my second cousin once removed Brandon left to go back home. L It was sad but he needs to go back home and see his family also. But anyways other than that it was an A OK day.

Hi Victor Kent here. We lose Brandon today. he returns to Toledo as we prepare for our last day in BG tomorrow and head west to Le Mars, IA for the Plymouth fair. After all this heat a change of venue will be nice though we love Beech Bend Park and the family that runs it. Brandon may join us for our NY show but we will have to wait and see. He was a great plus to the show.

My friend Lloyd, a friend since childhood surprised us the other day with news that he had suffered a mild heart attack. makes my complaining about the weather seem trite. He is doing well but will be monitoring his heart for the rest of his life. Our prayers are with him and his fam.

We have been working on our Bamboo or Bananas to the Beat Illusion and I will have a video for you call soon.

(from Lukas)

Today was brandon’s last day here, it’s funny I didn’t realize he was leaving till half way through the day. This morning I had some fun with the the ostrich costume it’s pretty awesome. Between the second and third show today james, ashley, shanon, and I got to go on some legit rides lol we rode this ride called the sea serpent like five times in a row(it was a ride from neverland by the way and my favorite ride here at beech bend). The show’s went well its always fun haha it’s cool I enjoy seeing the show just as much as I did in the begging of the trip. Miles and myself have been making videos recently and we have a blast in the process. We often watch them around three times before uploading them haha we want to make a youtube channel for this MI&LU project. I think its possible for us to get a following haha well that’s about it for today. God bless and prayer is always appreciated -Lukas V.-

Cynthia Report-

So this morning started off nice because it is Sunday and we got to sleep in an extra hour. Everyone needed it especially with the later night last night. Breakfast was normal with banana muffins and milk.At the park the day started as it always does with strollers at the rrint gate. Midori went out as the penguin because she loves being the penguin, Lukas went out as a guy riding an ostrich, and James went on stilts. Today's schedule was really weird for show times. The times were 11:30, 2:15, and 6. Right before the first show daddy noticed he did not have any pants so he left to go to the hotel so us kids had to run the first show. There was one problem with that because James, Lukas and Midori were all at the front gate ten minutes before the show. I had to send Brandon out to get them. Brandon came back with Miles, Midori, and Lukas but James was no where to be found. Brandon only told Lukas to come in and nobody told James. So, I had ot send Brandon out again to go get James. It was not until three minutes til that James came in on his stilts. We decoded to let James get ready so we started the show eight minutes behind schedule but the show worked out fine. That is, it worked out fine for going on thirty minutes after the park opened on the opposite side of the frint gate, with the performers showing up minutes before the show, the show starting late, and having only ten people in the audience. The second show, however went better. After that we had a three hour break so the kids and daddy went swimming. I have no idea what James was doing but I was positive he was not at the stage because he never is unless the show is going on, He is mister social. I also don't know what Miles and Lukas were doing. I think they may have been hanging out with Christine, Shannon, and Ashley (the peoples from Ohio). Nick took a nap on a bench and I took a nap on another bench. That is until I fell off...then I moved into the tent to lay in front a fan and sleep. Much more comfortable, nothing to fall off of. I did not wake up until thirty minutes before the last show and no one woke me up. The last show went fine. After the last show we packed up as usual but also had to say goodbye to the Ohio peoples and Brandon. It is going to be weird not having him with us but we will adjust eventually. He may join us when we go up to New York. We also had to say bye to Grant because we will not see him tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day and Beech Bend. It is kind of sad but it its time for a change of scenery. For now we will enjoy our last day and make the best of every moment. See ya!

Jim:

Blog:
Hot, yes. Today was a wonderful day of strange weather, cooling temperatures in the afternoon with a storm front moving in. Sunday starts off an hour later than any other day of the week and I am ridiculously happy for the greater amount of sleep we get. Strolling at the front gate at Beech bend today went well, though I am sure all of us were sweating profusely. The two other strollers left about 10 or so minutes before I actually left to go to the stage. Looking back I think it would have been a great plan to leave with them considering that by the time I got to the stage we had to start a show. let me explain, last sunday our show was rescheduled from 11:30 (30 minutes after the park opens) to 12:30 because we are located on the opposite end of the park and it would be nearly impossible to get a crowd. I was expecting the same thing today for the same reasons but due to a lack of communication, we started our show at 11:30 with a very small auidence. Now this first show was unlike our regular show, primarily because I had to sprint off the stilts, dripping with oh so lovely sweat and change into my show costume in order to lead the show because father was unable to make it to perform at the first show for whatever reason that may be. And to this point I am still unsure of the reasons, none the less, I performed and led the show without too much awkwardness and to the joy of the 12 people total that were at our end of the park at 11:30. Following the show i went over to the other stage and the break room to recover from the massive rush of stilts and performing with no rest inbetween. THANK YOU AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!!!!! The 2:15 show as far as my mind recalls, went without any hitch or issue. And during our break from 3:00 to 6pm Lukas, Christine, Shannon, Ashley and i went to hit the rides and get some ice cream. Apparently it is inevitable for me to draw some sort of attention wherever I go, and in the Rumbler cafe i was an absolute show doing all sorts of comedy for all there to enjoy. It was a blast, unintentional though....really. Thrid show rolls around after a few trips on the Sea Dragon and the Dinky Gowen magic Show. It goes off smoothly with the exception of my rancid little samoan fire routine which gets three drops from excessive fuel on the handle. Maaaaaan, that buggered me up for at least half of the show. One of these days i will actually master that darn routine here. hahahah. No worries.

Nick's Report:

Flying out of bed and sprinting to get ready is only a good idea if you don't have an extra hour to sleep in. This I remembered after about a minute of frantically packing my bag. Needless to say it set the mood for the rest of the day, in addition the weather was mostly hot and the run hear at Beach Bend is almost over.

Today Jim ran the first show in Kent's absences due to errands. The show went well with an audience of maybe fifteen people(nobody was on our side of the park that early in the morning), plus we started the show fifteen minutes late because our strollers came in six minutes to show time and the only people in the audience at that point were stalkers. Second show went well with no mishaps. The four hour gap in the schedule between the second and third show went by quickly considering I slept through most of it. Third show went well with the addition of Grant doing a bull whip routine and the final performance of Brandon before his departure to home. Things are really going to seem quiet around here, I already feel it. Okay I'm constantly around thirteen people for two weeks and eleven for six months. You notice when one of the troop departs. Anyway I can't wait to move on to Iowa. Tomorrow we pack up and get ready to hit the road again.

I love you Kentucky but you've made me sweat a river so I must leave you and go out west. Heat waves are soooooo much fun I can't contain myself.

NRA Candlish

Victor escape [ix

Victor Kent Jr (10) escapes from a strait jacket

Miles Report----Vics Bday Pix......

HEY …. This is Miles, so today was good except for the fact that I lost my title as the youngest person to escape out of a straitjacket upside down 60 feet in the air. But I am fine with it now because at least I lost it to a family member, Victor Kent JR. Other than that today was ok, it was really hot and humid , but the plus was that I did not have to go out strolling in a mascot. YAY!!!!!! Nothing against mascots or anything, it was just hot! But anyways today was ok.

Victor Jr turns 10...Alarm Clock Man....

Well, the day is done and again I repeat what I have said in so many blogs....It was hot!

Cloud cover din't lessen the heat but added to the humidity. Again the heat index was over 100 so Titus and Mami had to miss another day. But better that than a sick child.

The big news of today....Victor Jr. turned 10 today... he got two pairs of handcuffs, nerf shotgun thingy (and a couple of smaller versions plus all the nerf ammo), Nick gave Vic some duct tape (Victor is a duct tape pro...Makes all kinds of things with it). But he had disguised the rolls by wrapping them in hundred of feet of saran wrap and newspaper. It took 22 minutes to unwrap it.

We have pictures and videos but since I was deprived of sleep for two days I will have to wait a day for me to get them into the computer.

You see next door to us is a man who apparently is hard of hearing. he brought his own bell alarm clock and he likes to wake up at 4am then doze for 15-30 minutes a few times with the clock waking him and me each time. By 5:30 he is up and then every morning sneezes. Then he turns the TV on so loud I can actually hear it as though it is in my own room. Then he takes a shower. PTL....he checked out today!!!!!!!!!

Seemed the whole cast was worn out today. The on going heat wave (which isn't breaking records just keeping it hot long.) has taken it's toll as we all one by one sweat our way into exhaustion. No good news in the forecast either!

Well, there is much to write but no energy to do so. I will post more tomorrow with photos. I may have some posting from the other kids as well.

Miles and Lukas' blog for today....silly

Mean Thunderstorm..welcomed? Unwelcome?

Today started off with it over 100 degrees before lunchtime. By afternoon the heat index was in the low hundreds and our show shelter with it's metal roof was little more than a convection oven. Still audiences came, we sweat and performed. Sometimes it was hard to be out there pouring our our best while our sweat pour out our pores. But around 4 something the clouds quickly grew dark and the wind started whipping around. The plastic colorful decorations that lined the poles around our shelter were being torn apart. I ordered everyone check that everything is battened down and anything that can get wet be stowed.

Then it came. First the thunder then the lightening then the bucket after bucket of rain. The girls pretended to be scared (they have been in scores of these storms) and huddled together in a pile on the floor. They were comforted by their friends, The "stalkers". The temp dropped from over 100 to in the mid 70s in less than three minutes. The wind continued to whip around and part of the metal roof of our shelter (one of the 4 oldest building at Beech Bend...it was once a carousel shelter) started to lift and bend (see the picture.)

There was no real danger, the building is built like a tank. And the storm ended as quickly as it came. First it settled to a heavy rain with lighter wind then it just died away and the sun came out.

On our drive home we would pass several very expensive home with large trees split or completely felled. Branches lay everywhere. I was impressed with how fast the local authorities cleared the streets of the many fallen branches and trees. We even saw a large metal sign bend 90 degrees at its poles. Cemetery flowers and other debris littered the main drag back to our hotel. Then suddenly we reached a part of town not 1/4 mile from the debris area that looked perfectly unaffected by the storm.

As I said the sun had come out and we were able to stage our third show (5pm show) and in spite of the rain a half hour earlier we had a decent size crowd. The photo here shows some of the audience after the show learning to do tricks I teach after the show.

Right after the storm the girls all took their shoes off and went running around in the puddles and streams that formed on the blacktop of the amusement park in front of our shelter.

We have friends from Toledo come down to visit with us for a couple of days. They are friends of Brandon's family and have become our friends. They joined us for dinner at the hotel.