Madera Fair Tranny Trouble 105 decibels

I started today rather philosophical. Then I jumped into my van to do some running around (pick up mice for Buttercup for one) when I noticed that my van had a funny sound, like a card in the wheel of spokes on a bike, but only when the car was in low gear or reverse. Yikes. I went back to the fair and reported I would need to have it checked but first I had to get all the rest of the crew ( three were at the grounds practicing) from the hotel then go. I also put a call into a mechanic friend of ours for advice...he wasn't in. The drive back and forth to the hotel brought about a change in the sound. it was no longer in the low and reverse but only when Overdrive was off or when the car shifted down from overdrive. Hmm. On the way to the mechanic I noticed the noise virtually disappeared except for an occasional rough sound. Since it would have to pull the big trailer home (four hour drive) on Sunday, then do a Texas - new Mexico trip later in the month I took no chances and took it into Madera Transmission. Steve, the owner took care of me right away and explained everything. He drove it and wouldn't you know it, no noise. So I had him service the transmission and low and behold we found silver shavings in the pan...not good news. He changed the oil and seals and gave me advice to give it a good 30 minute drive somewhere to see if the noise came back. I will do that tomorrow. I also finally talked to my mechanic friend at home who had lots of great advice...he will be getting the van in his shop on Monday.

In the mean time, since Nick's family will be driving down here they will be bringing my Chevy van down to us so it will pull the large trailer and the Ford will just go home with no extra weight.

There will be several visitors this week. One surprise visit was Tiffany, a girl Jim has been communicating with. Her and her family came down from Colusa, Ca for the weekend. Nick and his fmaily plus friends and relatives will be coming down tomorrow. Lukas' family will be here Saturday. And there are more surprise guests I can't mention yet still coming.
Yhe area we are at is beautiful. Only one small problem. See the circled area above....that's the grandstand...directly behind us. The grand stand show started at 7:30pm our second show started at 8PM. At 105 decibels our show was nearly drowned out. We ran our speakers hot, pushing their limits just to compete so our audience could here us. It was exhausting. We pulled around 200 people for the first crowd, 300ish for he second and 200 for the third. Pretty OK for a Thursday school night. The fair opens at 5pm.
A shot of our set up. We bought so neat colorful lights that match the back drop and I will try and get a nice night shot if I can to show you them.
Studying?
Fish face.
Too serious?
Haning around....silly smiling girl.
Jim and Nick have been practicing passing clubs. I got Jim a taller latter today to balance on his face. He and Nick got the idea to work out a juggling passing routine while on the latter. They are getting close to adding it to the show. Amelia is practicing her hoops. Since our shows were all back to back we were all pretty much in costume the show time we were here.
In between the shows Nick and I had a pepper eating contest....it was a draw at 10 peppers each. I accidentally got some in my nasal passage. Ouch.
Miles' infamous fire whip...it is a scary thing.

Well, today was a pretty nice day. The sad news about the van, it may need to have the tranny rebuilt or replaced, made it a bummer for a while. The loud competing music also made it a bummer for a while. But we did well and there is a prayer and hope for the van so I will call it a good day. By the way, if there are any rich people near the end of their life who would like to write us into their will to help safe this season please do so and let me know. Thanks.

Blessings to you all.