Sorry for no contact in a while but intenet connections
where we have been at has been limited. I could post short bursts but the
larger files like photos or videos were harder because of either limited
bandwith (a lot of people sharing an internet connection or no access at
all. A lot of the places we perform are
in deep country with not wifi or no cell tower nearby.
I am pre-writing this in Word and will cut and paste it late
with the hope that the connection later will be good enough to get some pix up. I even have some video to upload.
Working backwards we are in Vermilion, Ohio on Lake
Erie. Our campground is right on the
lake so we've taken in fishing. Amelia caught the first keeper, a catfish. We also caught a bunch of small bass.
Thinking they were stripers we tossed them back only later to learn they were
white bass and any size and amount is legal.
So we threw back about 6-9 perfectly edible legal fishies. Oh well. Today we went to a pier a town over and
Victor caught a Sheephead or a fresh water drum, the fish used by McDonalds for
their sandwiches. It was huge....3lbs.
Eyes as big as nickels. We will try it
tonight. The catfish and the one white bass we kept were great.
Today, Mami and I drove to Bellevue (the next venue), it's
only 35 minutes or so from here, to check out our venue. The carnival there was setting up a 1949
FerrisWheel. The layout looks nice and the hamlet very friendly looking. More
on that later this week. While we did that Jim did the laundry for 11 people at
a Laundromat nearby. After Bellevue,
then picking him up we noticed on the smartphone that a severe thunderstorm
warning was in affect. It slammed us on
the 5 mile drive back to the RV place.
25 feet ahead of us a huge tree branch crashed to the road, we drove
around it. We were pummeled by small branches and leaves, and debris. Further
down the road half a tree blocked our lane and the two sides took turns driving
around it. A bit furhter down more
limbs and one car engulfed in foliage...luckily he had stopped just as the tree
fell and only his front end was crashed into the tree or huge tree limb.
Fighting the wind we made it back to the RV park safe.
We drove here Sunday night from Clarksville, TN. The drive was supposed to be just under 9
hours but turned out to be over 12 due to construction in Ky an OH. My GPS took us on an interesting drive here.
We went from Interstate to four lane road to two lane road, to two lanes with
no lines to one lane. Some areas there were tree canopies and tulle-fog. We began
to laugh at our plight. The road was eerie, hard to see and cloaked with
tulle-fog. The moon was full. It was near midnight. We passed a cemetery sign
that had vines overgrowing around it.
Very soon after that a house that was a little too well lit and too
cheery came into view. We were
convinced we were in a Steven King story.
But eventually we made it to our camp.
It's on the grounds of a Christian Camp; sort of a little village.
We specifically came here because for the past 3 weeks
cousin Brandon (our acrobat and budding trapeze guy) and his sister, Jessica,
who helped out here and there in the show, had been with us. They have their
yearly fam reunion here so here we are.
Lake Erie and the towns that line it are pretty darn cool.
When you look out over Erie you see no other shore. It is more like a sea.
Gas out here is 3.30 similar to TN an KY but in TN we were
able to get gas for 3.05 at a Krogers using our Krogers discount card. Handy little sucker.
At the Clarksville fair we had a good time. The kids met up
with friends they had made in years past. Old home week. It was pretty darn hot
all week but the second day of the fair was insane. Fortunately out here fairs
only open in the evening. The down side
is we had just finished a 2 week run of 9am to 8pm show days. So we has to
readjust our body time schedule to a work time of around 4pm to 1am bed
time. The first three days were hard
but we are troupers.
***As I type this a second t-storm, bigger than the earlier
one is slamming us right now. We got in
from the fishing trip just five minutes before this storm series started. Talk
about picking a good time to get in from fishing! This one has been going on for an hour or so. We had hoped to go
catfish fishing tonight but I think that is NOT going to happen.***There goes
another gun shot....or that's what it sounds like.
A week ago in Clarksville, TN Little Girl, our tiny teacup
gave birth to two puppies. Sadly the fist one didn't make it. We are not sure what happened. Her whelping
box was in the front of the RV and that is where she had the first pup. But it was in my room in the rv on top of
laundry that I found the second pup and mom cleaning him up. Several scenarios could have happened. Since
this was her first time the first birth might have freaked her out and she
abandoned the first one when the second started to come. Or since the box was
near Titus, when he heard the pup cries he kicked the box or something and
scared her off. Or the pup was born in it's sack and she couldn't get it off in
time. Or it was just born
dead????? Regardless, she is a great
mom to her puppy and is taking great care of him. In fact, he is getting quite fat. She has shown her female dog side to the other two big dogs in
the house if they try to get near the puppy.
BTW, the puppy's name is cookie. We offered the pup to my best friend
and his wife, JC and Clidean, long before we left. They have been all excited and preparing things as though they
were getting a baby. Love those guys.
On the third day after the pup was born we took him to a vet
to have his tail cut and his dew claws removed. He was a trouper.
On the first day at the fair the kids had discovered the
wood around the fairgrounds was a great place to play. They found wild garlic
(Mami used it in the spaghetti we ate.) and wild carrot (Queen Anne's Lace),
and Dew Berrys (a small blackberry).
Brandon also found ticks. When
they came out of the wood the kids found Victor Jr. and Brandon had ticks on
their clothes but it was Brandon that got two under his skin. But we put a blop
of Vaseline on it and in 30 minutes is easily came out....dead. Poor kid, seems each year he is with us he
has some unpleasant story to take back. Oh, out of the blue on one of the days
he decided to stick his hand into a turbo style fan. Slices some top layer of
skin off his fingers. When I asked him why he said, " I don't know".
(Just for the record his older brother wants to learn all my
geek stunts ..nail in nose, mousetrap on tongue, fire-eating, etc. So daring runs in that family.)
Prior to that we were at Beech Bend and I think that is
where the blog ended last.
I am sure I left something out. So I will put those tidbits
in when I recall them.
We also visited Dunbar cave in Clarksville....funny video about this coming next week.
squirrel on the face
guess....
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