Kent Family Magic Circus Daily Blog: Long time no blog

Sorry for not posting anything for a while. The weather, my lack of a decent internet connection, etc. etc.

We just finished four days in Willard, Ohio. It was their 27th Festival in the Park; their once a year BIG shing ding and their big fireworks show.

Seems everywhere we go they are blasting off fireworks. In fact, tonight in Manchester, IA the fair we are at just finished their show. I was in my RV on the back side of the show when it sounded like Lebanon in outside. I thing a few miss-fired and exploded in their mortars from the sound and firey sprays. It had rained a bit shortly before the show. In fact, we saw a funnel cloud form about 10 miles or so out but it never touched the ground earlier today. Cool to watch. You know if I keep saying, "in fact", I could tangent myself on forever. Back to the main thread.

Our entire time in Ohio, even our days off, had rain everyday. Sometime short blasts, sometimes long deluges. On the last day we performed all three of our show with minimum electrical running and in minimum costumes because some of our show were in the rain!

The day we pulled out, Sunday, was crazy. We were going to try and make it to Iowa that day. Little did I know what lie in store for us.

Here is how the day started. I picked the kids and Mami up from the hotel (this was one of the few gigs where we had one hotel room and three of us stayed at the RV....I prefer staying at the Rv alone or with Mami and no one else around. Perhaps when or if we get a bigger one I will feel different. But it does give me alone time. BTW at the rate I have been changing parts out on this RV this 1999 RV will be a 2013. One the first day at Willard we couldn't start the generator while I ran 300 feet of cable to the AC power source. Our generator battery was dead. A trip to Napa Auto Parts and 130 dollars later we have a new generator battery. But I digress.)

Being a big railroad town Willard has many under passes, most around 11 foot tall....not sure the RV can go that low I never try anything under 12. So to find a way out of town to the water waste treatment plant where we could dump our full black water tank we had to maze our way through town and back roads. It wasn't far but it was a maze. When we found our way their a kind man who was told to expect us greeted us and showed us the dump spot. (did you know that in most towns your waste is treated and the solids are separated from the liquid and then sent on it's way into rivers, etc. the solids are used in landfills? ) James got the honor of dumping the black water and as he did, nearly done, the connection from the rv came loose and the hose fell off. A brown mush of goo known as "black water" spewed a 2 or 3 gallon goo pile under the RV. We could do nothing but watch. The kind man showed us to the large hose that we could use to wash it away. The handle to the hose was a 12" across valve bar-handle. It took two hands to turn the handle as I discovered as I lowered half my body into the valve box.

The water pressure surprised James and liked a child holding onto a fire-hose he shot water everywhere. After gaining control he sprayed off the area cleaning up the mess. Then, with the hose still on he tried to put it into the mouth of our dump hose to clean it out. The pressure hitting his hands and the parts of the dump hose sent water spray all over the place, including all over James. It was fun to watch.

I turned the hose off so he could dump the gray water (sink/shower water). Near the end of dumping that the separation happened again and so again with the hose. But this time as I turned the valve on a gush of water sprayed from the valve inlet pipe up at me drenching me with water. The valve had broke between uses. Now both James and I were drenched and we still had what we thought was a 9 hour drive ahead.

Fate had other plans. Like everyone in Ohio and Indiana returning home from the 4thof July week the same time we were traveling. the 23 or so miles between the toll plaza in Ohio (I 80 in Ohio and Indiana are toll highways...not worth it since the road really really suck) took nearly 2 hours to travel. UGH.

Well we made it through and gained an hour as we entered Central time....but your couldn't tell our bodies that.

We crossed the mighty Mississippi and made it to Davenport where we stayed at one of the cleanest RV camps ever, Interstate RV. We got there late so we did a self check in and set up. Then we crashed. Even though we knew the time change the dogs internal clock said it was 8:45 when it was 7:45 and they let us know they couldn't wait. That caused Titus to wake up and so that meant we all woke up.

As A treat i did the unheard of I took everyone out to a sit down bfast at Dennys. Then we had to have the LP gas in the RV refilled, which took a while. Then on the road to Manchester for the Delaware County fair. The change in weather was astounding. From mid 70s at the highest to low 90s and high humidity was VERY noticeable as we set up our show.