In Janesville, IA

We made the grueling 3.5 hour drive to Janesville, IA (Northeast) and will make this home post for a few days. James performs and the Breamer County Fair our here for a single day on Wednesday. Fans who have become close friends over the years have once again opened their home to use for our stay. It's either hotels (when we are at an event), RV parks when we aren't, or friends (fans, relatives, etc) homes along the way as well that we park the vehicles and set for a spell.  Eric, Vaughn, Joel and Mary are wonderful people and this is the second year we have stayed with them.  This is where Mami got to drive a John Deere combine last year and became a John Deere Girl. She loves here John Deere hats and shirts.   Maybe I should get her a small tractor.

in spite of sleeping late and leaving the Plymouth fair near noon I still felt wiped out all day. The older kids seemed to be dragging a bit too. But the little ones love coming here.  Eric has a collection of legos envied by any kid on the planet.  Titus gets to watch sports on a big screen and Mami gets to chat with Mary. Mary is a wonderful mid-west mom with lost of old recipes and neat tips. The house we are staying was her childhood home, expanded a bit since then.   We are surrounded, lterally by corn and soy beans.  And the weather here is killing them all. In some areas the corn is only 3 feet high and all dried up.

Imagine anything made with corm is going to be expensive this coming year. 

I noted in the last blog entry that Nick finally made the paper representing the show:

Cynthia tried to nap in the RV but two dogs stayed close by...one found her a comfortable seat.

Before leaving La Mars the kids noticed a wasp of some find dragging the carcass of a cicada away:

Once we arrived in Janesville we noticed a heating and air truck in the drive way.  Their air con died shortly before we arrived...turned out to be the thermostat so all is cool.
Mary had fixed us a wonderful pulled pork sandwich dinner and then she drove Jim, Nick and I to the fairgrounds to see where Jim would be performing. Eric also wanted me to meet the man who decides on the acts so I could pitch our tandem strait-jacket escape for the intermission at their big event on Wednesday. They need to find a crane or boom truck so we will see.

Here is the best part of this fair:

Back at Vaughn's house everyone went off to do their thing while I went into the RV to get some work done.  A secret project I am working on has created a mountain of work for me and I started to wrk on it.  The RV bed invited me over so I lied down and 2 hours later woke up thinking it was 5 int he morning.  I got up and everyone seem to comment on how wiped out i was.  Many had visited the RV while I was out cold and I didn't hear one of them...and that RV door is noisy.

It's about time I finish what I started on that RV bed a couple of hours ago so good night.

Oh, an update. Brandon is doing well....turned out to be three toes...4-12 weeks recovery.  On the last day in Plymouth, However, he was moving around life a pro on the crutches and wasn't in any pain. We look forward to him joining us next year..