First Show days in Maine

We are set up right next to the Flying Walenda Family Circus Rigging. They are beautiful people filled with the love of the Lord and the love of performing.




Sayako performed on stage for the very first time today doing the Sword suspension. Cynthia normally did this in our second show daily. She said she was nervous and her movement was stiff but she did very very well and will get even better as time goes on. She is also learning the zig zag, broom suspension and impaled. She has her work cut out for her. She has spent a lot of time with the kids too.



The Union Fair is also the state's blueberry festival. There are some tastey blueberry treats awating us. We will start sampling tomorrow.



We watched the Walenda shows today. For Eddie, Bill, Sayako and Mami it was their first time. They are amazing. 7 generations of circus.



Titus loved JP the clown and laughed like crazy at his antics.

The Flying Walendas. Alex, Trevor, Tino, Arealla.

We are only doing two shows each day and some strolling. Both audiences today were BIG, very BIG and very responsive. Just like everything in this state so far, they were awesome.

In Walmart people actually said excuse me when they passed by. Clerks smiled and greeted me. Drivers let you pull out or in. It's amazing how wonderfully nice everyone is. The cost of things, except lobster, is a bit high is the only thing I can report as a negative.

The sun shone most of the day and it was overcast for the evening. We are expecting rain for tomorrow. We will see...I saw a red sky at dusk. Red sky at night sailor's delight. So we will see.

There is a strange custom here on the east. The fair restrooms have attendants and they have signs posted all over asking for tips. I don't understand it but it is what it is.

Maine...ocean view!

Japanese sweets, a gift from Sayako.

Here is Bill's mini-van looking like it's ready to pull our trailer. Actually it's just space holding for my van (in the background) since I had to detach to pick up Sayako at the airport..

Mami's attempt at photography....said she was trying to take a picture of a pretty house.

I picked up Mami's Niece from the Airport in CT this morning at 12:30 and got to bed around 1:30-2AM....up with the sun we ate and started our drive to Maine. Except for the constant wind and rain the trip was uneventful. Sayako is amazed at how wide open and green America can be.

The weather and frequent bathroom breaks turned our 4 hour drive into nearly 6 hours.

Once at the Fair in Union, ME we pulled in next to the Flying Wallenda's and set to setting up a tent for the animals as Mami made dinner. Well, Actually Miles made grilled cheese sandwiches and Quesadias. We split up leaving three of us at the fair and the rest drove down to the seaport of Rockland to stay at a hotel.

That brings us to now.

I did leave out that we had a wonderful reunion with Tino, Alex, Trevor, and JP of the Wallendas. We also introduced them to Mami, Titus and the gang that are new since last year. After their set up and our parking we spent some fun time chatting and joking.

Well....that was today....the hotel overlooks the port and off int he distance is a lighthouse. Nice.

Added:

Just came in from a walk along Main street hoping to find an open donut shop....no luck, it had just closed (10 minutes early) so I was out of luck. I realized as I walked that I didn't eat dinner in spite of my writing all about it a few minutes ago. So I strolled and enjoyed the comfortable night air, the ocean scent, and short puffs of Captain Black.

I also remembered that United Airlines had lost Sayako's bag in Chicago and they promised to send it to us today at the hotel....nothing as of yet. We will call them tomorrow.

Maine, sure is purty!

Rain

So far on his tour every day that we packed up it rained. It did so last night and it kept doing it all day today. Nothing like walking across an ag fair's dirt roads where one week of animals have trotted. The soup of poo and dirt and rain made for a perfect representation of what it must have been like in olden days. I stuck to the grassy areas as much as I could when I made my way to the ag showers last night. And again this morning when it was morning constitutional time.
We were on the road by 10:30 but that was after maneuvering around a myriad of ag vehicles, RVs, trailers, etc.
The locals taught us an easier route to our destination. On the way in my navigator sent me right over the Catskills with a 10% grade around every turn. It was beautiful, albeit slow. The way out was very gentle and much quicker. And it was pretty but not as pretty as the drive in...and oh, yeah...it was raining.
Our convoy is now three vehicles since Bill and Eddie have joined us. Bill's jalopy, or as he calls it, his miracle car, has joined the group.
We ran into a ton of traffic on Hwy 17 and there were a lot of impatient folks who choose to drive on the shoulder and merge in further down irritating everyone. Finally I used my RV as a block and irritated them. I think the other respectful drivers may have applauded.
I tell you, we could tell when we were back in CT. The drivers out here are third world in skill and speed. They are insane and really ignore any traffic law. I have yet to see a CT car pulled over by the troopers. They go after the truckers. Saw that a lot of that. Saw a few accidents today too. One word of advice....Prius' aren't pretty after a crash...don't buy one.
Today Mami got a dream answered. We found a sanitation dump point at a rest stop in CT and finally got rid of the Black water. I bought a special rinsing devise a while back and got to use it to "spray out" the black water tank. The chemicals have kept things smelling fine but psychologically having a half full black water tank for nearly a month plays on you. I felt so fresh afterwards.
We stopped in Waterbury CT to take care of business (banking and shopping) since we know the town. While the others hung out at the mall Bill and I ran across town to get all the things on the honey do list.
We grabbed pizza from Ninos (our second favorite pizza place) and got to Hartford by 5pm. We are near the airport and are awaiting Sayako's arrival. She is Mami's niece who will join the clan for a month.
Right now we are all sopping wet and trying to dry off. It's cold too.
Cynthia emailed me and is doing well. She is loving everything so far....it's been one day. I am sure she will continue loving it. She is a great girl with a solid Godly foundation.

Last Day in Walton, NY Success!

Under perfect weather we finished our six day run in upstate NY. The mornings have been crisp and beautiful.

The day started for Uncle Eddie and Miles at the local laundromat as the rest of the kids hung out at the hotel and Mami and I went on a date for a couple of hours. Nice to know my wife is still my girlfriend. We had a nice time. We even visited a nice antique store and did some shopping.

All three shows had full houses (finally) and great response. The family audiences finally found us....this fair is laid out like a maze. Amelia in the photo is letting audience kids pet the bunny after the show.

Again we built up a "stalker" base. Those are people who attend our show a lot, if not every one. One of those families was the son of the fair director himself and his wife and daughter. He and his daughter ended up being two of the four who tied Victor Up in the 100' $400 rope tie challenge. The little ones once again made many friends. They closest of which were the grand kids of one of the fair directors whose RV is right behind ours.

Two of them bought magic or juggling stuff from us and I let them do a little talent thing in our show.

In this picture Miles is in the middle of a smash hit.

Uncle Bill performed a well rehearsed rope routine in the first show today. It's nice to have my friends in the show.

Uncle Eddie did a great mentalist piece in the second show.

The third show was packed to the walls with almost half being stalkers from the week. I spent so much time with comedy banter that we had to rush through or cut down a couple of our routines. Miles whip routine was cut (he was doing the nails anyway) and Eddies routine was cut. Jim had to cut short his routine too. But his MC Hammer Routine stayed and got a fantastic reaction. We had so many folk come up and thank us and compliment our show. Mami and Titus peformed in the last show too. mami and I have added a cute little kiss at the end of her routine. As I lean over to kiss her good bye I take my hat off and we kiss behind it. Kind of 1950's sitcome stuff.

Titus is having more and more fun on stage. he loves watching Uncle Eddie and Bill on with us. And he is enjoying his routine more and more.

Oh, I nearly forgot. The directors have asked us back next year. I told them, "Sure, can we move the tent" (the loud tractors and other distractions from previous blogs will explain that). He gave me a good reason why they couldn't so I relented and said we would love to come back. So we will be back in 2011! Very nice folks out here.

Titus having fun.

Triple fire blow....this was awesome. The heat was off the charts. it felt like being in an oven.

Each bench had sponsor plates. This bench struck us as strange.

After the last show the boys did what they alwasy did and very efficiently packed everything up. When All was loaded I asked who was driving the van with the trailer now since Cynthia was at college. I asked, "have either of you (jim or Nick) driven a trailer before".....neither one had very much if any experience....so this should be an adventure. We take off for CT to pick Sayako, Mami's niece, up from the airport. She will cover Cynthia's tricks for a month. Then we drive up to Maine.

A short 4 hours tomorrow with a short stop over in Waterbury for business and we have yet one more person on board. (That will make 11 of us.)

Almost Done in NY

It is cold out here in Upstate NY. The days are warm enough..upper 70s low 80s...but the nights....whew doggie!

Make for pretty mornings with misty mountains and crisp air though.

We are missing Cynthia but have gotten a couple of calls from her. She and her cousin are down in KY, got caught in Lexington Traffic. Being from Cali I can't imagine it being too terrible.

Olivia is on a fast mend and doing well. She performs in big black socks and her story only further adores her to the crowd. She had a second bout of bad luck today when her thumb got caught in the Rv screen door jam. Nothing broken but it smarted and the door latch was broken during the rescue attempt...another visit to camping word I guess.

Titus is getting more and more stage presence. He is smiling more on stage and the audiences love him.

Our audiences this week have been small and on the older side. But today the families started showing up and the crowds were bigger. A family from Long Island who vacation out here who we met at and antique store a couple of days ago showed up to the fair and came out to support our show. Nice!

We filled the tent. The location of the entertainment tent could be worse for any fair. We are located right next to the old tractor displays where they are constantly staring up the old beasts during the various shows. Also just behind us is where the various motor event vehicles line up and test start their vehicles. Some are off the charts loud. It' has been insane dealing with them. It frustrates both the entertainers and the crowds. I noticed an area in the middle of the grounds that the new tractor vendors use to sell their products. It would be perfect for the tent and moving the new tractors next to the old ones would be logical.
Miles in a rush to put a prop away (he is always to trying to break his record for cleaning up) broke the snake's cage. Buttercup is spending the night in a tote. Uncle Bill ran down to a Wal-mart in Scranton (he had business there) and picked us up a new one. Yes he was in the cage at the time but he was unharmed.

Since Eddie was the guy who influenced me to do fire eating and Miles learned from me we have doing a triple fire blow each night. The crowds go nuts and it is beautiful....and hot!

Titus loves watching Uncle Eddie do his five dead fly routine. He laughs and laughs.

As far as the fair goes to day was demolition derby day and quarter horse show day. So a lot of big vehicles and trailers moving around. The quarter horses are outrageously beautiful.

I mentioned in yesterday's blog that my video blog will have a new entry. But the connection here is so bad that the video uploads take hours so we will post them next week.

Mami has been nailing her juggling routine and we get lots of comments about how nice it is to see a whole family performing a clean show together. God is good. It's grueling sometimes...not the easiest job in the world. But We are having a good time. One more day to go then we are off to Maine. En route we will pick up Mami's niece, Sayako, who we will train for Cynthia's tricks. But she could never replace her.

By the way, Nick found some sad music so each time I tell the audience the story of Cynthia moving off to college he plays it. So I am obligated to milk the story . It gets a ton of laughs.

Bye Bye Cynthia Shows

First....Where is Alf? (below)

All Games aside, Cynthia loaded into cousin Kris' car and drove off leaving the nest for school in KY this morning. She will stay with our cousins in Ohio one night then drive up for orientation and acclimation. If you think I am making a face in the picture with Cynthia watch the video on our video blog of today and you will understand what was going on. There were tears and smiles today. But I think I was affected with an irritable feeling all day. I will miss her but I know this is part of the whole thing called life.

Naturally the show will suffer from her absence. She brought her uniqueness to the show and made the soup of talent that makes our show what it is.

Her Cousin from Japan, Sayako, will come and cover her parts for a month but still it isn't the same.

Last picture of her as she drives off to school ...Bye Bye.

Olivia is goofing around between performances. Notice no shoes....big socks to cover the stitches.


Miles and the fire whip.

Victor did his rope challenge again today and once again escaped with ease. It really got good reactions and the lady doing the tying, Charlotte, is the only Asian person we have seen out here. She was very silly and kept telling me different names instead of her real name. She fit into the show very well...good choice to come up.


During the rope escape the theme from Cops is played and to make things more interesting I dance. Nick thought iwould be funny to shoot the action....it's on the video blog too.

Cutting the rug as Victor gets tied up.

Uncle Eddie did 2 shows today and was very well received.

We are working on some new routines as well.




I have to confess that the crowds here have been disappointing. Mostly older folks...the entertainment tent is in a really bad location. Nothing to attract families or young people to pass by. The back of the tent is where the tractors, cars, etc that participate in the various grandstand events warm up. So the noise during the show is off the chart. the audience hates it and the performers hate it. But we persevere.
If the stage was near the food court or the kiddie area then folks would be more likely to show up. The fairgrounds are tightly packed with vendors and stuff in a very confusing maze like layout. As a result not many people can find out tent area. The announcer only calls a show once and the program has not map. Also the program has pictures of acts from last year and two years ago and not any of the 2010 performers in it though our names are right in the schedule.

Upstate NY people have been, in general, very happy and nice folks but the geriatric group as a whole isn't our target audience for every show.

The weather has been very nice though we were hit with a 15 minutes thunder storm just as our last show tonight started. We got a captured audience and most stayed when the rained stopped. The first two crowds today were tough crowds but alright. The last crowd was much nicer. More families were there. There are about 20 people who are "stalkers", people who attend most of our shows. Most are kids but many are adults. very flattering.

Some folks back home have asked about my back, I have a tethered spine. I have had many more tiny spasms than I have had in past years and one major one while on the road. The doc has fixed me up with what I need while on tour. Still the unexpected bad bed at a hotel or a bad sleep some place only makes things worse. I am doing well today.

As far as Olivia's foot. She is moving around a lot. She hasn't needed ibuprofen like on the first day and is only whiny when she actually sees the stitches. She's a trouper.

Since we have lost the extra hotel room and only have the two room cabin there are four of us in the RV. Miles, Eddie, Nick and Me. I miss being with my wife and little ones like it has been most of the tour. And I haven't had a cup of coffee with my wife in a long time. Such is the trouper life.

Living at the RV is an experience. In the morning I am wakened by the bray of a donkey that is stalled near us. Then there is the moos of cows demanding to be milked. And by 7 tractors, trucks and people are heard milling about doing their farmers choirs. They have been up since 5 but remained fairly quiet for the RVers until 7.

As I walked over to the facilities I noticed a beautiful mist hugging the sides of the densely wooded Catskill Mtns around us. It is beautiful. Mami thinks this town is the prettiest area we have been in so far. There is much that reminds me of a valley we drove through in Japan so I am thinking that might have influenced her thoughts. That and the cool buildings and homes.

RV life in a small thing like ours is a bit cramped too. Since this is our first time out we have learned much and will probably get something with slide outs next year.

We usually eat dinner down here at the Rv before driving the others back to the hotel. Depending on our schedule we wake at different times and get the run around and business work done (laundry, shopping, repairs, emails, etc).

There is a great old armory here that looks like a castle. We have it on tape and hope it makes the final cut of NY video blog.

The addition of Bill and Eddie has been interesting too. Bill has become the tutor for the kids and a nanny and therapist for Titus. He is a work horse and helps Mami tremendously. Eddie is the uncle who plays with the kids. Master of games and silliness he keeps them busy and out of mom's hair.

ER Cynthia's Last Day Uncles Eddie and Bill Join Us

Howdy-
I'm cramming two days into one blog so fasten your seat belt.
The photo to the left shows the bed springs of the bed I slept on my first night here in NY....It was like a waterbed in it's motion. It was weird.
Above the bedroom door is a thumb-tacked "exit" sign. No wi-fi. No soap. No shampoo. And on the second day No towels. Still it is quaint. Rustic maybe is a better word.


It'a also for sale.

Here is the cabin wee moved into the second day. Well, I moved into the RV on the fairgrounds the kids (big and small moved into the cabin, plus one other room (see the picture of the bed above....that room) until tomorrow when we loose the extra room. The RV will get crowded.

On the second day there was a talent contest and this little contortionist won. I asked her to do her bit for my audience as well....we ARE a circus.

The second day (the 17th) was also the day Uncles Eddie and Bill finished teaching at a performance camp and joined up with us. Eddie will perform in the show and will leave to go back to Japan next month. Bill will occasionally perform and will act as physical therapist for Titus and tutor the little ones in their school work.

This picture is NOT me. It is Miles. On the 16th Olivia, while playing in the show's trailer slipped on a stage rigging and sliced a gash into the upper part of her foot (graphic photo below). It happened just moments before the show and I had to run her to the hospital....which was less than two minutes away. So I told James and Miles to take over. They did and the compliments about how well they did are still coming. I am so proud. Miles did the fire-eating and he did his first tongue fire transfer.

Here it is....8 stitches. She was more afraid of getting a shot than she was of the cut.

Today (the 18th) she came back on stage wearing an over sized black sock instead of a shoe.

As a quick aside I noticed a couple of old fashioned side show pitch shows. $1.00 buys you a peak. It was quaint and really a neat old fashioned thing.

Our sound man, Chester's, wife posing next to her dream car. We were strolling the grounds when we bumped into them. I promised to send it to her...but alas email out won't work ;email in does.

Cynthia's last time singing "Down to the River" with Jim for this season. She is off to college tomorrow. My cousin, Kris, drove here from Ohio to take Cynthia to Kentucky. What a sweet lady. It was nice to see her and her kids today. My kids had a blast playing together.

Nick snapped this candid shot of Bill, Titus, Mami, Olivia and I today. I think Jim is doing his thing further down stage.

Our first two shows were heavily attended by the geriatric crowd. Few families or kids so the energy we like wasn't there. When we finally got the crowd we like the tractor pull people decided to test there engine revs right behind our stage....vexing! And loud!
I left the stage very stressed and with numbed ears.

I almost didn't get the good reaction crowd I got but for a little loud mouth girl in the front. She made a silly crack after I made a joke that fell flat and the crowd laughed. It loosened them up. He constant heckling of sorts finally got on their nerves too and when I told her I would give her some Ritalin the crowd laughed and stayed on my side.

After the show I bought 8 pizzas for the 16 of us and we feasted on some nice east coast pizza. They can really do pizzas out here. But still no descent donut.

Our stage tech fromt he fair Chester also does a clown routine. he and I had a little falling out.....

or was it stage?

I won't tell.

Peace to all of you. Love to all of you and God Bless.....until tomorrow.

CT to Ny (August 16)

Sorry this is a day late .... I will post today's tomorrow.


We started our day out in Waterbury, CT at 6:30AM. It was raining hard. The kids had a lot to load into the car and that meant many trips back and forth in the rain. They did it without complaining and they were sorry wet sights by the time we pulled out of the resort parking lot on our trek to the Catskills Mountains. Belle the wonder dog was in the RV as usual and for the trip and she seemed a bit antsy so I radioed CC and asked if she had been taken out for a pee. Cynthia said she hadn't but she doesn't usually go this early so I didn't worry about. Well, 5 minutes into the drive Belle came up to the front seat and peed. Cynthia got an earful over the radio. She doesn't like taking Belle out early so she doesn't and the result is what is was. We had this discussion just a couple of days earlier.
The drive really wasn't that far. But Mami took the opportunity, after a short nap (Titus didn't let us sleep well last night), to site see out the windows. She saw for the first time how farmers out here don't make bails with their hay but giant "tootsie roll shaped" rolls.
Since Walton is high up in the Catskills Mtns in NY we had a number of 10% grades to climb. Cynthia had a few "I think I can" moments with the van pulling the fully loaded filled to capacity trailer.
We also saw signs for a number of interesting museums. But the most interesting was the Fly Fishing Museum....really?

I forgot to mention yesterday that I met a very interesting family at Quassy. It was a mom and dad and a little boy. I call him the roller coaster boy. He and his family are on a summer trek to ride 200 roller coasters across America. So far the have rode 194 coasters. he was a neat little boy. They came to two of our shows and he had many stories to share after each of the shows. He was unusually polite.

Back to today. I love NY audiences. They really respond to my humor and they seem to click with us. All of our shows went exceptionally well. Even though I missed the last show. So did Olivia and Cynthia. You see, Olivia, somehow ripped a major gash on the top of her foot while in our box trailer. Cynthia thinks she knows where it happened but I won't know until I am back at the trailer tomorrow. We had to run off to the emergency room...it was a very nasty gash. Fortunately for us the ER wasn't busy and we were seen right away. The nurses, PA and entire staff where very friendly. They fell in love with Olivia and tried their hardest to keep her calm and happy. She took the Novocain injections very badly, they stung and burned she said. But after the juice kicked in she barely noticed the stitching. She got 8! Cynthia helped a lot at the ER comforting and holding her.

Mean while back at the fair, James and Miles put on a juggling, fire-eating, and bull whip show. The word I got when I got back to the fair was they did an awesome job. Miles apparently did one of his best fire-eating routines ever. He finally was able to light his tongue on fire. And his fire-blow was his biggest to date. James' humor made the day.
Thank God for such good kids. They mobilized and got everything done.

Our hotel is very old but cute. The box spring are real springs, like you see in old movies. Tonight we are in a little room but will move to a cabin tomorrow. It doesn't have Wi-fi so I am writing this before I head out to the local Mc Donald's to use their Wi-fi and upload it.

The boys will spend their nights at the RV and come here in the morning to shower. Our entire situation as far as space and convience is tough compared to all our other venues this year. But the people are the best over all audiences anywhere.

The manager from the Ulster County fair here in NY, the man who basically introduced me to the manager here and by that connection is responsible for us getting this gig, stopped by with his grandson and daughter. It was nice to see them again.

Bye Bye Quassy-

Well, today we finished our 2 week run in Middlebury, CT. For the most part it was an awesome two weeks...but it flew by. Read in a report that Ct is the "unhappiest state" and I can believe it. Though we know and met many happy people here I have to confess CT is a high stress, low joy place. Stores could use the secret shopper program out here. By that I mean clerks really seem not to care about the customers or their job. Though I did hunt out and find the coolest clerk in CT. A lovely older black woman who really tried to spread joy to all her costumers. She works at the Wal-mart in Waterbury. I only bring up this whole joyless thing because at one point today I walked across the amusement park and didn't see one single happy face. SO I was determined I would smile at everyone and say as many kind things as I could without sounding and being phony. Can't be sure if it worked but I did see more happier faces actually be amused at the park afterwards. It isn't like that all the time here. It's just noticeable here more so than other places. CT has Cali beat for putting their shopping carts away, though. In fact, I think Cali is 50 out of 50 in not returning their shopping carts. Here in CT I have rarely seen a shopping cart left out.

(((Cynthia wanted to report that she forgot to report yesterday that the toilet in her room (which she shares with the three older boys) overflowed. It was like a DNC convention and it was all over the place.)))))

The skies today threatened rain all day but only opened up for sprinkles a couple of times. That may have scared off a few folks and even played into the lack of happy faces. It has been unusual cool here. A sharp contrast from last year. Last year it was very very hot and humid....check out our blog from last year.

We had our farewells today as well. The girls said goodbye to the two boat captains, Linny and Capt Armand today. Linny was working at another part of the park but made it a point to stop by and give the girls a little gift and Capt. Armand came in on his day off. He even convinced his wife, who never comes to the park, to come and meet those sweet little girls who entertained him so.
The little ones also hit a bunch of rides today. One of the benefits of performing at an amusement park.
Jim had a few admirers swing by and say goodbye.
I said farewell to the owners, the man who hired us and the shop boys. Wayne, the guy who fixed our RV generator Carb problem and did a number of projects for me and the show was the last of the shop boys who saw us off. Marty, Rui, Sweede, the cats, oh, I can't recall all their names. I said goodbye to them all. They either came over intentionally to see us or I stopped by there.
There were also a good number of employees who came in to see our last shows and bid us well.
All in all this year's weather made this year so much nicer than last year. We know the area better due to our time last year and that made things nicer too. We avoided the expensive places and we knew where to get the best pizzas.
It seems it rains the last day of each of the venues we performed at this year, except Beech Bend. I actually like it because it washes the RV off. Tomorrow is supposed to have light showers too. But should clear up by show time in NY.
We will leave very early, again. But it's only 3 hours...barrring traffic, accidents, and any number of other unforeseen events. I must confess I always have butterflies two days before moving to the next stop. But once the vehicles are loaded and we are on the way A kind of truckers calm comes over me.
We loose CC to College next week and we gain Uncle Eddie. It should be an interesting week.

Tired Tired ...Did I mention tired?

OK, the weather was beautiful! Today was cool and comfortable and sunny. That brought out decent sized crowds and kept them from being uncomfortable. That always means happier crowds and better reactions. So all four shows rocked!
Titus went to sleep late last night after a very long laugh attack where he found everything and anything funny. As a result we got to bed late. Then he got up early and killed any chance for us to get a decent night sleep. So I was tired all day. Lots of coffee and show adrenaline kept things going.
James' Hammer Time routine is really coming along and getting outstanding reactions. Olivia and Victor were grumpy with each other all day and made Cynthia cry because they ignored her discipline. That brought me in and their attitudes were adjusted.
Mami walked around with Titus (in his chair) more so than she has done this tour. We are trying to get here to do more of that because between shows we hardly see her except when we eat at the RV. Titus made a friend today. A young lady gave him a stuffed animal and learned how to do hand communication with him. Two older Hispanic ladies also befriended him and gave him a couple of dollars each in spite of Mami's insistence not to.
Just found out that Belle left a package downstairs at my cousin's house last night. It was discovered when Cousin Taulin step in it causing a hysterical laughter from his sister for a very long time. She said, "I almost wet my pants."
Belle is loved by the crowds too and she isn't doing anything more than taking her spot on a small platform made for her.
Bobbi performed today and is really developing on stage. The folks loved her.
All the animals and the kids are loved. Since we charge a dollar for anyone that wants to hold the snake and take a picture, on lady asked me how much to hold Olivia and take a picture. (She was joking...she further told me how beautiful she thought Olivia was.)

Jamie's art...Marvin's Bday...Yahoo from Cucamunga

A Little Girl who has attended our show a number of times came back to the park today to present us with the pictures of us she drew. Really impressive. Her name is Jamie and we took a picture of her with us. I posted in this blog. Her mom says she has spent a lot of time on line checking out our website. Thanks Jamie!

Jim got in some Diabolo practice pre-show.....notice that little dot in the sky...that's it.

Linny the boat pilot gave the girls bubbles. They have become really good friends this week. he's a nice man. Him and his wife work there.





I had a chat with an Opare (spelling) she is basically nanny from Germany. She brought her two wards with her everyday for the show. The little girl(I'm sorry I am tired and can't recall her name) loved Jim's fire juggling the most. My little ones became good friends with the three of them.

Nick took this picture of me talking politics with her. It was interesting to say the least. 19 year old German girl perspective. She doesn't like Obama...I got that out of it. She also doesn't like stupid regulations but feels regulation are needed because a lot of people are stupid.

Miles staring across the prarie....actually across the park.

Bubbles!

More Bubbles.

I don't know what is going on here.

Victor Studies between shows.

Here is the picture I promised. Jamie, the artist, is the little girl on the left.....

My cousin's husband, Marvin, had his 52nd b-day today. He is a really nice guy and a ton of fun. We couldn't spend a lot of time with them because we arrived so late. We did 4 shows today and have another 4 day schedule tomorrow so our time is limited...sad because it was a lot of fun spending time with their family.

Marvin and Me.

A funny story. The other morning I had a bunch of running around to do before the show. My travels took me to a gas station in Middlebury. While there I went in and while chatting with the two Hispanic guys who worked there I got myself a coffee. While doing this two white guys came in. One with a tie, he proved to be the manager. And a bigger guy in a tie who turned out to be the owner. He looked like he could've been in the mob. After I paid and went out to finish pumping my gas I overheard the owner say something. (I want to point out that he thought I was out of ear shot and didn't realize the acoustics of his store with the doors open in conjunction to where I was standing created an amplification. ) He had over heard me telling his workers I was from Cali.

He said as he tilted his head in my direction, "So what did dat Yahoo from Cucamunca put in his coffee?" Iwas thinking of walking over and saying, "the yahoo had cream." Instead I just laughed. It was too funny to even get mad.

I love this new computer. It is really fast. i am looking forward to having the time to actually do some video editing.

My love to the family back home and my friends back there too...JC, Clydini...and our friend sin Ky...Rachel, Tony, Grant, Morgan.

Cheers to our new friends on the road.