Good Bye Las Cruces...you were awesome.

Good news...no one injured themselves today.
Better news...only two shows today. I think we are around 197 shows since this tour started. Both audiences today were huge and very responsive and energetic.
More better news, it was warm, not crazy hot.
Even more better news, Mami has been in a funk dropping her props at least once in her one show per day (juggling a spatula, plunger and baby doll...juggling cooking, cleaning and the Children)...but today the fog of the funk lifted and she nailed it.
All of our neighbors, the sauna/spa vendors on the left, the space ball and bungee jump vendors on the right and the Cool Dog Show folks all stopped by to bid us farewell. They gave gifts to the kids ( a blow up giant hammer form the bungee boys, a box of various chips form the spa folks and stuffed dogs from Christina at the Dog show (yesterday). We had Jeff from the dog show sup with us....we had spicy talipia fish, cole slaw, and baked potatoes.....bringing Mami on this trip was definitely a good idea.
I have pictures to post for today but spent so much time packing up I haven't the time to load them up right now. I will post them tomorrow.
We will be leaving Las Cruces at a leisurely pace tomorrow and drive up to Albuquerque and spend a day or two there. Then we are off to Amarillo again for a day of tourism and then to OK for the Watonga Cheese Festival. We are looking forward to it for a couple of reasons. One is we will do a single theater show. Two, it is our first time doing a show in OK. And three, CHEESE!
We will be saying good bye to our stage in Watonga. A good friend is buying them from us as we expand and grow our show for 2011. We decided to make sure the stage pieces were in the best possible condition so we puttied, painted and sanded the places that needed it. It is, after all a 7 year old stage. We still have 7 pieces (each 4'X8'X24") back in Cali if anyone is interested. We are selling just the five sections we have with us. They have served us well. But it is time to grow...and oh, boy are we growing...trapesee (complete with net), zip line, tightrope, new illusions, Belle the wonder dog, more stuff with Bobbi the cockatoo, the slack rope, more song and dance, bigger stage, bigger sets......Oh boy. By the way anyone want to donate a million or so to the show? :-) Maybe we should get a sponsor................Hmmmmm
James is doing well in spite of being banged up. Cynthia seems well from what I have read from her postings. She is becoming a lefty due to over working her right hand. Everyone else is great. A note to Nick's parents.....he has guessed you have done something to his room....he has surmised it has something to do with the color.....I have not told him the color...he thinks it will be an orange color. HEHEHE. He is also hoping you fixed his light and fan.
Oh, we have been expecting an overnight letter and my phone charger sent from Iowa after leaving it at the hotel there. Each day we went to the fair office and each day we were told nothing had come. They said the person who went to the post office didn't see anything for us. Well, today I found out from the manager no one has been to the post office since Thursday so they could very well be there now. UGH...miscommunication? They promised they would check tomorrow morning. Here's to hopefulness.
BTW if any of you want a fun place to visit Las Cruces is very nice. Pat Garrett was not only the sherif of Dodge City, but of this county as well way back when. Billy the kid spent time here and there are a town of other historical as well as cultural things to experience.

Jim falls again. Hot!

OK click on the image to the left and see if you can find Alf.

Jim did it again. While practicing he slipped and hit the wire and slid off....cable-burn. Ouch. He was back up on it and mailed it during the show.

Between shows I meditate...nah, just making fun with the camera. I'm Wearing my Cincinnati Tea Party Shirt. Bought a Las Cruces one too.

The wild man from Borneo Caught our show. Actually this very nice guy watched our show and played good sport when I made fun of his look. He is a card.

Between their routines relaxing backstage.

Notice the hammer 1/2 second after penetrating the block....what a shot.



Sibling rivalry.

Miles demonstrates the tightrope. No highwire aspirations yet but he's doing great on the low wire.

Look it's Willy Wanka.

Nope, the glasses are this lady's and she let me borrow them for the picture above.

One onf the three who "wlaked the wire" from the audience tonight.

Number 2.

and number three. They all did great. Las Cruces' newest circus performers.

Outside Jim trying to constantly kill himself on the wire today it was actually a very nice day. Our shows started a little later so we all slept in a little. Me...a lot. Yet still I have been beat all day. It was a warm day too. I miss Cynthia not being with us. I think she would've loved this fair. But she is back in KY nursing her tendinitis and learning lots of stuff. She is becoming a lefty.

I am submitting this blog early tonight...in fact we still have one more show because I am beat and want to sleep.

We had the Cool Dogs people over for dinner tonight...they were delicious. No they were great company. It so wonderful meeting all the people we have met this summer. The two little ones have been hanging out with Christina from the dog show so much. She bought them each a stuffed dog. How many presents are these girls going to get this year?

Our first show was a bit funny. It was one of "those" shows. Each of us forgot a prop or goofed up one thing or another. It actually turned out to be great fun. The audience enjoyed being "in on it".

Our 8:00pm show will be done to the background noise of the carnival and a car race. Our sound system is top notch so we will overcome. Sometimes we can work the annoyances into the act.

God bless and good night.

Southern Nm State Fair Friday! What a Day!

Today was a fabulous day in Las Cruces. New Mexicans are great people, friendly! All four of our shows went very well. The 4;30 show was tough on the crowd as the sun was bearing down on more than half of them but no one left the 45 minute program, though applause and reaction was tougher....the heat makes the a TV audience...you know like they are watching TV instead of a live show. After a bunch of practice by all the kids we decided to throw the tightrope in the show for practice in front of a crowd. Miles and James both did it.

This picture was at the 4:30 show. James walked forward then back. Miles is just happy to be able to go across forward without falling.

We tried out an idea that came to me during the show. We let a little kid from the audience try the rope. Of course Jim held her hand. We taught he the basics of focusing on one point on the other side of the rig along the rope and to balance her weight. Her is the first little one to try it. Awesome job!

We are preparing our promo banner and posters for 2011 so we are taking pictures for our artist to use in the final artwork. I will include some of theses in the blogs. her is Olivia and Buttercup.

A candid moment. The trainer from the dog show, Christina, the little ones and I sit on the stage and chat after a show. Victor broker my Foy umbrella so I am sewing it.

OK...looks like he is dead...nope but he wishes he were. After strolling in stilts tired Jim decided to practice on the wire some more. Dumb move. While walking backwards he lost his balance and went down. That was dumb thing number one. Number two is that he didn't move the rig away from any objects like the trailer. The cuts on his head are from the trailer's fender. He also banged his leg and hurt his bottom. He went to bed early tonight. Oh, this was before the last show. And if you watched that show you would not have been able to tell he was damaged. He hid it well and was a true trouper.




Doctor Mom to the rescue.

You see nothing stops this kid! Even after the fall he does the tightrope, his full routoine including Hammer's Can't Touch This. The crowd went wild.

The rest of the day went fairly standard. Mami and I hit the stores for supplies while the little ones studied. For lunch we BBQed sausages of various type on the new BBQ I bought. It was nice. Love that smokey flavor. We strolled the fair a few times between shows and the little ones picked up the promo freebees from the vendors. Everyone practiced the tightrope. I took a nap. I guess I've been a bit tired. I slept up to 9am this morning....our first show was at 9:30. Still I needed a nap. Getting old.

The nights here have been chili. I'm having hot tea and honey as I write this.

It has been an exciting week with the new prop and the plans for 2011. Looks like we are going to be buying that trapeeze rig. Wow, we really are a circus.

Tightrope!

Here is a better picture of us posing during Amelia's third performance of the Sword Suspension.

Today was a great day. The weather was perfect. Still trying to get used to no humidity. Our hands, lips and cuticles are all drying out. We've become accustomed to the eastern humidity.

Great news is our Tightrope. A little rig that stands 5' high and 10' long arrived today. Custom made for us. Though I think he made one for another act a couple of years ago. Everyone wanted to get on it and everyone did. Amelia, James and Miles are naturals and Nick is pretty good too. I sucked and my back ached all day for doing it. Mami was cute.

A pink gorilla (AKA Miles) strolls by as we assemble the rig.

It looks like I am doing well here. What you don't see is that I am next to the RV and one second after this shot I am holding the RV.

Mami loved it!

Olivia, with Nick's help made it across.

Jim was the first to get across with no help!





Look I seem to be a pro...........one second later......

Nick is looking good too... one second later....

The dog show people have started to help work with Belle for our show. Tomorrow she will help a bit more on training tips and technique. We want to make her appear then have her do a couple of tricks.

I promised to mention a few things we have planned for 2011. One is the tightrope with Miles doing lasso tricks, James doing some juggling and Amelia doing an old fashion clown and umbrella crossing with it.

We also plan a high slack rope which will some traditional slack rope walking and stunts plus flips and since it will be high a couple of cloud swing stunts.

We will be adding Belle's dog tricks more aggressively.

Miles will be zip lining down into the audience to open his whip routine.

We will be developing a loose story to the whole show and perform our standard show with a bit more glitz. New circus costumes fro most of us. And here is the big thing...we are buying a complete trapeze rig set up, nets towers, and everything. A few of us will be going to train this fall and winter and we buy the rig in the spring.

Mami and I went looking at motor homes again today. We found a fantastic one, a class A. We will see what comes of it. We are liking the double RV situation we have here at this fair. It even beats out hotels. Even if our FEMA trailer the fair is letting us use leaks, and has a million little problems the concept has been great and we have been spending more time together.

Our audiences are some of the nicest in the country....Kentucky still wins with Maine and New Mexico in for second.

I also received a bunch of bills from my home (my folks) today....guess what I am doing after typing this blog.....yup...bill pay on line.

Oh, I sold my stage so we will hand it over to the new owner ( a great performer and friend from FL) when we get to OK. It will lighten the trailer by 1000lbs. Since we are expanding the show dand getting a taller stage it just makes sense. And since he will continue to use it in great spirit the slae was easy. We still have 7 - 4' X 8' X 24" sections in Cali if anyone wants to buy those.

Well, I will cap it off here tonight and will spend more time on the fair and our continuing development of new stuff tomorrow. God Bless.

First Day of Shows In Las Cruces (The Crosses)

First Day of performances here at the SNMSF and we have had nothing but fabulous audiences. Really not a sour one in the bunch. We are doing four show today and the next couple of days for the school kids. Very polite people her in southern NM...sorta Kentucky-ish that way. Very warm and dray like home here. But the sweat is the same.
Since Cynthia ran off to college away from the circus the others have been taking over her slots. Here Princess Amelia is doing the sword suspension. She loves doing it. Normally we don't repeat a trick in a day but she wanted to do it again so here she is.

While in town today I found a Halloween store and went in with the intention to find an outfit Uncle Eddie had wanted. But they didn't have it. However I did find an MC Hammer outfit and since Jim does the "Can't Touch This" juggling dance routine I picked it up. I went over big at the show.

Belle got a new outfit too. The dog show trainer is going to work with us tomorrow and teach Belle a few new tricks.

Miles made up an improvised POI tying strings to reading lights. Nick snapped this awesome picture.


Here is our set at night.

Remember the carnival set up pix we blogged the other day...same angle but all set up.

Bug off the day....he was flying around our backstage annoying me like crazy. After taking his picture he left me alone.

The new ladder came for the RV. It says it is a universal Ladder but of course it needed all kinds of tweaking to really work for us. I had to use the old ladder's upper section and saw 4" off one part of another section. But it looks great now. I was glad I had the glassing putty as I needed to plug a few of the old ladder's screw holes. The paint I found was a good match too. That took much of my day.

The little ones did their homework and watched some of the other shows. Like the dog show. The folks there are nice and I hope to catch their show myself soon.

Mami's cold seems so much better today. She recovers quickly......humph! I still have cough fits from mine.....so jealous ...but really I am happy for her.

We have been having a brain storm of new ideas for the show these past few days. Wait til you hear what we have coming for next year. it is going to be the best year ever! God has sure sent inspiration down on all of us at the same time.

This year is a record year for us and we will break the 6 figure mark in gross income from the show alone for the first time. However, it is also a record year in expenses as travel costs and other expenses have been through the roof....so we we still be poor even before the tax man comes for us. But this year has been the most wild, adventurous, crazy, exciting, stressful, fun year we have ever had. Too bad that Discovery thing didn't work out...they would've loved this year!

Interesting, when I started writing this a band was playing oldies form the 70s off in the distance and the lights and sounds of the carnival were all about me. But right this moment it's all dark and quiet. A bug or two have flittered by and the sound of RV water heaters are going full. We have string lings and RV porch lights on but I really want those plastic chili pepper lights for next year.

I forgot to mention, mostly because I was drugged, but yesterday I had around 15 minor back spasms then all night and today sciatica. Thank you Dr. Bowen for saving my sanity with the pain.

I picked up a Las Cruces chapter of the Tea Party T-shirt today. So far I have a Cincinatti one and a NM one. Wonder if I can get an OK one. It's sad that some poepl paint the Tea Party as racist and mean...haven't met personally a single one who was racist, mean or nasty. Most are just folks angry about BIG government. My cashier at Home depot told me she though we should do things the way Canada does things....it's all free up there. She has no idea. So I asked her how she would like if say she made $100 and the government took 65% for those "free" programs...we she prefer to bring home $100 or $35. She's now a tea party girl.

Tomorrow our tight rope comes.....yeah!

Day Before the shows

Did I mention Mami is a John Deere Girl?This couple Glenn and Debbie Johnson are Tractor Lovers and Glenn made up this trailer like thing for his wife to ride behind him. It even has a cup holder. Well, I rushed over and told Mami about them and I told the Johnson's about Mami loving John Deere ever since Iowa and her combine ride and they offered her a ride.

Amelia and Olivia even got to ride it. They had a blast. These things are what make each fair so different.

Here is our setup. Can you believe how long that banner line is getting. We have a big span a sauna and pool guy set up to our left (your right) and a air bubble water rider thigny on our right (your left) and a dog show on the other side of them. That makes our 3rd dog show we will perform with this year.

While Mami and I slipped off for shopping and lunch at Whataburger Victor did his studies and then did some origami.

Miles the cow tipping stud....wrong shirt for NM.

Bug of the day. A horn worm Caterpillar.

We drove past these guys and around these guys on the way up. Now they are setting up directly behind us. I think Nick stood on the RV to shoot this. By the way, Frank (Nick's dad) i still haven't old him you painted his room pink. Shhhhh

In stead of a hotel room the fair provided us with an RV trailer donated by a local RV dealer. Well, it is rumored to be one of those unused ones from Katrina. It has rust here and there. he water pump is broken, there was no hose to hook up to water, the lp gas line was broke and it had a few other problems. Victor got a loose staple stuck in his foot from the carpet in it. Well, the fair maintenance people got the water heater hooked up directly to the tanks, got us a hose, and fixed most of the other problems.

Our Rv set up next to the trailer RV and our box trailer closing in one end, our van the other has created a clown ally or court yard for us to sup and hang out. In fact I am there typing now. It's kind of nice not having to run off to a hotel each night.

The new hubcap for the van arrived...not brand new..in fact, used....maybe it is the same one that was taken in Iowa. Hmmmmm. Conspiracy theorist. ;-)

A bunch of specialized diapers arrive too. We will get the new ladder for the RV tomorrow and our tight rope arrives on Friday.

Mami's cold is a bit better. At Whataburger she had a really good burger, some jalapenos and some instant Japanese soup she brought with her. I think the John Deere ride helped too.

Cynthia called and will see a doctor about her wrist Carpel tunnel? Tendentious? Keep her in your prayers. She misses her favorite store, Ross, and is looking forward to coming home Christmas to hit the 5-story SF Ross.

A belated Happy 69th to JC ...we love you man!

This fair we are at seems like it is going to be a great one. The facilities are filled with history and the people around here seem very nice. Our layout is perfect. PTL

Ciao for tonight.

videoblog1 28 foy

videoblog1 27 Berea 2010

Las Cruces-the Cross Roads

Below is an Indian Art image on the entry gate at The American RV Park in Albuquerque, a five star RV park. I know some people might find it hard to believe that RV parks can be high class. This joint was. Even the low end places are filled with rigs that cost between 100, 000 to a million dollars.

This image is the same as the one in the gate but someone made it in the gravel at the park. Pretty impressive work.

many of the workers at the park are RVers. Lifers. People who live in their Rv and exchange a space for work. Free spirits.

Victor and Miles met a couple of boys who were playing football. They were traveling with their folks and seemed to be into all kinds of sports; golf, football,ATVs etc.

They had fun as Amelia played water girl. I think she wanted to play too.

Meanwhile James and Nick try to change the Gas filter. Problem is the fuel system needs to be depressurized...none of us know how to do it. We looked it up on line but little help. We know we have to remove the fuel pump relay but couldn't find a diagram to tell us which relay it was! UGH

Mami proudly sporting her John Deere Shirt we bought in Dodge City at a dealership. Ever since the combine ride she is a John Deere girl. that will make it easy when I want to buy a riding John Deere Mower.

On our drive down to las Cruces we past the carnival driving down as well. Bunk houses, vendor shacks, rides, you name it.

Notice the town name on the sign.....Truth or Consequences. Love it. We got gas there.

Here at the fairgrounds, which is a former Army satellite , radar base....they still have the Gomer Pyle barracks and since it is a historic site, all the old buildings and structures. It is rather cool.

The fair is providing us a second RV. This one a trailer. It;s nice but it has several problems like the LP gas not working, the water heater element is rotted, and they had not hooked it up....no hose either. We will have to fix all this tomorrow.

Mami is coming down wih my cold...keep her in your prayers.

Our stage setup is pretty nice. The boys had it up pretty fast. I will take pix.

Cheers