Day 15! Shawnee

Our next gig is in Wisconsin at the end of this week. So we are slowly working our way across the country. From Watonga we went 40 miles down the road to El Reno for a night and then another 20 miles to OK City and did site-seeing. This you already know. This morning we packed up and drove to the west side of OK City to the town of Shawnee. We had the honor of going to church with our new good friends, Kathy And Bill (and their fam). It's been neat going to a new church each week. Last year we were so stacked up with gigs it was hard to go to church.

Kathy and Bill are "Kid's Celebration" who we met at the infamous Los Angeles Spring Fair (where the thief promoter, David Jackson, didn't pay any of us.) Meeting them was one good thing that came out of that event.

We are staying at their home tonight. The girls were so happy to see Bill and Kathy again. They became such close friends in L.A. Their house is fun too...it has a pool table, foos ball table, chess board, hunting trophies, and a cute dog named Sugar.

Bill treated us to the movies. We saw the new pirates movie. Olivia was bored fast. But everyone else enjoyed it pretty well. Missed Orlando Bloom and the chick though.

Mami fixed goulash for dinner (Kathy had tacos waiting for us at lunch). Both meals were excellent.

A lazy day tomorrow with a few chores await us.

Oh, one more note. There are millions of june bugs here. Pictures tomorrow.

Day 14.... intentional tourists!

As the picture on the left shows the Kent's are celebrating Oklahoma. Downtown OK City was alive in many ways today. All at once in a 1/2 mile radius there was a micro-beer festival, University Graduation, and the OK City Thunder NBA playoff game. "Go Thunders" decorated the whole town in every business window and enveloping some building completely. Blue and white t-shirts and jerseys were everywhere.

It is easy to spend a whole week visiting the statues, museums , memorials, etc of this town. And with all this there is all that construction of a town in major growth mode.

We had a map and was told where to visit before we left the RV park. We started at the Bass Pro Shop parking lot at the end of the Brick Town water taxi tour. There were brass statues you will see pictured later on this page.

We then took on the trek across town to the Bombing Memorial. There is a free shuttle service but with Belle and Titu's wheel chair we worried it would be a bother to try it so we walked. I am glad we did. Even though it was 94 degrees. There was a breeze that kept us cool.

Tall buildings, old building, statues, sculptures, weird shops, cool shops, you name it, lined almost every street.

Even though this picture was taken as we left the Memorial of MAy 23, 1995 I think it makes a poignant point about what happened there at that federal building not so long ago; Jesus Weeps is the name of the statue.

Victor started to climb on the posts around it as he would at any park or area that had posts. But I stopped him to explain the difference and how in certain places a certain reverence is needed.

The memorial has a very shallow pond that stretches between two entry gates. It used to be 6th street, the street where that jerk parked the bomb truck in 95. On on entry tower is inscribed "901" and the other "903" everything in between is supposed to be 9:02 the minute of the fatal blast.

Where the building stood is a grassy field with glass and brass chairs placed. Each one has the name of a person who died in the blast. The are big chairs and small ones....for the children lost.

It's a somber place and reminds us that there is a right way and a wrong way to protest our government. But it also warns us that some people get pushed to points of falling down that goes beyond our understanding. And then it tells us that there are some plain crazy people out there.

On a lighter note Lucas found a long lost relative.

Amelia found a friend...these fiberglass, sometimes brass, buffaloes are everywhere in town. Reminds me of the bears in Grant's Pass, OR.

God dropped a buffalo nickel and we found it.

Mami said the cutest thing she has seen in two years of touring with us were these ducklings following their mom.

Going for an imaginary ride into the past.

Victor get's kicked.

Yes, I'm pulling his finger.

Victor's head is a canon ball.

Earlier in the day I finally found my bank chain and I found a Petco to get mice for Buttercup. I also found a costume shop and got nick a cheesy 1900's style mustache for his trapeze costume. Also found a Uhaul for our spear boxes. It was a productive morning.

You kn ow we are only 20 miles from where we spent last night. Tomorrow we will go to Shawnee and visit our good friends Bill and Kathy. We will meet them at their church. We are going to church more this season....that's nice. Hope there is room for the RV in their parking lot.

While Mami and I did food shopping the kids hit the swimming pool here at the RV park. When I got back it was repair time. One of my tail lights on the trailer worked but had no brake or turn signal. After replacing the whole thing (it's a light unit not just a bulb) it still didn't work. Turned out to be a cut wire closer to the ball hitch. I wasted 10 bucks on a new light unit. Oh, well!

Life on the road in a nutshell....work, touristy, playful, tiring, fun, hard, easy, exciting, interesting, and there is always something to learn.

Day 14! Starting the Day. (PART 1)

Best Western Inn in El Reno is da bomb. Valuewise-hot bfast, RV park, super nice people, clean, clean, comfortable, etc. It is also near a Walmart, Tractor Supply Store and right off the freeway...works for us!

We leave El Reno in a little while and become OK City tourists. I will give you a full report tonight.

Victor

Day 13......El Reno Fried Pies

Well, our week in Watonga has ended. After a very stormy, thudery, blistery night where sleep was interrupted by constant peels of thunder and bursts of bright lightening we all woke up at various times and prepared for our "long" journey to El Reno (40 minutes from Watonga). Everyone is sleepy today; some from the storm (which I should add was badly needed as this area has been in drought conditions for quite sometime)and some from Titus waking up and whining at 3 am.

I want to thank our hosts while in Watonga, Jon and Katie Lyle and their daughter. We are blessed to have them as friends. Jon is a great close-up magician (haven't seen his stage show. But I hope to. If he brings the same energy and dedication to the stage as he does to the close-up table then I am sure it is a great show.

The last thing you see as you turn on four corners to leave Watonga are the silos for the wheat. From there you head out among the wheat fields and out of town. Just like it is when you leave any Okie town.

We are inching our way to Oklahoma city to see "Brick Town" and the Bombing memorial. We will make it there tomorrow. We chose to stay in El Reno because they have a hotel that also has an RV park connected to it. Since the forecast called for storms today, which never materialized, we decided to get one hotel room so the boys would not have been stuck in a tent in the rain.

I don't know if it is an Oklahoma thing but there was a joint that sold deep fired pies. So I bout three, peach, apricot, and cherry. The owner's wife makes the pies. The owner is an artist and when you walk into the shop you find several paintings leaning against ever wall, on every counter, on every ledge. Paintings of Elvis that looked lifelike, paintings of George Bush, or landscapes, 3-D scapes, etc. He is very very good. He should me the construction job of his soon to open cafe. it has 3-D art on the wall with lights and water effects built in to them.

The pies had the taste of funnel cake with preserves. They were quite good.

For the first time on this trip I went into a Walmart. The little ones and I did a quick run there for some needed supplies....like sweet tea (a summer staple).

Later Nick and I walked across the highway to a Tractor Supply Store to find a rubber grommet for one of the trailer bearing dust covers. One was getting old and cracked and leaked the grease. We searched for it in Watonga but couldn't find it. But ala TSC had it.....woohoo. So easy to excite me sometimes. They also sell Anti Monkey Butt Powder there.

The picture to the left is part of my road kill series. This was a frog or toad. Which ever it was, it was big.

So I will end it there for tonight. Tomorrow we move to a full RV Park and the boys move into a tent for a day. Sunday and Monday we will spend time with our new friends Jim and Kathy in Shawnee, OK then we turn North and hang out with Vaughn, Eric and Mary in Waterloo, IA for a day and a half then on to Burlington, WI. Midori Takahashi, assistant and Lyra-ist will join us on the 28th flying into Milwaukee. So the group grows.

Louisiana Gator Festival

Home Page this is their link....our Vaudepalooza is the theme and our show their feature act.

Day 12 part 2

Just found out we dodge a tornado. The town we are supposed to stay in tomorrow was hit by one. They are sorting it out now as far as the details go. It's windy here and we had a little rain. Lord know OK needs rain. But we are safe and are doing very well.

Our hosts, John Lyle, his wife Katie and daughter Tiffany and their friend Adam have been awesome.

Praise God for good friends.

This trip, this year is about friendship and relationships.

Roman Nose Park Desoto Bamboo Trick

We Spent the afternoon today at Roman Nose Park. Named after an indian chief. It is a beautiful place one wouldn't expect in the wheat fields of OK. It has natural springs and wonderful rock steps (put in by the CCC in the thirties). The boys had to power Titus in his chair around. But they did well.

Further down you will see the bugs of the day and even further down there are pictures from the show. The bamboo illusion we brought with us finally got to be tried out. We did a rush job putting it all together and rehearsing. We used an American Flag for now but will replace that with tiki grass later on. Once it is perfected we will video tape it.

Magic Jon's step daughter helped us with it.

Also below you will see Andy Barret's blue Desoto. We each got turns riding it around the park. Very sweet ride. Andy is the one who showed us around Roman Nose Park. He has a bed and breakfast near by.

Day 11 (part 2) THE SHOW IS OVER

Though not a sold out house the turnout was OK and the crowd was very hospitable....down right wonderful. Sadly the camera battery went dead so we lost out on getting some shots of some of the new stuff. We even did our new "Bamboo" illusion where a girls head spins, is removed from her body placed on a table and spun again, then place back on her body where she completely vanishes. Going back to the table the cover is removed and three of my kids come out. The girl is now in the house (audience seats area). It went very well and Magic Jon's step daughter played the girl.
We presented the first ever trapeze performance at the Liberty and it took a little work rigging the trapeze to the 100 year old rafters. But we got it down and both Olivia and Nick performed admirably.

This is the story the local paper ran about us as a kind of ad about the show.

On Face book I have already gotten a couple of nice complimentary reviews of the show.

By the way don't for get to get you Anti-monkey butt powder at www.antimonkeybutt.com.

I am liking the tour in one other respect this year. I get to leave after the show and the big boys tear down and pack up the show. They are all good guys. Adam, our new Watongan friend helped out tonight. Good guy.

We ave a few days off as we work our way up to WI. We will visit friends in Shawnee, OK as well as visit the OK bombing memorial and check our OK City over the weekend. Then we plan to stop and visit friends in Waterloo, IA on our trek north.

My phone gave me a surprise. We had a tornado warning in our area. Everyone shrugged it off so we went on with the show.

Day 11...Show Day in Watonga (part 1)

Alright, Its time to stop goofing off and get to work. By that I mean today is show day in Watonga at the Liberty Theater at 6pm. The local bank even put us on their marquee (picture on left).

I will give a full report on the show tomorrow or late tonight. As I type this the hooking up of trailers and loading of costumes and animals from the small trailer to the big one. It's like the big circus' in away; there is a small army and everyone is well trained, like a well oiled machine, with one goal in mind....get that show to the venue and set-up!

More to come....

Day 10 Part 2.....

Here is a picture of the stage at the Liberty Theater in Watonga, OK. The building is over 100 years old and they have striven to keep it looking like it did when it was new.

We will be the first to rig a trapeze in there.

It's pretty exciting to perform here again. Last year's audience was terrific and this year should prove to be the same if not better.

Mami fixed her famous curry for dinner tonight. Our host's parents came over for dinner and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Instead of loosing weight this season I am staying fat! UGH. But how sweet it is! Our friends want to keep her here and hire her on as their personal chef.

The boys practiced on the tightrope again and our host, Jon, even gave it a try working at it until he was walking the wire. So did his buddy and our, Adam. It was funny to watch. Some neighbors and our hosts folks had a good time watching them practice.

In spite of the light wind that messed up our fishing outing it was a great day today.

Day 10! Fishing? Checking the venue. (part 1)

While I rest after a fishing, walking outing I thought it might be good to get these pictures up. I will have to leave shortly to meet the theater people to go over the techs of tomorrow's show.

This morning we performed at a school in Watonga to promote the show. It was a lot of fun. The picture here shows me about to tie Victor Jr. up.

Last night Jim and the guys thought it might be fun to try and balance the 200+ lb tightrope on his face. I stopped it before we broke a very expensive prop. Turn your back for a second and this is what happens. The blond guy is a Watongan friend, Adam.

Last night we did the magic jam and this is a pre-jam sittin around the table shot....even Belle wanted to watch.

Magic Jon really surprised Lucas many times as the jam went on.

My turn came and I did a few of my regular tricks.

Today Katey too the kids and I to the local lake and we did some fishing. It was heck a windy as the winds came sweeping 'cross the plains...Oklahoma! So we gave up and walked around the lake area. Mami, Titus, Lucas, and Nick joined us about the time we gave up on fishing. Tangled lines.

It was a pleasant day.

Day 9! The Streets of Watonga

Today was busy and relaxing. By that I mean I slept in this morning. I think everyone was very much awake by the time I rolled out of the RV. After a quick B-fast I got my list of to-dos and got to it. I walked from our friend's house to downtown (about 10 blocks). But not before my friend's dog, Blackstone, took off out of the house and sent all my boys scrambling down the road after him. Interestingly enough there were quite a few dogs on the loose I noticed today. One little nipper followed after me but the shotgun ap on my cell phone kept scaring him off.

My first stop was the post office. Why did they build all the old post offices atop a series of steps. Modern ones are all street level but all the old ones have steps. Just a muse.

After that it was down main street to the hardware store. Like most little towns more than half of the storefronts aren't stores anymore. Some are old weather-worn decaying shells, others are storage facilities, and others are homes. In their midst are some very nice stores. One is an actual winery that produces real honest to goodness quality wine. I would visit there later in the evening with our host, Jon Lyle. The proprietor opened up for us special. I wanted to get a couple of bottles because of their unusualness of being Watonga wine.

I couldn't find the turnbuckle I needed for our tightwire at the hardware store but they directed me to a place about an mile and a half down the highway. So I took the trek. As I crossed the four-corners a nice elderly black man in a pick up offered me a ride. he said he saw me earlier walking around town. i told him I appreciated it but I was walking off a big lunch form the day before. That church lunch was awesome, but it made me full like I haven't been in a long time. Tour time is stomach shrinking time for me. Still we chatted a bit and I invited him to the show on Wednesday.

I am glad for technology. Cell phones make treks along old highways interesting. I called Cynthia in Kentucky who is on break until we meet up at the end of the month. She was bored.

The highway was lined by cow pastures, old delapetated buildings, various old businesses, and such. My goal was a machine shop slash trailer store. I needed those turnbuckles. And I needed some rubber caps for my trailer bearings. They had the turnbuckles but not the seals. I would return the ones I bought later since a friend here would suggest a better idea.

By the time I made the mile and a half trek back to four corners, Adam, our new friend via Jon, came driving up and offered a ride. Again I turned it down but he talked me into it and helped me run the rest of my errands. To be honest by old body was happy for the lift.

Back at the house Adam started teaching Nick how to juggle and he caught on rather well. They all worked on the tightwire. Then stupidity came into play. I came out of the RV to see them working on lifting it to see if they could balance it on Jim or Adam's face. It weighs almost 200 lbs. At first I was amused. But the thought of it falling and breaking caused me to put an end to it. I was a fuddy duddy!

Mami made a great dinner for everyone tonight. She is awesome.

Oh, Jon and I I hit the theater to check out and see if we are going to be able to rig the trapeze to the stage grid somehow. The theater is over 100 years old and wasn't designed for it but we think we have found a way.

back at the house we all gathered and Jon and I did a few close-up tricks for everyone. I think Jon did a better job than I did. He is a close-up natural. I bet his stage show is good too. Though I haven't seen it yet. I hope to someday.

Well, excuse the typos and mistakes...I won't be proof-reading this because I am pooped. more Pictures tomorrow. We will do a school show to promote the Wednesday show.

Day 8! Arrived in Watonga

This is our Marque in Watonga....we have an Ircus!

Dinner!

Took the picture while on a walk in Watonga.

Here is the stage layout at the Canton High School Gym for the Walleye Rodeo shows. Great space.

Our Marque.

Belle in mid jump and a photo of Olivia during performance on the Lyra....or at least her shadow.

Lucas, the roadie, sound tech trainee and clown in training promoting Anti Monkey Butt Powder.

These are the Stalkers....well most of them. the family on the right (the Rogs)came to three of our six performances. All three of their kids were sticky sticky sticky from the cotton candy at the first show. Reuben, the dad, helped catch one of our doves that got loose before one of the shows and flew into the dusty rafters. They are a fun family.

Today, Sunday, we arrived in Watonga to perform a show on Wednesday and a school show on Tuesday. But first we stopped by the Watonga Community Church, home church of our friends Katey and John Lyle. They welcomed us and even advertised out show. After a great service they had a graduates appreciation pot luck. Best pot luck ever. These folks here love brisquette and know how to cook it. We had several variations and Okra....I hated okra before but after their okra I love the stuff. MMMMM.

Afterwards the kids played with the left over decorations.

We turned Jon's front yard into a circus zone. Here is Jon on the tightwire. He did pretty OK.....and fell a couple of times. I have a theory about people of 40 doing new things like this.....

Lucas made it across a few times too.

All the kids practiced their acts and new stuff as well.

Later on Olivia Mami and the Lyles went for a walk around the town.