Random fun and misery!

This past weekend we did a fair, called Harvest Days. It's in Battle Ground, WA. Small town. Anyway, it was a three day fair and a fill in fair. A fill in fair is when we don't have anything one weekend, so we look up small fairs near our next fair location and we have it fill in until the next fair comes.
So, a "fill-in" fair. Hopefully that makes sense.
The fair was okay. We didn't do too well. The weather was terrible and our location was even worse. It was rainy, gloomy, overcast, humid, and more. We were behind the carnival, next to vendor parking, and had a huge RV parked next to the wall. You couldn't see us at all! I jumped a couple girls and one of them said, "I didn't know you guys were here this year until I was at the top of the ferris wheel!" Yeah the ferris wheel was right next to the wall, can't compete on height with that!



Anyway, the first two days we did okay, it sprinkled a little, but it just wasn't 'July Fair' weather. Hardly anyone came to the fair. Every one of the vendors were struggling. Then sunday came along, and it just poured! It rained saturday night and sunday. And it didn't stop raining, until, guess when?! When the fair closes. Yup, when the fair closed the rain stopped. Josh and I packed up and left after a few hours of being open. We were not about to stay in the rain and get sick. No one had any business and didn't stay to see if they would. It was crazy.

Now, we have about a week and a half off. It's just going to be random fun! Grandpa has family near by and is going to spend some time with them. Josh and I have been running and playing basketball. This is such a great place to go running. Just green all around you and then being able to see the sunset go down; it's just amazing. There is also raspberry and blackberry fields everywhere. You bet Josh and I stopped and grabbed a couple to eat! They are soo good too! We also took a trip into Portland to go grocery shopping and fix a few things for the rock wall. We also went to the movies and a couple different malls. It's something to take time away. Lots of fun too!

We went to a rigging shop to replace a few cables on the 

rock wall and when we went inside we saw this huge turnbuckle!! It was so big!! 

I should have laid next to it so you could actually see how big it is, but I didn't want to get dirty! 

(I'm dirty on the weekends, and on my days off I can shower and look decent.)  

I also got my hair cut! Thought I could use a little change. 

My ends were dead anyway so I needed to fix that.
Well, like I said earlier, we have about a week and a half off so I'll be blogging about
those adventures too! Thanks for reading!! I miss you all!

Chewelah Chataqua

Another one down! This fair was more stressing just because I was on my own and I sent my brother and Grandpa somewhere else to work. If you've been reading these blogs, my Grandpa and brother, Josh went to Salem, OR to work the Bubbles. So I was completely by myself for a weekend. 

I wasn't nervous, just stressed.

After I had my whole tire/axel/meltdown incident I continued the drive to Chewelah, WA. I arrived and set the Rock wall up all on my own. It wasn't too hard to do, but it was time consuming. The Rock Wall spot is right next to a creek. It is literally five to six feet away from the creek. It was a little tough pulling it in with the RV and placing it, but c'mon, do you know who I am?! Just kidding. I did do it though and did it like a champ! It's cool when you find out new things about yourself, like being able to drive something sixty-feet long! Anyway, after I set the wall up, I went to bed early, just because I was mentally and physically exhausted!

Setting up and taking down the Rock Wall is dirty work!

The next day, Thursday, I started work. I only needed one worker to come in on Thursday so I told my other worker to just come in and check in and I'd explain some things. I had two workers, Brittney and Blaze. They were skiddish at first, but of course, over a day of working you get the hang of it pretty quick. Blaze was a great worker! He was continually working. Such as, if he was done jumping kids he would come out front with me and help put harnesses on or take money, anything. He was very helpful. He is 19 years old, so he wasn't the most mature, but he worked out great. Brittney did well. She jumped kids all day and did a fine job at it. It was funny because she didn't do it like I normally do it; constantly standing with the kid, talking/entertaining, just working super hard. She would jump the kid and then sit down and talk to them or just let them jump themselves. Blaze did it a few times too, he was tired by the end of jumping a hundred-plus kids. Brittney jumped the little kids and Blaze jumped the bigger kids/adults. I took there spots a few times, but I mainly stayed out front taking money and helping kids climb. Overall they both did a great job. As much as I was stressing, they turned out to be hard workers.

 Here is a picture of Brittney and Blaze jumping kids.

Friday and Saturday were decent days for work. The fair started around 10 a.m. So Brittney, Blaze, and I got there around 1030 or 11. I'd come in early on a couple days to do some extra fixing or setting up. It was a lot of fun. The weather was fantastic the whole weekend! Not super hot and not cold or rainy. The cool thing was it had flooded the days before the fair and then it was great weather during the fair weekend and when the fair ended it is suppose to storm all week. I got lucky on weather that time. This fair went by fast. For me, I think the only downside would have to be the humidity. The humidity and being right next to the creek brought so many bugs and mosquitos. So I have bug bites all over. I have a bunch around my ankles, a couple on the back of my legs, my wrists, arms, and a couple on my neck! And they itch, so bad!! 

You cant tell how big this is,
but this is a bug that flew on me!

Another neat thing about this fair is every age group is involved. There were kids jumping and climbing from 2 years old to adults who were 80 years old. I always get excited when adults come to jump. It just explains to the world, that no matter your age you can still have fun and feel young, even when your body may go against it. I jumped a lady that was 62 years old. She had breast cancer and now has recurrent and metastatic breast cancer. She was a champ!! She got on the bungee jump and went pretty high. She even did a couple back flips!! It was great! I jumped another man who was 60 years old. And he was telling me that he has lost over a hundred pounds in the last year. He said, "Yeah, all I did was walked my dog for a few miles every morning and cut down on the calorie intake and lost it all. Still losing too!" He was a fun man. He was doing back flips galore too! And again, it's always neat to get "older" adults up on the bungee. Proves to everyone that age number doesn't matter. You can be as young or old as you want to be. Everyone deserves a bit of fun every now and then. 

Here is the 62 year old lady that I bungee jumped! 

And below is the 60 year old man that I bungee jumped! How cool?!?!

 

 The Chewelah Chataqua was a lot of fun. Being by myself for a weekend was nice, little scary at times, but overall it was nice. Josh and Grandpa had a great time in Salem, OR. The fair was decent for them as well. They had a worker named Brendan, according to Josh, he did well. 

Below is a pic of Grandpa and Brendan with the Bubbles in Salem, OR.

They enjoyed their time over in Salem. They worked really hard and when I say really hard, I mean Josh picked up like four girls phone numbers! He was thrilled about it! He even got a picture with a couple of them. Now, he is just working on the, "Can I take you on a date?!" Yeah Bro! She still has to be approved by me though, so I'll be joining them on the date! Just kidding. Anyway, Grandpa seemed to enjoy it over there. He didn't get any phone numbers, but that's probably a good thing! They enjoyed the traveling and even the traveling after the fair ended. Brendan went back home and Josh and Grandpa went to the coast. They hit up the beach and messed around. Josh caught a lot of crabs and starfish. The crabs were pretty easy for him to catch, it was the starfish that are hard. The starfish just chill there on a rock until something touches them then their suction turns on! The starfish are fast, but Josh was slightly faster! It was pretty easy for Josh to catch them. And yes, of course, he put them back.

After we were all done playing and getting things done we travelled to our next destination. The next fair is called, Harvest Days. It's in a little town called, BattleGround, WA. Very small fair. This will be a fill in fair, something to take up time. It's only three days and then we can have more fun play time! 

We are about an hour from Seattle and less than an hour from Portland. So, we are surrounded by some fun places and historical sights. These next couple of weeks should be fun. 

We've accomplished three fairs so far! Only twelve more weekend fairs to go!

Let me know how this blog is going or if you want more information, stories, anything! Thanks!

Why is this Happening to Me?!

We were all packed up from the Grangeville fair and had to take off. Josh and Grandpa Frank left for Salem, OR about 815 a.m. I packed up the RV and headed over to the Lutz family house. The Lutz's are the family we bought the rock wall from. They are great family. The kids are great! Genny and Brad are the parents and they have four kids. They are awesome! Harrison is the oldest, then Addie, then Kate, then Zoie. They are pretty cool kids. Always a lot of fun. I went to their house because I had the wall parked there from after the fair and to visit of course. When I got there they were packing up to leave on a family reunion, so I helped them pack. Visited with them and ran some extra errands. Then I took off a little before noon.

Disregard all the bugs on the window. This is my view driving.

Rolling green hills everywhere! Amazing!

So I drove through a few cool towns. I drove through a town called Lewiston, which is pretty decent size, then next to Pullman, then Colfax, and then Spokane. And this is where I scream, cry, and say, "Why is this happening to me?!" My father called me to have me stop in Spokane to fix a few things for the Rock wall. I stopped at this store and they weren't able to do it so I ran some other errands to try and get it done. One of those errands was to stop at a Home Depot and a Wal-Mart. I missed the turn to the Home Depot, (wal-mart is right next door) and ended up pulling into a town store across the street. Well when I was turning into the parking lot to park I backed up to pull in a little better and realized there is a tire behind me. I thought, wow someone lost a tire, but it wasn't there when I pulled in, huh. Then, my parking job was terrible so I pulled out to make a u-turn to park better. That's when I realized that was MY tire! My tire came completely off the axel and my axel was grinding on the ground and it had blew the tire in front of it, same side on the rock wall trailer! Ahh!! Yeah, you bet I was crying! It was about 530 p.m. and everything was starting close down. I had no clue what to do. I called AAA and they couldn't help. I ran across the street to a Jiffy Lube to see if they could help somehow. They couldn't, but they took me back across the street to a town auto shop and he wasn't able to do it, so then he took me down the street to a place called Perfection Tire and they looked at it and said it could be done. Some relief there. I think the crying really helped me too, more sympathy. But they were real tears, I was scared. I was even more scared to call my father! But of course, I called him and he helped. It had happened to him before too and so he knew how to help. He helped calm me down and told me everything was going to be okay. I was even more stressed just because I have to be in Chewelah by Wednesday to set up and I still needed to find workers and so much more! Just hectic.

The tire that fell off. Drum broke and tire blown

    

So the guys here at the shop said that they would fix the blown tire and drive it down to the shop, very surprised it was capable to drive down there. They told me I could stay in the RV here at their shop over night and they would have it fixed in the morning/afternoon sometime. The guys who took a look at it said all the bearings were shot, and bushings, just everything was completely shot. They were shocked the other tire on the opposite side hadn't fallen off. Oh my! I was very blessed, in a way, that the tire fell off in a parking lot and not on a freeway! Oh my, again! And it was nice because I was so close to everything. Groceries, gas station, auto stores, food, everything.

It was a little scary staying in the RV overnight. I had no plug-ins, just the generator, which took forever to get going. I also had the inverter hooked up to the battery so I was able to use that for a few things. I walked to the Wal-Mart down the street and grabbed food and other supplies. It was a nice walk, just a calm stress relieving walk. Afterwards, I clean a little and filed/documented some things. Then went to bed! I was exhausted. A lot of things had happened all at once and I was definitely done for for the night.

Now, I'm just waiting for them to fix the trailer. They are going to replace two axels and three tires! So crazy! I am definitely being watched by the Lord. This all could have been a lot worse. The guys at the shop said the parts should be in in the afternoon and then the labor should only take about an hour. Then I can take off to Chewelah, set up the rock wall, and be ready to go for tomorrow! Wow! So crazy! I'm just glad next week is an easy fair and then I have a week off to get other maintenance done. Remember that first blog, yeah, this is one of those big bumps that require me to have a lot of patience! Glad it's all getting taken care of though! Whew!

Grangeville Fair, Check!

Well we made it through the first fair! Grangeville is checked off the list, for this year anyway. Grandpa Frank and Josh head out to Salem, OR with the bubbles for the next fair. I'm heading to a small town called, Chewelah, WA. It's a really nice place. And I get to work right next to a creek! So it's nice and cool, great for the extra tan and when I get hot I can always put my feet in to cool down. Really neat place.

Grangeville Rock wall and Bubble set up!


Anyway, about this fair! We started work on saturday morning. Around 8 a.m. Pretty early, but had to get things taken care of and set up. I have a friend who has been helping us for a couple of years now come help work. His name is Bret and he brought his roommate, Jesse. They did a great job working. Got a little sun burned though. But I think they had fun. A definite motivation for them was having a tip jar! They were lovin' life at the end of the day! Then they'd get up the next morning and that feeling was gone! It's kind of an endless cycle. Grandpa Frank was kind of getting the hang of it. He is a really nice guy. Helping kids take their shoes on and off or making conversation with parents. Just a friendly guy. I'm not sure what his thoughts are with working the bubbles yet. But soon enough I'm sure I'll find out! Grandpa Frank always gets to bed as soon as he can and then gets up super early! Guess it must be an old people thing! ;) But Bret was up too because his school/sleep schedule is like that. Josh, of course, sleeps in as much as he can. I try to too. Sleep and recovery is a big deal with this type of work. So that sums up everyone. Me, Josh, Grandpa, Bret, and Jesse. Bunch of guys under a woman's management! That's right!

 Grandpa Frank working the bubbles.     Josh jumping a kid at the Rock wall

So to continue with the first day of the fair, it was a little rough. Everyone was trying to understand and know how to work each item. It wasn't too complicated, but did take some time. Everyone got somewhat burnt. Being out in the sun for just a few hours straight will definitely get you. I don't think anybody got it as bad as Jesse though. His eyes were burnt and his face. I felt really bad. But, again, I think he enjoyed working, just wasn't fully aware of the work it took. Grandpa Frank got his face and the back of his legs a little red too. He's so white! Anyway, so the first day was a fun and easy day. The second day was a little more busy at both the Wall and the bubbles. When working the wall and bubbles, it's funny, because you pretty much have the same stories for everyday of every fair. Just kind of how it goes.
Something really neat about this fair is they do traditions! One tradition is they have street games every morning of the fair at 9 a.m. It involves kid races, adult races, games, and their famous Egg Toss Competition. So you know, Josh and I were all over the egg toss! We did really well, until I dropped it. :( We did over the back throws, hiking it, one handed catches, you name it, we probably did it. The egg toss is so huge! The whole town and more people come to do it. The entire street is pack! About a hundred yards in length and a three lane street wide! It's crazy! And this year marked their 100 years of Grangeville Border Days! So it was nuts!! Lots and lots of fun!

Josh preparing for the egg toss

Half the people who do the egg toss! There's a lot more behind me!

Then the last day was slow. It was the fourth of July, and it was a monday. People are doing their own thing or traveling somewhere. We didn't do too hot. But it was very hot outside! After it died down we started to pack up. I had Bret, Jesse, and Grandpa Frank at the bubbles taking down and Josh and I took down the wall. It was nice because it only took a few hours. It was so hot outside that when we emptied the pool for the bubbles the water went straight to the drain and then the rest dried up from the sun. It was a nice take down. Funny, yet dumb story..Josh and I were taking down the wall and it was all taken down. I just needed to lower the wall. I get some teenage hick, who had been watching us take down the whole time, said, "Hey can I do the jump?" It was so funny. Josh and I both said, "Really?! You've been watching us take down the whole time and now you're asking to do it?" Then the kid has the audacity to say, "Well set it back up!" Josh and I were on fire at this point. We told the kid he was dumb for even asking such a question and then he goes to say, well I was going to give you a hundred bucks to do it. Ha! That was bull! Oh, kids these days...

Well the Grangeville fair is over! One down and so many more to go. Should be a fun year. Many problems will arise, as they already have, but I'll keep on trucking. It's going to be really sad when Josh has to leave for school. I don't know how I'll get humored, or have a running partner, or even someone to just vent too. But I know it's for his own good..yadda yadda. ;) Thanks for reading. Next stops for us are: Chewelah, WA for the Wall and Salem, OR for the bubbles. Good luck to Josh, Grandpa Frank and me!

Beginning the Journey

Finally, the time has come! We started the beginning of our journey! Driving to Grangeville, ID. Small town, about 200 miles North of Boise, ID. Driving from Logandale it took 830 miles! Quite a bit if you ask me. I drove the RV with the Rock wall and Grandpa Frank drove the truck holding the bubbles. Josh chilled with me in the RV on the way up. He slept for most of the drive, but was a good-sport and slept in the front seat, instead of on the bed. (Most of the time anyway.) We left Logandale about 5 p.m. Started to get tired around 1 a.m. So we pulled over in a town called, Wells. We slept for a few hours and then hit the road again. It was a smooth drive most of the way. Little windy in certain areas, but we handled it just fine. It was a gorgeous drive as well so we had to take pictures. The pictures are taken from inside the RV, so ignore the bugs on the windshield. :) Also, when we drove through Boise, I had Josh take a drive picture of the Temple! Sweet huh?!

In past years, my Father (Brent), Josh, and I would always stop at this fruit store. They have fresh fruit every year and it is always so good. We stopped and bought some peaches, cherries, and strawberries. They were delicious. Josh ate them so fast! He loves fruit, especially peaches! Many people can vouch for that. We then continued the drive.

Now, after 16 hours of driving we made it to Grangeville, ID. Not exactly in one piece, but we made it. Grandpa Frank blew a tire on the truck and had to get that repaired. Not too bad, it just put back on time. So, this is our first fair of the summer season. Pretty exciting! The RV is parked and set up, as well as the rock wall and bubbles. The bubbles took some time to set up and a lot of rearranging and leveling. Everything has been taken care of though. On our down time, Josh watches movies while he eats his cereal and peaches. Grandpa looks up current events and sports on the computer. And I sit and get other business tasks done. It's great too because everyone has been great with helping each other out and getting things done. The fair people have been really nice and cooperative.

I'm stressing out a lot. This is really big deal for me and the family. I've been doing this for three years now, going on four. Everything will turn out great. I just need patience, understanding, and patience. Oh wait, I already said that. I need patience though..a lot of it. Because even after three years, you think you've got it all down that's when you know you don't. Anyway, it's going to be hard and weird not having Dad here, but we will be able to handle it, hopefully he will too. ;)

This is the beginning of our journey. Our four month journey. I'll learn so much and become a better person. I'm excited for what will be in store for me. I know there will be many many, many rough times and bumps throughout this, but I know with help, support, and *patience* I'll be able to make it. Thanks for reading this blog. There will be more to come! Enjoy!