Over the Hump!!

Oh my, oh my..where do I start this adventure?? Let's see, first I just have to say, it's surprising that I'm still alive! Okay, next..

In my last blog I told you all I was in Port Angeles, WA. That fair had only the Rock Wall. The bubbles were lucky and got a week off! Anyway, it was a small fair, we were busy maybe one day out of the four. But other than that, it was a constant flow of people every day. The people there were friendly. The weather was nice as well. I was freezing the whole time though. Joe and Bret were just fine and loved it! It was too humid and cold for me. I was in a sweater most of the day working. Our set up was pretty cool too! We set up on top of this hill and the whole fair is surrounded in trees. The fair is in a park which was pretty much a forest! Then right below us was a Kids Tractor pull and then the carnival and so forth. It was really nice because after each tractor pull show the parents would come up to the rock wall to have their kids bungee jump. Those were good rushes. As mentioned earlier, I had Bret and Joe working for me here. Joe mainly worked the front and Bret jumped. Joe is really good at reeling teenagers and adults in to do the jump or the rock wall. Anyway, so the fair finally ended on Sunday at 7pm. I needed to take down as soon as I could to book it over to Kennewick, WA, which is about a ten hour drive! The next fair started on Tuesday and I needed to be there by Monday to set up. I had the bubbles and the rock wall at this fair! Lots of time setting up. Anyway, we started to take the rock wall down at Port Angeles and realized that a cable that hooks up to my battery melted off. So there wasn't any juice getting to my hyrolics.  So I had Bret and Joe run to Walmart to get the piece that needed to be repalced and then I had to re-charge the battery and clean up anything extra. After this was all done we finished taking the wall down and packed up. We didn't get out of there until around 11pm. Now, the drive could have been a lot shorter if we had taken the ferry across Washington over to Kennewick, but the odds of us making it in time to catch it, as well as if they'll take us on, was close to impossible. The other route was to go back down through Portland, OR then over to Kennewick, Wa. We also parked the bubbles at Bret's house for storage so we had to go that way anyway. Continuing, I was driving the RV and Rockwall  and it was about 2am and BAM!!! I was passing a Semi-Truck and moving back over out of the passing lane and then a car hit my rock wall! Yup! HIT ME!! They spun a few times then off the road. I was freaking out. Joe was sleeping in the front seat and I yelled his name and he told me to pull over. I pulled over and tried to calm down. It was hard because I was so scared! I called my dad and told him what happened and he helped me through it as well. There were statements from the people in the accident as well as the semi who saw everything and me. No one was injured and everyone was okay, just shook up. A tow truck and cops helped the family and got them off the road. I felt super bad because it was two parents and three kids on their way to disney land. But they were all okay, just scared. What the semi guy said happened was, I was moving back over and the car sped up and hit the median, over corrected, then hit me and spun out of control. The cops think the man driving fell asleep and that was the main cause of it. They cited him and everything is being taken care of. Now the damage done to my rock wall was a blown tire, bent fender, and a couple other minor damages. And then, guess the award winning damage?!?!? Yup! A broken axle!! The one I just recently replaced!! AHHH! UGH!

Anyway, so I drove to the next exit thinking that the wheel would straighten out and it didn't. It was around 5am now and I was tired. I got up the morning before for work at 8am and then worked all day, packed, and then starting driving, so I haven't had any sleep. When I pulled off the exit, there was a trucking company. They fix their beaten down semi trucks. SO I for sure though I was in luck. Well, I obviously ran out of all that, so of course not. They wouldn't be able to fix, let alone get the parts to fix it. As time went by I made a few phone calls. I made calls to people who could fix the rock wall, to get the parts from, everything! I got a hold of a guy around 7am who said that he could fix it he just needs me and himself to find someone who has the parts on hand. He made calls and I made more calls. I ended up finding a place in Portland who had all the parts in stock. Now, the exit I got off on was about 70 miles from Portland. That was relieving. So I unhooked the wall and left it with this truck shop and took off to Portland. I picked up the parts and headed back to the truck shop. I hooked the rock wall back up and drove it a mile north to the guy's shop. It was a shop where he sold trailer as well as fixing trailers. He said it would only be a couple hours to do the work. Well, by this time it was Monday, around noon. I wanted to be out of there BY noon, latest 2pm. I walked down the street to get food and relax. It was so hard to relax because I had no control of anything. I just had to wait. Nothing could be done and that was killing me. It was nice having the RV because I could watch movies and have time go by. Anyway, the guy ran into a few problems and the axel didn’t get done until 7pm!! Reminding you, it’s about a 7 hour drive from there to Kennewick. I hooked everything back up, picked the truck up from Bret’s house and took off to Kennewick. We were about fifteen minutes out of Kennewick, (and there is nothing on the way, food gas, etc) and the RV runs out of gas!! Ugh! Something I don’t need to happen. It’s now almost 2am Tuesday and I’m running out of time! I take the truck and get gas for the RV. Down the street is the fairgrounds and we start setting up. It’s about 3am when we start setting up and the fair starts at 9am. I have both items at this fair! Craziness. We set up the bubbles and the rock wall and finish about 7am. I had my workers go sleep for a couple hours while I took care of some other minor problems. Then we worked all day until 11pm that night. Then finally I was able to get some sleep. I hadn’t slept in four days! It was terrible. But everything worked out and we were all safe. Pretty crazy, huh?!

Now, let’s talk about the actual fair. It was a five day fair, one of our best. But it seemed pretty slow this year. It was very hot outside and I don’t think the people were use to that kind of weather. It was about 90-100 degrees out every day with a high percent of humidity. It was tough. Something way cool about this fair is the concerts they have! I have the Rock wall and bubbles set up right in front of the stage. They have assigned seats, then grass opening, then bleachers, then us. So, it was great being able to work at night because of the concerts! They had, Joan Jett and the Black Hearts, Bret Michaels, Kenny Rogers, Blue Oyster Colt, and Lee Brice.  They have good shows every year, classics too. Blue Oyster Colt was my favorite. They just rocked out and had great songs! I got, “Don’t fear the Reaper” on video! Pretty sweet.

Anyway, all of my workers did a fantastic job! They worked fast enough and hard enough. No one complained and they had a blast working with each other. We finished this fair on Sunday and took everything down on Monday. We all wanted more sleep. After, we headed out to Walla Walla, WA. This was only an hour drive, so nothing could possibly happen in an hour, right?! Right!!! Nothing happened and we made it safely to Walla Walla and set up. We went grocery shopping, worked out, and relaxed.

 This is the wall and bubble set up! They were right next to each other! 

We also got new colored bubbles, red, blue, yellow, and green!! So COOL!

I completed the first half of the season! I’m now over the hump and its downhill from here! Yes! The Lord has been with me, helping me, and keeping me safe. I have been very blessed. And I’m very grateful to have this blessing to work and to gain knowledge in this real world. I’m learning so much and am struggling through it, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Thanks for reading these long and crazy stories. I appreciate your time and support!!

Finally, Internet Use!!

Of course, in this generation, internet is so important and useful! Well, I've been without a computer and internet for a couple weeks. I have internet on my phone, but a computer keyboard/screen is a lot better to use for blogging rather then a touch screen phone. So sorry it's been so long, I'll try my best and update you on the adventures!
Before we started the next fair we were staying at an RV Park close to Bret's house. So, Bret called me one day and asked if Josh and I wanted to go shooting with him. So we did! We shot some pretty cool guns. And really powerful. We shot a 38 special hand gun, 338 rifle, and a couple 22's. It was a lot of fun! We were super bored so we were very thankful Bret had called and was willing to take us out to do something.

 

Josh and I shooting the 38 special hand gun!  

 

  This is a video of Josh shooting the 338. Hopefully it turns out.

Well first off we've finished a few fairs. One fair we went to is in a town called Hillsboro, OR. It's a town consisting of about 20,000 people. Decent size town. The cool thing about the towns location is it's by so many other towns or cities, such as Portland. At this fair, we had the Bubbles and the Rock Wall. And it was super nice because they were right next to each other! Also, the weather was just about right. The whole weekend was about 80 degrees, that was nice. The down side was it was about 80 percent humidity! Maybe not that much but it got pretty close. The first day was also super windy!! Other than that, the weekend had decent fair weather.I had my brother Josh, Grandpa, and Bret working for me. I also had the same guy who worked at Salem there, his name is Brendan. (Bret's cousin) Then I had two others from Hillsboro to help. There names are Kyle and Michael, 19 and 18 years old. They were great workers. Michael was shy and didn't say much and I only had Kyle for a couple days so I didn't get to talk to him much. But they did great and would love to do it again! Pretty exciting!

Left- is Brendan and Michael working the Bubbles. Right-The Ladies just Loving Josh.

Before the next fair I ran into another problem! Right?! Only to me. So, Grandpa, Josh and I were just chilling in the RV and we decided to go to  Borders and a couple other stores. We took the truck down towards Vancouver, WA. It was trying really hard to accelerate on the freeway but just wasn't doing it! We got to our exit and it was putting. I could hardly accelerate on the road. I was maybe going 20mph and people were honking at me! I finally just pulled into some apartment complex and the truck just died! Yup. Just died and I couldn't start it. I called my dad and he said he had had the same problem before, sure enough! He said that it was probably the transmission. A blown transmission, I always have the best luck! Anyway, so I called Bret and he picked us up and we towed the truck to his Grandpa's shop in Portland. They took a look at it the next day and told us they would take it to their specialist. The specialist said that the clutch was shot as well as the fly wheel and the hydrolic system. Oh my Goodness! More money!! Ugh! Not the best day. They told me it would be done within the weekend, which is what I needed because I had to travel to Tillamook for the bubbles and all the stuff was in the truck. Craziness.

So, the next fair was in Ridgefield, WA. The Clark County Fair!! It's a long ten-day fair! I had Josh, Bret, and me work the first three days and then I had to leave for Tillamook. Bret handled the rock wall the rest of the week with a couple friends. I took Josh and my Grandpa to the airport. They both left for home. Josh started school the next Monday and Grandpa really missed Grandma. They both flew and landed safely in Vegas. Josh wasn't too excited about school just because he knew he would be running and he was seriously out of shape! But Josh is a Thompson and he is doing a lot better now and is getting in shape plenty fast.

 

This is the Salem/Marion County newspaper. We had our bubbles here and it got in the Newspaper! Cool!

I dropped Josh and Grandpa off at the airport and ran errands the rest of the day. One of which was to go to the shop where the truck was being repaired and unload all the bubble stuff and put it in the RV. That was a lot of work. Got that finished and completed a couple of other errands. The next thing on the list was to pick up two guys from the airport. My friend, Joe and boyfriend, Justin, flew up to help me work the bubbles and the wall for a little while. After picking them up we drove the RV to Tillamook. Tillamook is about two hours from Portland. We arrived and went to bed. There really wasn't anywhere to sleep so Joe slept on the top bed in the back of the RV, Justin slept in the shotgun seat and I slept on the top bunk of the RV. Very squished. The next morning we set up the Bubbles and then ran into Portland, because the Truck was done!! Yes!! I was relieved because if the truck wasn't done I would of had to of drove the RV to the fair everyday. And that's just a hassle. Anyway, so the Tillamook fair went great! We had so many kids and adults go through the bubbles. Joe mainly ran the front and he was just talking to everyone and getting everyone in the bubbles. He was really outgoing and very eager to work. Justin and I ran the back. Which is loading and unloading people from the bubbles. It's tough and tedious, but we got through it.

Justin and Joe getting the feel inside the bubble.

I have a really amazing and humbling short story to tell. While we were working, Joe came back and asked if it was okay if we were to put a blind man through the bubbles. I hesitated at first, but then said it would be just fine. He got in line just like everyone else and waited for his turn. He came up and just told me that I had to talk him through everything. It took us a couple minutes but were able to get him in the bubble and he rolled around and had a blast! He got out and was just smiling! He said, "That was amazing, you definitely don't need to see to know what's going on in there!" I was so touched. The man then talked to Joe some more. Joe had said, "Pretty fun, huh?!" The man said, "You don't need to see to have fun." It was really humbling for me. It uplifted me for the rest of the day!

We finished the fair on Saturday night and took down that night. Bret was going on a vacation with his family and wanted to leave after working on Saturday. I told him it was fine, I would just come in with Joe and Justin and work on Sunday. Yeah, that was a crazy night. We took the bubbles down around 10pm so we didn't finish until 2am. Then we drove all the way back to Ridgefiel. We arrived at 4am. Went to sleep and then woke up at 930am to go to work. I trained Joe and Justin and then we were consistently busy the rest of the day. We finished working the Rock Wall and took it down that night. We went to bed probably about midnight to 1am. Yeah, you bet we slept in the next morning. Once we woke up I took Joe and Justin to a 24 hour fitness to work out while I ran errands. Then on Tuesday I took Justin to the airport to fly back to Vegas. He is playing a House of Blues show again on Saturday so he needed to go play for that. If you want tickets, call Justin or get on their South for the Summer Facebook page and they will get you some. Joe and I traveled to the next fair.

So I am now in Port Angeles, WA! I am literally looking at the ocean right now! The ocean is like one minute from where I am staying. So, it's cold up here, to me anyway. (Maybe 65 degrees isn't cold to many people.) The fair starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday. A four day fair. This fair only has the Rock Wall. I'll have Joe, Bret and Me working it. Should be fun!

That's pretty much the update for the past few weeks. Sorry it's been so long. I am still alive and kicking. I've been having a lot of stress and worries lately and I'm trying really hard to get through it all. It'd probably be a lot easier if it were possible for me to please everyone, even myself. Thanks for reading. I'll try really hard to get more updates about these adventures!!