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!!