THE END IS NEAR

As I sit here writing, I'm looking back & reflecting on this past season.  We will be closing the show down for the winter in two days.  From the time we left in March until now, this season has been filled with its ups & downs. 

The worst part of the season that will haunt me forever was the violent weather that unfolded this Spring.  People all across the South are still struggling to rebuild their lives.  In the hardest hit areas, I met adults & children that looked for diversions to bring joy & cheer back into their lives.  Our little show provided them with a slight respite from their everyday worries.  The joy and happiness that I witnessed on their faces as they watched the show made my day.  I was truly humbled to be a small part of their lives as they moved forward to forget the pain & devastation.

The best part was meeting the friends that I made through the ClubNorthwestern forum.  I was truly honored that they took an interest in my chosen career & the many prayers they said for our crew's safety.   I got to meet several of them when I flew to Seattle for CatchCon, as I wrote about in a previous post.  Then, as our showed traveled the East coast, I got to see & visit with them again.  I am glad that I took the leap & joined the forum.  I have made some lasting friendships thru that site! :)

Another great highlight of this year was getting to see my friend from High School that I hadn't seen in over 20 years while I was in Seattle.  We talked about the old days & how time has flown by.  We did quite a bit of sightseeing & I enjoyed catching up with her.

I also got to visit with my brother & his family for a couple of days in June.  My nephews are growing like weeds.  From the time I held the youngest as a newborn until now, I cherish every moment that I get to spend with them.

Of course there was some not so good times.  About 2 weeks ago, I came down with bronchitis & a nasty stomach flu.  I got so dehydrated that I had to get IV fluids at the hospital.  In addition to my health troubles, my truck also decided that it wanted some attention. One of the alternator connections burnt in two & was arcing fire. After paying a Ford garage almost $550.00, I had to drive a 100 miles back to the show.  I didn't get more than 5 miles before the truck shut off on me again.  I ended up having to pay again for the truck to be towed back to the same garage.  They ran a diagnostic on it & told me the crank position sensor was also bad.  After all was said & done, I paid that garage almost $800.00 to fix two things.  With it this close to this end of the season, forking out that kind of money is enough to make you cry & spoil any plans for a getaway vacation.

All in all I had a wonderful time this season & will be eager to get the ball rolling for next year's season.  I will leave you with beautiful shot of the evening sky, taken about a week ago in Springfield, GA.

As always, thanks to all who read my blog.

God bless & see you down the road!!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

On Monday, I was in Crowley, LA, which is situated in the heart of Acadian Louisiana.  The temps ranged from mid-70's to low 90's.  We drove 45 miles yesterday morning to New Iberia and the temperature was around 68 degrees.  Around noon, a cold front blew thru & the temperature dropped dramatically to 45. Last night the wind was blowing 30 miles an hour so it felt like 25.  I am not complaining about the sudden change in climate though.  This summer was unprecedented with extreme heat that didn't relent until the end of September.  I said I would welcome cooler weather with open arms & I meant it.

We were right next to a Bayou in New Iberia, a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.  When we arrived, they attacked us relentlessly. The only way we could get any relief was to saturate ourselves with Deep Woods Off.  If you have never had to spray yourself with this, consider yourself lucky.  Not only is it smelly, it leaves such a sticky residue on your skin, I wondered if it wouldn't be better to just go without it.  After the cold front arrived though, I only found one mosquito.  She is no longer with us, as she decided the perfect resting place was on my white window blind.

Today, we drove 95 miles to Port Allen, LA, just on the outskirts of Baton Rouge.  The grounds are nice, a large gravel field, so if it does rain, there will be no chance of us getting stuck.  We also have all the amenities of home...a 30 amp camper hookup for electricity & a direct hookup for water. We have had good luck so far on this part of the tour with being able to find city power & not rely on generators, which is a wonderful thing considering the price of gas.  Also, my generator died about 3 weeks ago, so I will have to find an alternate generator to use whenever there is not city power. 

I have had a chance to sightsee some of the towns that we have been in but there was one town in particular that had a wonderful church steeple.  Here is a picture of it:

The steeple was on the First Episcopal Church in Port Gibson, MS.  The hand was designed with one finger pointing to Heaven.  It truly inspired me. There were also many Antebellum homes that I got to see.  Here is a photo of the grandest one:

I had a great time seeing these fantastic homes.  I hope in the future that I can see more.  It's almost time for the second show of the evening so it's time for me to run.

Until later, God Bless, see you down the road.

AND WE'RE OFF!!

We reopened for the Fall tour last Thursday in Clayton, GA.  Since then, I have been in 8 different towns & traveled across 3 states.  I am currently in Cullman, AL for the weekend.  This town was one of the unfortunate casualties during the outbreak of torndaos in April.  On my drive in this morning, I saw houses that were badly damaged as well as others where the only thing remaining was the foundation.  However, the folks here are resilient as a rubber tree & are bouncing right back.  It is great to see people without a defeatist attitude!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit the museum for the country music group Alabama in Fort Payne, AL.  They have quite a collection of awards as well as memorobilia.  I learned something new while I was there.  Jeff Cook's father was a master fisherman.  I have always loved this group & it has been a goal of mine to visit their museum for a long time.

By Wednesday, I will be in Mississippi for about 1 week.  This month is flying by & I can't wait to see to see some more new towns.    The show has just ended & I am going to go grab a bite to eat. 

Thanks to all who follow my ramblings :)

Until later, God Bless, see you down the road!

TWO DAYS & 315 MILES LATER...

We left Pennsylvania 2 days ago to begin the journey towards home.  On Thursday morning, at 4:30 a.m. I woke up to get ready for the morning commute of 130 miles.  I left  Perryopolis at 5 a.m, said farewell to Pennsylvania, & arrived in Glenville at 8:30.  It was a smooth trip, with everyone arriving within 30 minutes of me.  We showed there for just the one day & tore it all down to get ready for today's commute of 185 miles. I am now in Dublin & the rest of the show just pulled in at 4 pm.  We didn't have any shows scheduled for today(YAY!) & tomorrow will have two shows before tearing down & moving to Woodlawn. 

The trip today was not without incident.  Our prop truck, which carries numerous items for the show as well as pulls the ticket box/concession combination, threw its fan belt about 20 miles into the trip.  Now if this was a regular truck, locating a new belt might not be a problem.  However, this is the truck:

As you can imagine, a replacement belt was tough to find.  After 2 trips(15 miles each way), the truck got the new belt it wanted.  We always make sure the trucks are in top form before leaving each time but this time we crossed 3 mountains & the strain on the motor was more than the belt could handle.  I was in Dublin for 5 hours before this truck got here.  In a previous post, I wrote about how a breakdown added more time to the trip & as you can see, it really does.

Now that the whole show is here, everyone is relaxing & letting the day's tensions melt away.  One of our performers is having a party this evening for her son that just turned 1.  I adore kids & they are more precious than gold in my eyes. 

I will try to post one more time before we get home.  If I don't, then I'll do it in Easley.

As always, thanks to all who read my blog.

Until later, God Bless, see you down the road.

A ROUGH WEEK

Murphy's Law was in full effect last week.  It all started last Tuesday(7/18) when I began my morning commute of 160 miles from Nescopeck to Huntingdon. I had just barely began driving when I noticed my windshield wipers were moving really slow. I glanced down at the battery charge indicator & it was all the way down.  So I decided to stop at the next exit because there was a TA truckstop there. They checked the battery & told me that it was good but my alternator was shot.  So here I was so far away from our show mechanic thinking, What body parts will I have to part with in order to get the mechanics at the TA to fix it?  They were very generous toward me though. :)  They only charged me $40 labor so that was great!(The alternator was $120)  It only took 4 hours & by 12:30 pm I was ready to continue my trip. 

On Thursday, my computer kept overheating & shutting down.  I use my computer for many different tasks, from typing route sheets to importing & printing pictures.  The adage violence & technology don't mix didn't apply to my remedy.  I hit the back of my laptop a couple of times & it started the fan to keep it cool.

Then on Friday, a storm came thru & killed all city electric.  I went out & fired up my generator but it kept overheating & wouldn't stay running.  I have spent the last 2 days tearing it apart & trying to fix it.  I finally have given up & went to Tractor Supply to get it replaced.  This generator is the same one that I just replaced in May.  The manager told me that they couldn't replace it I would have to get it repaired.  I told him I wasn't from the area & couldn't just drop it off because I wouldn't be around to pick it back up when it was ready.  He said they didn't have one like it & I said that I would be willing to spend some money & upgrade.  He was so nice afterwards.  End result: He did a returned merchandise invoice & I spent $300 more & I now have a 6000 watt generator powering my little travel trailer.

A storm is rolling thru & it is beginning to thunder. By this time next week I'll be back in Easley until Sept. 6 when we resume with the fall tour.

Until then, God Bless, see you down the road!

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER

It has been 8 days since we left South Carolina & I had to make the decision to leave my beloved pet behind.  I never knew until now how much companionship he provided.  These 4 walls in here seem so empty without hearing his meows & demands for pettings.  I know now that I will never leave him behind by choice again.

But on a brighter note, yesterday was a great day for me! :)  I got to see my fellow ClubNorthwestern friend, Linda, & we spent the entire afternoon together.  We had lunch at an amazing diner in Boyertown called Savilles & the food was first class.  We talked quite a bit about how each of our days are spent.  I told her my usual routine & she did the same.  I told her the hardest part of my job was saying good-bye to people like her that I met online & became friends with.  She told me it wasn't saying good-bye but see you later.  I also got to meet her husband, Ed, & we did a little bit of sightseeing.  She showed me the train depot where in the earlier years the well to do gentry would escape the summer sun & come to.  I only wish I was in this area for longer.  I really enjoyed my afternoon with her & Ed and hope that I get to see her next year or sooner.

We will have 2 weeks remaining tomorrow & then we head back in for Summer break.  I hope to keep up posting & will do so as long as the internet stays good.  The mountains in Pennsylvania are beautiful but quite frequently cause internet scarcity.

If you have any questions or would like to know how my typical day goes, leave me some comments & I will answer them.  I enjoy sharing details about my job. :) 

Until later, God Bless, see you down the road.

RELENTLESS HEAT

Like much of the country, Pennsylvania is battling an intense heat wave.  We are also currently engaged in that battle.  Since we left South Carolina, my plea for cooler weather has thus far fallen on deaf ears.  It was 96 degrees here today but tomorrow holds a promise for cooler weather.  The high is supposed to only be 84 and the same is forecasted for the rest of the week :)  I am highly anticpating the change! 

Today I arrived in Williamsport after a short commute.  When I parked the camper, I had one thought on my mind. It's Tuesday, which means Deadliest Catch comes on at 9 followed by After the Catch at 10. I have become an avid fan of this show as well as the guys on the boats.  I broke out the satellite dish to tune in a signal & kept turning it to try & lock on, but alas, I couldn't seem to get that signal meter to lock.  It dawned on me after trying for 20 minutes that trees were blocking my reception.  I ended up moving the entire camper to get to satisfy my need to watch DC. It only took me 5 minutes after I moved to the new location to lock the signal.

We have one more day here & then it's 160 miles to the next town for one day.  I am beginning to feel like the steering wheel is becoming a permanent part of my anatomy.  On a brighter note, all those miles put me so close to Friday, when I will get to see another of my Northwestern sisters! :D 

Time is drawing near  for me to go & take souvenir photos so until later, God Bless, see you down the road!