Whew! What a weekend and now we are home.

What an exhausting weekend we had. The hours of the Taste of Tacoma were 11:00 to 9:00 every day with a closing of 8:00 on Sunday. I usually started an hour to an hour and a half before the carnival opened and then had to work about an hour later than everyone else. Sunday was another story. The carnival closed at 8:00 p.m. but Debbie and I did not get everything done in the office till 1:30 Monday morning. Then because one of the ride gals got hauled off to jail on Saturday, Kenny did not have anyone to pay his spot help and do stuff in his office so I worked for him from 1:45 a.m. to 2:15 a.m. I then had to wait till Ron and the rest of the crew were done with tear down and so we did not get home till 5:15 this morning!

Our initial plan was to leave right away and drive to Smokey Point so that we could miss all the Tacoma/Seattle traffic and then sleep for a couple of hours and then drive the rest of the way to Blaine early afternoon. Well we decided that we were so tired we would just sleep for a couple of hours and then hit the road. What actually happened was that we were asleep before our heads hit the pillow and slept till 10:40 a.m. We could not believe we had slept five hours. We quickly got the motor home ready to go and were on the road at 11:25 a.m. We had a very uneventful trip back to Blaine and we are now safely parked at NACO/TT on Harborview Road. The first thing we said after we parked was "listen, it is so quiet." Don't get me wrong, we enjoy the people we work with but after a couple of incidents this past week it is nice to be in a quiet relaxing place.

So what happened...Friday night, actually 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning a few people came back to the bone yard extremely drunk and overly boisterous. There was lots of shouting, banging, swearing and unnecessary noise. It took almost an hour for me to get back to sleep. Saturday I mentioned to Rob that I hoped we did not have a repeat of Friday night. He asked me what happened, I told him and he said that would not happen again. I said that is what we have heard before but nothing happens. He said if he had been in the bone yard and that happened they would have been fired on the spot. While we are at the bone yard at the Puyallup Fair Grounds he is camped at the campground across the street (where we were fortunate to stay during Spring Fair). I did hear a supervisor being told that it (the drunken & disorderly) will stop now and there is no more slack. I sure hope that is true.

Saturday afternoon, one of the ride gals was running a ride when a bounty hunter showed up at the carnival office, asked for this person, was told where she was and he promptly went over and arrested her. All we know is that she was picked up on a felony warrant. I am sure she will not be back with us for awhile. A sad thing as she was a good worker and we were becoming friends. I do hope to be able to communicate with her soon.

Sunday was just a long day....I don't know how Ron or the others can do a 20+ hour day. I rested in the van from 2:30 a.m. till 4:45 a.m. when we headed back to the bone yard. Sleep never felt so good.

Now on to the fun part...we are home for a few days. We have lots packed in but hope that we are able to see many of you while we are here.

We began our afternoon here in Blaine by picking up the suburban and seeing Marquez & Nicole's newborn son, Emelio. He is so cute and his big brother, Julian, just loves him and is trying to be such a big helper to his mommy & daddy, then to NACO/TT to set up the motor home and then made our necessary trip to the storage unit. Ron picked up a few tools and we got the satellite dish and box. Once we got back I called and had the satellite service turned on. Ron will hook it up once we return from dinner. He is so looking forward to having TV again. we are having dinner with Ron's sisters, Judy & Kathy at Bob's Burger & Brew. We then plan on having a quiet and early to bed night. Need to catch up on some of that missed sleep.

Tuesday our agenda includes:
1. Up around 8:00 to do the never ending job of laundry. At least it will go quickly as we can do three loads at once and we know it won't cost us a fortune. Public laundromats are not cheap.
2. Lunch with Jamie, Suzanne & Opal. Can't wait to see them. Wendy, from the Burger Kitchen sent along a big bag of cotton candy for Opal. I hope she is allowed to at least taste it. I need to remember to put batteries in the camera and take lots of pictures.
3. Dinner with Gerald & Sandra in the evening. I am looking forward to sharing with them the new chocolate wine we bought in Puyallup. I wasn't sure if I would like it but it tastes so yummy.

Wednesday our agenda includes:
1. Ron is going to the Men's Bible study at Blackberry House. That begins at 7:00 a.m. I am then off to have coffee at Woods with Dee. We need to finalize the time but my phone is in the bedroom on the charger and I am being too lazy to go get it right now. I will firm up the time with her later this evening.
2. Dinner, dessert & visiting at 6:00 p.m. at The C Shop. Sure hope that many of you will be able to stop by and spend some time with us. We plan on staying as long as people are hanging out or until we are kicked out.

Thursday we are:
1. Sleeping in unless someone wants to get together for an early breakfast. If you do, give us a shout.
2. Taking the suburban back to Marquez & Nicole's. Then meeting Jerry & Lynda for lunch in Bellingham at the Mexican restaurant on Bakerview.
3. After lunch we will be heading back to Puyallup and the bone yard. Plan to arrive back around 6:00 p.m. because of course we have to stop at Winco and Costco.

Again, if you are in our home area of Blaine and want to get together, give us a shout and let's make it happen.

That's all for now. I will be writing again soon.

Thanks for following along and remember to drop me a note when you can. We love to hear from you all.

Coming Home!

Updated 6/24 at 9?34 p.m.

Now that I got your attention ~ we are coming home after the Taste of Tacoma for 3 nights. We have a four day break before we play Ft. Lewis for the 4th of July and as Rob stated this is the calm before the storm. Once the 4th of July starts we are busy through the end of September with maybe one day off each week which will probably be a travel day as we jump from one site to the next.

Our plans so far ~

Monday, 6/28 ~ we will leave as soon as Ron is done with tear down. He will drive us through Seattle to Smoke Point Rest Area and then I will drive the rest of the way to Blaine. Thank goodness I now know I can drive the rig and feel okay doing it.

First stop is at Marquez & Nicole's to get the suburban and see their new little one Emilio, born on June 4th. Then off to NACO/TT to set up the motor home.

Tuesday, 6/29 ~ meet Jamie, Suzanne & Opal at Big Al's for lunch at 11:30. Can't wait to get our hands on that beautiful little granddaughter of ours and get hugs from Jamie & Suzanne. Looking forward to visiting with them. Dinner with Gerald & Sandra.

Wednesday, 6/30 ~ dinner, dessert and lots of visiting at The C Shop at 6:00 p.m. Please come and see us if you are in the area.

Thursday, 7/1 ~ drop the suburban back at Marquez & Nicole's and then head for Puyallup, planning on leaving about 10:00 a.m. We want to get back to the bone yard at a decent time so that we are not rushed and exhausted when we start work on Friday morning at 8:00 a.m.

Things we want/need to do while home ~

~ go to the storage unit and pick up the satelite dish ~ Ron is having TV withdrawls and has decided that we need TV while on the road. We have been without TV since 3/20.

~ do the never ending job of laundry. Will probably do that Tuesday morning before lunch with Jamie and family.

~ get together at The C Shop with friends. Waiting to hear from Patricia what night they will be there to set our plans. Set for Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m.

~ have another get together with friends either at Paso or down at the State Park depending on weather.

We want to be able to see as many of our friends and family as we can while we are home. We have missed everyone so much and it would be great to get lots of hugs from as many as we can to take us through the next three months.

As soon as we know the rest of our plans I will post an update. Let me know if you want to get together.

Love and missing you all!

Alice

Resting and Relaxing

Our time in Marysville was short, sweet and ended in rain! We thought we were going to make it through the spot without any liquid sunshine but alas it started about 10:30 Saturday night and continued through Sunday evening. We were only open 1 hour on Sunday ~ bummer on one hand but meant we were done with everything by 11:30 p.m. We had anticipated working till about 3:00 a.m.

Our time in Marysville was filled with surprises and seeing good friends. Saturday morning we were reading and checking out a few things on the computer when the phone rang and heard a familiar voice. Marla and Glenn Tuski were in the bone yard to see us! They were on their way to Oregon for a vacation and stopped to visit. We were able to spend about 45 minutes together. What a pleasant way to start our day! I took pictures but will have to post them on Thursday once my phone is charged and I can send them to my email account. Later in the afternoon Kristy, Mychal and Kodie stopped by the carnival on their way to Woodland Park Zoo for a Camp Fire Overnighter. It was fun to see them all and get lots of hugs. It was so cute to see Kodie talking to Ron through the little ticket window of the ticket box. Again, pictures will be posted on Thursday.

I had a great week in the office. Learned many new things but payroll is payroll just doing it on a different computer system. Accuracy is the key. Sunday evening when we were trying to track down the last of the time sheets for the day I mentioned to Richard, one of the ride jocks, that everyone knows me as Alice the Grandma, the ticket seller, the nice lady but now they were going to meet Alice the Payroll Queen. Richard just laughed but later when I told Ron he said they better watch out. Being responsible for someone's money is a lot of responsibility and I take it very serious.

We made the jump on Monday from Marysville to the bone yard in Puyallup. We left the bone yard about 10:45 and then went to do laundry, stopped at a truck canopy shop to pick up a key for a friend, drove back past the laundromat to the Post Office. We were just two buildings down from the Post Office while we were doing laundry but drove six miles from the laundromat to the Post Office ~ for sure next time we will check Maggie (our trusted GPS) before we start driving all over town. After picking up boxes to mail packages to the grands we drove north to Costco, spent way too much money and then went to Walmart for the things that Cosco does not carry like a half gallon of milk, small family size packs of meat instead of huge packages for which we have no freezer space and to return Ron's tennis shoes that we bought in April in Wenatchee. While in Portland the stitching had come out of one of the shoes. We paid $28 for them and thought they should last more than two months. We returned them without any problems.

We then made our way to Puyallup, stopping at the Post Office to drop off the packages that I filled while Ron was driving down the road. Got there at 4:55 p.m. ~ they close at 5:00 p.m. but we made it and the packages should be arriving later in the week. We then headed over to the bone yard. We are parked on a flat cement driveway for a change. It was nice to get leveled and hooked up and settled in. We had roasted chicken, fresh strawberries and lots of asparagus. We have decided that we won't be buying asparagus from Costco anymore ~ too much for one meal.

Today is one of our two days off this week. We slept in :) and then had biscuits and gravy for breakfast. A special treat for Ron as I only make that about two or three times a year. After breakfast I cleaned up the kitchen and Ron did a small plumbing repair on one of the condo's bathrooms. Sure wish he got paid his plumbing rates for those types of jobs :)

Early afternoon we decided to walk into downtown Puyallup. We walked past a few businesses and found a second hand clothing store. I went inside while Ron sat on a flower bench ~ something about him not liking shopping. I scored on a pair of black slacks for work. They were marked $16 but when I went to pay for them they were 50% off! Now I have all the work clothes I need for the rest of the season ~ two pairs of black slacks, two pairs of black capris and two pair of work shorts (company approved). In the office I don't have to wear the uniform shirt but a nice blouse so I am set. We walked some more through town and then crossed the street to head back to the bone yard. We stopped and got an Italian soda (the one's from The C Shop are so much better) and a lemonade. We found a little wine shop and went in to browse. We found a new wine that is like Bailey's. It is wine and chocolate and is best if served over ice. Of course, we had to get some. Two more stops at Ace's Hardware and Safeway and we made our way back to the motor home. We then spent time reading and on the computer.

For dinner tonight we had roast beef, potatoes, broiled onions and sauteed mushrooms with fresh tomatoes. We will have fresh strawberries later this evening for dessert. I had cooked the roast, potatoes and onions in the crock pot. It was a delicious dinner. And we have roast beef for sandwiches for the rest of the week.

This week our schedule includes working tomorrow. I will be working with Debbie again this week. We were both relieved when Rob found out on Sunday that we have her for one more week. I told Rob I am quick learner but not that quick. I am hoping that she can go with us to Ft. Lewis before they let me do the office on my own. I do plan on taking copious notes this week while we are working together. I took lots last week in Marysville but want to take even more this week. Tomorrow Debbie and I will set up the office for the week, get the money ready for the ticket sellers and finish up the books from last week. She has to show me how to get them ready to be sent to Portland. Ron will be doing set up of the rides tomorrow. They have eight rides to set up. We start at 8:00 tomorrow morning and should be done by 5:00 p.m. Ron for sure has Thursday off. I find out tomorrow if Rob has things that Debbie and I have to do on Thursday. At this point he does not think I will be working Thursday either ~ that would be so nice to have two days off this week.

The hours of the Taste of Tacoma, being held at Pt. Defiance Park, are 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and from 11:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Sunday. We will definitely be working till the wee hours of the morning on Monday as the guys do tear down and Debbie and I do payroll and finalize the books.

Praising the Lord for a good week of work and being able to learn and absorb new things quickly.

Had word that Theresa continues to recuperate from her surgery. They have had her up and walking and doing a little each day. She is still in quite a bit of pain so would appreciate continued prayers for her and Rick as they continue down this journey.

Thanking the Lord for a good jump with no problems with the motor home. Always a good way to end a jump.

If you are in the area, feel free to stop by and say hello. We loved our visitors last weekend and would love to see more of you while we are on the road.

Thanks for all the comments to my blog. It is always good to hear from others. Will write more later.

Love and miss you all.

A Few Things

Just thought I would update a few things ~

Theresa & Rick ~ Theresa came through surgery and is awaiting results of the tests performed. She is home and recuperating. Thank you for your prayers for them both.

New job ~ started my new job on Wednesday. It is going well and I like being back in the office setting. Lots of new things to learn but am catching on quickly. Have had a couple of good talks with Rob and think working with him will be great. My first big task was learning how to input the time into the computer. The job itself is fairly easy just have to be really careful not to mess up as it has to do with people's pay.

Ron ~ is also learning a couple of new things. One of them being how to set up, troubleshoot and close out the ATM every day. This is something Rick was going to teach him and now Rob is doing that.

Our schedule ~ is somewhat back to our regular hours. We opened at 3:00 yesterday and open today at 4:00 so we didn't have to report till 1:30 on Thursday and 2:30 today. It has been nice to sleep in till 10:30 the last two days.

Special thanks to Kristy and Norm for picking up my prescriptions and bringing them to us here in Marysville on Saturday. It will be good to see them and they saved us from trying to figure out how to get my medications refilled. We so appreciate you both.

Also want to send out BIG thanks to Dee for being such a great mail lady for us during this season of travel and work. It is such a relief to not have to worry about the mail piling up and getting those wonderful packages. Thanks for the great job you are doing.

We received a special blessing the other day when a friend of ours gave us a 150' power cord. It has eliminated the problems of blowing the breakers every so often.

Today Ron is taking the time to clean our our large storage compartment to make room for the new power cord. It calls for moving the bathroom storage tote to under our table and reorganizing a few other things. Ron had initially thought he would put the new cord in the carrier on top of the motor home but after a lengthy discussion it was decided it was too heavy to be lifting that up and down at each stop so is necessitating the cleaning out of the large storage compartment. I just opened the bathroom tote and found 3 bottles of wine. Wondered where they had disappeared to. One is now nestled in the fridge chilling to be ready for tonight after work :)

The weather here in Marysville is beautiful! Woke up to sunny skies! It seems like it has been so long since we have seen that yellow round thing in the sky. It is so nice to be out of the mud and muck of the Rose Festival. Hope that means the nasty weather is behind us now for the rest of the season. One can hope can't they?

Would appreciate your continued prayers for Rick & Theresa as well as our whole unit with the change in supervisors and expectations. As typical in a place where lots of people work the rumor mill is flowing well. Ron and I have learned to remember the source and to check out things that just don't sound right.

One thing Ron and I do each time we do a jump (move from one location to another) is to ask ourselves if we had to make the decision to do this job (travel and work with the carnival) for a second season would we. The answer has always been a resounding yes! We are so enjoying our time here, the people we meet, the jobs we do and the areas we have seen. Now relax, this does not mean that we ARE going to do this again next year. It does mean that we like what we are doing right now ~ all aspects of it.

Well I just noticed the time and I need to get to making our lunch and ready ourselves for another day of work. Know that we think of each of you often and we love to hear from you all. Enjoy the day the Lord has made and rejoice in it.

The Long Overdue Post - Major Catch Up Time

First I want to say thank you for the emails and phone calls wondering how we were doing since it had been awhile since I had posted a blog update. We are doing fine but lots has been happening, so let me try to catch you up on all the happenings, news, move and where we are now.

We spent the last three weeks in Portland at the Funtastic Shows Corporate Office and Shop just off of Powell Blvd. All three units (we are in the blue unit) were all together for this festival. The first two days in Portland was set up days. Ron worked both days and I worked on Wednesday. Ron set up his normal Lolli's (swings) and then other rides as needed. I helped with set up for the burger kitchen. I hope I don't ever have to do that again. We had to pull the lines for clean water, dirty water and power. The power lines are heavy. We had to string the three lines through a bridge. The bridge is a U-shaped metal contraption that the lines go up one side across the top and back down the other side. I believe the bridge is 12 feet high at its highest point. It is held in place by 2'x4' metal plates/feet. Believe me it was a lot of work especially for someone not used to doing physical labor (me). For this festival Ron worked in the rides department. He was on the Mardi Gras. It is a house of mirrors two stories tall. He enjoyed it and especially liked being upstairs as he could see down the midway in both directions. And like usual he loved seeing the excitement on the little ones faces as they went through the maze. I worked in the Burger Kitchen with Wendy & Joel. I did the cash register, fixed hot dogs, served corn dogs, pop corn, cotton candy and soda pop. I even made one cheese burger! It was a fun job for three weeks but it is definitely something I do not want to do all the time.

We worked long hours. Leaving the bone yard between 9:30 and 9:45 every morning and returning home after 10:30 p.m. each night with a few nights not getting home till almost midnight. The first day of work we rode the show van to the Rose Festival. After that Ron was asked to drive Joel & Wendy's car as the traffic, one way streets, and blocked streets made Joel nervous. Ron did have to drive the show van one Wednesday both ways and one Friday morning as Eric, a gamer was off and there was no one else authorized to drive a show van. All but three days it rained. It made for lots of mud, dirty socks and shoes and cold feet. Getting home at night and taking off the shoes and socks was a wonderful feeling. And sleep was wonderful. 7:30 a.m. came awful early.

We did have a medical scare with Shawn, one of the ride jocks, who was taken to the hospital with extremely high blood pressure. He was hospitalized for two days and then went home for three days. He is doing much better and has rejoined the unit here in Marysville. As well, Nicole, one of the ride gals, who was 9 weeks pregnant miscarried while we were in Portland. She is feeling much better after being off work for a few days. Please keep these two friends of ours in your prayers.

Bad things do happen ~ James from games was fired for getting into an altercation with another employee. Niki, a gamer, and Daniel, a ride jock, quit for personal reasons.

Last week Wendy was sick and missed Wednesday and Thursday. She ended up going to the ER and being diagnosed with bronchitis. Thursday night when I went to bed I was not feeling too well. Feeling like a cold was coming on. Friday morning I woke up at the regular time, texted Wendy and told her coffee was ready and I felt terrible: bad headache, sore throat and achy body. By the time she came for her morning coffee I was back asleep. She asked Ron how I was doing and he told her I had fallen back asleep. She told him to tell me to keep my behind in bed and that is what I did. I woke about 2:00 in the afternoon and promptly fell back asleep till 6:00 p.m. I got up and made myself something to eat. Stayed up till about 9:30 and went back to bed. Woke up at 7:30 Saturday morning feeling so much better. Went to work and did okay ~ moved a little slower as the day wore on but made it through the day. Sunday I was feeling a lot better.

Sunday was a very long day as we only got 6.5 hours of sleep Saturday night due to not getting home till after 12:30 a.m. and up at getting ready to go again at 7:30 a.m. The carnival closed about 8:30 p.m. and then the fun began. It was tear down time. It took Joel, Wendy, David (a spot helper) and myself from 8:45 to 11:15 p.m. to tear down the kitchen and ready it for travel. I helped a little outside but mostly did the inside stuff: had to take everything off the counters and put it on the floor after all the dishes & utensils had been washed and put away. The final job of the evening was hooking up the refer truck to the kitchen to be moved up to Marysville. I got home about 11:50 p.m. I called Ron who was doing tear down of the Lolli's and other rides and told him I was home. I told him to be safe and I would see him sometime Monday. The guys worked all night finishing up about 9:30 a.m. Ron had worked 22 hours straight with two one-half hour breaks and two fifteen minute breaks. Needless to say he was exhausted when he got home. He crawled into bed after grabbing a quick shower about 11:30 a.m. I woke him up at 6:45 p.m. I wanted to make sure he could sleep Monday night. After he was up for about an half hour we borrowed a friends truck and went to Winco to get groceries. After we got home we reading the inside of the motor home for the jump on Tuesday morning. We crawled into bed about midnight Monday night. During the day I spent time reading and chatting with others in the bone yard. We had been having with the power throwing a breaker off and on while in the bone yard and Monday happened to be one of the days that we had no power till evening. (That is why there have been no new blog posts this past week).

I was told on Sunday morning that I would be needed to drive the show van from Portland to Marysville on Tuesday morning for the jump (move). The plan was to be on the road by 7:00 a.m. So we were up at 6:00 this morning to do the final pulling of power lines, take the windshield cover off, pick up the rug to be ready to be on the road by 7:00. Well I went around to see who was riding in the show van ~ 2 people and myself, and waited for Kenny to get back from getting gas in the show van and his truck. When he pulled into the bone yard he told me I might not have to drive the show van. It seemed there were two drivers for the red unit and they only needed one. So after discussions between Kenny, Pat and Mic it was decided that Pablo would drive our show van, Daniel would drive red units show van and I could ride with Ron. Yippee!!! The extra hours would have been nice but riding with Ron is so much more preferable. We finally left the bone yard at 8:00 a.m. We stopped in Chehalis at the Nike Outlet store and bought ourselves each two pairs of good tennis shoes. If you remember we stopped at Walmart in Wenatchee and bought new shoes for each of us. Well both our pairs of tennis shoes had problems. Ron blew out a seam in the top of one of his shoes and I ended up with a hole in the bottom of one shoe thus necessitating new shoes for each of us. We plan on taking the shoes we bought in Wenatchee back to Walmart for a refund ~ they should have lasted more than 6 weeks.

We arrived here in Marysville about 1:30 this afternoon. Another successful jump without any motor home problems! Ron got us backed into our site and leveled and then headed off to work. They started set up at 1:45 p.m. Because the power was not set up I turned the generator on so I could take the fridge off of propane. About 3:30 the power tower was up so I pulled wire from our motor home behind four rigs and over to the tower. Rob Rhew asked me if I needed help and I said no, I could handle it. Boy am I learning how to do things with the motor home (smile).

We were blessed by a friend yesterday with a 150' power cord so once Ron was finished with set up today, he and Albert went to Home Depot to get the necessary parts to put two plug ins on the power cord. So now we don't have to use two extension cords to get power. This should eliminate the problem of throwing the breaker at the tower. While Ron was fixing that, Albert hooked up our water. We are T-d off of his line so we don't have to go so far to get water. We are now totally set up in the motor home with the windshield cover being the final thing to be done. I made dinner of roast beef with mac&cheese and now we are settling in for the night.

Changes that are happening with our unit and my job~~~
When we arrived in Portland Theresa went to the doctor with a health concern. It was discovered that she has advanced cancer and will be having surgery tomorrow (6/16) morning. She will then have to go through chemo and radiation treatments. With this new health concern, Rick & Theresa will not be traveling with the blue unit. They are hoping to join us again in August in Salem, OR. Rob Rhew, the man who interviewed & hired us is now our acting show manager and I will be taking over the responsibilities in the office that Theresa had. This week, Debbie, from the white unit, is also here in Marysville to finish training me on how to do payroll, manage the money boxes for the ticket sellers and the two food booths, and other things that Theresa did. I will be working closely with Rob. Ron will continue to sell tickets, do set up & tear down and run rides as needed. Ron had a conversation with Rob. It went sorta like this:

Ron: Theresa & Rick was our bosses and Theresa told Ron what to do. Now who will be his boss since we know that Rob will be my boss.

Rob: I am your boss.

Ron: But you can't be telling me what to do all the time with all that Rob has to do. So is Alice going to be the one telling me what to do?

Rob: Guess it looks like that. That's probably not much different than normal any way.

When Ron told me about his conversation with Rob I just started laughing as we have this joke between us. Ron can tell anyone that he is the boss because I say so. Guess I just get to boss him around a little more now and get paid doing it.

So tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. I start my new job. I am excited and a little nervous. I know I will do fine.

Our itinerary for the next few weeks ~

6/15 ~ Marysville for the Strawberry Festival (6/17-20). We are at Marysville Middle School. The carnival opens Thursday at 3:00, Friday at 3:00, Saturday at noon and Sunday at 1:00.

6/21 ~ We jump to the Puyallup Fair Grounds where the bone yard will be for the next two weeks.
~ Taste of Tacoma (6/25-27). The carnival will be at Point Defiance Park.
~ 4th of July (7/4). The carnival will be at Ft. Lewis for a one day show.

NOTE: as of right now we have been told that we will have 2 or 3 days off between the Taste of Tacoma and the 4th of July. If it stays that way we are planning on going to Blaine. We would like to get a few things from our storage unit and see Jamie, Suzanne & Opal along with a few friends. I say this tentatively due to my recent job change we do not know if I am going to have to work the last 3 days of June and July 1st. As soon as we know the plan I will update you all.

7/5 ~ We jump to Kent for the Kent Cornucopia Days (7/8-11).

7/12 ~ We jump to Olympia for Capital Lakefair (7/14-18).

Praises & Prayer Requests ~~

1. Praise that we made it safely through the Rose Festival with no major injuries and those that got sick are feeling much better.

2. Praise for friends who are making a special trip down to Marysville bringing my next three months of prescriptions.

3. Praise for the hours we are getting to work which means we are meeting our financial obligations. And we paid off a major bill this month.

4. Prayer for Rick & Theresa as they face this major health concern. Theresa is scheduled for surgery tomorrow (6/16). Please pray for guidance and wisdom for the surgeons, for peace of mind for Rick as he waits during the surgery and for complete healing for Theresa.

5. Prayer that Ron & I can continue to be a witness to Rick & Theresa even though we will not be seeing them on a regular basis. Praise that God gave both Ron & I opportunities to to encourage and let them kno we are praying for them during this time and it was well received.

6. Prayer that I can catch on quickly to the new details and responsibilities of my new job. That God's love will shine through me as I work with Rob.

7. Prayer for continued safety for Ron as he works the rides, set up and tear down.

I know this was a very long post and I hope you made it all the way through. Hopefully I will not be working the 12+ hour days and will have time to write more often. I enjoy writing my blog and keeping everyone up to date with what we are doing and where we are hanging out.

Till next time ~ Alice & Ron

An Unexpected Day Off ~ Pictures and More

Rumor had it this morning that we would not be working today due to the weather but no word from those in the know came down so off to work we went. Ron drove the show van with the gamers as Eric was scheduled off today. Wendy picked me up along with the hot dog cooker. Just as we were pulling into the parking lot across from Waterfront Park, we got the call that the carnival would be closed today due to a forecast of severe wind and rain. We drove back to the bone yard. Ron took time to read and is now taking a nap. I got caught up on the many blogs I follow and uploaded the pictures that we took on Sunday and now I am updating my blog. Hope you enjoy this hodge podge of pictures, thoughts and musings.




This is a view of the Merry-Go-Round from the top of the Mardi Gras (where Ron is working)






This is Zero Gravity, we called it the Round Up when we were growing up. Ron also can see this ride from his spot on the Mardi Gras.








This is Tyler. He is one of the guys who gives Ron his 15 minute breaks and lunch breaks. He is standing where Ron usually stands when he is working on the Mardi Gras.






This is the front of the Mardi Gras. Ron's post is at the top of the slide (far left). The kids enter the Mardi Gras at the stairs just to the right of the slide. They go through a maze of mirrors and up some stairs, through another maze and then down the slide to exit the ride.




These two pictures are of the Inverter. Riders start sitting in the big car belted in with a 5 point safety harness. The car goes from side to side eventually turning to where the riders are totally upside down at the top. More people have lost cell phones than we can count even though they are told to secure everything.

This is the Burger Kitchen on Wednesday when we were setting it up. Four of us worked 5.5 hours to get the inside and outside all set up and ready to go for opening day on Friday.



This is Joel in the Burger Kitchen where I am working this spot. He is cutting up one of the many onions we go through every day.





This is the muddy swamp looking out the front window of the Burger Kitchen on Saturday morning. It is quite humorous to watch some of the gals walking in their stelletto heals try to make their way from one side of the carnival to the other. Who knows, maybe I will get a picture of that.





This is one of the workers raking the mud to try to dry it out.


This is what it looked like all raked.







This is the same guy picking up the mounds of mud that was raked up.


This is that guy dumping the mud into the back of a wagon. Reminding me of watching a parade that has horses in it and the pooper scoopers doing their job.




This is looking out our back window of the Burger Kitchen. It is a fresh lemonade stand. Jeremy runs this stand and also travels with the carnival to our different spots. He makes all flavors of lemonade: regular, strawberry, peach and blueberry. My favorite is the strawberry lemonade.





This is a picture of the rose and daisy that Shawn & Albert gave me the other day. They have adopted Ron & I as their surrogate Grandparents. We have had a few late night and early morning visits by them to just talk. I have been known to make lunch for them on occasion and they have joined us for dinner a few times too.








This is Carol of Carol K's Journey and Dave of Dave in the RV. (Click on the bold links to get to their journals). They both follow along with my blog and we follow theirs. When they realized we were in Portland and close to their home; they live in Vancouver, WA, about 25 minutes from us, they invited us over for an afternoon to do laundry and then out for dinner. Carol is a stay-at-home mom who home-schooled their two sons, Tim and Jonathon. Dave set up computer systems in colleges throughout California before moving up here to Washington. In his free time he referees high school and semi-pro football games. Carol & Dave picked us up at 2:30 p.m. yesterday and we went back to their home where we did two loads of laundry and then they took us out to dinner at the Olive Garden. We enjoyed our time getting to know them and their family and really appreciated their generosity of allowing us to do our laundry and then the treat of dinner. It was fun to be with believers and hear how the Lord has been working in their lives. We had a great time meeting them and look forward to building our new friendship. Thanks Dave & Carol for a great afternoon and evening.

Hope you have enjoyed seeing where we are working and spending our time here in Portland and meeting our new friends. We hope to get some pictures of the midway at night. Will plan on doing that this weekend when the weather is supposed to be better.

Just watched the local evening news and they showed pictures of Waterfront Park and workers spreading new sand in the muddy swampy areas that are throughout Waterfront Park (like the one pictured above out the front window of the Burger Kitchen). They reported that the decision will be made in the morning by the Rose Festival Board & The Burbacks whether or not the carnival and Waterfront Park will be open tomorrow. I am sure it will depend on the amount of rain that we get between now and the morning. It has been nice having this extra day off but we are here to work and so are hoping that tomorrow we will be open and back to work.

Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our life with the carnival.