Portland to Hillsboro

Hello on this beautiful Thursday morning. The sun is shining and the air is cool. It is supposed to be in the high 80's today.

Our time in Portland was a different kind of week for us. I ended up being off Monday thru Friday. I spent my time reading, relaxing, reading blogs, cooking nice dinners, doing a little shopping and one afternoon we went for a ride and found a covered bridge in a suburb of Portland. It was a good week.

Ron on the other hand worked Tuesday & Wednesday helping to clean up the hill behind the shop. It had been taken over by a fairly large group of homeless people. The Burback's had the police remove the group of people and for two days a large group of the ride guys cleaned up lots of garbage. The comments heard from the guys were that it was a pretty disgusting area and looked a thousand times better when they were done. After they finished on Wednesday afternoon, Ronnie Burback took all the guys to Izzy's for lunch. It was a pleasant surprise and enjoyed by the guys.

Thursday the guys worked around the shop in the morning and then had off Thursday afternoon. That is when Ron and I found the covered bridge.

Friday was set up day for the carnival. We were at an Hispanic Festival in downtown Portland under the Morrison Street Bridge. The festival ran Saturday and Sunday. It was a very slow carnival. We kept being told by those in charge of the festival that Sunday would be a very busy day as they were having some well known Mexican bands and singers but that never happened. It was very slow and super hot. It made for two very long days.

Tear down Sunday night went very fast. Debbie and I finished the office and was out of there by 12:45 a.m. Monday morning. The guys were done with tear down by 2:30 a.m. and home by 3:15 a.m. It was about a 30 minute drive from the carnival to the shop but they had to stop at 7-11 as many people were hungry.

Monday morning I woke about 8:15 and took advantage of the very quiet bone yard. I gathered up our laundry and put in two loads of clothes. I then went back to the motor home and cleaned up things and readied the inside for our move to Hillsboro. Ron woke up about 9:00 so I stripped the bed and did a third load of laundry. By doing it at the bone yard/shop I saved about $12.

We left Portland about 12:15 p.m. and headed to Hillsboro. I asked Ron before we left did we need to stop and get gas. "No, we are fine" was his reply. About 4 miles from the fairgrounds in Hillsboro the motor home started acting like it was not getting gas. The conversation that followed did not include the words "I told you so" but could have. Ron crossed three lanes of traffic pulled into a shopping center parking lot, dropped me off at Safeway and went to the gas station. After $145 and change the gas tank was full. We had NO problems the rest of the way to the fair grounds.

We are camped at the campground right at the fairgrounds. It is so nice to only have to walk about 75 ft to the show office. After getting the motor home set up it was time for the guys to go to work. They worked 4 hours on Monday afternoon.

Tuesday morning I was up early as I had to be at the show office at 7:30 a.m. ready to hire people at 8:00 a.m. We hired close to 50 people for this spot. Set up continued on Tuesday and Wednesday for the rides. I also worked Wednesday getting everything ready for opening day - Thursday.

Wednesday evening after the guys got off and Ron had showered. Ron, Albert and I walked around the fair grounds. Independent vendors and the barns were still hopping ~ all getting ready for opening day. The fair opens at 10:00 a.m. each morning. The carnival opens at Noon each day. On our walk, Ron got excited to see a booth that sells bloomin' onions. He has been looking for one of those since we have been on the road. I know where he will be at least once this week.

The schedule for the carnival ~

Thursday - is wrist band day with two sessions. The first session is from noon to 5:00 p.m. and the second session is 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. This means double work for us. We have two different colored wrist bands and two different colored stamps. The wrist band is $26 per session.

Friday thru Sunday is regular priced tickets.

The weather for the carnival is supposed to be in the low 80's each day after today. Should be nice. We are definitely enjoying the sunshine and think the rain is behind us.

Tuesday we celebrated Ron's 55th birthday. Jamie & Brandon both called Ron to wish him a great day. He also received birthday greetings via email and Facebook. Tuesday evening about 7:30 p.m. a group of our co-workers gathered at one of the condos and then walked through the bone yard/campground singing Happy Birthday and finished when they reached us at the motor home. I had picked up a chocolate cake with chocolate filling and frosting to have a little celebration for Ron. As we were getting ready for bed he said he had had a good day and it made him feel good to have a group join us for the evening. We definitely know we are liked and cared for by those we work with here at Funtastic.

Sorry it has been so long since I have written. Once last weekend hit we have been busy. I hope to be back again on Monday after our jump to Longview.

Next week we will be in Longview, WA for the Cowlitz County Fair. After that we go to Graham, WA for the Pierce County Fair. The onto Eugene, Salem and then Puyallup. We only have 8 weeks after we are done here in Hillsboro. Hard to believe that the season is on the downswing and that we have worked for four months with the carnival already.

One more thing...yesterday Rob came into the show office and asked me if I remembered him asking us why the carnival? And I said yes. We wanted to travel, we thought working with the carnival would be fun, and Ron's plumbing business was almost non-existent. He said he was so glad we were older, responsible, pleasant to work with but surprised that a church secretary would want to work for a carnival but he was thankful that we did. He enjoys working with us and knows that when he asks us to do something we do it and that we are not afraid to work. Our working here has helped to alleviate some of his stress about the running of the office. I made the comment that we just followed where the Lord opened the door. He didn't say anything to that and just went back outside to check on something. When we have been asked about how we got here we always say, we just followed the Lords leading and are where He wants us at least for right now.

We give thanks to the Lord for putting us in the blue unit. The red and white units have some major issues (more than us) in the bone yard and with some of the workers. We know we are where we are supposed to be.

That's about it for now from us. We hope everyone is having a great summer. As always, we enjoy hearing from you and love to answer your questions.

Take care and God Bless.

Alice