The Georgia fair is winding down. Luckily the weather has been a bit better in these latter weeks. We’re still dealing with one of the wettest seasons in recent memory but we’re getting the bills paid. I guess that’s the most important thing.
As always, the last week of a fair means it’s time for our meet and greet. Georgia is one of the smaller shows we do but we always manage to have a nice turnout. This year we tried a different bowling alley. It was ok, but I think we still haven’t found the perfect venue in the Atlanta area yet. A big Thanks to everyone that attended! I hope you enjoyed our little trivia contest. We’ll be taking that trivia competition on the road for the rest of this season at least.
Before Leaving Georgia we had to go to the studio to finish recording the commentary track for our Christmas Show DVD. The show was a joy to perform! We had such a great Kickstarter backing. I hope everyone enjoys the DVD as much as we did to make it!
Ok… Georgia 2013 is over and now just a memory. That means it’s time for a little time off to prepare for our summer tour. So, we packed up the RV and made our way towards Chicago and the Bristol Renaissance Fair. Thanks to the gods of travel for an easy uneventful trip. Boo to the gods of toll roads and the single $18.50 toll I paid driving thru Chicago! Come on… 1 toll, $18.50!!!! I expect an oil change and a sandwich for that!
Once At the Bristol Fair we dropped off the Tow Dolly for the car and parked the RV at the festival Campground. We checked in at the office and got a tour of our new booth! How exciting! There’s definitely some work to do, but there will be plenty of time for that when we get back from Minnesota. For now we just need to make a list of what we need and get our butts to Minneapolis.
While in Minnesota we were able to hook up with old friends and some family. Many who hadn’t seen Mia since she was newborn, if at all! It was nice to have a couple weekends off. It’s always strange and I lose track of time when not performing. I never even know what day it is!
When we got to Minneapolis everyone was talking about how there hadn’t been any sun in weeks! And it had been less than a month since the last snow fall. There’s some crazy weather in the country, that’s for sure. This month would be no different. They forecasted some fairly strong storms in the area but radar showed that we were just gonna catch the edge of the storm. Or so we thought…
As the evening approached the wind started to pick up. I got this strange feeling that something was in the air so I decided to try to ride out the storm on the front patio as long as I wasn’t getting wet. I used my phone to video record the area and all the trees blowing in the wind. There were some pretty strong gusts. Probably in excess of 65 MPH! Right as I thought the wind was done and the storm was weakening I shut off my recording. I turned to walk back inside and the wind picked back up again and with a vengeance!
I immediately did a u-turn and started recording again. And it’s a good thing too, ‘cuz about five minutes later I noticed the tree next door really taking a beating by the wind and the sidewalk next to it was starting to buckle! I called Jes who was lighting candles throughout the house. (The power had been out for almost an hour) She came out and I pointed out the crumbling sidewalk and precarious position of the tree. She ran next door and got the neighbor to move his car parked next to the tree. She ran across the street to warn the owner of the other car in peril but they were not home.
About 5 minutes after neighbor #1 moved his car the tree came crashing down! Neighbor #2’s car was smashed! I got the whole thing on tape. I just knew something was gonna happen. After the rain passed Jes and I took turns watching the baby while the other surveyed the neighborhood. There were trees down everywhere! And cars smashed everywhere! With all these trees down who knows how long we’ll be without power?
Three days… three days without power. I was amazed the scope of damage this random storm did. It was one of the largest power outages Minneapolis had seen in years. After three days without power and businesses shut down, we were really ready to be able to watch the news and catch up with the city and rest of the world.
Let’s just hope this is the end of the freaky weather. I’d really like to have a fun, successful, rain free run at the Bristol Fair. Wish us luck!!
