April 2012 – April is a promise that May is bound to keep. ~ Hal Borland

Greetings from the Dirty South and the threshold of the beginning of Spring.

As I begin this journal, it is a Thursday right before our third weekend in Georgia. Outside my air-conditioned Travel Trailer, 12 thousand students are cavorting on site for the Student Days at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. Scarlett is sitting to my left watching a Nickleodeon show called “Mike the Knight”. I’m wearing shorts – begrudgingly. My photos have been selected and labeled, last month’s journal is open in another PC window and I am only one day late for the journal submission deadline.

My first photo in the set will show you just how I feel about being late.

Some months are busy some months are really busy and then there was THIS month!

I thought I was busy in Arizona. I was foolishly looking forward to some relaxation and downtime as soon as I left Arizona. Don’t get me wrong I love Arizona. The weather is amazing – while we’re there. The fans are fun, and funny and engaged… and sometimes even surprise me; like the group he recreated “How to Train Your Dragon”. We’re surrounded by folks we LOVE (like Dakota) seen in this photo trying to convince sleeping Scarlett to stop growing and folks apparently only I am smart enough to hate (Like that stupid, talented-and-charming Adam Crack). We have social events and side jobs and even had a night out to watch our friends do a little stand-up comedy. What I didn’t know is just how much work it would be getting to Georgia - or the fact that we’d have to hit the ground running here too.

Before we head across these United States let us say good-bye to the desert.

We fought off the various plagues and ailments long enough to take one more trip to the Phoenix Zoo with Wendi and Ryne Reed. The “Inconvenient Truther” in me almost creamed when I saw the electric car and charging station in the Zoo parking lot. We once again had a fun and relaxed afternoon with the Reeds– Zoo, then lunch on Mill Avenue. Scarlett loved the Butterfly house so much she transformed into one!  We finished our run at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. Crowds, weather, fans and friends conspiring to make us not want to leave. We had one of the best R-rated shows we ever had in Arizona, marred only by the fact that we had to say good-bye to our friend, stage manager and armourer Bryon. You will be missed. But rather than getting to enjoy the free weekend between Arizona and Georgia Heather was called away to help set-up the souvenirs at the Southern California renaissance Faire.

“Going to California with an achin’ in my heart” ~ Led Zeppelin

So – We had to break down Heather’s souvenir shops, all of the Tortuga concerns, our extensive “Spice Trader’s Café” yard set up in record time. Heather enlisted her crew to help because there was so much work to do. The original plan was for Heather to leave on Tuesday morning – which was set back by more bouts of plague and crazy amounts of last minute tasks. Early Wednesday morning Heather took the Honda to LA, Scarlett and I finished packing and hitching up the trailer. We had (surprise surprise) more RV repairs to do and were scheduled to drop off our house at Three PM so we vainly tried to occupy ourselves when we got finished too soon. Finally we piled into the truck, dropped off our domicile and after futilely ensuring that they would keep the RV plugged in so we wouldn’t lose all of our frozen and refrigerated food (more on that in a bit) We scurried over to Dave’s house so he could babysit (and as it turned out wash) the truck and drop us at the airport. My one hour airline flight to Long Beach was a lot more pleasant than Heather’s six hour drive. Scarlett was a dream; being very well behaved yet still excited on the flight and soon we were reunited with mommy and puppies in our sparkling La Palma La Quinta.

Ten Minutes from Knott’s Berry Farm; less than twenty from Disney Land and all we saw was (mostly) the hotel

Heather was there to work; she put in a bunch of long, tiring, days. I was there to (apparently) spend too much time on my iPad, keep Scarlett amused without her DVDs and go to bed absurdly early with the rest of the family when “mommy” got home from work. We made on trip to the beautiful-but-weird Festival site before it opened – taking the time to not only take a few photos of features I liked – like this stage but also to pitch in the tiniest bit with set up. Okay, I bought some supplies. Scarlett and I did manage to take in a movie; Mirror Mirror. It was one of the “California promises” we made to her. We both adored it. We also made one trip out to see the Faire when it was open – on Easter! The Faire is located in a public park right off of Arrow road in Irwindale, CA. A lot of the businesses seem to capitalize on that - like the Robin Hood business in the sign. The show is a Tent show – but not like anything else I have ever seen. Comparing So Cal to a tent show is like comparing Disney World to Chuck E. Cheese. The crowds at So. Cal. were pretty big; the scenery both of the festival and the surrounding environs was breathtaking. Scarlett faded fast; not lasting much past her ice cream scarf-fest. I wandered the festival greeting old friends – The London Broil was there; admiring the Festival’s set-up and booths, and generally trying to not hate being a patron. I was shocked to see our name mentioned at one of the games… but I think they were referencing the Pirate Haven not our tights-costumed trio.

Scarlett loved California because she thought it was all Swimming pools, Hotels, Movies and Eating out.

Perhaps she was right? We promised her swimming; she got swimming. We had take-out dinner every night and I introduced her to waffles from the breakfast offering at the hotel. I could only get her to try them by calling them “Waffle-pancakes”… but she’s four; what are you going to do? I was amused by the huge yellow truck promoting a Vodak brand parked right there in the hotel parking lot. Did they know I was there?

Our trip to Georgia began with a hectic trip back to Arizona.

We left early (but almost not early enough) in the morning from La Palma so that we could make it back to Phoenix in time to get gas money out of the bank, pick up my truck and retrieve our RV from the RV repair shop. The trip was complicated by the fact that a) we over slept and b) Our tiny daughter got car sick. So car sick. So very, very throwing-up-on-her-DVD-player-so-we-had-to-throw-it-away; car sick. There was a mad scramble but we did get our freshly-washed truck from Dave’s Thanks Dave!) and make it to the RV place just under the wire. Remember how I mentioned that I asked them, and repeatedly confirmed that they’d keep my house plugged in? The thick foul stench that greeted our arrival told otherwise. We lost everything in the fridge and freezer. All of our condiments, jams, vegetables, and all of the glorious frozen food we took out of our AZ “Costco fridge” and placed in the RV for transport across country. Forty minutes of grumpy cleanup later and it was finally time to begin; or actually continue our cross-country trip to Georgia.

It was a long – though not very eventful cross country trip.

We are used to starting earlier, arriving sooner and NOT having to deal with carsickness. It was a struggle but we finally got Scarlett to eat children’s Dramamine, which helped. We stayed in one rest area and two Wal-Mart parking lots on the 1800 + mile trip; fortunately the weather was cool enough to make it bearable. We finally arrived on Thursday morning – with Heather’s souvenir crew and my drum crew having gone to great lengths to make our move in easier. Amazingly we were moved in, settled, and happy by Friday night.

Georgia has already been full of projects, tasks and functions.

We had our first and very successful Movie night. The movie was Scott Pilgrim, the food theme was “Canadian or Video-game food” and we had over thirty people show up. I got to not only see Titanic 3d, but take the family to see Mirror Mirror again; so Heather could see it. While our opening weekend can only be described as “epic” – with some of the biggest crowds we have ever had; our second weekend was slow but still lovely. We’ve arranged with the Georgia management to only pass hat at the final show of the day – and not only did that turn out to be a gracious thing for us to do but a good business move as well. And it takes a lot of the stress out of the day. We have had some Tortuga writing sessions; our Christmas show is almost done. We have had some Oz Pizza, Some Nikko Sushi (get the “Geisha Girl” and “Seven up” rolls, Yum!). We have had friendly lunches with our brain trust at “Izzy’s” for my favorite Mexican –food. I was just getting started. I finally knocked out a few construction projects that have been on my list for literally years. First there were the slippery, badly constructed steps to the movie deck. The self-same steps that destroyed those oft-lamented wings those many years ago. Oh, and there was something about heather’s broken ankle too. All of the other “Steps” from when I bought the booth were of the classic “bare cinder blocks on dirt” which I gleefully replaced with little poorly-built decks. Don’t get me wrong; they're functional and fine – but I can see all of the things I did wrong in their construction. By the time I got to the steps in the back I’d figured out how to do them better. And, not wanting to deal with backyard mud anymore I also built a lovely, useful and –this important – moveable boardwalk from our deck to our front door, complete with a new porch. I managed another movie last night after building – the unjustly maligned “John Carter”; I think I want a Princess of Mars… Oh wait. I have one in Heather.

With Student Day done and our second movie night imminent, it is time to wrap up.

Tonight’s movie is Galaxy Quest. Since it is a cheesy, corny Sci-Fi film, the food theme is “cheesy, corny Sci-Fi food”. We really do, or did have a bit more free time here… but our lives are going to get even more hectic – let me announce it this way: Congratulations to the wonderful people at Nomadic Dreams Gypsy Boutique. They have just been invited to fill an unexpectedly vacant booth here at the Georgia renaissance festival. Go get ‘em tigress! In upcoming weeks we have a trip to Florida planned (Disney, touching base with old friends and getting our concealed carry permits) Shooting with friends (or first trip is tomorrow) and a whole lot of shuckin’ and jivin’ as we figure out our summer’s schedule. In next month’s journal I will have to tell you about my new gun; and what I have named it, my birthday, which is three weeks away, and our summer plans. Finally let me ENTHUSIASTICALLY thank Vox Mortuum for handcrafting these amazing dolls! I believe you can even purchase them from them by contacting her through acebook. See ya in May!