Wow! It’s February already! That means it’s time to leave home once again and make the 2100+ mile drive to Arizona. It promises to be a great season, but first we have to celebrate at our Superbowl Party.
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Every year our gang has a Superbowl party. This year was our turn. It’s usually my last hoorah in town since I have to leave in the next day or two to get to Arizona in time. The usual suspects were in attendance. Earl, Therese, Howard, Bert, Jay and Deb to name a few, were there. It was good time filled with great food and some pretty funny Superbowl commercials.
After our Superbowl party and last few farewells it was time to hit the road. I left about 4pm on Tuesday afternoon. I drove straight through to Hammond, Louisiana. I arrived about 1am. Total drive so far was about 750 miles. My friends in Hammond were nice enough to leave the door unlocked so I could stay the night and not disturb them with having to let me in. It’s funny, but I was only about 3 miles from the Louisiana Renaissance Festival site.
The next day I continued my Trek. Next stop Austin, Texas. It’s the home of COCARD merchant processing. I’m now a rep for the company. It’s one of my many side businesses. By the way, if anyone has a need for a credit card merchant account or already have one but want to save a lot of money, give me a call. I’m sure I can get you better rates.
Once in Austin, I stopped to have Dinner with Mark Verrico, President of COCARD. It’s always good to network with the “higher ups”. It keeps me on their radar, so I can provide the best service for my customers. Plus, he’s just a nice guy and fun to hang out with and shoot the shit. We had a nice dinner, and I got to meet his charming wife and kids. After dinner I continued on towards El Paso. I thought I’d try to drive as far as possible but about 11pm I started to really get tired so I hit a hotel for the night. Distance traveled so far… 1500 miles. (Only 600 or so left)
I woke up on Thursday ready to continue on to Phoenix. El Paso came and went, then New Mexico. Thank God! Cuz that drive across Texas never gets any shorter. It’s so long and so much of it is just a wasteland of dust storms and tumbleweeds. Not the most scenic I must say.
I arrived in Apache Junction around 9pm. Not a bad two and a half day drive. I grabbed a bite to eat, and got myself settled. I was ready for a good night’s sleep in a decent bed. The next day was check in and set up day after all.
Opening weekend was great. As a matter of fact it was the best attended Festival opening in Arizona in almost 10 years which was a record year. Yay us! Let’s just hope the weather holds out. It has been unseasonably cold so far and that has to change eventually. The second weekend was a three day that included Presidents Day Monday. Unfortunately the forecast was for rain. And Rain it did! Saturday and Sunday were quite a washout but we still managed to do shows and make some money. Thank God Monday was busy. It really saved the weekend.
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Since we were in Arizona, it was about time I hook up with some of my local friends. Dave and June are two of them. We’ve been hanging out with them for years, both here and in Seattle when we did the Tall Ships Festival. Dave also introduced us to the Heart Attack Grill, an awesome burger joint in Chandler, Arizona. So we figured it was time to visit the grill again. Riki and I went, as well as Blue team Jon. We enjoyed our lunch as always. It was great to hang out with Dave and June they are truly good people. Thanks you guys! Jon had a great time too! After lunch we hung out and had a few beers. Like ya do. I hope we can do it again soon.
Our other early run social event was Julius, Heather and Kat’s Birthday party. Every year they do a themed B-Day party. This year was Super Heroes. You could make your own or come as your favorite good doer. It was an amazing party! He had Martial Arts demonstrations, Fire Demonstrations and Adam Crack even did a whip demo. Then of course Julius did an amazing Yo-Yo show. What a cool party. I enjoy it every year.
The third weekend of the show came and guess what? MORE RAIN! But this time it included hail, snow and high winds. What the hell?!? Man, Mother Nature really has it out for us. We’re lucky we got any shows done at all. Saturday really was fine. It didn’t rain until late that night. As soon as the patrons realized it wasn’t gonna rain until that night they really started to come out. And, it’s a good thing since we got the rain and hail on Sunday.
I hope the rest of the season warms up and is drier. I’m off to such a good year financially; I don’t want it to stall. I can’t have a repeat of last year. So cross your fingers and pray for dry weather. (Something you don’t normally have to pray for in the desert)
Bye for now!
