May 24th - May 28th Happy Birthday Dave

May 28th, Happy 63rd Birthday Dave, I hope the rest of the year turns out better then when it started this morning. Dave must have had a allergic reaction to something he ate yesterday, and I have nothing to do with it not after 32 yrs. When he woke up this morning his tongue was 2x's it's normal size. He could hardly talk, and it kind of blocked his breathing, but he said let's wait awhile before we go to the ER. He had some coffee and just kept moving around and the swelling started going down. By the afternoon it was almost back to normal. He was able to go out to lunch, his B/Day lunch, since we had to work tonight. This poor guy, he has the weirdest things happen to him, it's just hard for me to understand because most of the stuff I've never gone through. (exp. shoulders, knees feet)

May 24th, Monday - very slow day at work, enjoy it now because once school gets out it will be hell

May25th - another slow day at work but in the A.M. I went to Walmart and had my hair cut almost as short as Dave's, it is so easy to take care of. While I was having my hair cut, I dropped Dave off at the Casino/Race Track for the Senior buffet for $3.50. The special goes on every Tuesday so I will go next week, June 1st. Of course you have to be 55 to get the 3.50 special so Pat gave me her casino card to use because I'm only 52 and don't qualify yet. After my hair cut we went by the RV Office to see if we could move because we just couldn't get our TV to connect to the satellite, which we were able to do, we moved to the site right behind us.

May 26th - another slow day even worst then the other 2 days, It's OK because I know our time is coming.

May 27th - Day off. In the morning we took our awnings, from 2 of the slides, into a shop to be re-sewn, then dropped off the DVR that wasn't working at the Fedex office.

After that we drove to Pella, Iowa, Pella is the home of Pella Windows and Doors. Kind of like when we went to Amana a couple weeks ago, Amana Appliances. Anyway, Pella is a Dutch Comminity, we did a tour through there giant Windmill, visited the bakery and meat market. It was very interesting to see, the country side was just beautiful, I love nothing more then seeing the open countryside and when you do hit a community they have no fences around their yards, love it. So green and just amazing to see, Dave had to remind me just think of this covered in white, "SNOW". When we got back we went out to dinner with friends here, Bob and Pat, had a great steak dinner.

May 28th, back to the beginning, Dave woke up with a swollen tongue.

Work was a little busier today but now it's the holiday weekend, will have to write and let you know how everything goes.

One thing I didn't mention was the physical labor these jobs are, Dave said, remember when we worked we sat at computers, this physical labor stuff we haven't done for god knows how long, very different ball game.

One Funny, when we 1st got to this RV Park they gave us a tag for our "car" which read,

"32 WK" and once we got parked and set up, we were getting ready to run to Walmart I had said to Dave is the tag in the car? He said yes, 32 weeks here, I said WHAT? I said it meant"we are in space 32 and we are Workampers" he went "oh" I said if we are here 32 weeks Kim would kill us because that's 8 months. Poor guy, my stupidness is rubbing off on him!!!

May 21st - May 23rd

We started working last Friday, and lucky for us it was kind of a slow day, or at least it was for me. We went in a little early so I could go to the Red Baron ride, where I would be working, and asked the operator to show me how it worked. There are 8 planes and each plane can hold 2 kids, Jane showed me and it was pretty simple. We then checked in and started work at 1:50pm. The park was open until 6pm and we got (1) 15 minute break in that 4 hour shift. Dave's sky ride was always going, doesn't mean that anyone was riding but the ride just never stops unless the operator's stop it. My Red Baron ride I had a lot of down time, some of the teenagers, there were school buses that were full of Jr. High or High School kids, kept wanting to ride and I just kept turning them away. When kids did ride, if they wanted to they could go as many times as they wanted to or when the parents pulled them off. Before I forget, when I start my shift, on the ride, there is a check off list I have to fill out and sign, then when I get my break the person covering for me signs the time when they relieve.

Saturday was a different story, boy was it busy and that's an understatement. When I started my shift the girl told me it wasn't too busy, they came in groups then there would be nothing. So I grabbed the check off list and she asked it I wanted her to wait and I said no because I would fill it out when I had no riders, BIG MISTAKE!! It was going on 4pm and I still had not done my check off list and I was in panic mode because I knew my relief was on their way. I somehow managed to sign the sheet and put what time I started but that was it. So needless to say when I got back from my break, which I came back early, I finished filling out my sheet before my relief left. Like I said Saturday was very busy, luckily for me there was a parent on the exit side that helped me out. Some parent had lifted there kid over the exit gate and told them to run onto the ride when it stopped, the kid got close to the yellow line and the parent stopped them from going any closer. I did see him put his arm out and stop the kid and was wondering why that kid was even there. If you cross over the yellow line the planes will hit you, I'm not even suppose to walk around when the ride is going, I am suppose to watch the planes and the kids that are on them. Anyway, when the ride had stopped I started walking around and unlocking the seat belts when I saw there was a kid on the plane that wasn't wearing a seat belt, my heart stopped. That's when the guy had told me this was the kid that had come in through the exit and jumped in the plane when it stopped. I was just happy to hear it wasn't a kid I forgot to lock in.

Sunday was almost like Friday , not too busy, but this time I did have down time and would have had time to fill in the check off list but I learned my lesson.

Sunday morning, before work, Dave & I took the awnings off our 2 slides so we could see if we could get them fixed or order new ones if we have to. It was windy and cold, we were really surprised. When we left for work it was a different matter, the sun had come out and it was hot. Thank goodness I have an umbrella at my ride or I would have cooked more then I did. Dave's job is out of the sun so he is lucky there.

Forgot to mention on Saturday morning we drove to down town Des Moines and went to their Farmer's Market. They close down a bunch of streets and they had a lot of vendors, with a lot of good looking veg. and fruits.

We got our schedules and we will have Thursdays off and this following week we will still be on the same rides from 1:50pm until closing. All summer long I believe we will always be on the closing shift, at least it should be cooler in the evenings for us.

Update since leaving Branson, MO

The last night in Branson we went to dinner at Landry's Seafood House. We had gone there 3 years ago on April 1st, it was our 29th wedding anniversary. I had been so sick and had such a high fever but I still thought I could make it through dinner, wrong. While sitting at the table I had a seizure of some kind and when I came too I couldn't figure out why all these people were around me. Dave ran and got the car and some man helped Dave get me out to the car and on to the ER we went. I kept telling Dave I felt fine, I mean I was really feeling great, the best I had felt for days. He didn't care we were still going to the hospital, which we sat in the waiting room it seemed like forever. When I got in the doctor said he couldn't find anything wrong and I had no fever, so I think what happened was my fever broke while sitting at the restaurant. Anyway, this time we think I even ordered the same thing I did the 1st time and let me tell you the dinner was great.

Driving from Branson to Altoona, Iowa there were so many armadillos dead on the side of the road, some even laying on their backs with their legs sticking straight up in the air. After stopping and getting some fuel, Dave jumped back on the freeway and was going to turn over the driving to me when we got clear of all the construction, when he hit the brakes a little and felt something funny. He looked at our backup camera and the car was turned kind of sideways, he turned the camera down and could see that one of our tow bars had unlocked. We had to get pulled over right away, and had to do it slowly. I could see ahead there was enough room between the on ramp and the freeway for us to fit in. We managed to get pulled over and Dave went to the back and we tried to get the arm to lock again. We used the walkie talkies and tried different things, and in the process a city policeman pulled over beside us on the on ramp. We needed him with his lights flashing on the freeway side or call State Troopers to cover us on the freeway, but he didn't do that. I kept watching in the mirror and praying that the trucks had enough time to get out of the lane so they didn't hit Dave while he had to keep getting in and out of the car. Dave ended up having to unhook the car, back up, go forward and re hook up the tow bar again. I pulled the rig forward and the tow bar locked again. Dave jumped back in the RV and we took off again, Dave watching the tow bar in the camera the whole time. It was making me a nervous wreck after about 10 miles we got off and rechecked the tow bar and everything looked fine. I took over driving after that and drove until we were almost to Altoona. We arrived in the RV park got setup and that's when we discovered our bat wings, which is the manual antenna you put up for local TV Channels, was bent. All we can figure is when we hit the winds in New Mexico or Texas, when our awning was torn so bad, it must have bent the bat wing too. We don't always put up the wings but in Iowa we wanted to see the local weather.

We start work tomorrow on the rides, I'm on the Red Barons, which is a ride for kids 54 inches and shorter and I'm all by myself no assistant. Dave is doing the Sky Ride he is an assistant, lucky him. I will be trying to update more often so I can keep you all updated on how it is working as an amusement park carnies.

One trip we did do last Sunday was visit the Amana Colonies, in all there are 7 Amana villages in a 20 mile radius.

WEATHER WARNINGS

Saturday, 5/8, we arrived in Mesa Arizona in the afternoon and parked in my cousin, Jeanette's driveway. What a super large house she has and a lot of land. We visited for hours then went out to dinner, it was really nice to see her. Sunday we left about 7am and headed for Walmart in Edgewood New Mexico. Hell of a drive, the wind was blowing so hard that we had to keep the steering wheel turned to the right to keep the rig straight. When I was driving there was a dust storm, I could see ahead and when the big rig drove into it, it just disappeared. Needless to say I slowed down because I didn't know if I could see an accident through all the blowing dirt. Once I drove into it you could see just fine, better safe then sorry. While driving I passed a trailer that had flipped over, the SUV was fine but the trailer was on it's side. We discovered when we got to the Walmart the awning from one of our back slides was torn up, will have to fix it once we get to Iowa.

Monday morning we headed for a Walmart in Yukon Oklahoma and arrived in the late afternoon. While sitting in the coach watching TV all of a sudden the City sirens started going off. A tornado was on it's way, Dave started yelling at me to get out of the coach and run inside Walmart. He started pulling in our slides while I ran outside to see the tornado, which was amazing to see. Some Walmart employees were outside watching it too, I got 2 pictures, the sirens were just blaring then Walmart wanted everyone in the middle of the store so everyone ran inside. I looked around at everyone and prayed that the tornado didn't hit us, I didn't want to die with some of those scary looking people. After about 10 min. the alarms went off and we were cut loose but they warned us that we were still under a tornado watch. If you saw the news a tornado in Norman OK, 50 miles south, did a lot of damage and 5 people died I believe. Luckily the alarms never went off again that night.

Tuesday we left early in the morning, no wind or rain it was a beautiful drive all the way to Branson, MO where we are right now. While writing this blog we are under a severe thunder storm watch. Got so bad that we lost our satellite signal for our TV, plus, rain is coming down in buckets.

Tuesday night we went and saw The Texas Tenors, great show, I thnk last year they made it to Semi Finals in America's got talent.

Wednesday at 10am we went and saw Jeerk another great show. This is 5 guys from Sweden that did Rock 'n' Rhythm/Tap (think Stomp). At 2pm we went and saw The Hughes Brothers, great show again. These brother's have more then 25 kids between them and they all are in the show. They aren't done having kids either so I think they are going to need a bigger stage soon. 8pm we went and saw SIX, 6 brothers that have amazing voices, no band but you would swear there was a band there. They are dubbed "An Orchestra of Human Voices" really a fabulous show. One story they told was that at 17 their mom was told she could never have kids. However she went on to have 10, yes I said 10, all boys. They said that the other 4 brothers were normal and had real jobs.

The RV park we are staying at is right in the middle of town, so all of the touring and shows we have seen have all been in walking distant. This is great since we haven't really been able to walk any since leaving Simi Valley.

Today we just went driving around checking out the area, walked around an outside mall then came back to the rig to relax. Tomorrow we are heading out to either Kansas City, MO but if we still feel like driving we just might go all the way to Altoona, Iowa where the amusement park is.

Need to get back to posting

We left Arizona early to surprise Kim and Danny. We hit the road at 3:30pm April 24th and thought we might stay in Laugnlin, wrong. When we got there it was the weekend of the River Run by Harley Davidson, 50K motorcycles there. We ended up driving to Needles and staying at the Elk's Lodge. Got going and were in Bakersfield by about 1pm. Drove over to Kim's and surprised all 3 of them. We were at the house everyday, I was Madison's playmate the whole time there. When the weather was warm we played in the backyard and the days it was cool we played together in the house, she would not let me out of her site, except when we went back to the coach at night. Kim had class on the following Thursday and Friday so I watched Madison and then on Friday night we all left to San Diego when Danny got home from work. Saturday we took Madison for her 1st visit to Sea World, boy did she love that place. We got there when it opened and didn't leave the place until 5pm. Madison took no nap and walked almost the whole time, well kind of. She loved the kids section and did get to go on some rides with Danny. Sunday morning we drove back to Bakersfield. The weather was great the whole time. We moved the RV in front of Kim's house on Monday and then hit the road to Simi Valley on Wednesday. Right now parked at the side of David's house. Tonight is El Patio with the Simi Valley friends and get on the road tomorrow morning for Mesa Arizona. I promise to start updating every few days since our new adventure starts out tomorrow. Iowa here we come.