Well, the fair is over and we’re here at Nancy Bright’s lovely home again. It’s hot and I’ve been flopping around all day, too tired to do much of anything constructive.
That last blog entry is a hoot. Everything was going to plan. That’s how you make god laugh, right? Tell her your plans?
An hour after I wrote that entry the van was broken down. It was broken down right in front of the Sundance health food store here in Eugene, where it sat for about 7 hours. Turned out a part in the steering column sheered off! A steel part. So it wouldn’t start and wouldn’t shift out of park.
Krista said ‘well, maybe a mechanic has a business card over there on that bulletin board’. Sure enough, there was a card for a mobile mechanic, who showed up on his bicycle pulling a bike trailer. He was also headed out to the fair but stuck with the job until he got us running again.
For a short (intensely stressful) time it looked like it couldn’t be done. Our van was packed so tight and so heavy I couldn’t imagine how the hell we could get all of our stuff out to the booth. But he got it back together and showed me how to hot wire the van to get it started. He only charged us $135! Including parts. It was hellishly hot in the van too. The poor fellow was dripping sweat. So was I. Nancy rescued Krista and the girls and took ‘em home.
I picked them up about 8pm and we got to our booth just at 9pm. We had to rush the unpacking and ended up setting up in the dark! With horrid mosquitoes too. So much for our rested and relaxed fair.
The next day we played catch up. It’s just so much work! But we kept our spirits up for the most part. Even with the break down and being about 6 hours behind instead of 6 hours ahead, we were still much more relaxed than the last few years.
I’ll try to get some photos up soon and tell a few stories. This was my purging entry. Sorry you had to read it!
rob
