Saturday, August 17 – Monday August 19, 2019
Given our busy Thursday, we expected the final weekend of the fair to be even busier. But it was more like earlier in the week. We’d have busy times, then slower times.
We were visited by a local television station Saturday morning and I gave a tour to the reporter and his cameraman. In a bit of poetic irony, the privately contracted sound-man 
who’d followed me around earlier in the week with a different cameraman for publicity videos, happened to be at the trailer so his wife could tour it. He tried giving sotto voce suggestions (“Turn around so the trailer is in the background!”) to no avail. But because Dave was giving his wife a tour when the news guys arrived, she ended up being the “random parent” interviewed during the news story. And really, the news guys had no idea she had any connection to the trailer at all. Which she really didn’t, except for her husband working there for a few hours earlier in the week, but it just all seemed to come full circle.
A storm blew through Saturday night, so we arrived Sunday morning to find one of our 
pop-up shade covers mangled and destroyed, despite having been lowered and secured. At least we weren’t the only casualty. There was a “graveyard” of twisted aluminum by a dumpster.
Sunday passed in a blur of busy and slow. Busy and slow. We packed up everything around 7:30, and headed to our hotel around 8. We were absolutely exhausted. We’d put in 9 days of 12 hours. Our friend Steve did 11 days. Everyone was dragging, not thinking clearly, snappish. We’re 68, 63, and 60 years old. I’m not saying who’s which age, by the way, LOL. We need more recovery time than we used to. But–we survived!
Steve’s flight home was at 6:00 AM Monday morning, so Dave drove him to the airport at 4 AM, then came back to the hotel and slept a few more hours. When we woke up at a sensible time for an August Monday, we had our Holiday Inn Express breakfast of sausage, bacon (yay!! Thank you for bacon!), folded/manufactured omelets, and coffee. Dave headed out to buy some supplies for the new trailer and truck. This was that combo’s maiden voyage. It needed spare tires and a few other things.
I’d been saying my reward after all this was going to be a pedicure. I normally get one every 3-4 weeks. But we’ve been so busy, I haven’t had one since the first of May. Yes. May. Three months, not three weeks, ago. David left for his errands and I worked for a bit, then did a quick search for salons/spas in Des Moines. Found a highly rated place. Poked around their website. They had an opening for a pedicure at noon … My finger hovered over the mouse … I clicked Book Now.
I finished packing, summoned an Uber and enjoyed a wonderful pedicure with Rian at Salon W Spa in downtown Des Moines. If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend it! Dave picked me up after and we headed back to the fairgrounds to hook-up to the trailer and head out.
This is a new and different trailer than what we pulled in Indiana, so we weren’t sure what to expect. Hooking up was definitely a bit different. The hitch seemed to be lower and everything seemed to be just a tiny bit … off from what we had with the first trailer.
But we got it all hooked up. (A big thanks to the young guy from the Jeep/Dodge corporate site nearby who helped/advised/hydrated us.) We said good-bye to Bryan from Farm Boy Garage whose booth was across from ours. I got to give his dog, Cuda, a last cuddle and scratch and get a little doggie-love from her. Anyone who thinks Pit Bulls are vicious has to spend 30 seconds with Cuda. She’s a love.
Finally, we hit the road. We stopped at an RV place that also had a booth at the fair. Dave bought a few more supplies. We hadn’t eaten since the fake eggs at breakfast and it was after 3:00, so I searched for restaurants. We found Kue’d Smokehouse and even though it was a bit out of our way and we had to backtrack, we went there. It was wonderful, worth every extra minute and mile.
We pulled into Lincoln, Nebraska a bit before 8:00. Tomorrow, our destination is Ogallala, Nebraska. Wednesday, we have an event in Julesburg, Colorado, which is about 30 minutes from Ogallala, just across the Nebraska/Colorado border.
I’ve written way too much and still haven’t talked about the most important things: the fair food! Iowa! the people!
Tomorrow …
Writer of Sweet Small Town Stories of Love and Family 