Wednesday, August 21, 2019
We were ex.haus.ted by Sunday evening after the Iowa State Fair.
But there are some thoughts/people/experiences I want to share.
The booth across from us. Farm Boy Garage. Super nice people over there. I’ve posted 
pictures of their dog, Cuda. She was just a love sponge. One day I was giving a tour and she sauntered into the trailer, looking for someone, or wanting some attention. The garage owner, Bryan, is a super-nice guy, as are his employees. He shared some stories with several of us that show his big heart, his work ethic, and his love of muscle cars. I also posted a couple of videos. Every so often Bryan would get into one of the cars he had on display, fire up the ignition and rev the engine. The sound was deafening. I’m not exaggerating. Many of you know I have a severe hearing loss in my right ear and my doctor has cautioned me to protect the hearing I have left in that ear and all my hearing in my left ear. So whenever Bryan fired up an engine, I’d stick my fingers in my ears, apologize to anyone I was giving a tour to, and wait it out. After about a minute, Bryan would turn off the engine. It was interesting to watch though. Whenever he did that, people would flock to his tents from all around us. It was like bugs to a bug light. (Also … Bryan shared with one of our team … a family member is going through a health crisis, and … it’s not going to end well. In fact, the end, is imminent and Bryan can’t bring himself to talk about it. So, my praying readers, please pray for Bryan.)
Mid-Westerners: I’m a 2nd generation native Californian. Dave’s at least a 3rd generation. We know California missions. Yosemite. Giant Sequoias. The beach. But there’s much in this country we’re clueless about. And we don’t try to hide that. More than once we’ve tilted our heads and said, “Ummm … what?”
The Butter Cow. And the Sesame Street Characters made of butter. I do love butter. But not enough to sculpt with it. Or craft with it. And apparently they reuse the butter, so the cow is 19 years old.
Thunder. Until it wakes you from a deep sleep in the middle of the night, you haven’t
heard it. We watched the weather forecast every evening so we’d know how to leave the trailer and its accoutrement. If rain was forecast, everything went inside the trailer. If the forecast was clear, some things could be left outside. That worked well, until our last night … we left some popup shelters out, and some plastic bins and cardboard boxes. The bins and boxes held some of the drug deactivation kits the RALI Cares people give away as well as the tote bags. Well … thunder woke us up about 4:00 Sunday morning. We knew that was not a good thing. When we got to the fair grounds, our co-worker/consultant, Heidi, was already there. One of the popup shelters was a twisted, mangled mess. Several boxes of supplies were soaked. The only good thing was that we weren’t the only ones to suffer losses. Several other exhibitors nearby also had twisted popups. I guess, in addition to the rain, a weird wind swept through our alley of booths, leaving a path of twisted aluminum tents and poles.
Scooters. We’ve seen lots of electric scooters taking people to see exhibits and booths. And this picture … The man is driving an electric scooter … towing his wife in a wheelchair. He rigged up a tow line with PVC pipe. Talk about ingenuity …
I work in the agriculture industry. But even my eyes widened when I walked past a huge piece of equipment with a sign that proclaimed Fair Special! $10,000 off Regular Price!! Ummm …. How much is the regular price if the sale price is ten THOUSAND dollars off?? Dave thinks it’s about a half-million dollars piece of equipment and it’s something that contract harvesters buy and use. Not your average farmer/rancher.
Tomorrow … Nebraska and Colorado!
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.
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.
place, the stanchions with adjustable entrance barriers placed, the generator hooked up so we have lights and AC inside. Once that’s done, one of the guys drives the pickup to a far, far away parking lot and hikes back. As we drove to the fair Wednesday morning, Dave realized he’d left his phone plugged in and charging at the hotel. So after the setup, he went to get his phone, parked, and hiked in.
We were at the trailer by a few minutes after 8:00 and began the setup. People trickled in and I gave my first tour at about 8:30, to a couple who were working the booth across from us. They’d been told about us and wanted to get a tour before they started work.
Writer of Sweet Small Town Stories of Love and Family 