US Diaries: Sandwich (Illinois)

We arrived in Sandwich, Illinois, Tuesday morning around four o’clock the morning. Showered, went to bed, got about seven hours sleep (which is good) and then had set-up at twelve Tuesday afternoon. This set-up was hard because we were tired, but we opened the Wednesday afternoon, so it was just one of those things.

Sandwich Fair was pretty cool even though we didn’t get to see or do a lot. There were hundreds of food stalls (and other stuff) that made it very interesting. It was nice to try a few out.

We started work at noon every day for the next five days, so laundry and Walmart had to be done in the wee hours of the morning after work. It was an interesting experience.

 

 

The sky looked like this most of the time - it rained a lot.

 

That Sunday I was very happy the week came to an end. It is not much fun working from noon till after midnight for basically five days in a row. We tore down the carnival, got about six or seven hours sleep, then hit the road for a really long jump to Calhoun, Georgia.

 

Beautiful blue skies the day we left

 

I’m getting really bad at taking photos as the season comes to an end for some reason. Oops…

US Diaries: Plymouth (Indiana)

After Kentucky we went back North to Indiana. Monday, August 25^th, we left Louisville about one in the afternoon and about one hour before Plymouth, Indiana we broke down with the Slushie (a food joint that makes slushies). So luckily the bus with all our people was in front of us and we caught a lift with them to our destination. We arrived seven o’clock that night and this is the part about working at the carnival that kind of sucks at times; our bunkhouses weren’t on location yet. This meant that we had nowhere to go for a few hours. Also this time Alex had to take another pick-up to go get the Slushie that was stranded by the side of the road and I waited for the bunkhouses so I could clean them in the meantime. The part that really sucked was that the bunkhouses only came ten o’clock that night. One positive thing about that day was that while I waited I discovered a forest walking trail that is absolutely magical but my phone was dead so I couldn’t take pictures (super lame). Luckily there was a park so I was on the swing watching a beautiful sunset (again no photos). To be honest, I wasn’t really happy about waiting outside with nowhere to go, but I’m glad that I could spend time surrounded by such beauty.

During set-up

Going to the Laundromat was another experience in itself too! It started pouring while we were inside and it ended up being so much rain that it reached the bumpers of the cars outside. Waiting time for it to stop or at least slow down was a whole hour.

Sunset one night

Carnival

 

 

The Blueberry festival was kind of fun and really big. You would pass hundreds of stalls walking down the midway – and there were a lot of blueberry stuff (of course!). A lot of my job involves managing ticket sellers and working with the tickets  and since we only had two ticket booths operating, they put me in foods (the Sugar Babes) two days out of the five we were there; the one day was just half a day basically. It was fun at that moment, but at the end of the day my feet were saying ‘hell no!’ There’s always good and bad in every job I guess and I’m glad I got to experience that. (I must include I have worked in food at two other spots before, but it wasn’t ten hours straight). And sure enough that night I dreamt about blue raspberry snow cones!

The Sugar Babes

Hot Air Balloons

After the five days at the spot, we tore down the rides and everything and without getting any sleep, drove four hours to Sandwich, Illinois.  

US Diaries: Kentucky

I’m thankful that I can work in America and travel at the same time, this is true, but I’m pretty sure just travelling would be much more fun (duh); like to be on holiday and stuff. Unfortunately I’m not rich enough for that, so this would have to suffice. Again I am thankful!

Anyway so after our tear down in Crown Point, we got a few hours of sleep and then we hit the road for a six hour drive to Louisville, Kentucky. I’ve never really wanted to see Kentucky, but as soon as I saw the sign and we drove over that bridge looking over the city, it was pretty awesome. We even saw KFC’s headquarters!! I mean Kentucky is where Kentucky Fried Chicken originated y’all.

Even though there was not much sight-seeing to be done, one night we were out doing laundry and the Laundromat is in the middle of the University of Louisville’s campus. We wanted to get some food to eat and before I even had time to pull out my phone and take a photo (boo) we drove past real sorority houses! It was kind of surreal, but so cool! They had the Greek signs on them and everything.

The fair was pretty cool – we had about 50 rides altogether. It did rain a few days which sucked because the people would leave, so we would be dead, and also they wouldn’t close us early because it was State Fair. The days were long – from 12 till 11:30 every day.

During set-up

Massive storms

Sunset

Tuesday night after work we had a Jamboree which is basically a fund raising event for Carnivals across America. There was an auction, beer pong, cherry bomb shots (cherries soaked in moonshine = gross), funnel cake eating contest, frozen shirt contest and food! It was pretty cool.

We had one day off where Alex and I went from breakfast with Tricia (a colleague), we went shopping, walked through the Expo hall at the Fair and then went for dinner that night. I love spending alone time with him because we don’t get much of it. I also watched ‘YouDon’t Mess with the Zohan’ for the first time.

This is Cracker Barrel - we had breakfast and supper here

The Expo Centre

The last day (Sunday) was a really long day. We opened at noon, closed at about 11:30 and then it was tear down until about 5:00 the Monday morning. We slept a few hours, got up at noon and packed up the bunks, then drove all the way back North to Plymouth, Indiana.

The Last Day

Up next was a festival in Plymouth called the Blueberry Festival and I’ll have more on that soon!