Oklahoma 2014

moonlitcoyote · May 20, 2014, 09:10 PM

oh man thats too bad. I was hoping to come visit and get me an elk

ClydesdaleKevin · May 21, 2014, 11:08 PM

LOL! We'll be where we'll be as fulltimers. Whatever game is there, we are prepared to harvest it.

Just going to invest that money more wisely in making the rig more awesome for boondocking, invest in the K5 Blazer, and all the other little things one should have for bugout like MREs, lots of bullets, and spare gas containers and spare parts and the like.

And of course lots of dog food!

Kev

Stripe · May 22, 2014, 03:06 PM

And with roots you get carrots, YUM!

M & J · May 22, 2014, 03:17 PM

Or spuds.

DaveVA78Chieftain · May 22, 2014, 04:56 PM

Gee, now I feel bad. Didn't mean to remind you of roots!

Dave

ClydesdaleKevin · May 22, 2014, 07:24 PM

I'm like the world biggest Kender. I just don't want roots...lol!

CRAZY busy building catapults over here in Muskogee. Hot and humid, so I'm glad I invested the money into getting the AC in the K5 fixed! Blows ice cold.

We are building stock now to sustain this show, with its 3 day weekend coming up, plus building enough extra stock to supply our next 2 concurrent shows, Great Lakes Medieval Faire in northern Ohio, and Sterling Renaissance Faire in upstate NY. We are going to do Tuxedo, NY one more time, so we'll be leaving a manager in Ohio when we leave before the second to last weekend to go to NY. Also plan on doing the Cloisters in Manhattan before Carolina. Not sure how much time we'll have to work on RV and K5 projects before Carolina, but as always, it will get done.

Kev

ClydesdaleKevin · May 23, 2014, 07:55 PM

As of now, any further work on the K5 or RV except regular maintenance is on hold until probably the middle to the end of August. We have to come up with the funds for 3 shows, make the stock for them, and then do the shows and work our arses off to supply them with stock. The first 2 shows end the first week of August, and our busiest show in Tuxedo, NY ends in September. Once we are down to the one show in mid August, I'll have time to work on stuff.

Then when we go to NC for our last show of the season, I'll have all the time in the world, comparatively. I'm busy as hell there too, but its just one show and that is the show I tend to get everything done at each year. HUGE amounts done. I surprise myself sometimes.

Kev

ClydesdaleKevin · May 24, 2014, 11:16 PM

Awesome day in Muskogee today, despite the rain! Oklahoma folks sure aren't afraid of wet weather! Probably because there is a 50% chance of rain here on any given day...lol! My awesome employee/friend Crystal stained another huge run of catapults after work tonight, so we'll be good for the whole weekend. 2 more days to go!

Kev

ClydesdaleKevin · May 25, 2014, 10:44 PM

Another great day in Muskogee! Patti was home sick...she had some Faire food the end of the day yesterday that wasn't right obviously, and paid for it today. But me and Crystal rocked it out despite the horrible weather forecast for today. And it was nice all day. Tomorrow we gave Crystal the day off, so it will be Patti and I in the booth rocking it out! Hopefully it will be another busy day!

Kev

DaveVA78Chieftain · May 25, 2014, 10:52 PM

Quoteso it will be Patti and I in the booth rocking it out!

and here I thought you were marshmellowing it out!

Dave

ClydesdaleKevin · May 27, 2014, 12:01 PM

Slow day yesterday, but we still did pretty well. The Memorial Day service at the Faire was as moving as always.

Taking the day off today while my employee, who had yesterday off, gets to build catapults...yay!

I will have to help my friend Will unload all our stock and tent out of his vehicle when he gets here sometime today...he was my manager at the So Cal show. But other than that, I get a day off. Woo hoo!

Kev

ClydesdaleKevin · June 10, 2014, 08:19 PM

Sorry for my absence, folks! Got REALLY busy making stock for our next 2 shows. (We dropped Tuxedo, NY altogether). Between that, getting everything packed to travel, and waiting out hellacious rain storms, we only just got on the road this morning. Sitting at a rest stop about 50 miles east of Springfield, Missouri for the night. The K5 is in tow behind us. Haven't done anything else to Steev or the RV besides drive it and check the fluids, but we'll get there. Internet connection is back down to 3G. That 4G we had in Muskogee is another reason I haven't been around. Got sucked into Facebook with a good connection! Ah well. Back to it!

On a lighter note, its been over a week since I've smoked a cigarette! Switched back to vaping with a good mod that doesn't leak and the batteries don't die on me. WAY better!

Next destination, Rock Creek, OH, where we'll set up the booth for the Great Lakes Medieval Faire for our managers to run, and then onward for Patti and I to Sterling, NY (upstate) to set up and work that faire.

Busy busy!

Kev

DaveVA78Chieftain · June 10, 2014, 10:22 PM

Good to hear things are going well. Dave

M & J · June 11, 2014, 12:58 PM

You were so close to Gregg Hammond just east of Springfield. Too bad you couldn't have detoured a bit, stopped in to give a hand with his generator or say hi.

ClydesdaleKevin · June 11, 2014, 05:28 PM

Yeah...I thought about visiting Greg on the way through, but we were already past Springfield when the thought came to me.

Got an early start today, and made it to a rest stop right before Effingham, Il. Decided I had driven far enough for the day, so we are pulled in for the night. Patti bought season 6 of True Blood, so we have a date night later tonight.

Kev

ClydesdaleKevin · June 12, 2014, 09:33 AM

Woke up to a beautiful cool and sunny morning! Going to be heading out of this rest stop soon...then its onward to Indiana, and ultimately Rock Creek, OH.

Kev

HandyDan · June 15, 2014, 11:44 AM

Hey Kevin, where you at? The last we heard you were at the rest stop at Effingham, IL, and I know how much you love Illinois. Did you make it to Ohio?

HandyDan · June 19, 2014, 06:26 PM

Did Kevin drop off the earth again? It has been a week since we last heard from him. Hope he made it to Ohio okay.

DaveVA78Chieftain · June 19, 2014, 07:49 PM

Rock Creek, OH is in one of the bad weather regions of late.

Froggy1936 · June 19, 2014, 08:25 PM

I do not know for sure, But he is probably very busy supplying all his agents and himself . And or he has no contact to the web ! Frank

pvoth1111 · June 21, 2014, 07:55 AM

No one has his phone number?

Froggy1936 · June 21, 2014, 04:27 PM

I have noticed he has made a few comments on FaceBook Lately ??

ClydesdaleKevin · June 23, 2014, 10:52 AM

Sorry folks! Here's the latest update, and the conclusion to this chapter.

We made it to Ohio with no mechanical problems...average MPG seems to be right around 7.

We pulled into Heritage Hills RV park in Thompson, Ohio, and paid them for the week we figured it would take to set up. Since our internet service was horrible through Verizon, and even worse on the T Mobile setup, we finally decided to pay for the RV park's wifi service for 9 days...it was 10 bucks for high speed and works well.

So we started setting up the booth and dividing stock between both shows...when we were blindsided by a business shocker...apparently the Sterling Renaissance Festival may not open! They are calling for 300K in donations from the public, last minute, or they might not open their gates.

That puts us in a shaky position at best. If we went on as planned, on our limited funds, we would be taking a huge gamble. What if we drove the remaining 300 miles, handed over to the faire the 1200 plus bucks in faire fees, and they didn't open? We would be out of that money for who knows how long to get a refund, if we got one at all, and then hope we had enough money for gas to get back to the Great Lakes Medieval Faire...fire our poor employees so we could work that show, including our friend Will who was supposed to work Sterling with us. And then hope to have enough money to buy our food and dog food! What to do, what to do?

Our departure date had arrived here at the campground, but we were far from decided about what to do, so we decided to pay for 4 more days and depart on Monday if that was what we decided to do.

And then Barnabas got sick, from his congenital hernia condition, and we had to rush him to the vet. They fixed him up, but he's far from out of the woods yet. In fact, we may have to bring him back to the vet today.

And that, in addition to Sterling not seeming to make much progress on their funding, made the decision for us. We simply can't afford to take that gamble or business risk. It would leave us no backup plan and no safety net. And Barnabas is in no condition to travel just now, as I have to take him out to go potty every 2 hours until he's back to his healthy self.

I notified Will regretfully that we won't be doing Sterling, and hope he comes to visit us here in Rock Creek, OH on his way back to college in Washington State. He is currently visiting relatives in NY and CT.

Then I had to notify our employee Crystal that she wouldn't be managing for us in Great Lakes, but still had a job with us at normal wages. We can't employ her boyfriend at all, but Patti found him a job, so that worked out well.

While all this was going on, we've been working hard at making our booth look nice here at Great Lakes.

Then we had another quandary. There is a HUGE gap after this show ends, which isn't a big money show...and the opening of the Carolina Renaissance Festival in October. Since we dropped Tuxedo and have no intention of trying to go back there, and since we can't risk Sterling, then that would mean we'd have almost a 5 week gap before the start of our next show in NC...and we'd somehow have to save enough money from this small show to not only support ourselves while here, but to have enough to travel to NC, AND feed ourselves and the pups and cat for those 5 weeks with no real income coming in. And it doesn't appear that this show will be all that lucrative...which is why we picked up this show AND Sterling so we would know we were alright financially.

What to do, what to do?

Well, our business associates that franchised from us picked up the Ohio Renaissance Festival, which starts right after this show in lower state Ohio. And runs into October. They picked up that show without clearing it with us first, which violated our agreement with them...but we let it slide for the sake of friendship...even though we were planning on doing that show and leaving a manager in place while we traveled on to North Carolina.

We had another hard decision to make, and we had to take half of that show away from them. They have 2 other faires going on at the same time, Bristol in Wisconsin, and Minnesota...and Dragoncon in Atlanta, GA. They mostly just picked up Southern Ohio so their employee that they use at other shows would have a job. We promised them that we would employ that person for the first half of the show, and they could then employ that person as a manager when we left half way through. So we will be there the first 4 weekends, and they will have the last 4 weekends. It keeps everyone happy and employed, with incomes coming in with no gaps.

So yeah...its been hectic and scary. Uncertain times are always stressful, but we figured it all out.

So today I have to go down to the RV park office and inform them that we will be here for the run of the show...they have a special discount rate for Renfaire campers at this park (there is no camping on site at the Great Lakes Medieval Faire), and I'm going to ask if some of what I already paid can be applied towards that, but we'll see.

Barnabas might need another trip to the vet today as well, which is unsettling. But hopefully he'll be alright.

Financially we will be just fine now, and now have a goodly amount set aside...which we wouldn't have had if we hadn't made the decisions we made.

So yep, we will be in Ohio until the end of September!

Which means, on a lighter note, we can drop in and visit the Jimco Jam, since we are pretty darn close to it, being camped in Thompson, OH right now. Our friends and members here, Tammy and Glenn Pratt, drove up for a visit last week and we had a wonderful time visiting with them. They are awesome people! They showed me on the map just how close Jim and Lydia's property was to us...around 5 miles away, so getting away to visit will be a breeze!

And that concludes this chapter! The next chapter: Northern Ohio, 2014!

HandyDan · June 23, 2014, 12:54 PM

Makes my life seems so dull and boring. Glad everything is working out. I'm sending good vibes to Barnabas. Hope he is doing better.
Dan

ClydesdaleKevin · June 23, 2014, 07:16 PM

Thanks Dan! He's doing okay today...plumbing is working slow, but its working so far. It was touch and go for him, and he's still recovering. My sweet old boy!

Dates for the Great Lakes Medieval Festival are July 12th through to August 17th. So we have a bit of time before it starts. We are paid here at the campground until July 3rd...they are booked the 4th of July weekend, so we have to find alternative arrangements unless there is a cancellation for just that weekend. We are first on the waiting list for cancellations, so hopefully there will be one! We also told the owner of the campground we are willing to boondock in one of their many fields for that weekend, but still haven't heard back from them, so we need to make a SOLID alternative plan just in case! More stress, but ah well.

And on a lighter note, 3 weeks cigarette free, and really liking my new vape mods!

Kev