Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Land Ho!...

Sunday we showed a lame town
I am trying to forget the name of
Then after the 5 o' clock show we jumped
To Kelly's Island
Highlight of the year
Circus on parade in a tourista town
Always a good time to be had on KI
And it was the first time in forever
AO's bar and grill was closed


Here we are riding the ferry across lake Erie
About a 15 min ride




Upon arrival we set up the stable, and unloaded
Then I went down to rent a golf cart from Ted at the casino
See, that is the preferred for of transport on the island
And Ted is an old friend of the show (Still asks about Roy and Cindy)
I got the cart and then me and Georgia went
Down by the dock to watch the rest of the show trucks get off the boat
One of the cool things about this spot is the people still
LOVE the circus
They are lined up for blocks waving us all on to the island
Like we are celebrities
Then we zipped off to the lot to pick up Natalie and the kids
(Genevieve, Radar, Ryan and Steve)
For dinner at the Pump
The Perch and Walleye are outstanding
And lots of cocktails
After dinner we dropped Nat and the youngins off
And proceeded with the chicanery
Which mostly included drinking and messing with Radar
Turns out he doesn't fair well with alcohol
We must have made him chase the cart for two miles that night
Wondering to ourselves "How many times is he gonna fall
for us telling him to hop off the cart"
It was a great night
Even for Radar
Steve didn't kill him when he drunkenly threw a corn hole
Bean bag in his face from 5 ft away
I am sure he will be repaid later
Or as Steve said then...
"Radar is hankerin for a prankerin" HAHA


The next morning was great
We all went down and had coffee at the
Erie Island Coffee CO.
Fantastic!
Then a little shopping
Got some new wardrobe in the mail (pics later today)
Ate at Docker's which is oddly enough...on a dock
Then back to the lot for a 4 o' clock show
Was packed up in the tent
And the crowd was primed and ready for a circus
And a circus they got
Very energetic crowds always help make the acts work harder
The flying act even hit a bunch of triples on KI


After the show
The whole show loaded up and had dinner at the Pump again
We were part of the early group
Here are a few pics from dinner
The group


Father Notter, Ryan, Steve, and Radar


The Danny Carey table
Danny and Tavana and Arwen, with Danny's sons Nathan
and Grant and their girlfriends


The JRNII table Lucky, JRN, Vicky, and Norths pal Eddie


Beer Buffoonery!!



They also have this great painting hanging in the Pump...



Me and Georgia were wore out...



But after dinner I got a second wind
We dropped off Nat and the kids again
And went out for more chicanery
Mostly involved drinking and driving golf carts
Luckily no one was killed,,,HAHA
We were doing stupid things like jumping cart to cart
At 28 MPH
Radar had some tequilla shots...
So he missed the jump several times
Our intentions were to get him drunk enough we could
shave his beard off and dress him in one of Nat's
Eskimo costumes for photo ops...
Didn't work out he kept waking up
And saying things like
"You can't sneak up on me, I have eyes like an elephant, and
ears like a hawk, and a schmoople alligator, u can't touch this"
Then he would sing the MC Hammer song You can't touch this
We were all quite amused


Next morning we all went to the beach
For swimming and Kayaking
Of course no one on the beach thought to photograph
Ryan and I trying to kayak across Lake Erie
We went pretty far across, before we realized we would have
to paddle back eventually
And Ryan was skeered when I told him the Island was a refuge for
some kind of endangered water snake
Nat got some pics of the baby on the beach
But the camera was set to video
So I will have to work on them later
I did get a couple pics of the Carey family making an
awesome sand castle



By the time Ryan and I got back from kayaking
Nat and Steve had loaded up the kids in Steves cart and gone shopping
So Ryan and I tracked them down
We all shopped a bit for tourist souvenirs
Then Nat took baby G home and Ryan, Steve, Georgia and I
Ate at Bag the Moon
Pretty good food
And a Russian waitress who giggled alot when Steve
Spoke Russian to her (God only knows what he was saying)
I can just hear him "Hi I am Steve the clown. I have a bulbous
big red nose"
After lunch Geo and I turned our cart
And walked back to the lot
It was all almost over now
Did the two shows for two more packed houses
Then tore down and made the jump outta there
Seemed it was over, bout as soon as it started
Started easy, then was done
We made the 40 mile jump over here to Woodville no problem
Got in around 11:45

What KI really means here
Is we are on the back stretch of the season
Heading in the direction of home
And hopefully
A decrease in rain for awhile
Not holding my breath on that though

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you all had an awesome time...I wish I could have been with you...it was nice to see Grant came to visit. I see Nate and Amanda every year but haven't seen Grant in a while... Can't wait to see the new jacket on you...

Lauren

Jack Ryan said...

A great, illustrated travelogue, Casey! Sounds and looks like a wonderful two days for all of you.

Sorry you missed the pic of Radar in one of Nat's costumes -- that would be one to save to disk -- or, better yet, to blackmail him with!

Crystal said...

You are right...visiting all the kids on the show at Kelley's would have been top notch. Good to know everyone had a BLAST on the island! I am entirely jealous of what I would call a "staycation" for a circus family.

Will see everyone in November as soon as the season's over! Don't let the cloons leave before I drop in to say HELLO!

Bob Cline said...

I'm glad you enjoyed your stay. Sorry I couldn't make it.
Bob
PS: My email got caught up in a spam filter and never got to you.

Bored mama said...

I have been waiting for this post all summer :)

I could smell the dead fish just looking at pics of the Ferry ride over.
Next year you should take the hop over to Put In Bay- it's the neighboring Island, and a little more of a party spot (Kellys is good for the family, you should try Put In Bay though!!)

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