Lord Randolph's Pictorial Diary of the 2008 Arizona Renaissance Festival

The short version is " the weather was decent the entire show. Sales were not what i had hoped but better than I had feared"

The longer version
AZ is still not really a dresser show as you can tell by no more dressers than an average Texas weekend but that only makes me value them more and of course spend more time.

The trip out was grueling. a strong head wind, exhaust leak, and service engine light ruined mileage (4.5 to 5 mpg) and made for a long stressful couple of days.

Jo normally follows the van/trailer in the suburban with all the pets but she had to detour to her fathers passing and funeral. Most of his children where with him at the end and he lived his last years exactly how he choose. Jo was abler to arrive in time for opening weekend and brought her sister Carla with her to visit a couple weeks.
Opening weekend was relaxing after the push to clean the building, unload and set up the following Tuesday and Thursday were the annual kids days (up to 100 busses loaded with kids and teachers) addition chaperones come by car and the public can buy tickets. Wednesday thru Sunday was the Estrella war. I met up with my unit (Caidan Royal Artillery Corp who's motto is Crac kills,,, indiscriminately) and we had a good day of siege weapons on Thursday ending in an evening event with glow sticks taped to the ammo. Unfortunately that night rained dramatically and all following siege events were cancelled. I have no idea who won.

The second weekend was Presidents day so a three-day weekend making the festival open 7 of the first 10 days.

I finally had time to get the truck in the shop, turns out I had multiple broken bolts on the driver side exhaust manifold. Two weeks and $1600 later I was able to get it to transmission shop. They found a bad brake switch and a computer module that tells the torque converter to lock at highway speeds. $350 later I was able to drive it 20 mile before the service engine light comes on again. Bad O2 sensor (5th in a year but that is another story) under $200, replaced 1 trailer tire $100 (this story continues later)

We had limited wifi thru out the festival. It was the most infuriating thing I have ever been grateful for. Their wifi network worked great. Found and logged on immediately but they never for their gateways right. It could take an hour to get a connection that would drop in the middle of email but i was able to make many raids with my EQ guild (Dudalous on the Rathe). The last week I gave up completely.

I still have my heal injury so I passed on the wonderful hiking in the area but Jane and Jo explored many new trails and much of the Superstition Mountain.

The week before closing Jane and i drove to California for my grand nephews birthday, to visit my daughter Shannon, and to pick up rings we were in the Suburban so had not breakdowns.

After the show closed we spent a full week sorting , packing and loading, I also put a couple more coats of poly urethane porch and floor and the sales floor. It makes Friday clean up so much easier.

We left about noon on Sunday and made it to Florence before the service engine light came on. Jane thought she heard an exhaust leak, I thought it was just loud (she was right) we made it to El Paso and the truck just lost all power (noon Monday). It kept running but not going I managed to jump the curb and get the truck and trailer off the road under the overpass for the international Bridge (maybe 3 miles from Mexico) when I turned it off it would not start again but i was only 3/4 a mile from a Chevy dealer but that was going to take at the very least over night and probably two nights. The Hispanic tow truck driver recommended Speedy at Best Tech Auto 8276 Alameda Ave, El Paso Tx 79907 915 859 3557 he was great. Seams the exhaust leak was because the side that did not have the broken bolts had no exhaust donut so it melted the starter 2 hours ($250) later the starter was fixed we then went to the muffler shop right across the road and 45 minutes ($50) later the donut and flange were replaced. Try to leave and there is still no power. Barely get back to speedy and in just a couple minute he determines the throttle cable is broken or possibly just the adjuster unscrewed, he pulls it and drapes it over a couple things to stretch it and sends me down the road. We made Van Horn by evening.
I still need to take the flange and receipt to Midas to see what they will do about it as well as fixing the cable. I need a new truck and am looking at a Sprinter.

Delora with children and friend Milissa	Fred Booker	Jonathon Dayton		Kim and Shane Williams
Kristina Cates	Lady Angelica Schilling	Heather	Doug
Felicia Butler	Teresa Courtright		Pack rats	Jonathon Dayton
Lucus Matelia		Deirdre, Ashley and Brema	Brema Sherer	Deirdre West
Ashley	Her mother was being fitted for a halter	Heather Tolbart	Cynthia Wood	Albert Wood
		Jennifer Bray	Laura Ramirez	Lizabeth Lagos
AMber Lagos Ray			Ian Hodges	Ian Hodges
Eric Hodges	Kristie	David Goldscheid	Frank Ferguson	Oscar Solis
Leroy Frazier	Monica Eastman	Stacy Chatham	Davie and Alex	Kelly White
	Teresa Courtright	Kris Sobczak	Felicia Butler	Felicia
Jonathon Metzger	Karl Kunsman			Jason Hyland
Kathryn Trautmann	Moth	Amber Ray	Betsy Lagos	Carrie Marshall
Jonathon Dayton		Christepher Kracht	Elise Rose
Lauren Bova	sunrise from my back door

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