Mr Mike's Hippie Love Blog

Day 41: July 16
We had about a week off waiting for Grateful Dead tour to start back up in St. Louis and we spent the time in Mankato. There was a lot going on with all the summer birthdays and this week went very fast. Today was Friday and it was our day to take Bestie (Sarah's Grandmother) out for lunch. We decided to go down to The Neighbors for some really nice italian food. We picked Bestie up a little before noon from her home at the assisted living center in South Bend - boy was she surprised to see us pull up in our big RV. The RV sure turned a lot of heads at the home as well. Bestie got into the rig no problem and off we went to eat. The lunch was awesome; I had a big plate of wild mushroom ravioli and ate it all. Sarah and Bestie also enjoyed their food - but I don't remember what they ordered. We stayed at the restaurant for a long time and visited - it was nice to catch up with Bestie. We had plans for the birthday dinner again on the 20th (which was Bestie's actual birthday) and also going out with my family on Saturday up in Hutchinson. Sarah and I were planning on camping at the Land of Memories campground through most of our stay in Mankato - it is only 13$ for an electric site out there. I don't really remember what we did this evening - I know we were at the campground and had a fire. Must have been pretty uneventful.
Day 42: July 17
Today was our chance to go out with my family to celebrate my birthday (which would be on the 31st) we were going out for brunch at a buffet joint in Hutchinson - about 2 hours away. We were falling behind schedule and I was driving a little faster than normal when we got pulled over by a State Trooper on HWY 15. I met him coming head on and I was going about 65/55 when he passed me; he flipped his lights on immediately and whipped a shittie. I did my best to slow down quick and get off the road - the officer had to knock on Sarah's window because we were too close to traffic. He ended up giving me a warning - I told him I had the cruise set at 62 when he asked how fast I thought I was going. He told me my spedometer is off and that I should slow down. What a relief - I don't want to screw up the RV insurance; lucky thing I have a good driving record I guess. So we continued on our way to our second buffet in as many days, but this time with the cruise set at 57 and didn't mind if we were late - which we were. It was nice to see everybody for my birthday - everybody but my brother Steve who was playing softball - he plays softball nearly every weekend during the summer and it is always hard to get us both together for our birthdays (Steve's is the 20th of july and mine the 31st). I haven't seen my brother since Easter and I miss him alot - we don't talk so much between visits. Anyway - my mom, aunt and grandma showed up plus my sister and her husband... the buffet was average like most - but everybody enjoys them and we visit. We also showed off our Kikkoman after lunch and everybody wished us happy travels as we left. We were headed back to Mankato to go out down to Choppers (our favorite local bar) - we parked the RV up at Sarah's parents and walked downtown after a few beers with the folks. We got down there at a decent time and hung out with our buddies - Jake and Jeremy and my friend Tim Penkhus. Sarah Macho showed up with her boyfriend Chris turned up after a while and we all turned it loose and had a blast. Sarah's brother was also downtown and a couple of the bar regulars that we like. The only person who didn't show up was my friend Bill from work - which especially sucks because he owes me 70$ from the office NBA pool. We stayed downtown until about 1 am when we walked Sarah's brother back to his house - we had a couple beers there and then I was hungry. So I walked back downtown to try and get some Erbert's & Gerbert's subs - funny thing - it is Saturday night about 20 minutes to bar close and Erbert's and Gerbert's has no bread! I say what the and they offer me the regular sub on normal bread?? for the same price??? I couldn't believe - somebody sure screwed up on this one. I walked back to Matt's and picked up Sarah - then we walked back to the RV at Barb & Marion's. Safe to say we got drinking done and were rather messed up when we went to bed. That's Mankato for you - brings out the drinker in ya.
Day 43: July 18
Today was our day to go grocery shopping and stay at the house while Sarah's parents were up at the Eric Clapton concert. It was nice to play house and settle back for a day - we were having a great time just watching TV for the afternoon. We ordered a Pizza Man pizza and turned the air conditioner on and really laid low. Sarah's good friend Katy was in town from the cities also and we were going to hang out with her tonight. We were a little hungover today though and not in the mood to do anything much - so Katy was just going to come over to the house and catch up. We had a case of beer for the night and were going to need it since Katy's brother Don was also coming and I guess his girlfriend as well. Sarah went shopping for the supplies before all that and I stayed at the house and played PS2. Katy and everybody came over after awhile and we hung out all night, drinking beer and such. Katy stayed the night and her and Sarah stayed up late cooking and all talking. I went to bed somewhat early in the RV and slept very well.
Day 44: July 19
We didn't know what time to expect Barb and Marion home today so we were finishing up with preparations for the meal tomm. They came home around 1 or so as we were all getting ready to go to the Wagon Wheel for lunch. This ended up being our 6th day in a row of eating out and it was starting to take it's toll. We sent Katy on her way around 3 or so and went down to Land of Memories to spend the day plugged in. Went up to our house and grabbed some stuff somewhere in here - hung out with Jake on the deck too.. Not much to write about for this day.
Day 45: July 20
Today was my brother's birthday and Bestie's!!! I called my bro but got his voice mail - his softball team has qualified for National's and are set to play down in Panama City FL Sept 10th - everybody wants us to be down there for that but it isn't going to work. We have Dano's wedding in Denver on the 5th of Sept. and it's just going to be too much driving. So that is too bad.. today we are chilling until dinner at Barb's around 5 pm - these dinners are always very big so we brought our appetite. There was wild rice burgers, sweet corn, potatos, salad and more - Sarah made a cream cheese dessert with a sauce from the berries we picked in California - we even made this in the RV's oven! Needless to say we ate way too much today and were at Barb & Marion's til nearly 10 pm. We took Bestie back to the home and Marion dropped us off at campground - where we had a campfire and got ready to leave for St. Louis tomm.
Day 46: July 21
We gave ourselves plenty of time to get down to St. Louis and jump back on Grateful Dead tour - sort of time to shift gears back to tour. We left excited since we were going to venues that we knew better and were going to make a better effort to keep up with tour and to work more. While we were heading East on HWY 14 towards the Interstate we took some time to look at the map logically and realize that St. Louis was way out of our way and would cost more in gas than it was worth. It was an easy decision to skip St. Louis and head right to Alpine Valley in south east Wisconsin - we would have 3 days to get the 6 hours - so we decided to try and sell some hemp and gemstone ear plugs on the way. Also today we realized that we had another propane leak in the RV - this really sucked since it cost another 120 bucks to fix and took nearly all day. We got the RV fixed in Rochester MN and stayed the night at the Wal-Mart. Bought some beer and layed low - went to bed early.
Day 47: July 22
Today we headed out to Winona to try our luck with selling stuff. We got there in the early afternoon and were lucky enough to find a free place to park the RV downtown. We went over to a shop where we had worked before a couple years back - she remembered us and did a trade with Sarah. Next we went down to the tattoo shop and they didn't buy anything - but let us know about a bunch of spots in La Crosse. We stopped in at a local bar for an afternoon beer and then headed to the rest stop. We had also done our shopping for vending in Alpine today and were going to start prepping the ingredients. We pulled into the rest stop and played with Kiko on her new elastic leash and collar. Went to bed early ready to head to La Crosse tommorrow.
Day 48: July 23
We had a quick jaunt into La Cross today and found the downtown area - I never had realized how neat of a city La Crosse is - it has a very artsy downtown feel to it. Sarah found an easy parking spot on the side of the road a little bit away from everything and we took off walking. We hit all kinds of stores but kept hearing the same thing - the buyer isn't in or the manager isn't in - or whatever. We also found out that we just missed The Big Wu playing here a couple days back D'OH! Anyway we did manage to sell one hemp necklace to a clerk at one of the stores, we used the money at the farmer's market that we found and that was it. I found some wi-fi in town when we got back to the rig. And then we headed out to Madison; where we thought about trying to sell more - but didn't. We went to the KOA in Madison and were ready to pull a short drive to Alpine Valley tommorrow and hopefully have a good night.
Day 49: July 24 The Dead @ Alpine Valley
Well we woke up today very excited and optimistic, we were planning on running into Sarah Macho & Chris at this show! We started out happy and good, but it wouldn't last long. We arrived at Alpine at a nice time around noon or so - but since we were an RV we got directed away from the main parking area. They sent us down a line where we were asked how long of an RV we were; we reply 26 feet - she says then I need 50$ to park you. We said WHAT! Come to find out 24 feet and lower is free, but 24 feet and up is 50 bucks - and the cars and everybody else had it free too. What a bunch of shit - this really hurt, but we paid it and then were even more pissed off when they led us way way way away from everybody to the RV parking area. This is already off to a bad start but after pissing and moaning a bit to Sarah on the phone we decided to set up and get to work. Sarah and Chris were about 70 miles away yet. We set up our new EZUP for only the 2nd time and Sarah started getting all her hemp and clothes out. Didn't take long before a parking attendant came over and talked to us. He was actually cool - he said watch for the people in the green shirts and especially those in the red shirts. Those were the security in charge of "illegal vending" the parking guy went on to tell us that they were issuing
$1000 fines for those that are caught vending. We didn't really believe him - but thanked hime for the advice - and continued to set up. We had a lot of people coming around right away - and were starting to have some luck. Our neighbors down in RV land were great! These people are usually very respectful and responsible - a nice change in neighbors. There were some really nice folks that pulled in on a 1955 blue bus from California - Lee was the bus owner's name and he had a daughter named Carly who hung out with us all day before the show. She was 7 years old and had been living on the bus all summer. I remember asking her if she liked living on the bus and she said "It's fun but there is no fridge in there and we have to spend a lot of money on ice" - funny a 7 year old who knows how much cooler maintenance sucks. We hung out together all day and she was a great little girl. While under the EZUP we had everything set up and had made our 50$ back at least when the first green shirts came by - but they were just some young kids and they asked us to pack it up and we said we would. Then they walked away and we stayed up and open for quite a bit longer. Somewhere in here I went running around for a bit and left Sarah at the store - I was just checking out what was going on and found out that no one was set up at all - everybody was shut down - maybe they weren't kidding about the fines - boy Alpine has sure changed. On my way back to the RV I run into Lee who has had some guy following him and taking pictures - this was making him very nervous. Sarah was doing really well now under the EZUP and had had a few more encounters with the green shirts - but they were all different people so she just used the same story for all of them. When I was back Sarah wanted to run up to the road and find Sarah Macho - I said ok but be quick cause I don't know what is going on with the clothes if somebody wanted to buy something - and in the time she was gone the Major Red Shirt Security Man came around - I had seen him busting others while I was out... He snuck up on me and says "Making a lot of money?" and I say no not really - he goes on with the "I can give you a 1000$ ticket, take your inventory, and impound your vehicle" I say really - scared to lose everything - He says "You have 20 minutes to tear down - it is 6 right now and I will be back at 6:20." So I started to tear down right away. Sarah came back and asked what I was doing - I told her what happened - just at that time Sarah & Chris showed up. We were so happy to see them - but they were anxious to walk around since they had just gotten there - we tell them just wait 2 minutes while we tear down... we turned around and they had left?? That made us a little mad - so we tore all the way down (and no Major Shithead never came back in 20 minutes) - and went out on a walk ourselves - Sarah brought her hemp with. We did end up running into them after a while - but they soon went into the show. Sarah had a great day selling hemp - more than we expected for sure. For some reason people wanted new necklaces. We hung out in the lot for a while and then took off during the show. We went up the road to a rest stop where we could hear just fine. Went to bed after the show - didn't stay to risk making food - which would not have worked anyway. We also contemplating skipping Deer Creek assuming that we would have the same trouble and since it was way out of the way.