Escapade, Essex Junction Early Arrival Day

Essex Junction, Vermont
Champlain Valley Exposition

It was a long busy day.  We were up a little after 5 AM.  Seven year old Sarah, Mary and Gary Olson's granddaughter, who is not bashful, was at the hospitality area when we walked over around 7.  She had my name on her tablet as having an appointment to get my nails done.  It seems she has a little carrying case with nail polish she received for her birthday.

She and I have hit it off well until she was playing with my turkey neck "fat" and said she liked playing with her grandma's too.  She said her grandma was 27 and I was 90.  Well if I didn't feel old before that, I certainly do now.  Seriously, she's a very sweet and polite 7 year old with a whole lot personality.  

We began working on the booth at 8 am.  We didn't have much to do to complete it, but we had many interruptions.  

We couldn't have done it without our assistants, Lloyd and Donna Fitzgerald.

This was hard to do without spell check.

Nancy Tidwell has offered to help us out.  

Once the booth was ready, it was time for my "nail appointment" with Sarah.  She was waiting patiently for us to complete the booth so she could polish my nails.  

I didn't get a choice but I had blue on one hand and pink on the other.  

Sarah did understand tipping.  

Lloyd had a great idea of covering the tables as we weren't suppose to open until registration began.  We were having a hard time with people wanting to volunteer before we were open.

I loved being next to the registration because as friends that we haven't seen for awhile came in to register, we were able to give big "Escapees Hugs".  Some of those people were Jeanne and Bill Parrish and Froggi and Stu McNicols who we haven't seen in a very long time.  

I was so busy giving hugs to people that I forgot all about photos.  

Sherry and Dave Sweetman are the ROW reps for Chapter 45 and have done a great job of revitalizing the table.  

They came over and asked Bill to make a mustache for the cactus.  

Just as we were closing our table, Marilyn and LC Boyer arrived.  We walked over to see where they are parked. They have a really nice entrance platform that is portable but has hand rails and room to open the door while still on the platform.  Check it out, they are in a Solitude. They are so far from us that LC drove us back over to the staff area.  

Our plan was to heat up some leftovers and go back over to Paul Everts for happy hour and listen to Johnny Goodrun's music.  

No sooner than we walked in the door, the sky opened up.  I looked at Bill and he looked at me and I said I was glad it was raining.  No way did I want to walk all the way back over for happy hour.  Time to curl up with a book or TV until tomorrow.  After all, it hasn't started yet.  I think we'll need the rest.

The fun begins tomorrow. If you haven't been to an Escapade, you're missing a really good time.   

Turtle Safely......