A Mudshow Season

I have a very old motorhome. I mean a VERY old motorhome. It was very old twenty years ago. Several years ago I tried to sell it for $500. No takers. Now it's back on the road. Yesterday Dennis, the mechanic came out to replace a busted exhaust manifold bolt. "Live with it," he said. It'll probably hang together for another ten years and you won't have to take off the head.

Because I was planning to leave for the circus on Thursday, I decided he was right.

"By the way," Dennis said a few minutes later as he adjusted the carb. "You have a gas leak. You really need a new carb." Twenty years ago that would have been no big deal. Now it's been a generation since carbs were standard engine parts. "Can I get it rebuilt?" I asked.

"Maybe."

Today in Seaside, CA I found the last guy in this part of CA who still rebuilds Rochester Quadrajet 4BBL carbs. He'll have it done on Thursday. If we leave Thursday evening, drive 14 hours, sleep five hours, and then drive another 12 hours, we'll be in Oklahoma on Saturday.

Culpepper & Merriweather's Great Combined Circus opens on Saturday in Antler's, OK. Trey Key will be presenting his cats. The Ron & Robin Dykes family is back. Jessi Wonderfool, a very funny clown just off RBBB has signed on to play in the mud, as have several other intrepid performers. For Culpepper this is the 25th season. Not bad for a circus that started in a FL campground.

There may be snow on the ground in New England, but in the southland it's spring and time for the bigtops.