July 10, 2012

Clear Lake Iowa Carnival on July 4, 2012


Clear Lake Iowa Carnival
Todd Swank's Diary Update for July 4, 2012


We went to my home town of Clear Lake, Iowa for the 4th of July.  Krazy Kory and Young Master Ben were waiting for us at the Other Place.  A couple days of pandemonium was set to begin.  


We headed to the Carnival and connected with a lot of Crazy Characters hanging out in front of the Ferris Wheel.


It was fun to see some of the nice ladies from Clear Lake High School Class of 1988.  I really miss Jennifer and Joanna.

So to explain the picture at the top of the page, after speaking with Joanna, she said she'd love me to post a picture on my site with a bunch of our classmates.  But everyone was in the middle of conversations, so the idea fizzled out.  About an hour later, I wandered by the group again and saw them all lined up taking a photo together.  I snapped a shot and then Joanna said I had to come over and be in the picture.  Normally, I'm kind of shy about stuff like this, but I begrudgingly obliged.  Joanna demanded that I lay on the ground which I did immediately.

Now had I known that they were all going to pour beer on my face, I would have politely declined.

Ahhhh, who am I kidding.  I would have still done it!


Arch Allies was rocking out in the Band Shell.  Blasting out favorites from bands like Styx, REO, and Journey I felt like I was in heaven!!
Then I remembered.  I was in Iowa.


We found more friends from the class of 1988.  Technically, Mike is from the class of 1989, but who's counting?  Certainly not me at this point of the evening.


On the 4th of July, we woke up early to march with the JDRF crew in the Parade.  Then we laid low in our hotel for awhile to avoid the searing afternoon heat.  Eventually we made our way back to the carnival and played some rousing games of Bingo with Jason Davis and his boys.  Although we shouted the name of the game a couple of times with glee, I think we left more money in the tent then we out took that day.


We contemplated the opportunity to go swimming at City Beach, but ultimately decided it was way too hot to be so close to this many people.  Maybe next year.


The boys thought they had a pretty good chance of winning at the carnival games.  I tried to explain to them that have better odds winning at the casino than they do winning at this place, but I don't think my words resonated with them.

After this photo was taken, the Davis Boys snuck away from us, never to be seen again for the rest of the night.   We were quite sad at this turn of events.


In an attempt to mask our disappointment with the Davis Disappearance, we did our best to Jump Away the Sorrow.


We Jumped Hard.

So hard that we were able to eventually turn our frowns upside down and start being happy again.  Because after all, we were in Clear Lake, Iowa.  The Greatest Place on the Planet to be on the 4th of July!!


We had to stop our jumping as soon as the sun went down, though.

Because we knew we had to prepare ourselves to witness an incredible display of fireworks!  

The audience was ripe with anticipation.


The Fireworks were worth the wait!  A half hour of fiery joy.

Krazy Kory told me that they used 5 barges to send them into the air and they cost more than $70,000!

But he lies to me a lot, so I have no idea if that's true.

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