We did have our show regardless of some rumors out there. We did also have tons of fun, so let's walk through the weekend really fast...
I got there and started setting stuff up in the show office. Around 12:30 I think it was Cathi S shows up all the way from Iowa City. She had a little bit of everything...I do remember a Paint, a Saddlebred, and a buckskin pony. They unpack and then do baths for the horses...no water in the wash rack. There's a problem. So I franticly got through the barns turning nobs and finally find the right one. WOO HOO!!!! Water!!!! Then she finds that our outlets don't work...she ended up finding one down the aisle a little ways..so all is well. That was the last of our problems on Saturday. We grilled out Saturday night and had a blast. There was chicken breast and hamburgers and hot dogs and gourmet patties (hamburger and cheese and bacon all in one)...it was great! Elsons also brought a crockpot full of party potatoes...they were gone...none left. Awesome job on those Jodie! We also had some chips and stuff too. Great night.
So following all that fun, I decided as show manager to spend the night at the grounds, but the camper we thought we had lined up fell through. I decided to camp out in the show office. Elsons let me borrow their cot so it wasn't too bad. I finally get to sleep around 1:00am since I'm not used to all the traffic noise of Waterloo. My alarm goes off at 5:00am so I could get up for all the early arrivers and to get the barn set up for those returning to bath their horses and stuff. I walk out of the show office and the first thing I do is go to my car for a very good reason in mind...its sort of under water...
Yes, we had the show grounds flood while I was sleeping...I remember it starting to rain around 1:00 when I dozed off. In four hours we had a crazy mess on our hands. So I went to the barn through knee deep water and made sure the horses were ok and they were. There was about 1/2 inch of water all the way through the barn but luckily the stalls are elevated about 1 inch above the aisle way so the horses were in no harm whatsoever. I did call everyone to let them know that we did have some flooding but the horses were fine. I then woke up Petersons since they were camping and suggested they move their truck and trailer just to protect their truck a little.
Erin had a rough night at the hotel she was at because people were partying all night in the room next to her and managemnet didn't do anything about it. She ended up coming down and moving her trailer just in case something were to make it worse. She then helped me move the water out of the barn. It took a while but we got it done.
When Dan (the National Cattle Congress guy) got there he hooked up the speakers for me to announce that the show was going to go on and finished cleaning up the barn...he had a machine that sucked up the water and then he puts fans out to help dry it up. He also made sure the drains were working outside.
At 8:00 the show office opened up...I was up for 3 hours cleaning up flood water before I could open the show office. Things ran a little slow in the morning because people had to get horses bathed and ready in hyper-speed it seemed like...the barn water wasn't totally sucked up until about 8:00 and our show started at 9:oo.
By the time 9:30 or 10:00 came around all the water was gone. Other than mud, you couldn't tell anything happened. We did end up getting a lot of trailers...especially from the Mason City area. I guess their group has had 4 shows scheduled but not one was held due to weather. One of those being canceled was on Sunday.
I haven't even done the books from the show yet...I've been exhausted. I got home around 9:00 on Sunday night and carried one box of stuff in and sat on the couch for just a second and I was a goner...I slept until 1:15 this afternoon and had to be to work by 2:00...just enough time to shower for the first time since Friday night and get to work. And now I'm here...and exhausted still. So I will sign off for now guys. When my phone decides to cooperate with me I will post flood pictures and I think Jodie will be sending me some horse pictures when she gets those developed. So I'll be back on shortly don't you worry...
Make sure you keep checking back about the Iowa Falls Show on July 24-25 at Ellsworth Community College. All the info is on here somewhere. Night everyone!
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