Leaving Thursday

Last Thursday we left for SAFF. After feeding and checking all the sheep and goats I loaded the show goats on the trailer, put tags in their ears and headed out to get health papers. That went smooth, but on the way back to the farm I had brake trouble, no brakes, two times. After riding around the shop and hitting the brakes hard and nothing happening, I decided to go on to SAFF. By this time my friend and helper Meredith was here, we loaded her things ( enough food and clothes to last a month), into the already over loaded truck and trailer and took off to pick up grandson Evan in Canton. I was so pleased Evan was finally getting to lay out of school for one half day to help his Nana with the show goats. We made it to Jasper, about 35 miles out, I noticed a back trailer tire wobbling. I pulled over to check them, it was not wobbling, the tread was coming off all four tires, they had dry rotted. A car load of teenagers stopped to ask what was wrong, I told them, he said to go down the road to the left to the tire place and they would fix me up. I almost missed the turn, slammed on my brakes, that were working now, pulled in the lot, there was a woman laying out in the sun, in the parking lot ( with her shirt pulled up over her head), in front of the bay where her car was being repaired. Odd. But I walked in the shop, it was full of colorful characters with foul language. What was I to do, the tires would run off the rims if I went farther. The store owner was a very nice guy that apologized for the strange people. Said to pull on up and they would put on 4 new tires for $306. What good fortune, but it took the guy 2 hours to get a stuck lug nut off. We left there, a little after 4,( with the colorful woman still laying out in the sun, shirt still pulled up), and continued on our journey. It was about 7:30-8:00 when we arrived at the fiber festival, unloaded the goats, bedded them down, fed and watered them. Went to the arena to set up our fiber booth, got everything unloaded but had to leave about 9:30 when the barn closed. Had a late supper at Cracker Barrel and went to our room.