For the past 21 years, the first full weekend of August always brings the Decatur Celebration to our fair city. It's a street festival that is billed as the "World's Fair of the Prairie", encompassing 22 blocks of downtown, with 12 music stages, over 60 food vendors, over 100 arts & crafts vendors, roving entertainers, a huge carnival for the kiddies . . . and attracts approximately 300,000 people during its three-day run.
Dear Hubby and I have worked stages for the Celebration for 18 of those 21 years now, and have stories about some of the entertainers that would curl your hair. We have never - - NEVER - - missed working a performance on our stage, regardless of weather, scheduling, anything.
Until now.
Our perfect record has been broken.
This year, we became victims of food poisoning. I don't remember when we have ever been this sick!
Dear Hubby and I decided to do a bit of a "walk-about" right after the parade finished Saturday morning, to see what all was there this year. One of the things on the agenda was to grab a bite to eat before heading back to our Stage, because it was anybody's guess when we would have our next chance to eat. As we were walking around, we saw a booth for Smoked Pork Loin. We LOVE us some good smoked pork! So we decided to stop there and have a sandwich.
Tasted good at the time, but - -
But that evening, I was sick and had horrible stomach cramps. I told Hubby I needed to go home. Since he drove, he gave me his keys and told me he would get a ride home from one of the stage hands who lived out by us.
That was a rough trip home. From the time I left the Stage to the time I pulled in to the driveway was only about 20 minutes, but I was PRAYING THE WHOLE WAY that I would not have to pull over somewhere and get sick!
When Hubby got home, he told me I had not even been gone 10 minutes when it hit him also. By the time he was finally able to make it home, he was in just as bad of shape as I was. (Thank goodness for a house with 2 bathrooms!)
We called Kurt, our Stage Manager, the next morning and told him what was going on. We were too weak the whole day to get out of bed other than go to the bathroom, and even that took all our energy.
The following day (Monday), we were both on vacation from work, but it was spent - - you guessed it - - in bed, still very weak, still not able to eat anything but some crackers and possibly sip som Sprite.
Tuesday we both made it to work. Hubby was still pretty shaky, but he made it through the day with lots of breaks. He told his boss what had happened, who told him to take it easy.
I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. By 11:00 a.m., I was back home and in bed.
Basically, it was the next Friday - - nearly a full week from when it all started - - that we were finally feeling halfway human and weren't scared to try to eat!
What a ride. And we do NOT care to experience again soon!
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