Morning unfolding.

June 30, Lancaster.

Same lot as last year, but we came from the opposite direction.
All is still when I wake up, half an hour ahead of call time, back in Merrimac, but the sound of the horses Armando is loading up into a trailer. Then little by little the tractor trailers' engines break into a roar as Castro goes around starting them, and the first voices can be heard. John is parked next to us and he comes out to start his generator. Soon Mike's truck is leaving the lot, followed by Carolyn in their pickup truck, and Raul is leaving too, always the first private to go with the Cainans. But this morning the Cainans linger on, and I see them drive off as I sit down in our truck after Fridman has put the kids in their seat.
It is daylight, one of the privileges of summer morning traveling. The drawback is that mosquitoes are out, for otherwise it is an easy time with the circus, when the days are long and the BBQs plenty, the kiddie pools are out and town people bring an air of unencumbered childhood delight to the show.
The drive is of average length, an hour and a half or so, but early on Fridman stops for the generator truck. It's on the shoulder of I-495, the interstate loop around the Boston area. I go on because chances are they'll be there a while, with traffic hurtling by at high speed not more than a few feet away. Fridman and I say goodbye and take good care on the CB radio. It will be mid-morning before they arrive on the lot.
Traffic is heavy with the morning rush, the road is full of potholes, but I make it without incident, reaching John Moss in the Marathon at the end. He is a careful driver, as meticulous in this task as in everything else he does.
It was cool this morning, and when I get to sit down outside with a cup of tea while watching the kids play on a mount of dirt at the end of the field, it is cool still, and breezy, reminding me of an early autumn day.
The circus day has just begun.
(To be continued.)