Boy, am I tired. After three days of sun and fun on our tour, we finally got a harsh dose of reality today. We awoke at 6:45 this morning so we could be ready for a full day of activities at the DeafNation Expo & PTCO at the Indiana State Fair. Half awake, I trudged over to the shower facilities ready to take a nice hot shower and would you believe my luck, the water was ice cold. To top that off, one of the shower heads was broken so it shot out a spray of water so powerful when I turned it on, that it felt like an icicle was stabbed through my leg. My shorts got wet because of that stupid shower head, and I was pissed as I walked back to the RV devoid of my hot shower.

After we all got ready, we took the long drive to where the Expo was hosted, almost 100 yards away from where we slept. We parked in front of the entrance and geared up for an extremely long day. Since some volunteers had shown up late, Kevin and I spent almost two hours helping with crowd control. It was a lot of fun at first, but after a while, the severity of how early it was started to take its toll. Once our services were not needed, Kevin and I met with Branic and we started to really explore the Expo.

We watched the many programs provided throughout the day such as the Deaf Film Festival at 9:30, a magic show given by Matt “Magic” Morgan entitled “The Deaf World of Magic.” The magic show awed many of the spectators, and after the show I was fortunate to be able to talk with Morgan backstage. He talked about the organization he has been president of for 14 years, the United States Deaf Magic Association. The USDMA has more than 60 Deaf magicians who are members, many of whom work as part-time magicians. “Magic” Morgan gives more than 250 magic shows a year for both Deaf and hearing audiences. He gave a second, different show later today and of course, we all couldn’t miss that one!

As soon as we finished the interview with Morgan, we bumped into “John Leno,” played by John Maucere. John, an actor who parodies Jay Leno, was getting ready to film a segment for his show, “JohnWalking.” Kevin and I followed along while our own videographer Branic Keltz manned the camera as John Leno met people throughout the Expo in a Deaf rendition of the famed JayWalking. It was a lot of fun watching people play around in front of the camera, acting out their best talent, whether it be an A-Z story or an impersonation of John Leno himself. When we finished helping with this segment, we saw the recent winners of the Mr. and Miss Deaf Teen America pageant, Bradley Gantt and Micaela Paulone.

They talked about their experiences at the pageant which was held at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf two weeks ago, and what they hoped to do with their new titles. Both Bradley and Micaela plan on traveling to different Indiana public schools where there are more than 1,000 mainstreamed deaf students in the school system. There, they hope to discuss some of the issues surrounding cochlear implants. Their main focus will be strongly encouraging those with cochlear implants to learn ASL. Since the success rate of implants are very low, many are left learning ASL when they are older; the only time you can really see if the implants work or not. They believe that the development of language skills at a young age, i.e. ASL, is a vital safety net for those who are unsuccessfully implanted.

We stayed at the Expo the entire day, arriving early and leaving late, spending approximately 12 hours there. By the time the day was finished, we were all more than happy to be able to settle back in our recliner and sofa and finally relax. After visiting more than 50 of the 82 booths, and seeing all seven of the shows today, we realized that we really had our work cut out for us. More than 4,000 people attended the Expo today, and there were so many things that happened that we wanted to see. We met countless people who had a lot to say and discuss, and each of us were overwhelmed by the amount of information we processed form the many people we talked with.

It was an extremely busy day, and I’m starting to eye my sofa bed right now. Tomorrow we are going to get up at 5:30 a.m. and head for Columbus, Ohio. All of us had an excellent time here in Indianapolis, and we have been more than impressed with the “Hoosier Hospitality.” Today we did and saw so much, and the amount of down time that we had in the first two days of the tour has suddenly disappeared. We are constantly busy, and hardly have much time to play around that much. It doesn’t really matter, though.

None of us mind.