About four weeks ago, Vince Trulson was passing through Kansas City on his way home to Oregon when he was recruited to be a carnival worker.
A manager from Southern Fun Carnival Co. approached him on the street and asked if he wanted a job.
"I told them I was on my way to another job, but I'll talk to you," he said. "I passed up a job collecting trash for $140 a day to do this for $200 a week just to see all these smiling faces. (There's no job) where you'll experience something like this."
He went with the company with just the clothes on his back and has been working carnivals, festivals and fairs with the group for the past couple weeks. The job brought him to Jefferson City for the Salute to America festival, and now he's on his way to Appleton City with the rest of the crew.
Trulson, 25, has been a leaf in the wind for the past few years. He's traveled all across the country, visiting family and taking odds-and-ends jobs. You name it, he's done it. Before landing his latest gig as a carnie, Trulson worked construction, built houses, roasted coffee, the list goes on.
Just a few weeks ago, he'd never set foot in Missouri, and now he's been traveling around the state with the carnival company, bringing smiles to people's faces with his outgoing personality and self-deprecating jokes.
He lured a young couple out from the crowd to play his game where "everyone is a winner."
"Come on man, your arms are bigger than mine and I can do this," Trulson said swinging the faux sledge hammer into the beam and the ball launched into the bronze bell at the top.
The couple, smiling and laughing gave in and walked away with a stuffed monkey after forking over $3 and ringing the bell with one hard whack with the sledge hammer.
"That smile right there, that's why I do this," he said. "I'll make fun of myself just to see people laugh."
When October comes, he'll travel with the company back to Kansas City where he'll hitchhike, walk and ride his bike back to Oregon before he sets out on another cross-country adventure.
"God gives me a direction and I take it," he said.