TYSON WELLS A&C SHOW  2009                                              daily log
   
 

     

 

 
   



 

   

  

  

Going to put the most recent day on top and then move it to the bottom of the log on the following day.  'Fresh material' will always be on top.  Be sure to check out my log from the Tyson Wells Sell-a-Rama which just ended on Sunday, January 25.

Monday,  February 9.  4:30PM.  The Eagle has landed.  Made it home safely after our 27-day trip to Tyson Wells.  Left the rest stop (20 miles west of Needles) around 7:30 and headed down Highway 40 to Barstow and then 58 through Boron and Mojave.  Upon reaching the outskirts of Mojave, we could see snow up on the mountains, reaching almost down to highway level.  It was drizzling slightly and the sky was cloudy but bright, so we figured we wouldn't hit much snowfall.  Upon reaching the summit near Tehachapi, everything except the highway had been covered with an earlier snowfall.  Between there and Keene, we had just a bit of snow on our windshield and saw lots of cars passing by covered with snow, as they probably had been parked overnight someplace. 

Sunday, February 8.  Sunny this morning and a little cooler.  Hopefully, end of this rainfall.  Pushed the water off the canopies and have to straighten things out.

HEADING HOME:  Checked the forecasts.  Highway 5 over the Grapevine has snow on Monday. (Gorman)  Snow showers are forecast for Tehachapi.  Don't want to deal with snow in anyway, shape or form. 

OPENED UP AT 9:45.  After breakfast, I stepped outside and walked over to our canopes and opened the covers.  Not too bad inside.  Had a couple areas on the newer canopy where the rain water had settled and I pushed it off and over the side of the canopy.  "What was that?" I heard a child ask his father who explained it to him.  No water had settled on the ground of our space inside, making it easy to walk around.  We  pulled away the covers and straightened out things inside and opened for business.  Very slow until early PM.  Every so often we would pack some things into buckets and put them inside the motor home.

GOT A PLAN.  Around 1:00, I suggested to my wife that, since things were slow, why don't we pack everything up and drive up to Laughlin and spend the night there.  We were going to pack most of our stuff during the afternoon and then finish up in the morning and leave, but this was a better idea.  We certainly weren't going to lose any sales because we knew that things would be completely dead after 3:00 anyway and it would be a better idea to leave.

HEADIN TO LAUGHLIN?  So we packed up our stuff and left Tyson Wells, stopping at Love's to pick up some of their $1.99 gasoline.  We hopped on Highway 10 and then began driving up toward Needles.  We hit several rainstorms along the way and looking in the direction of Laughlin, there look like a lot of rain over there.  It was getting dark and raining, so we decided that when we reached Highway 40, we would stop at the first rest area (heading west) instead of turning off to Laughlin and spend the night there.  I really wanted to get a buffet over there, either at Avi or downtown, but when we parked the motor home in the rest area, I had my buffet....Cup-O-Noodles.  At least we ate cheaply and didn't lose any money gambling.

DECISION.  Rather than take most of the night driving, we decided to spend the night at the rest area because they were forecasting snow showers up in the mountains and I'd rather drive through there during the daytime.   Probably about 9 hours drive from here and not too many rest stops, especially between Boron and Buttonwillow, a long stretch to go during the late hours.

DIDN'T RENEW.  I did not renew my space for the A&C Show next year, even though we will probably do it because there aren't that many events around that we can do during the latter part of January and would probably like to come out to Arizona for more than one event.

THE END.  Hope you enjoyed reading about our 'adventures' at the Tyson Wells 2009 Arts and  Crafts Show.  Be sure to read our reviews of other shows throughout the year.  I am sure you will enjoy them.  Thank you.


Saturday, February 7.  No rain as of 8:30AM, but lots of wind.  Perhaps the strongest winds we have had.  Secured the canopy pretty good against rain and wind.  Everything up off the ground also......  we were flooded last year on the last day of the Sell-a-Rama.  Sitting in the motor home and can hear the canopy tops flapping in the wind.  If not raining, will open at 10:00.

OUTLOOK FOR TODAY.  Just took a walk (9:30AM) around the area.  The three canopies on the street side of me have packed up and left, leaving me completely open to the weather.  Thick dark clouds all around us, but most of them appear to be going around us.  Wind coming from the south-east at about 10MPH.  Occasional gusts, but not too bad. It appears as though we will most likely get continuous showers much of the day.

MEMORIES.  I recall several years ago when we did the Parker Bluegrass Festival about 30 miles from here.  It was a Sunday morning and everybody began packing quickly when we all saw thick, purple clouds off in the distance with strong winds blowing stuff al over the place.  You could see the 'sheets of rain' falling in the distance.  That was a sign that severe weather was on it's way and we needed to get everything out of there.... including us.

PARKER BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL.  This show was held along the banks of the Colorado River, which was a very nice setting.  But sales-wise, it was not a good event and we only did it because we went to the Trade Shows in Las Vegas and were heading to Chandler. This event is no longer held in Parker because they jacked up the rent on the promoters and they have now moved it to Lake Havasu.

INTERNET.  Can't figure this thing out.  My connection keeps saying 'local only' or 'limited connection' and I am unable to access anything.  Signs of another bad hair day?  Would like to get weather reports for the next couple days and need to check the forecasts in the higher elevations.  Want to avoid the snow if and when we head out of here.  This has to be the worst internet connection I have ever had.  Even Motel 6 is far superior than this connection.  Second worst I had was up in Redmond, OR at the Deschutes County Fair.

AND THE RAINS CAME.  It was a bit misty around 11:00-11:45.  Started to sprinkle and we quickly began closing up.  As I wrapped the covers around our booth, it began pouring and we finished up and retreated to the motor home.  Rained quite hard for about 15 minutes and then just a sprinkle.  Turned on the TV and watched the reports on AROD being tested for steroids back in 2003.  Top sports story of the day.  This will be going on for many days and weeks now.  Here we go again.  A-Fruad. Still raining pretty hard at 2:00.  Went inside the canopy and pushed the water off the top lf the canopy.  A small puddle on the bottom, but if the rain is persistent, then flooding could be imminent.  Large puddles outside.  Looks like we have our first zero day of the year.
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Stopped raining around 5:00 and I went out and opened it up.  Had a little flood inside and there was water settling in four areas on the two canopies.  So I had to push it off onto the side.  Niagara Falls!!!  Or should I say 'Tyson Falls'.  Quite a bit of water up there.  Closed up and walked around.  Many other canopies had water settling on top of theirs also and there were some people packing up.  I don't blame them.  Returned to the motor home and it began pouring again at 5:30.  What the hell was that?  Half-time intermission or something?  I guess that as long as he rain keeps up, I need to keep going out every couple hours throughout the night to push the water off the top of the canopies or they could collapse from the weight.


Friday, February 6.  Three days left in this event.  The weather report (weather.com) for Saturday now says 'rain' instead of 'showers.'  I really hope that doesn't mean that it will last all day long.  Brings back memories of the rains we had in Chandler several years ago where it rained for a day and a half and we had to sit in the motor home watching the parking lot turn to mud and the area around our booth became flooded with over a foot of water.  Tell me something, what is the difference between PARTLY SUNNY and MOSTLY CLOUDY (Accuweather.com).  It will be partly sunny this morning and mostly cloudy in the afternoon.  If it's only partly something, then it must be mostly the other thing?  Am I missing something?
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Supposed to get a 'passing shower' on Sunday according to Accuweather.com.

GRAPEVINE WEATHER:  Checked out the weather report for Gorman.  Rain/snow Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  Might be heading over around noontime on Monday.

THE PEOPLE.  Seemingly more people are coming by today in anticipation of the rain on Saturday, etc.  One of our better mornings here at the A&C Show. Batten down the hatches!!!   The afternoon was certainly dead, though and the weather was looking worse.  Winds mostly all afternoon. 

WEATHER:  The winds began picking up around noontime and became stronger as the afternoon progressed.  Clouds building up.  Hope the storm goes around us.  Havasu has two days of rain coming.  Kernville has snow, rain and cold.  Good luck people.


Thursday, February 5.  Hope things pick up as we get closer to the weekend.

THE BETTING LINE from the Tyson Indian Casino Sports Book.  

      
 
POST OFFICE TRIP.  Heard many horror stories about long lines at the Post Office over in Quartzsite.  Had to take my walk over there this morning.  I woke up early and left the motor home around 7:25 and headed down Keuhn and then crossed over the highway and made a left and reached there around 7:40.  Not bad.  There was ONLY one person in line and they open at 8:00.  I heard that they had a very long line there this past Monday at 7:30.  There were 15 people behind me when they opened.  Took care of business and left.  Just to mention that you can have your mail sent to General Delivery there and you can pick it up between 10AM-3PM.

NO NEWSPAPERS OR DONUTS.  Wow.  Walked into the Shell Station's Mini-Mart expecting to pick up a newspaper and get a box of donuts or something.  Uh uh uh.  No newspapers and just some tiny little donuts, which I decided not to buy.  So be it.  Left there empy handed.

BREAKFAST OPTIONS.  I had a couple other choices available for breakfast.  Saw a restaurant off to the left and pondered about that.  I would surely love to have some kind of omelette, but I didn't feel like paying around twenty bucks for two breakfasts, so I crossed the highway and headed back.  Considered stopping over at Rice Ranch for fry bread, which is great and only costs $4.00.  But I had to wait 15 minutes last time for one and I had experienced waits of half an hour for food in the past, so I didn't detour over there and continued walking to the motor home, parked over at PQ-4, where I had some cereal and hot chocolate and that was fine for me.  I'm cheap like everybody else around this place.

INTERNET PROBLEMS AGAIN.  Wasn't able to get on-line for quite awhile this morning.  Lousy service.  I paid $14.95 for one week (again) and this service (Global Satellite) sucks.  Sorry.  I'd hate to have to actually depend on this service.  They have another service here called RV-logon, and if that was reliable, I'd hook up.  I do not consistently pick up their signal and I believe that you jave to have a line-of-sight with their antennaes.  One time I was actually going to sign up for service and entered my information.  But I kept on getting an error message telling me to enter my 'last name' which I did many times, but could not proceed.  When I walked over to Rice Ranch one time, I looked for them, but apparently they no longer have a booth over there (around Jan 28th).  It was cloudy much of today and I was unable to get on-line.  The wind blew the clouds away and we had 'blue-sky' up above and I was able to get connected.  Same thing happened about 10-12 days ago when I couldn't get service.

KICK IN THE BUTT.  I wish that I would have filled up the motor home with gas at Love's before we parked in here on the 27th.  It was $1.85 back then and I'll probably be paying 20 cents more per gallon when we pull out of here.  I need 30 gallons to 'top off' so that cost me about $6.00 extra in gas.  Darnit.   I think that gas was $2.09 at Shell this morning.  Won't be long before we get back up to $3.00

WEATHER OUTLOOK.  Completely cloudy today and the wind got stronger as the day progressed.  A storm is in the making or on the way.  Forecast calls for rain on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  That would just about kill off any kind of decent sales over the weekend.  A complete washout....just what we need.

GIVE ME FIVE.  That's all I'm seeing around this place...five dollar bills and an occasional ten as people clean out their wallets.  Haven't seen a twenty-dollar bill in over two days now.  That's how bad things are out here.  No moolah.
Wednesday, February 4.  Middle of the week and I expect this to be a 'slow day' as typically Tues-Wed are the slowest days out here. 

UPS DELIVERS, BUT....   I had my son ship my bills, etc., to me via UPS and I received the package yesterday.  It was dirtied pretty bad on one side and I pointed this out to the delivery man.  I turned it over and was shocked to see that the large envelope was torn in the middle and I immediately thought that somebody might have stolen some of the mail.  The guy gave me a number to call if there was anything missing.  Most importantly, my son had sent me a booklet of checks to use and he was smart enough to have placed them in a separate envelope and tape it shut.  Thank gosh that was there.   I was in a mild state of panic Imagining myself calling the bank, closing the account, stopping payment, etc.  However, the checks were there.  Also, my credit card bills were okay.  I have had numerous problems with UPS over the years.

POWER GOES OUT.  The power just went out over here in this corner of the grounds.  Happened a couple days ago around the same time of morning,  Was out for an hour before.  I guess this is a regular occurrence around this place.  This outage lasted about 15 minutes.  Do not like starting the day with no electricity....bad hair day?

INTERNET CONNECTION SUX.  Still pretty bad out here.  Had lots of trouble getting on-line last night and it is very, very slooooow today.  Brings back memories of the phone connections we had to use many years ago.  Really can not rely on this.  Out of a 10, the service rates a 3.2. 

IT'S GETTING CLOUDY this afternoon and I would tend to believe that the report of rain on Saturday will be correct.  Let's just hope for a shower or two.  Will have to 'rain-proof' our space.  Cover up places above where rain could seep in; get things off the ground.  Last year our booth was flooded and had to lay boards down to walk on.

A FEW MORE PEOPLE TODAY, but still not many buying.  A number of vendors had ZERO days yesterday and there are a number of people who have now departed.  We are here until at least Sunday and may be remaining if sales pick up. 

RECORD SALES TODAY.  Worst day ever here in Tyson Wells. 
 
THE FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW.  Each night around 5:00PM, I have internet problems and sometimes can not get on-line for several hours at a time.  Honestly, do you think that there are a lot of people trying to get on line and the system can't handle it?


Tuesday, February 3.  Another slow day.  Tyson Ghost Town again,  A few more people than yesterday but nobody spending any money.  I'm seeing more and more vendors closing up early each night.  Nice vacation anyway.  What else.  Scared to see what's going to happen with our shows in California.  Lots of vendors are going to be struggling.  Can't see any changes for the next 2-3 days here; hope the weekend gets busier.


Monday, February 2.  Things are mighty slow here today and it looks like a ghost town.  Not too many people stopping by the show.  No Sales as of 1:15PM.  Have only had one zero day in 16 years of doing shows and that was last fall in Paso Robles at the winery.  Can it happen again?  My worst days ever have been $2.00 in one day in Dublin at a mall show where it was around 105 degrees; $9.00 on a Sunday at the Orinda Holiday Bazaar in 2007; $8.00 at the Vallejo Gem Show in March around 4-5 years ago on a Sunday when temps were in the 70's and hardly anybody showed up.

ZERO DOLLAR EVENTS:  I thought that the past two days were bad, but today is much worse.  Many zeroes in this row and throughout the event today, that's for sure.  We did manage to pick up sales later in the day but I am pretty sure that I will not renew this space for next year's event.  No money here.  Ended up with chicken feed for the day; worst day ever for any show I've done here in Tyson Wells. 

TYSON GHOST TOWN.  That's what this place was today.  What are these people doing or where the heck have they gone?   What people?

HERE'S MUD IN YOUR EYE...  or at least sand, which gets over everything out here.  Sometimes I sit in the middle of the aisle watching my booth and I can feel the sand hitting my face which has been kicked up by people walking by.   It even gets in your eyes.  Advisable to wear glasses or shades around here.  You can get eye irritations from it.


Sunday, February 1.  Ditto on the weather.  Had my worst sales yesterday in 3 years at Tyson and today was even worse than that.  Now, with the Super Bowl over and done with, I hope that people will return here spending some money. 

SUPER SUNDAY.  Definitely not for us.  Sales will be even lower.  I don't know how the Super Bowl affects this show.  Since most of the visitors are out of state, I don't really think that they care.  Slow throughout the day and the crowd dwindled down throughout the afternoon.  Many of us closed down before 4:00 and retreated to our TV sets.

WEATHER.  Temp up near 78 today.  For the next 10 days, it'll be in the 70's.  Rain was forecast for Sat/Sun the 7th and 8th, but no more.  We look fine.

            THEY ROLLED UP THE SIDEWALKS AT 4:00 IN QUARZSITE SUNDAY.

      

Saturday, January 31.  The weather is just perfect here and little wind (so far).  Vendors do not open early like they did for the Sell-a-Rama.  We've got a good number of people passing through and the children are out of school on the weekend.  However, hardly anybody buying anything around here and it's boring day for many of us.  No high-rollers here, that's for sure.  Need to drop by the Post Office on Tuesday, but I overheard somebody saying that there were 50 people in line yesterday there.  I believe it because each time I have passed by there I have seen many cars parked outside.  Well, there goes an entire morning.

Really nice day - 74 degrees.  Traffic flow isn't too bad, but people just are not buying.  What can you do?  Slow day all over this show.  Guy came by offering a Prime Rib Buffet for $19.95.  Uhhhh.  Helllooooooo.  Maybe some of these people with those $250,000 RV's can swing it.  Not me.  They are offering breakfast buffets for $9.95 and that is a whopper of a price.  There's another place at Rice Ranch offering nice breakfasts for $4.95.  People must be competitive, especially in this area.

 

MY DAILY WALKABOUT.  Walked by the place that had to have the World's Smallest Philly Cheesesteak....  every thing is small over there.  Sorry, but that's the truth.  Went across the street and picked up some chocolate covered coffee beans at Roots (Nuts and Dried Fruits) along with some sesame things.  A little expensive, but they're okay. Passed by the 'grocery booth' and looked around.  Saw some popcorn but didn't buy because the boxes were somewhat damaged and it was selling for $2.00.

 

PHILLY CHEESESTEAK REPORT.  Saw another place across the street selling them.  Don't know how much and I don't know how big.  Tyson Wells is not the Cheesesteak Capital of the World, that is for sure and I will wait until I get home.  Wish I could have one from Pudge's (Blue Bell, PA) right now.  Great! I live in CA and I probably have to be satisfied with Cheese Steak Shops when I get back.  Been trying them in the Bay Area and San Jose, but I am still in search of the 'One Great Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich.'

 

CUTE is a word that you do not want to hear.  Each and every time somebody looks at your stuff and says 'cute' they are not going to buy.  Prove me wrong.

 

GRUMPY HUSBANDS.  People just strolling around and not buying much of anything.  Husbands were not in a good mood and stopped wives from purchasing; perhaps too much $$$ riding on the Super Bowl tomorrow.  Maybe I'll have 'SUPER DEALS ON SUPER SUNDAY'.  Hell, I'll try anything to beef up sales.   With the wives shopping and husbands watching the game, I'll call in my HIGH PRESSURE SALESMEN to work them

 over.

                       

 

Very slow all day long and this is a Saturday and should be the busiest day of the event.  Quite a few people...but.  


BAD HAIR DAY.  I guess this is what you would call a 'bad hair day'   Man oh man, absolutely nothing happening around here.  Speaking of hair, I haven't seen anybody walking around with a 'Hairy Hat' on.  Somebody selling them over in Row M for $8.00.  Quite popular during the Sell-a-Rama, but nary a one since then.  Sure to see lots of these things this year as they gain in popularity.
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QUESTION OF THE DAY:  An older couple came into the booth each holding a little pooch in their arms.  The lady asked me 'are those doggie chairs?' pointing to the small one-foot stools I had outside.  "Huh?" was my response as I looked over at her.  She repeated her question and I said to her  "Uhhhh... no I don't think so." 

Doggie chairs?  I think that some people spend way too much time with their dogs.  Hey Joe, ya want to go to the ball game today?  Nah, gotta stay home with the dog.  They don't let dogs in there.  Louise, want to go to the Craft Show?  Yah, okay.  I can bring our dog and get him some new shoes and a cute little hat.  Hey Westley, let's go down to Circuit City and pick up a new 64 inch HDTV.  Nah, can't.  Just shelled out $700 at the vet the other day.  Ralph, let's go down to the gym.  No.  Going to the movies to watch 'The Daring Doberman's beat Vegas.'  I'll bet it wins an Academy Award. Going to Cancun next week.  I am going to put my dog up at Monster Mutts Motel for only $80 a night.  

                           

 

            BEGINNING OF TYSON WELLS ARTS AND CRAFTS SHOW

Monday, January 26.    A bit troublesome sleeping after a couple weeks out in the nice, peaceful BLM area east of Tyson.  Highway traffic is hard to get used to and lots of people pulling down here in Tyson.

We began moving stuff out of our space around 7:45AM and finished up around 11:00.  Just took our time.  We departed and headed over to Blythe, where we stopped by Albertson's and did some grocery shopping.  Our motor home was packed full when we left Tyson and had to somehow find room for a lot of groceries, which are to last over the next two weeks.

After shopping, we drove over to Sizzler in Blythe.  It was lunchtime and there happened to be a long line of about 20 people.  We both ordered the Senior Citizen's Sirloin Steak for $10.75, which turned out to be pretty decent.   The price included a salad bar and a drink.  We had to treat ourselve's to something special after toughing it out for a couple weeks in Tyson.

On the way back to Tyson on Highway 10, we had a blowout of our right front tire.  Wow.  What a surprise, of course.  Kind of scary...first you hear the big thump and then you see all kinds of stuff flying all over the place.  All the while you have to watch the traffic in back  of you and on the side.  I began slowing down and gently put my foot on the brake, not wanting to fishtail out of control.  Luckily there was nobody in back of me and I slowed down while tapping my foot on the brake.  I eased my way over to the emergency lane and came to an undramtic halt and put on my emergency flasher.  Got out of the motor home, looked at the tire (you'll see a picture of it in a day or two) and got my cell phone and called AAA, which arrived about 20 minutes later.  Had problems on the cell phone because it kept breaking up and it was hard to hear each other.

   

After AAA came out, we drove on to Tyson.  We hoped that the people who were occupying our next space PQ-4 would have left, but they still had their motor home there and would be staying until Tuesday morning.  No problem.  We'll just rest up today and set up our booth during the afternoon.
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Tuesday, January 27.  Coldest morning yet.  Perhaps 37 degrees.   Still difficult to sleep at night as we just aren't used to the trucks on the highway.  Big difference than out in the BLM.  Rolled out of 'bed' around 8:30 and had some hot chocolate and hot oatmeal to start the day.  It was sunny all day, but the high temp was around 60, but it felt much colder with the wind blowing.

The first order of business was to head over to Quartzsite and get a new tire for our motor home.  I found one place but looked like they were out of business.   I drove farther down  West Main Street and found another place across from McD's and spent a couple hours there taking care of it. 

After that, we drove back over to Tyson and the motor home that was occupying our space was gone, so we were able to 'move in'.  I pulled into our spot and positioned it to allow two canopies (each 10 feet) to fit.  We began setting up around 1:00.  It had become quite windy and unusually cold.  We put up our canopies and got the grids up and we were rollin.  We closed up around 5:00; just getting too cold and wind made it much worse.  Another 3 hours tomorrow morning and we will be done.

           

           

(left to right) just after we set up the two canopies; my wife Lucy all bundled up; our canopies and motor home; our neighbor Don and my wife sitting in the chair


Wednesday, January 28.  Weather will begin to warm up today once again and temps will be climbing back into the 70's.  The actual show starts on Friday, but there are a large number of vendors already set up and customers  are walking through.  Began setting up yesterday and will be completely done by around 11:00AM.  Hopefully we'll have little or no wind today.  It's been quite treacherous lately and a lot of our things have sand all over them.  Need to get a vacuum cleaner again and blow all that stuff of.  The worst things about doing shows here are (1) strong winds (2) blowing sand (3) occasional rain.  It is breezy every day here and fortunately, we only had one day of 9 two-minute showers.  This show ends on Sunday, January 30.  The Super Bowl is coming up this Sunday and I believe that this place will turn into a ghost town around 4:00PM that day.  I've got my satellite dish, so I plan on watching.  I wish that the Patriots were in it or one of our Bay Area teams, but what the heck.  A local (Arizona) team is in it and I guess that I have to root for them so that maybe these people will loosen up if they win and buy some things.

Actually, I don't think it affects these people here in one way or another.  Maybe well over 75 percent of these people are from out of state anyways.  In this location, I am able to pick up wireless internet as they have several connections available for a couple bucks a day, which is reasonable.  However, the service is mediocre as pages take a long time to load, but it's good for checking the weather, sports, etc. and of course, keeping up with your emails.

SHOPPING AROUND:  If you are looking for toys, sunglasses, crystal cubes, etc., stop by my friend Tony, who is located in Space K14-15.  Don is in Space O-4, across from me and sells Indian/Silver jewelry and has really great buys over there.  Wonderful quality.

We finished setting up during the PM.  A little warmer today and less windy.  Sunny.  We had a decent number of passers-by come through today and hopefully we will have more tomorrow.  Did decent today.   Some vendors have the same spaces from the Sell-a-Rama and some have moved over a few rows, just as us.  We happen to be located in the last row (P) of sellers.

Met a number of visitors who weren't even aware of this event.  A couple passing by from Michigan saw the area from I-10.  They were on their way from Tucson.  I informed them about this event, (Tyson Wells Arts and Crafts Show) the Sell-a-Rama, etc., and they had no idea this was going on. 

During the Sell-a-Rama, we ran into three groups of people that had seen us selling at the Coos County Fair  in Myrtle Point, Oregon and had bought bags from us.  Small world.  Often we run into people in Oregon who have seen us in Arizona.  Wild.
Thursday, January 29.  Slept better last night; didn't take too long to get used to the trucks on the highway.  Warmer today and hopefully it won't be too windy.  I expect more people to come through the show and there will be more vendors setting up.  Internet connection is kind of weak or just slows down when a lot of people are using it.

It was a rather slow day today, but not bad for a day before the event starts.  People were walking around this place.  The winds picked up around noon time once again, but it is warmer today.  I took a stroll around the place and it looks like there are perhaps between 300-400 vendors, a bit less than half as many as Sell-a-Rama.  The A&C Show is a lot less popular than it and no excitement in the air!!   

WORLD RECORDS:  I believe that I just saw the WORLD'S SMALLEST PHILLY CHEESESTEAK SANDWICH ($7.00).  A little bit longer than my finger.  Have to call the Guiness Book of World Records on this one.  They should be totally ashamed of themselves.  I wish that I could sneak a picture of it to show.  One bite is all it would take.

MAGIC WORD?  When a person is shopping in your booth, do you ever hear her say 'cute' or 'that's cute'?  I have never seen a person buy anything after saying that.  Pay attention sometime and when you hear that word, you can just go sit down because they are not going to buy.

 

TYSON 100:  Have seen several of those little carts with the coolers around this place zooming by me.  Or maybe, put-puttering by me.  Let's have them race for the rocks on Sunday.  100 laps around the show.  Or the TYSON GRAND PRIX.  Down Kuehn Street to Loves; across the overpass to Quartzsite, down West Main Street and back over to Tyson on I-95.  Maybe 20 laps?  How'z that grab ya?



Friday, January 30.  Absolutely beautiful morning here or at least until the winds come up.  Just after 10:00 and there are a few people walking around.  Don't expect huge crowds though.  Nowhere near the crowds we had at the Tyson Wells Sell-a-Rama, the biggest event of the year here.  

The winds picked up during the afternoon, but not as bad as the previous days.  I thought that we had a rather small crowd for the opening day of this event, but then again, I think that people just stumble across this event while driving by on the highway.  RV'ers also stop by.  Rockhounds have left here for the shows in Tucson, leaving Western Woods behind.  Boat show inside the Village Originals building.  Sales were low today and most of the people closed up around 4:30 or earlier. Tomorrow is BSBD.  Bring some bucks day!!!

Always watching the weather report and the 10-day Weather.com report is showing showers for next Saturday and Sunday.  Hopefully not.  That would be disastrous over the final two days.  I checked the weather for Lake Havasu and rain for them also.  We had been doing the Winterfest there for several years now and I recall it raining the past 2 out of 3 years; last year it was beautiful there with lots of people, but they walked around like zombies, buying nothing and just walking in a straight line down the street.