TYSON WELLS SELL A RAMA 2009
UPDATE: Tyson Wells Event Schedule for is now up.
You
can check it out by clicking here.
DAILY LOG
(the most recent day is on top.. the first day, etc., begins after
that.)
Have been lucky to be making entries daily. I notice that we now
have quite a following and this is now one of the most popular pages on
this website. Will be doing updates on our next show, The
Tyson
Wells Arts and Crafts Show which starts on Jan 30, but I will have
entries starting Jan 26.
Thank you. Enjoy.
Sunday, January 25. A bit cooler today and quite windy during the
PM. Last day of the event and the crowds were not too large
(again). Economy. We began packing mid-afternoon and had
everything in containers by 5:00. Many of the vendors were long
gone by that time and I think that it wasn't a very good show for many
of them also. We closed up our canopy with our things inside and will
load up in the morning and head off to Blythe, of all places to pick up
some groceries and get a steak dinner.
Longest lines were at the porta-potties. When I went over there,
many people were standing around. So, I looked at them.
Okay, all those people who are waiting in line, please raise your right
hand. Several did. Now, all those not waiting in line, raise
your left hand. Two did. Okay fine. One lady in a
wheelchair raises both hands. Oh, you had better go right now, I
told her.
Took a walk over to Rice Ranch today and picked up some Indian Fry
Bread for $3.50 over
there. A bit smaller, but cheaper than the ones over here.
It was delicious, of course. I have stopped at this booth several
times on trips to Yuma and other destinations to get their Fry
Bread!!!
Anyhow, not too many people roaming around the booths at Rice Ranch.
I guess that's the place to be in November and December, but not now.
Perhaps many of the vendors left already; not sure. They have other
booths located farther down the road and there were people there, but if
you are located up near the intersection, forget it.
While waiting
for my Fry Bread, I took a look at the directory they had in front of
the office. What a mess.... how can you figure out where the
vendors are located with that thing? It
lists the various rows the vendors are on, but no way in hell do you
know where the rows are. They need to do justice to the vendors
and provide potential customers with a more explicit map. While I
was looking at the directory, a couple came over and tried to figure out
where the specific booths were and were utterly confused. No
wonder why there aren't many vendors over there!
SUMMARY OF THE 2009 Tyson Wells
Sell-a-Rama. Thus ends this years' Sell-a-Rama for
us. Started off great, but crowds dwindled as did their dollars.
The weather this year was great with temps around 80 degrees every day.
The last day was the windiest and not too dramatic. Plagued with
blowing sand problems as our stuff was covered with it. Just had
one day of rain and no flooding in our booth this year. I think
that there were quite a few new vendors here this year and that goes
with the state of the economy. Just have to stick it out for
better or worse. People here (locals (if any), RV'ers, stopovers,
etc.) all were not spending huge sums of money, buying only the
necessities or those $1-5 items at the housewares and tools places.
Impulse buying is unheard of over here, even though some of these people
will buy an occasional gadget or gismo. I can not say exactly what
sold well here and it wouldn't be fair for me to tell you what items
were hot (if there were any). But one thing for sure......
clothing sold poorly and I think that jewelry sales were low.
Last night ended our 15 nights in the BLM just south of
the Kuehn/Hwy 95 Intersection. We usually parked about a mile in
and found it to be a very peaceful area to spend the night. Very
quiet and pretty dark at night. A 15-day permit is $40.00 and you
are on your own power-dry camping. Only heard the coyotes/hyenas a
couple times and maybe they were on vacation someplace. Some
years' it's been a nightly experience and would be awakened by the
Tyson Hills Chorus many times around 3:00 in the morning. I had my
best sleep out there in many years. We drove out there each
evening after closing up (5:30PM) and caught the sunsets each night and
awoke each morning around 7:00AM, just before sun-up and shortly after,
drove back to the Sell-a-Rama parking lot and prepare for the day.
From what I understand, all the events were slow for vendors, including
Yuma. So, it's on to the Arts and Crafts Festival here in Tyson,
where we will be located in space PQ-4. Be sure to check my daily
log for that event and stop by if you are near. Right around the
corner from the Cinnamon Rolls stand facing Kuehn.
Saturday, January 24. Beautiful day. Temps must have been around
80 degrees. Nicest day so far, but rain is forecast for Tuesday
and/or/nor Wednesday.
Your typical flea market crowd arrived early and when
we opened our booth around 9:40, there were quite a number of people
walking around. Many of them were buying the $1 to $5 household
items and gadgets, etc. The crowd dwindled and then more people
came around noon time, but they most certainly did not bring their money
with them. I think each of them brought maybe a dollar or two to
spend because we certainly were not getting any sales. I have
never seen it so bad here. Sales have been getting lower and lower
throughout the entire week and we are reaching record lows with each and
every passing day.
I understand that it is also slow over at the Pow Wow in Quartzsite,
across the highway and they have large crowds with beautiful weather in
Yuma for Lettuce Days. However, the same old story. No
money.... everyplace is the same. The economy is very bad right
now and at these shows, the vendors are not making very much money.
It is a tough life out there, I must tell ya. First 4-5 days of
this event we were getting a lot of business in our booth. But
somehow the bewitching hour came at 1:10PM last Saturday afternoon and
sales have been pitfiful since that time.
MY DAILY STROLL. Each day I walk around the event
to see what's happening and what's not. The guy selling the cement
turtles is just about sold out and he did very good. Things made
of cement are quite popular, but they are so darn heavy. Can you
imagine hauling 100 turtles or frogs or huge ass benches from show to
show. Nice, but uh uh.
Some of the food prices are too high for the event and/or portions too
small. Retired people are the ones frequenting this event.
They can't afford those kind of prices. Saw a place selling
Philly Cheesesteaks for $7. I had a craving for one (again), but
the size of it was puny and I wasn't going to spend that much money for
so little. I love the Indian Tacos, but they cost $9.00, so that
was the end of that idea. My wife and I are retired and are doing
the event and we just can not afford to pay nine bucks for it. I
recall the first Indian Taco I ever had. On a trip through Tucson
way back in 1988, we stopped by to see the mission church, San Xavier
del Bac. A beautiful church. There was a stand outside that
sold tacos, burritos, tostadas and of course, Taco salad. I
ordered one of the Taco salads and it was super delicious. Went
back through there a couple years later and had another one.
One time when we did the Tucson 4th Avenue Street Fair just a couple
years ago, we drove over there hoping that they would still be there,
but I didn't see the booth and the church was going through construction
as there was scaffolding all over the place.
BEGIN DAILY LOG HERE - Tuesday, January 13, 2009
.........................................
Tuesday, Jan 13. The 10 1/2 hour, 600-mile trip
from Hayward went smoothly and we arrived in Tyson Wells at 2:40.
The weathe was perfect coming down with occasional fog along the way.
However, it was quite windy, especially in the Palm Springs area as we
were being blown all over the road.
Upon arriving at the Sell-a-Rama I noticed that the first 8 rows or so
had many vendors already set up and I would assume they were in those
spaces for the Rock and Mineral show that just ended on Sunday.
The back rows (>h) had maybe 5-6 vendors in each row. We usually
arrive on Wednesday, but we decided to go down a day early.
unloading a mlotor home.... not an easy task!!!
We were able to park the motor home in the space next to us, which made
unloading quite simple. Our goal for the afternoon was to
unload the motor home, set up the canopy and grids, put all our hardware
and merchandise in our space and then put up the covers. We
finished at 5:45 and knowing that it would be getting dark soon, we
hurried ourselves out of there and over to the BLM lands just south on
Highway 95. We found a nice quiet spot, leveled off the motor home
and settled down for the night. Turned on the generator and raised
up the Satellite dish and it just took about 30 seconds to find the
signal. Just in time to watch American Idol.
Wednesday, Jan 14. Slept
very good. Perhaps the best sleep I had in 5 years. Very
peaceful, no dogs barking at night, etc. Nobody is going to let
their dogs loose at night because that would make excellent chow for the
coyotes, who occasionally stroll down from the mountains. We took
all day to set up and will be ready by noon on Thursday. Not too
many vendors showed up today, as there are still quite a number of empty
spaces. There were a number of people walking around, but the show
doesn't officially start until Friday. Matter of fact things don't
get really hopping in this whole area until maybe next week, when more
shows begin over in the Quartzsite side of the highway.
There appears to be a fair number of RV'ers out here right now and it
seems about the same number as last year. Rice Ranch has been open
since November and it looks like they 'recaptured' some of the prime
corner area where Beaudry RV had placed their motor homes for sale.
In recent years, there are more and more RV dealers coming out here and
there are shows that have left. I guess that the RV businesses out
here put more money in the city's coffers than the rock, gem and mineral
shows.
Thursday, Jan 15. Internet connection at Super
Eight Motel not available anymore. I expected that sooner or
later, they would start charging people for wireless access. For
the past couple years, I've parked my motor home across the street
several times and got on-line. No more. Will find another
place to get on line.
It was another nice day in Tyson. Temps around 70 and sunny.
Very little breeze. More vendors arrived today and the place will
be full tomorrow. The rows were getting congested with vendors
coming in and out with their vehicles unloading their goods. There
was a nice turnout today and I expect large crowds over the weekend,
with the weather being nice and gas prices lower. We had a decent
day in sales today, up 50 percent from last year. I just wish that
the trend wll continue throughout the show and well into the New Year.
Last year was the roughest for us and many other vendors.
two million people in town?
Funny comment of the day.... I heard a lady telling her customers
that 'there's going to be two million people here in town....
there were a mlllion here last year.' I just can't
picture two million people here at one time. Uh uh. Then I
read in their 'guides' that there are 4 million visitors in Quartzsite.
If there are, where are they? You just can't take what
people say and call it the 'gospel truth.' Sorry.
234,126.... I could believe that number, but a million? two
million? three million? four million? Who is counting
anyway? The same people who run events and send in their
(attendance) information to Craftmaster News?
Most interesting booth: There is a guy selling cement turtles and
nothing else. Three sizes, the small ones are $35, the medium $45,
etc. All he had were turtles sitting in front of his booth.
Can you imagine what those things weigh? He had perhaps 60 of them
and can you picture yourself hauling and lifting all those.
Maybe we need to write a book 'how you can make $20,000 per month
selling cement turtles.' You just place the molds on the
ground and have the local cement truck pull up and start filling them
up. How about cement camels? elephants? I'm just
kidding and I think that the guy actually has a legitimate ideal that
probably works. Too much lifting for me. Cement snakes would
be lighter or cement frogs or grasshoppers would be heavy enough for me.
Friday, Jan 16. Tyson Wells
Sell-a-Rama opened today. Quite a number of people roaming around
before 10:00. Sales were sporadic throughout the day, but okay.
Just a bit down from last year.
The first picture below is of our booth SPACE X-19. DandL
CREATIONS. We sell shoulder bags, fannypacks, shell necklaces and
creations, wrap-skirts, sarongs, etc. The shot on the right is
also one of our booth.
On the left is Don closing out a sale and he is in Space X-20.
He sells Indian/Silver jewelry and has a great selection of
necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc. at super prices. On the
right is Tony, in Space W-19 and he sells many things; sunglasses for
$5.00, hats, toys, etc. Bottom row on left is Jim and he is
located in Space X-24 and he sells wooden bowls. My wife Lucy, is
in the picture on the bottom right, standing in front of her shell
creations, which she assembled piece by piece, shell by shell.
Saturday, January 17. Weather was nice once again, but stronger
breezes through much of the day. Clouds forming in the sky, but no
sign of rain, of course. When we arrived at our booth around 9:45,
all the other booths were open for business. A bit cooler this
morning, so we stayed under the blankets a little longer. Crowds
were not too large today; no real reason why. The RV show started
across the street and they had the Bluegrass Festival over in Blythe.
So, who knows?
Sales were slow for virtually all the vendors and foot traffic came in
spurts. The afternoon from 1-4PM was unusually slow. A
vendor selling T-shirts 3 for $5 looked like the big winner today;
passed by the booth a couple times and there were usually 8-10 ladies
going through the shirts getting ready to purchase.
Picked up some Fry Bread (with cinnamon sugar) about 8-10 rows down from
us for $5.00. It was good, of course. There's another
business over at Rice Ranch that sells Fry Bread and has a really
delicious breakfast burrito, but just too far to walk from row X.
Usually I would have to wait in line and then wait for them to cook it,
so the whole trip would take almost an hour.
out in the wild with the coyotes
Bringing a motor home to Tyson is the way to go. I didn't get a
space with hookups, so we park each night over in the BLM lands, about a
mile away. Nice and peaceful and it only costs $40 for a 15 day
permit. No hookups; you live in the wild. We get to eat
'home cooking' each day and is pretty good. We park in the lot
behind the show during the day and make trips back and forth for lunch,
etc.
There are a number of people that spend the nights in their vans or
trucks, but that's too rough for me to do. They have showers
available at several locations and there are restaurants around.
Most interesting question of the day? A lady asked my wife if we
had 'cooling scarves'. It's only 70 degrees here and the weather
is beautiful. If it were 90 degrees or in the summertime, then we
would be concerned about the scarves. People come here from the
colder areas of the country and they are asking about 'cooling scarves'
I am missing something in life.
BLYTHE MENTAL HOSPITAL ESCAPEE OF THE WEEK
(call 1-800-BEL-VUUE)
"Yes Virginia, there are some crazy people out here"
At the end of the day, like usual, we headed out to the BLM for another
night's stay. I pulled up to the same exact area where we had been
staying and began looking for a 'level spot'. I nolticed this guy
walking around near his trailer which had a bunch of junk and stuff
outside. He came over told me that 'I can't park back there
because those spaces are reserved' I looked at him. He had
long curly hair and one heck of a long beard and he had obviously not
shaved since 1965. He was wearing a tie-dyed shirt and he looked
like he had been here since 1965.
"I am not parking back there" I told him and he stepped away. I
began to move my motor home forward and then over a bit trying to find a
spot where I would be level. Here he comes again. "what are
you doing?" he asked me. I looked at him. What is this
guys problem? "I have been here for the past several nights"
Then he tells me that this is a 'roadway'. I looked around and
laughed at him. "I really do not think so." He was getting
quite upset. I wondered what his problem was. Who died and
left him in charge of this place? Did he find some wild (peyote)
mushrooms and didn't want to share them with anybody? He looked
like he was about to freak out, so I just drove my motor home. I
didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night with my motor home
encircled with a ring of fire and zombies walking around carrying huge
knives. We drove off into the wild and parked elsewhere.
(two days later, 3-4 motor homes had parked in that same exact area).
MORAL OF THE STORY: Beware of raggedy people with long hair,
beards and dirty tie-dyed shirts going around yelling at people
because they might still be in the 60's and not all full of 'love'.
PEACE BABY, PEACE. Surprised that this guy didn't have an
old volkswagon van painted 'psycho'-delically with daisies all over it.
Sunday, January 18. Another nice day and it looks like great
weather for the next week and more. Parked in tjhe west lot and
hooked up with the Internet and took care of business, etc. Will
do this every third day perhaps. Crowds were lower today and maybe
because the Cardinals were playing during the PM. Who knows?
Most of the visitors here are tourist and RV snowbirds and I don't think
they give a rat's you know what about the game. Sales were very
slow all afternoon and appears as though many vendors are struggling.
We did okay. Not great...not bad.
"purchasing items that they actually need."
Have to realize that a lot of the people are retired and living on a
fixed, limited income and attempt to spend their money wisely,
purchasing items that they actually need. Mainly gizmos and
gadgets, socks, etc., for under $10.00. They are not going to
splurge or impulse shop. The main objective for a vendor is to
sell things that these people really need or can use. Their
families and a small amount of children/teens that do come here, but
their purchasing power does not show up.
INTERESTING COMMENT OF THE DAY: My wife was sorting out some
shells that she uses for her creations. A small child comes over
and asks "Are you playing with your shells?"
DEJA VU AWARD: On Saturday, my wife was away from the booth eating
her lunch while I took care of our customers. At 1:00, several
lady's came over and purchased a dozen shoulder bags. Today
(Sunday) my wife and I were telling one another that we needed another
customer like that today because sales were so slow. I left for
lunch at 1:00. When I returned my wife told me that two of the
lady's that bought shoulder bags on Saturday came back with friends and
purchased another dozen. DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN!!!! Amazing.
That made my day. Very few sales the remainder of the day for us
and most of our neighbors.
Here's shots of the two largest sellers here in Tyson Wells.
Western Woods on the left and Village Originals on the right.
Both sell rocks, minerals and a lot of other interesting items.
There are hundreds of other vendors here selling many different kinds of
rocks and minerals and a majority of them have their booths situated in
the 'rock hound' area.... Rows A thru H.
-
Had a lady come over and point to one of my $8 (marked down from $10)
fannypacks and asked "five dollars?"
"No." I replied. "Somebody across the street is selling them for
FIVE DOLLARS" said the lady to me.
I laughed. "That's nice." I said to her. "Looks like you are
going to take a trip across the street."
She left. This ain't no Flea Market!! What I can't
understand is that if she saw this fannypack over there for five
dollars, then why didn't she purchase it then. What made her walk
around and find one on this side and see that it's being sold by me for
$8.00. And then she decides to go back over and maybe buy one.
If it is REALLY SELLING for $5.00, you can not possibly get it for less.
One thing for sure is that I never lower my price because you told me
the price somebody is selling it for. I really tell people to go buy it
from the other seller.
Monday, January 19. Ugly looking clouds today and we were worried
that it might rain, but things cleared up and the skies were sunny all
day. Windy again and temps in the 70's. Sales today were the
lowest of the show for us, but not disastrous. Crowds were down
from last year's Monday and I noticed that the RV Show across the street
did draw quite a bit of money. Maybe people want to go places
where they spend little or no money. But then again, these are
mostly RV people and I suppose that they were checking out the latest
motor homes and gadgets, etc.
That's our motor home with the satellite dish up'
Here's a couple shots I just took. It's around 5:45 PM and the sun
is setting behind the mountains in the back of us. That's our
motor home with the satellite dish up (preparing to watch the
Suns-Celtics game on TNT) and we are out in the BLM areas east of Tyson
Wells. And that's my chef, Lucy preparing our dinner tonight which
will be Curry Chicken over Rice, which is very good of course.
Last night we drove over to Western BBQ across the
highway and picked up our Pork Rib dinners. A bit expensive,
$14.00 but the ribs were great and this is how we celebrate my wife's
birthday each year out here. You get 2 side dishes...baked beans,
baked potato, salad, potato salad, etc. This time the ribs were pretty
good sized and they had plenty or pork on them. However, we have
gotten ribs with very little pork oln them in the past years.
INTERESTING CUSTOMER OF THE DAY. A lady comes into our booth
wearing a Betty Boop Shirt. We are selling Boop shirts for $10
each. After she picks out one, I told her I would sell her 3 for
$25, which is a very good deal. I am trying to close these out
this year. She agrees with me and begins picking out more.
Finally, she has selected 3 shirts and then tells me that one of them
has a spot on it. I looked at it. She then asks me if I can
give her 4 shirts for $25 because of the spot. Of course, I told
her no because I am not going to give her a free shirt. She put it
back. Picks out another and finds a water spot on the back and
asks me again. You are not going to get 4 shirts for $25. I
can not go any lower. Sorry. She then told me she would go
someplace else.
I always encounter people who scour over every inch of my products
looking for a defect so they can get it cheaper. Just to save
maybe a dollar. Sorry. I don't bite. Don't waste your
time people.
Today I took a stroll across the street to the marketplace, where they
have 30-40 vendors set up selling an array of things. Seemed like
there were quite a good number of people there and I could feel a lot
more energy present and people purchasing more. Don't know why,
but that's the way it is
Found somebody selling birch beer over there. $6.00 for a mug.
I love birch beer, but you are not getting six bucks out of me for any
kind of drink. Looked like nobody else buying it either. Saw
people selling pepsi and water for $2.50. What the hell do you
think this is, a World's Fair or something?
The Quarzsite Pow-wow starts tomorrow on the other side and there are
something like 800 vendors there. I believe that 75 percent of
your products have to be of stones, minerals, etc and booths are
cheaper. That usually draws a lot of customers/visitors away from
the Sell-a-Rama. Good luck.
INTERESTING QUESTION. A lady asked me if there are mines in the
area. I pointed to the mountains. Yes, over there.
They had mines many years ago, but the government brought several
busloads of aliens over from Area 51 and left them there in 1976.
They are all over the place nowadays and they have secret passageways in
some porta-potties which lead to tunnels below the Sell-a-Rama.
AND THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2008.
Tuesday, January 20. No 'early bird catches the worm' stuff today.
Stayed in bed until 8:15 this morning. I haven't heard too many
coyotes this time. Last year they were going nuts. Every
morning around 3:00 you would hear them.
Drove over to Love's and put in some gas. Still only $1.79 per
gallon and it must be the cheapest here. However, they didn't
have
any newspapers there. Haven't read one in quite a while and since
I only check the internet every 3 days, I wanted to pick one up.
The weather was okay again, but slightly cooler and of course, breezy.
Clouds were forming in the afternoon and hopefully we won't see them
tomorrow. Crowds were smaller and today turned out to be the
slowest day so far.
Walked over to check out the RV show.... or should I say, the vendors.
They had a huge tent with perhaps 150 vendors inside hawking vacation
spots, RV Parks, kitchenware, salsa makers, etc. They had to pay
$1300 for their spaces and maybe more traffic flow, but not too many
people buying over there also. Better deal at Tyson.
No interesting questions, amazing stories, etc. today. Just an
uneventful day.
Watched the news/weather on an LA station tonight. They are saying
significant rainfall over there. Hope it doesn't reach us.
Snow levels to 8,000 feet. They have had 10 straight days of 80
degree temperatures.
Wednesday, January 21. Another night in the
BLM... no howling from coyotes or whatever. Peaceful. Very
easy to sleep out there. Best stretch of 9 nights sleep I've had
in quite awhile.
Weather was okay, but quite cloudy. Rain in LA and Bay Area and we
have a chance of showers on Thursday. Other than that, just fine.
Sales were slow starting out, but we did decently by days' end.
INTERESTING ACT OF THE DAY. THE 2009 TYSON WELLS
PHONE-A-THON. A lady came into our booth with a cell phone
sticking in her right ear. She walked
through our booth and continued talking. She had the 'speaker'
on and we could hear the other person talking. Believe me, it was
not an interesting conversation. Not hot, not juicy....just kind
of babbling. Well anyways, she continued walking around, not even glancing
at our stuff, but she just kept on talking and walking all around our
booth....once, twice, three times...... still talking on the phone.
She just kept on going around in circles in our booth... in on one side,
through the booth and out the other side. Walked around, entered again,
etc. Finally after 3 or 4 laps,
she finally left and walked down the aisle still talking, still babbling.
I certainly hope that she does not use her cell phone while driving or
even crossing the street.
SLICK DUDE OF THE WEEK. Decided to buy a couple
Italian Sausages from the booth in Row G. I went over there at
12:00 NOON and he had a couple sausages on the grill. He said he
only had one Italian left and he had run out. He claimed that he
only had Bratwurst. This is noon time and there really had not
been that many people yet and he is claiming that he had no more
Italian's left. He had two sausages on the grill .... one
Italian and one Bratwuirst and I just think that he didn't want to get
another Italian out of the reefer. LSOAB. I paid six bucks apiece
for them and they were rather puny even with the peppers and onions
plopped on. This Bratwurst was nowhere near as good as the Lockeford Sausages I have been buying at other shows in California.
Five bucks for one of those and they are big with a ton
of sauerkraut on top. Totally delicious. The smell of the
peppers and onions cooking reminded me of the stands outside Fenway Park
in Boston. Italian sausages with P&O's piled on. Smells so
delicious. Every time I watch pre-game festivities of Red Sox
games on NESN, I see the food stands there and I can almost smell the
food. Italian Sausages and Red Sox games..... oh man.... you
can't beat that!. Unless you have a (REAL) Philly
Cheesesteak Sandwich with Birch Beer.
BASTARDS OF THE DAY. Love's Gas Station. After we
closed up our booth, we went over to the Pit Stop and took on some water
and emptied our holding tanks. We went over to McDonalds and picked up
some burgers and nuggets and ate in the parking lot. A friend of mine
was going to arrive around 8:30PM and we were killing time until he
would get here. We finished eating and drove across the highway to
Love's, where I told my friend where we would meet him, since it was
just off the highway. Problem. I wasn't able to find a parking spot
and there were many trucks coming in and out. I was going to park
toward the back, but that seemed impossible. I pulled up along a curb
that looked pretty decent, but there were signs that said 'no parking,
violators will be towed'. So I parked there and cut off my engine. A
minute later a yellow tow truck parks in front of me and begins to back
up. I look at him...there's one of those tow hooks attached to the back
of the truck. So, I started thinking.... this guy is not really going
to tow me. This little itty bitty truck was going to tow my motor home?
He backed up a couple feet....I backed up a couple feet. He did it
again and I backed up farther, giving myself enough room to get the hell
out of there if he gets any closer. He opened his door and began
stepping out. I backed up again. He stood just outside his truck and I
decided that I had better go find someplace else to wait for my friend
because I might run out of room to back up, etc.
I drove back over to McDonalds and that is where I waited. Maybe
they'll kick me out, maybe they won't. I'm just sitting on the
driver's side up front so they can see me and don't think that I am
going to spend the night. These people are really uptight about
stuff like that. I passed through here one time on my way home
from Yuma and I was so tired. I gassed up at Chevron and headed
over to Carl's Jr, got something to eat and then went to my van (which I
drove that time) and dozed off for a couple hours. If you are
tired, you are tired. And I did not want to take any chances on
the highway. They have rest areas on Highway 10, but they are
mostly closed.
After our meeting, I drove back to the BLM. It was pretty dark, so
I just parked in the closer to the office because it's hard to find a
spot during the night-time. No problem. A bit noisier
because we are closer to the highway.
A VERY INTERESTING STORY: This is something that we
all need to be made aware of. One of my friends purchased a bunch
of sausages at a Chinese Food Store in Sacramento and planned to eat
them over here. He had placed them in his cooler packed with ice.
When he arrived here, he looked inside the cooler and the water was
turning reddish. It was coming from the sausages which were dyed
with food coloring to make them look better. He showed me a bunch
of the sausages and they looked sick. Disgusting. That is a
no-no. I hope he turns these people in. I wonder how many
other food stores are doing this. Maybe we all need to take a damp
cloth with us when we buy food and rub it on the meat to see if it has
been dyed.
Thursday, January 22. Nice weather but rain in California and maybe here.
No more food reports because I am not buying any more food at the show
because I had stomach problems after eating the Bratwurst Sausage
yesterday. We are going to cook all our food for the next 24 days
we are here, except for one trip to Blythe and maybe one more crack at
Western BBQ for their delicious ribs. Very slow day today with
extremely small crowds. A lot less spending today and there are
few vendors making any kind money today. I am down around 20
percent overall from last year.
PM report: Things never picked up today. Slowed down completely
during the PM. Very few sales for anybody. Worst day here I
have had in several years and I wouldn't be surprised if many vendors
made nothing today. Just that kind of day. Cloudy all day
long and there is a possibility of rain tonight. I've battened
down the hatches and hopefully everything is out of the rain.
NOTE: Rain started at 7:22{M and the drops sounded pretty big
outside. Hope I don't get stuck in the mud getting out lf here in
the morning. Should be okay.... not in an area of flash flooding,
etc. (I think)
Watching TV right now. In 1929, they began putting numbers on the
players uniforms (baseball) and it was based on their position in the batting
order. Ruth batted third, so he was given the number '3'; Gehrig
batter fourth and he was given the number '4'. This was the same
for all the teams.
So, I will call that piece of imformation 'the highlight of the day'.
A nothing day. Hope that the weekend is livelier than this
Friday, January 23. I checked the internet around
7:45AM and the weather report said 'AM Showers' today. There were
clouds all around the place and the sun was nowhere to be seen. We
arrived at our space and 'surveyed' for water damage, etc., from the
night before. All was good and no standing water on the roof.
I checked the back part of our canopy where I had put a 'mother-in-law'
house (another smaller area 3 1;2 feet x10 feet) and the top was covered
with the remains of a very dirty rainfall. The tops on my other
two canopies were dirty also.
During the early part of the morning, I felt like this was going to be a
really good day. The parking lot was filling up, lots of
cars on the street and people walking down the aisles.
I do not know what happened. Very few people buying anything and
we had many showers throughout the day. I had to cover up the side
olf our booth many times. It never really rained hard and it would
only go on for 5 minutes or so each time and was justa 'a pain in the
ass' kind of rain.
THE 'LIGHTEN UP, DUDE' award for today. At 10:05
I was a little hungry and went over to one of the food booth's. I
looked at the menu and ordered one of their egg, sausage and cheese
sandwiches. The guy then told me that breakfast ended at 10:00
Oh gosh.... and I just had seen a guy walking away from there with
biscuits and gravy. Doesn't breakfast end WHEN BREAKFAST ENDS...
like when you run out of food. The lady inside was willing to give me
breakfast. I remember that some restaurants
serve breakfast all day long. If you still have the food, then why
be so mean to people. More importantly, you had no sign telling people
that 'breakfast ended at 10:00." This ain't damn
McDonald's or something like this. Come on people.... lighten up. I
will remember that next time I buy food, which will not be there.
I should get 200 vendors to march in front of their place.
He then said that they had donuts. So, I walked over to the other
window and looked up, down, to the left, to the right. I then heard
the lady inside then say 'over here' holding two plates, one each with
something that kind of resembled a cinnamon roll on it. I looked
at them. "uh.... those aren't donuts....sorry' And I
walked away.
Things were kind of slow, so several of us got together and discussed
things that non-buying customers say before departing the booth
empty-handed.
1) I'll be back. 2) I'll think about it 3) I
have to go to the bank OR Is there an ATM near here? 4)
cute 5) I like it 6) I have one already. 7)
Is this real ? 8) Do you have ____? (they will come up
with a color that you don't have) i.e. green, red, XL, etc. 9) It
looks nice. 10) I'll have to ask my husband.
