I like to read when words are accompanied by pictures - I know, I know that pretty much outs my limited literary knowledge (although I did read Jane Eyre and The Old Man and the Sea this week in Round Top since we had no internet or iphones and the only games we could play were the ones Mikie found while roaming the market which meant we were playing stuff that was either a) 50+ years old and that nobody's ever heard of or b) it was just a really stupid game that never caught on, hence the $3 price tag at an antique fair), but I'm just saying that I wish I had my camera with me the past 12 days so I could share some of the highlights....
We left for the show 12 days ago. First, we thought we'd just take the truck and trailer. Then we put on our logistic hats and realized that it is a single cab. And we have 2 dogs. Big dogs. Who may or may not get gassy on car trips. We finally wised up and figured we'd take the car as well and just caravan. (insert non-existent picture here of the absolute desecration of our vehicle including solid, caked MUD (hello, it monsooned 3 days while we were up there - including the day of arrival and unpacking as well as the day of leaving and repacking - JOY!) EVERYWHERE, gazillions of tiny little broken pieces of sea fans squished into any crevice of any seat, switch or console from Popeye continuously trying to sneak into the front seat, where said sea fans were "safely" sitting, and STOMPED THEM TO BITS, and piles of our cast-off soaked clothing, socks and tennis shoes wherever we could find a spot to put 'em.
Next, sleeping arrangements... Since we decided we'd go set up at this show at the last minute, like 4 days before leaving which for this show is super last minute considering people plan 6 months in advance to go, we knew there'd be no hotel space - and certainly none that would take 2 dogs. "Let's just camp out, babe - it'll be fun!" I said. Oh, you silly SILLY girl. (insert non-existent picture here of our 7x7 3-person tent - it clearly states no more than 3 persons should occupy this tent! Inside that tent let's put 2 full-grown people, 2 full-grown muddy dogs, which then translates into 2 full-grown muddy people, and then add to it the fact that our tent site was inside our actual "booth" which is nothing more than a slightly larger 16x16 circus tent with drop-down walls in the front and back. And, we have neighbors - sleeping on both sides in their respective "booths". And one of them SNORES. Like he is being suffocated by a herd of stampeding buffalo that are also snoring whilst stampeding. Oh yeah, and they leave the lights on. All night long. The lights are spliced into the wire so it's not like there's a switch you can hit when it's night-night time - they stay on all. night. long. Which is a bit of an issue for Popeye who judges when she needs to use the potty and when it's time to get up and bark for food - by the sun. When it's always bright, the result is the poor thing waking us up at 11pm, 2am, 4am and finally 7am when it's actually time to get up.
Of course, pictures of the Junk Gypsy prom would have been nice - I tried to update via twitter from my non-smart phone of the group of Elvis-es (or Elvi??), the many sequined ladies and gents, and the guy wearing only boxers and suspenders, but it just isn't the same.
And I would (had I one) include a picture of our heavily burdened trailer that sat sadly lopsided for a day and a half while we waited for Monday morning for the trailer repair place to open up (Take3 in Brenham we thank you!). Just imagine a very large, sad, drunk man with only 1 leg dressed all in white holding many, many packages - slumped against a street sign after a hard night of drinking. There you go - we're on the same page now.
But, the fact is that I have no pictures to share of our adventure, so I'll have to make do with lots of run on sentences. The good news is that we met lots of folks who didn't know we were in G-town and made friends with our neighboring merchants (check out http://vintageatheart.net/category_3/Lazy-Susan.htm for these cool lazy susans made from retired wine barrels). (And thanks to Mark Johnson of Rockwall - without his help we might still be stuck in the mud at Zapp Hall field!) and we are home.
And happy to be here.
I don't have a picture of that either - you'll just have to take my word for it. :)
