Saturday, April 5, 2008 ~ Day 2
Woke up earlier and colder than the morning before with a strong north to northwest wind moving the tent sides and making me exposed left arm feel VERY cold!
Tried to get back to sleep after covering up better and did albeit lightly and for only a little bit longer.
Finally bestirred myself and found Mike was already up and about.
I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and noticed vendor "Andy" (not DeLong) walking in right in front of me and he asked the guy then finishing up his shower if the showers were any good to which the other replied effusively that they were great to which I roundly agreed (the men's showers at the north end of the Kern County Fairgrounds really do rock I must confess).
At this point "Andy" asks us if the girls have showers as well.
Whah?
This struck me as odd and a bit creepy and reminded me of a similar incident involving him when he and I and Kirk Brock were setting up one Friday evening for the October '06 Cayucos Gem & Mineral Show.
At that time Kirk and I were shooting the breeze talking about the just-completed 2006 Big Sur Jade Festival from the previous weekend which I had just done for the first time as well as our shared Germanic ancestry.
At one point "Andy" asks out of the blue if there are any places around there to meet girls.
It just struck me as an odd way to ask an odd question for a 40-something year old guy there for a rock show.
In hindsight I should have told him to go to The Graduate in SLO and hook up with some easy and vapid, not to mention stoned, Cal Poly coed. ;-p
Anywho, following that strange little incident I went out with Mike and hunted down some donuts and a breakfast pastry and orange juice which was fun as I almost never have donuts and hadn't had orange juice in many days (remember Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi"? I'm an"orange juice Nazi" or "orange juice snob" as bad as any "wine snob").
After that we got back to the Kern County Fairgrounds and got ready for the first day of the weekend which started out okay and kept up a fairly slow but steady pace.
Sales for Saturday were slower than I'd like as folks seemed to like to look but not buy stuff as much as I'd expect. I ended up grossing a measly $95.25 which brought my two-day total to just over $100.
As bad as sales were I more than made up for it meeting cool people and networking.
Some of these people I first met on Yahoo groups and others I met at previous shows like Manny Hernandez and his wife and their cool daughter and son-in-law and yet some others for the first time at this show like Lew and his lovely wife.
First off I met a wonderful couple from Santa Cruz County whom I first encountered on my Central Coast Rockhounds group named David and Julie Konno. Talking to them was a pleasure as we discussed my two favorite topics, rockhounding and disasters, (they are rockhounds and endured the Loma Prieta Earthquake a short time after moving to the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1989). Also, the man was an army vet like my dad had been and he had been stationed out at Fort Irwin where my dad almost got sent to Goldstone Tracking Station when he worked for NSA (ooooh ..... evyl NSA). >:-O
I also had the privilege on this day of meeting Shep Koss after he got back from leading a field trip out to Ant Hill in conjunction with the Rock & Gem Rendevous. Before this day Shep had merely been that active rockhound on LA-Rocks whom Donald Kasper likes to argue with. ;-p
Anywho, Shep "rocks" and after a delightsome conversation with him Mike (who is the SLO Gem & Mineral Club Field Trip Coordinator) and I (club veep) made preliminary arrangements for him to lead the SLO Gem & Mineral Club on an Ant Hill excursion (the Santa Lucia Rockhounds and the Orcutt Mineral Society are welcome to join us, too, as we are a small club and those other two clubs are our friends, not competitors).
I also had the privilege of meeting Jon Meredith of the Del Air Rockhounds whom appreciates a loud Hawaiian shirt as much as I do and even "one-uped" me in the Laid-Back Department by going barefoot at one point over the weekend which chagrined me as I'm usually the one going around barefoot or "besandled" (did I just invent a new word?) when nobody else is and even when it is downright inappropriate such as in say ..... a cold, windy rainstorm in December.
I do have one gripe with him though: his loud shorts were just too much and offended my impeccable fashion sensitivities . ;-p
Vivian Watts of the Antelope Valley Gem & Mineral Club came by my booth and introduced herself and after a brief discussion press-ganged me into being in their upcoming show the last weekend of this month. Actually, I was delighted she allowed me into that show as I had wanted to get into it and had discussed this possibility with another member of that club who was a vendor at the show and he had recommended I contact her so that worked out perfectly for both of us.
When the show ended for the day Mike and I closed up once again and then I headed home to Atascadero. The member of my family who was having the health concern on Thursday needed me in town overnight in case there was a problem and to sweeten the deal they offered to pay my gas going and coming to which I assented.
I headed up the 99 Freeway to Highway 46 but found a detour required me to go the next exit north (Whisler Road) and then turn around and come back down the freeway to get off on 46 as the overpass was shut for repairs.
I hate backtracking so I headed west on Whisler for the first time in my life as I love taking new roads and took it to Highway 43 and then turned south and drove into lovely downtown Wasco where I picked up the 46 again and got gas there and headed home.
Next: My First Bakersfield Rock & Gem Rendevous Part 4
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