My First Bakersfield Rock & Gem Rendevous Pt. 4

Sunday, April 6, 2008 ~ Day Three

It was nice to sleep in my own bed last night after two nights in a sleeping bag in the midst of the big bad city.
I woke up feeling antsy to get back over to Bakersfield and get ready for one last surge of entrepreneurial endeavor for the weekend. Things had not gone how I had hoped from a bottom-line standpoint although the show had been a real hoot, but now I hoped to recoup some of my expenses now that I had given up on actually turning a profit.

I hooked up with my ailing family member who visited me at the show the day before and was going to do so again today and then drive home in their own car with me at the end of the day.
The flowers along Highway 46 in San Luis Obispo County were still riotously plentiful and beautiful with the Poppies and Fiddlenecks and Lupines being the most prominent.
We were in a hurry to get to the show around opening time and I felt pressed for time.
I was rolling down the road on flat and straight Highway 46 eastbound between Blackwell's Corner and Lost Hills.
Traffic was light on this sunny and clear Sunday morning which found me going 76 m.p.h along a stretch of road posted 55 m.p.h.
I suddenly realized before I could respond that there was a white-colored CHP patrol unit right in front of me headed westbound and he immediately slowed and fired up his lights and turned around behind us to which we responded by pulling our two vehicles over.
Officer Knight was civil and professional but hardly warm and fuzzy.
I felt I was in no position to plead my case as he did get me fair and square.
However, I felt the situation was crappy at best as NOBODY goes 55 m.p.h. along that stretch of road under the conditions present that morning unless they want to get their arse run off the road or have somebody riding up their bumper and then probably going around them and quite possibly dangerously so with the possibility of a head-on collision resulting as is too oft the case on that stretch of road.
When and where there was light to no traffic it was safe to be going 75 m.p.h. given the conditions present at that time.
It's all a moot point now, of course, but I'm out over $300 when all is said and done if you figure in traffic school and I'm not exactly a happy camper.

Ship hattens. >:-O

I made a couple of choices after that.
One was to slow down overall as I have developed a slight case of Lead Foot and my never having gotten a speeding ticket before was destined to never last .
The other was that I was not going to negatively dwell on this all day but shrug it off and move on.
Of course, it helped me to shrug it off when the family member I was caravaning with offered to pay for the ticket given how they were the reason I was in the position I was in when I got that ticket. ;-p

I showed up at the Kern County Fairgrounds a bit later than I would have without being pulled over but it mattered not as there were few if any customers hanging out yet which was both good news and not-so-good news. ;-)
Right up front I'll tell you how the day went business-wise: much better than the previous two days combined (I grossed $242.17) but still fell short of breaking even but at least I made it close.
I will tell you this however: I can ill afford to NOT be in the Bakersfield Rock & Gem Rendevous given how much fun I had and how many folks I know are in that show and how much networking can be accomplished there.

I have been invited back next year and look forward to it.
Sometimes things aren't what they seem.
Sometimes what looks like failure is success and what looks like success is failure.
Maybe this show was about getting into next year's show and into this year's Antelope Valley Show and meeting folks like Lew and Shep and Jon and others for the first time.
Maybe this show was about getting my blog off and running with the exposure it has received after being mentioned twice on the Bakersfield Californian's Bakosphere blog.

One thing I have neglected to mention thus far about this show was the presence near my booth of a promotional table by the Buena Vista Museum that was manned by a one or two guys cleaning fossil specimens from Sharkstooth Hill and displaying a cool-looking megalodon (uber shark) tooth.
For some reason it wouldn't sell all weekend. ;-p
Anywho, I chatted them up more than once over the weekend and now am planning on visiting the museum while my girlfriend is down for the Summer.
As some of you may recall Huell Howser visited that museum in an episode of California's Gold.

I was able to purchase something for my girlfriend's upcoming birthday which item was hard to find and I found it in the perfect price range which was also nice.
Furthermore, I was able to do conduct a trade with Dale Harwood for some of his minerals in exchange for some of my South African cactus quartzes. I felt badly that a meteorite that I promised to purchase from Tom DeMaris I was unable to purchase but he graciously offered to hold onto it until we hook up at the Nipomo show this coming August.

A couple of hours before the show ended a chain-smoking Asian fellow with dyed hair pulled out early obviously not concerned about not being invited back next year given he was violating the terms of his contract by leaving while the show was still going on. He didn't belong in the show with his leaded plastic Chinese crap beads and jewelry.

Mike and I hung around per our contract and then efficiently broke down our booth while chatting with the other neighboring vendors doing the same.
It seemed the Afghans suddenly disappeared as if melting back into the mountains. One minute they were there and the next they were nowhere to be seen. ;-p
Seriously though, all the Afghans were as nice as anybody at the show.
 
Mike and I and my family member headed home caravan style west on Ming to North River River and north on it to Stockdale Highway and west on it to Highway 43 and north on it to Highway 58 and west on it to Lokern and then west on it to Highway 33 and north on it to Highway 46 and west on it to Highway 41 and home safely and soundly.
We were shocked to see how Bakersfield has exploded out to the west with its southwestern margins now in sight of I-5.
It seems inevitable it will someday soon reach out and extend to the interstate.
It seems foolish to pave over some of the most productive farmland on the planet.