Last year the Monterey Gem & Mineral Show hosted by the Carmel Valley Gem & Mineral Society was the most profitable two-day show I have ever done.
Consequently, this year I had high hopes going into it the second time around and that in spite of the current economic distress.
I came into this show very well prepared despite unwittingly leaving a few things at home I would like to have brought with me to sell.
After getting my pickup loaded this morning I met up with Mike Lyons at Staples in North Atascadero to get some more receipt books and then we hit the road following US101 to
Arroyo Seco Road between Greenfield and Soledad and then without a single break followed my old shun-piking route into Monterey via Arroyo Seco Road to Fort Romie Road to Mission Road to River Road to Highway 68 to North Fremont Street in Monterey and on into the Monterey County Fairgrounds a block over from there.
As we neared Highway 68 I could see aircraft doing practice maneuvers at the Salinas Airport but didn't know what it was about or what type of aircraft they were other than they appeared to be older-style aircraft like biplanes and used smoke streamers.
Anywho, the drive only took us about two and half hours and covered about 130+ miles.
We rolled into the fairgrounds and surveyed the situation finding many dealers already well into their set-up but with others not yet on scene. It was nice to see many of our friends there like Bob and Helen Olson of Nature's Collectibles as well as Claude Huber and his wife and of course cranky old Steve Shears and all his wonderful display and storage stuff he sells and last but not least our friends and booth neighbors Bill Head and his wife.
After hooking up with dealer chair Matt Biewer and touching base we proceeded to set up for the show which went very smoothly.
Not long after arriving as I walked my dog Tequila around the fairgrounds I was greated with a shockingly unnerving and unexpected experience, to wit, a duo of mighty F-16 fighters flying in tight formation flew right over the fairgrounds at extremely low altitude.
On this first fly-over while I was there they had their smoke streams going and they were so low the two trails of swirling smoke came down intact right into the fairgrounds proper.
I had forgotten that we were in the flightpath of Monterey Airport and that the Salinas Air Show was this weekend and that the Air Force Thunderbirds were in attendance.
I certainly didn't know they could only use the Monterey Airport as the Salinas Airport runway is too short for them to use.
Anywho, they repeatedly buzzed the fairgrounds in route to the airport where they were doing touch and goes.
I took a break in the work to walk across the street and check into the Travel Lodge.
Last year we stayed at the Motel 6 a block or two down the street as I thought they were the only nearby motel that allowed dogs as Tequila accompanies me to most shows.
Apparently, I was wrong and Travel Lodge is not only dog-friendly but closer to the show and cheaper if you can finagle the "crew rate" which I did with the assistance of the clerk I made the reservations with. They also don't charge you for wifi access the way Motel 6 does.
On a side-note: the person who checked me in was this rotund gay guy who was shall we say, quite gay, fussy and prissy and lispy and all.
A bit later Mike and I took a break from our set-up to go get some dinner.
After walking around a little bit on North Fremont Street we settled with a wonderful family Italian joint named Caruso's Corner Restaurant which has apparently been around since 1953.
The service was excellent (very personal service with family atmosphere) and the food was to kill for (they have wonderful chicken parmigiana).
Whilst we were perusing the menu right after we first got there I received a call from an unfamiliar phone number so I stepped outside and answered it and it turned out to the gay guy at the Travel Lodge front desk who checked me in.
It was hard to hear him given the street traffic next to me but he seemed to say in a very curt and prissy manner that I was to come down to the front desk immediately and it sounded like he told me he'd need to take my card which he said was no good.
Perhaps I heard the wording wrong but I'm not so sure about that.
I new I was close to being over the limit on that card not to mention a few days late with the latest payment which was due earlier in the week.
However, no biggie, all he needed was for me to give him a different card which is perhaps what he said but that is not how my ears heard it.
Consequently, I was both a bit rattled but also pissed off so I got Mike and we left the restaurant before we'd even ordered and walked down the street to the Travel Lodge.
There was a line at the front desk so I patiently stood in line while coldly eyeing the gay guy with a "don't **** with me" demeanor.
When I finally got to the front of the line there was one more person behind me and I let her and her significant other go ahead of me with an explanation that sounded as ominous as the gay guy's remarks to me a short time earlier.
When finally I stepped up to the desk I politely and calmly told him I had trouble hearing him on the phone and said "now carefully repeat every word you said to me" to which he breezily responded the card I gave him was not accepted and he'd need another one which Mike quickly provided and that was that.
Maybe I heard him wrong the first time, but I'm not so sure.
I think he got uppity with me and my demeanor pushed him back in his place which is to treat the customer with respect and give them the benefit of the doubt.
Finally we headed back to the restaurant and ordered our food and proceeded to enjoy our salads when lo and behold my cell phone rang again.
My first thought was "oh no, not again" but it turned out to be an Atascadero number I recognized as familiar but could not place so I answered it and it turned out to be my friend Alice Porter.
She didn't realize I was out of town and in the middle of a meal and I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I let her talk my ear off for a little bit and then let her know my situation when she asked where I was to which she apologetically let me go.
The purpose of the call was to see if I knew if the Santa Lucia Rockhounds had seen Ernie and Alice's underwater slides of the jade hunting they did decades ago.
My belief is they did already show those the last time they did a presentation there last year.
The Porter's memories are going away quickly which is sad to watch.
They've also had a number of bad falls lately which concerns me.
After hanging up I returned to our booth and found dinner waiting and jumped right in.
After a delicious meal we returned to working on our set-up at our booth and pretty much finished the job leaving very little to do in the morning.
This was a nice change of pace as most of my shows this year I left quite a bit to do on Saturday morning before the start of the shows which adds a lot of stress.
After watching some television and getting caught up on emails and Yahoo Group management I turned in for the night at an unusually reasonable for me and slept very well.
After getting my pickup loaded this morning I met up with Mike Lyons at Staples in North Atascadero to get some more receipt books and then we hit the road following US101 to
Arroyo Seco Road between Greenfield and Soledad and then without a single break followed my old shun-piking route into Monterey via Arroyo Seco Road to Fort Romie Road to Mission Road to River Road to Highway 68 to North Fremont Street in Monterey and on into the Monterey County Fairgrounds a block over from there.
As we neared Highway 68 I could see aircraft doing practice maneuvers at the Salinas Airport but didn't know what it was about or what type of aircraft they were other than they appeared to be older-style aircraft like biplanes and used smoke streamers.
Anywho, the drive only took us about two and half hours and covered about 130+ miles.
We rolled into the fairgrounds and surveyed the situation finding many dealers already well into their set-up but with others not yet on scene. It was nice to see many of our friends there like Bob and Helen Olson of Nature's Collectibles as well as Claude Huber and his wife and of course cranky old Steve Shears and all his wonderful display and storage stuff he sells and last but not least our friends and booth neighbors Bill Head and his wife.
After hooking up with dealer chair Matt Biewer and touching base we proceeded to set up for the show which went very smoothly.
Not long after arriving as I walked my dog Tequila around the fairgrounds I was greated with a shockingly unnerving and unexpected experience, to wit, a duo of mighty F-16 fighters flying in tight formation flew right over the fairgrounds at extremely low altitude.
On this first fly-over while I was there they had their smoke streams going and they were so low the two trails of swirling smoke came down intact right into the fairgrounds proper.
I had forgotten that we were in the flightpath of Monterey Airport and that the Salinas Air Show was this weekend and that the Air Force Thunderbirds were in attendance.
I certainly didn't know they could only use the Monterey Airport as the Salinas Airport runway is too short for them to use.
Anywho, they repeatedly buzzed the fairgrounds in route to the airport where they were doing touch and goes.
I took a break in the work to walk across the street and check into the Travel Lodge.
Last year we stayed at the Motel 6 a block or two down the street as I thought they were the only nearby motel that allowed dogs as Tequila accompanies me to most shows.
Apparently, I was wrong and Travel Lodge is not only dog-friendly but closer to the show and cheaper if you can finagle the "crew rate" which I did with the assistance of the clerk I made the reservations with. They also don't charge you for wifi access the way Motel 6 does.
On a side-note: the person who checked me in was this rotund gay guy who was shall we say, quite gay, fussy and prissy and lispy and all.
A bit later Mike and I took a break from our set-up to go get some dinner.
After walking around a little bit on North Fremont Street we settled with a wonderful family Italian joint named Caruso's Corner Restaurant which has apparently been around since 1953.
The service was excellent (very personal service with family atmosphere) and the food was to kill for (they have wonderful chicken parmigiana).
Whilst we were perusing the menu right after we first got there I received a call from an unfamiliar phone number so I stepped outside and answered it and it turned out to the gay guy at the Travel Lodge front desk who checked me in.
It was hard to hear him given the street traffic next to me but he seemed to say in a very curt and prissy manner that I was to come down to the front desk immediately and it sounded like he told me he'd need to take my card which he said was no good.
Perhaps I heard the wording wrong but I'm not so sure about that.
I new I was close to being over the limit on that card not to mention a few days late with the latest payment which was due earlier in the week.
However, no biggie, all he needed was for me to give him a different card which is perhaps what he said but that is not how my ears heard it.
Consequently, I was both a bit rattled but also pissed off so I got Mike and we left the restaurant before we'd even ordered and walked down the street to the Travel Lodge.
There was a line at the front desk so I patiently stood in line while coldly eyeing the gay guy with a "don't **** with me" demeanor.
When I finally got to the front of the line there was one more person behind me and I let her and her significant other go ahead of me with an explanation that sounded as ominous as the gay guy's remarks to me a short time earlier.
When finally I stepped up to the desk I politely and calmly told him I had trouble hearing him on the phone and said "now carefully repeat every word you said to me" to which he breezily responded the card I gave him was not accepted and he'd need another one which Mike quickly provided and that was that.
Maybe I heard him wrong the first time, but I'm not so sure.
I think he got uppity with me and my demeanor pushed him back in his place which is to treat the customer with respect and give them the benefit of the doubt.
Finally we headed back to the restaurant and ordered our food and proceeded to enjoy our salads when lo and behold my cell phone rang again.
My first thought was "oh no, not again" but it turned out to be an Atascadero number I recognized as familiar but could not place so I answered it and it turned out to be my friend Alice Porter.
She didn't realize I was out of town and in the middle of a meal and I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I let her talk my ear off for a little bit and then let her know my situation when she asked where I was to which she apologetically let me go.
The purpose of the call was to see if I knew if the Santa Lucia Rockhounds had seen Ernie and Alice's underwater slides of the jade hunting they did decades ago.
My belief is they did already show those the last time they did a presentation there last year.
The Porter's memories are going away quickly which is sad to watch.
They've also had a number of bad falls lately which concerns me.
After hanging up I returned to our booth and found dinner waiting and jumped right in.
After a delicious meal we returned to working on our set-up at our booth and pretty much finished the job leaving very little to do in the morning.
This was a nice change of pace as most of my shows this year I left quite a bit to do on Saturday morning before the start of the shows which adds a lot of stress.
After watching some television and getting caught up on emails and Yahoo Group management I turned in for the night at an unusually reasonable for me and slept very well.
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