I had much work to do today in completing my set-up for the 17th Annual Big Sur Jade Festival so I set the alarm early and got an early start to the day.
I didn't sleep much last night as I was too wired and too busy too late to get to bed when I would have been best served doing so and combined with getting up early I got only about a half night's sleep. Add to that a little drama going between Mike and I and I was stressed out needless tosay.
Unfortunately, by the time I reached the scary-high part of Highway One just north of Salmon Creek it all added up to my experiencing the very worst anxiety attack I have ever had along that road and was hyperventilating so badly that I needed to pull over and regroup at the first opportunity I came to which, unfortunately, was at the very highest place along that high section.
After regrouping, I got back into my pickup and headed on down the hill and up the coast to the Jade Festival.
Although I was safe for now I realized that I was trapped and had to drive back along that stretch of highway at the end of the day on the way home and I was dreading it.
I had never liked that part of the road but had always managed to stay focused on my driving and ignore what was down the hill and listening to music and thinking about other things had always helped, too.
Now for the first time I didn't have any confidence in those things to help me henceforth.
However, I couldn't dwell on that but had to focus on the task at hand and so I did.
Upon arriving at the Jade Festival I could not help but notice a noticable amount of smoke rising from the part of the Chalk Fire that had fingered its way down to Highway One up the coast a short distance to the north.
Added to that this day was rather windy out of the north which concerned me as it seemed the fire might have a chance, however remote, of escaping and heading south and forcing us to run for our lives. The fire never did escape but the wind would become a problem.
After working my ass off all morning I was pretty much ready to go by noon which is the time the show opens on Friday.
It was nice to be back again this year in the wonderful atmosphere of this event with the nearly-constant stream of musical acts that rotates through on an hourly basis for all three days of the event and provides a pleasant working environment for the dealers to sell their products.
The musical genres that are represented pretty much run the gamut from all sorts of different rock and roll in many varieties and flavors to blues to folk music and even belly dancers accompanied by drums but in any case a very eclectic and quirky assemblage of music that is utterly awesome to experience, especially when one had the privilege of being here for all three days.
Another thing I find extremely entertaining at the Jade Festival is people-watching as there are many very interesting characters who wander in over the course of the three-day event.
Mike Lyons manning our booth.
The food at the Jade Festival is also very special.
They have locals serving lemonade and smoothies as well as sandwiches and even a dessert concessioner plus a barbecue outfit and a gumbo and fish taco operation that also makes killer breakfast burritos in the morning.
My favorite thing here ever was not here this year to my chagrine.
One of the local families the previous two years I was here brought in frozen bananas and other fruit impaled on little wood sticks and dipped them in molten chocolate which immediately created a hardened crust of frozen chocolate around the frozen fruit which created a heavenly culinary effect that both looked and tasted awesome.
Fridays at the Jade Festival are typically what is known as "Dealer Day" as the dealers do most of their business with each other on this day before the customers pour in over the weekend.
That is not to say that there are not plenty of customers but overall foot traffic is lighter on Friday as it is a work day/school day for most folks.
More images of our all-too-empty booth.
Mike Berklio manning his booth.
As the day progressed so did the wind which became a problem blowing myriad seeds out of the trees ringing the open area fwhere we were located.
These seeds got into everthing, including all the little boxes wherein hundreds of my specimens were displayed.
This mess took me all weekend to clean up and even then I didn't complete that clean-up until after the show.
I was overall happy with the amount of business I did this day although it wasn't much but I didn't expect much hoping for a great Saturday and a decent Sunday to make my show.
Mike volunteered to spend the night with our booth Friday night and I agreed to do the same Saturday night as I wanted to experience the big shindig Saturday night that is put on for the locals and dealers.
At the end of the day I left at sunset (a gorgeous one at that) with a heart full of foreboding about how I would handle the drive along the side of the mountain with not full darkness which would have helped me a lot.
Somehow, I managed to avoid full-on anxiety attacks but did experience controlled panic and was hardly a happy camper until I got to the SLO/Monterey County Line a stone's throw up the coast from Ragged Point.
From there I headed on down the coast en route home and saw Hearst Castle all majestically lit up in the night resting atop the mountain overlooking the coast and appearing rather mystical.
I got on home and after unwinding got my butt to bed at a much more reasonable hour but dreading the drive on the side of the mountain tomorrow morning.
Kimmer
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