As usual, Jo booked our room using Priceline. We are staying in a Fairfield Inn by Marriott. It's layout is typical for a hotel, meaning that one enters through the lobby. I prefer a motel arrangement where one can access one's room without undergoing scrutiny by the desk clerk. It's not that Jo and I are involved in anything elicit, but our "luggage" is a motley assortment of plastic totes, duffel bags, canvas totes and the like. And, because we very seldom eat out while on the road, a couple of ice chest are also part of our travelling paraphernalia. Our gear works well for loading into the van and doing shows, but is on the shabby side for carting through a hotel lobby.Our daily trips to and from the show don't make better presentation. These usually include a large green tote, ice chest and plastic basket transported on a two-wheeled dolly.
Our worst situation occurred at a Hilton in Huntsville, AL. Rain fell all day on
Sunday. We packed and loaded in the rain. We -- and all our belongings -- were dripping wet. The Hilton's lobby was long and narrow with the desk on one side and entrances to a fancy restaurant and bar on the other. We carted our belongings through that long lobby while looking like a couple a drowned rats and dripping water all the way. Motels are better, but we stay wherever Priceline finds the best deal.
Breakfast: At least the Fairfield did offer a great breakfast: Bagels, donuts, waffles, fruit, cereal and sausage or bacon, cheese and egg biscuits to microwave. We ate at the hotel since the show wasn't doing a very good job with breakfast munchies.
Down to Shaw: Since no rain was in the forecast, we removed the canopy sides -- one less thing to remove, fold and pack during teardown. We moved the pottery boxes from inside the canopy where we store them overnight and stacked them behind the booth for the day. Jo restocked her shelves as we moved the boxes. (Whenever possible, keeping Jo's boxes of pottery near the booth is preferable to loading them back into the van. She has a backstock of some items and restocks during the day.)Sales: Sales were good again, but just not quite up to this show's potential.
Tearing down and packing up: The show closed at 5 PM. Despite the fact we had only had one booth, it still took Jo and I until 7:30 to get everything packed and loaded into the van. There's just no way around the fact that we have a lot of STUFF to pack and load, and the majority of that STUFF belongs to Jo. Still, we were not the last to leave as we usually are. Several other artists were still packing up when we headed back to the hotel.
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