Hodgepodgery Photo Blog: Art in the Park, Springfield, MO

We set up under gray skies, but the rain had stopped and the ground was firm enough to drive on.

Friday, 10/9/09:

Rain began a little after midnight on Friday. A brief thunderstorm forced me off the computer, but mostly we experienced steady rain through the early morning hours. There was 2.3" inches in the rain gauge by the time we awoke.

The geese didn't object to the wet weather.

As expected, we finished loading the van in the rain, taking about an hour longer than usual. It was nine o'clock by the time the four of us pulled away from the house and headed for Springfield. We made a couple of stops in Marshall and one shopping stop in Harrison (AR), finally made it to the motel in Springfield a little before two o'clock. We drove in rain most of the way. After staying at the motel only long enough to unload our personal items and replenish our coffee supply, we headed out to Sequiota Park to set up.

Galloway Creek flows through Sequiota Park. It's usually dry when we do this show.

We expected the worst at the park -- standing water and/or not being able to drive to our booth to unload -- but were pleasantly surprise that neither of those events occurred. We didn't even need to set up our booth on the ratty old carpet we'd taken just in case. The temp remained chilly and the skies overcast, but no more rain fell during set up. After getting the canopy and fixtures erected and the merchandise unloaded, Jo and I grabbed our "big city shopping list" and patronized a few local retailers.

The playground side of the park was still holding a lot of water when we arrived on Friday. We were afraid the show side might look like this too. Locals said water was standing on part of the show site Thursday evening, but fortunately the tide had gone out by Friday afternoon.

Saturday, 10/10/09:

Saturday dawned clear and cold. There was frost on the van windshield. There was also frost on the canopy, both inside and outside. When the temperature warmed a little, we had rain inside the canopy as the condensate defrosted and dripped. A few clouds moved in mid-morning, but the day remained mostly sunny. Unfortunately, folks didn't turn out in droves to enjoy the sunshine and artwork. This is a small show and the crowd/sales have never been really great, but this year both were a little below average for some reason.

Friday sunset over the Wal-Mart parking lot. The overcast was beginning to break up.

Saturday evening we went over to a friends house along with several other artists and enjoyed some good food and great company.

Saturday blue sky and sunshine. Unfortunately, the crowd of shoppers was a little thin.

Sunday, 10/11/09:

We used up most of our sunshine allotment on Saturday. Sunday was forecast to be partly cloudy, but we saw a lot more clouds than sunshine. Sales were again below par.

The railroad track runs within a few feet of the outside booths. Fortunately, only one train traveled those tracks all weekend. I was told that about all this section of track is used for is supplying one of Springfield's power plants with coal.

Normally, we stay over Sunday night after packing up and head home Monday morning. However, because this show was relatively close to home, we'd decided to drive home Sunday evening. Having all our personal stuff and food cache already in the van really extended packing up. Having two large dog crates didn't help either. Everything had to be pulled out of the van so we could load the canopy, fixtures and merchandise. Once those items were loaded, everything else had to be reloaded. Handling the same items twice certainly slows things down. By the time we got everything loaded, the show organizers were prodding us to hurry so they could lock the park gate behind us and go home.

Jo and I and the dogs arrived home around eleven o'clock Sunday night. We unloaded the bare necessities from the van and went to bed.

Another period of overcast, drizzle, fog and/or rain has descended upon the Ozarks

Monday and Tuesday:

Overcast and drizzle on Monday. We managed to get the van unloaded anyway. Rain on Tuesday. A total of 2.1" the last time we checked the rain gauge. Funky weather is forecast to continue at least through Thursday. Neither Jo nor I has waded out to the garden since returning home. We had our first fire of the season in the wood stove Monday evening.