Journal: Monday, 10/06/08

Jo and I got a none too early start leaving St. Louis. It was around eight o'clock by the time we'd eaten our fill of sausage biscuits and pulled away from the hotel.

I'd hoped to make it all the way back to Ozark, MO, before stopping for "the cheapest gasoline in Missouri." However, we encountered a strong headwind along the way and the van began gulping gasoline even faster than normal. Paying a little more for gas was preferable to running out along the way. We filled up at Redmond's Candy Factory about fifty miles east of Springfield. The Candy Factory and adjoining Gift Store are really out in the middle of nowhere and I've never seen more that a few cars around. I don't see how they stay in business, but they've been open for several years. Their gasoline was $2.99/gallon. (Gas in Ozark was only $2.79, but we didn't need any.)

Around one o'clock we made it to the rest area just outside of Harrison, AR, where we ate lunch. After eating, we drove a bit further down the road to Wally World and then to the vet's. Bailing out Rusty and Bucket was expensive. In addition to their boarding, both had a heart worm test and we picked up a three-month supply of heart worm pills.

After driving on into Marshall and filling up the van's gas tank one final time for this trip ($3.29/gallon), we finally made it home around four o'clock. (772 miles round trip, plus to and from show.) Jo and I unloaded our personal stuff from the van. A light mist began falling while we were unloading. The mist progressed into rain overnight.

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Journal: Monday, 10/06/08

Journal: Friday, 10/03/08

► Leave the house heading for St. Louis around eight o'clock.

► First Stop: Harp's grocery in Marshall. We need to buy gasoline before we can travel much of anywhere. ($3.55/gallon)


► Second stop: The vet's in Harrison where we drop off Rusty and Bucket for the weekend.

Rest Area n I-44 just west of Rolla. Where Jo and I ate lunch.

► Filled the tank again in Cuba. (Yes, there is a Cuba, Missouri) Gas had been only $2.94 at the Quik Trip in Ozark, MO, but was back up to $3.30 in Cuba. Unfortunately, we didn't really need any gas when we were through Ozark.

► Pulled into the hotel a little before three o'clock. (337 miles) Only stayed long enough to get our personal stuff unloaded. When we do a show in St. Louis, we usually stay in Fenton, a suburb on the west side. That means we must drive a bit farther to the show, but we don't have to fight rush hour traffic when we leave Monday morning.


► Arrive at the show site at the Historic Shaw Art Fair around four o'clock. (15 miles from hotel.)

Jo's surveying her booth spot before we begin setting up -- a good time for a yogurt break.

► We spent around three hours getting the canopy erected, the shelving set up and the boxes of merchandise unloaded from the van. That's about the same amount of time we usually devote to setting up both our booths. I reckon this was one of those situations where the work expanded to fill the time we allotted for it.

► For several years after this show began, Friday afternoon set up was not allowed. Check in began at 6 AM on Saturday morning. You had to get checked in, find your booth location and begin setting up in the dark.

The canopy is up and Jo is working on levelling her shelving.

It was during one of these early morning set ups that Jo and I got our first introduction to the fruit of the ginko tree. The show is held on a beautiful tree line boulevard. Some of those trees are female ginkos which bare a small fruit that looks something like a persimmon. The fruit smells exactly like dog poop. As we set up, both Jo and I kept checking the bottoms of our shoes, trying to find the source of the smell. Even after the show started, I saw several customers enter our booth and then check the bottoms of their shoes. Later in the day, more knowledgeable exhibitors clued us in on the source of the stink.

Jo's booth spot wasn't exactly level.

This time around, I think the entire boulevard had been given a good raking earlier in the day. There was a female ginko nearby, but few fruit were on the ground. The main inconvenience while setting up was mosquitoes -- not something one normally expects during a fall show in St. Louis, but temperatures have been mild and a lot of rain has fallen during early fall.

► We left the show and drove straight back to the hotel where we ate a little supper, watched TV for a short while and went to bed.

Journal: Friday, 10/03/08