Last weekend was the 2010 Mulvane Museum Mountain/ Plains Art Fair in Topeka, KS. Lots of fun. Met lots of strange connections, including my 63 year old uncle’s 9th grade English teacher, and my late grandparents’ late neighbors’ son.
The fair ran Saturday through Sunday. I have no pictures from Saturday because the temperature was hotter than boiling. And I did not have a sun shade on the back of my tent, where I spent the majority of my time. The back of my neck looks like well cooked bacon. Lesson learned. I went out and bought some supplies to improvise, and spent a much cooler Sunday in the shady confines of my draping rear veranda. If you could call it that. It really looked more like a suspended inverted parachute. But it worked. Here’s some pictures:
I started off Sunday the right way with a huge piece of spinach quiche and two cups of coffee from the Hanover Pancake House, supposedly a Topeka landmark and rightly so. It reminded me of breakfast with my grandparents back in the day when they knew all the waitresses at the local diner and spent hours in conversation with them and the other hearty patrons. I enjoyed eavesdropping on all the conversations going on around me.
This is a shot of my booth at the beginning of day 2. Everything stood up over night, and despite the heat on Saturday, the weather was nothing to complain about, really. No wind, no rain, no tornadoes… My fear always… Sales were great, had great neighbors, all who in some way or another lent a hand, a tool, or helpful words since I’m still a newbie at this. The crowd was awesome – saw quite a few of you there who I know from before (HI! Thanks for coming out!), and met lots of great folks.
Here’s a shot of the least fun part of the day – the take down.. By this time, everybody is exhausted and there’s nothing on the mind except a bed. It went smoothly though. I’ve got my little hand truck, and out of about 4 trips to and from the car, I only knocked all my stuff off it once on the way.
And here’s my little SUV-thingy, packed to the brim and ready to ride. Never have I appreciated an air conditioned car more than last weekend. With an hour drive ahead of me, I picked up a chocolate milkshake on my way outta town, and off I went on my pleasant ‘journey’ home, with squinty eyes and scraggly hair. Next weekend: Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina, KS. 3 long days of sun, or storms, hopefully the former.