The event went great, for the most part. The first group of pictures Peggy posted for me above were loading up of the sales stuff. Last picture in that group was my truck loaded before heading to Steve's shop. The rest of that group of pics are various stages of loading Steve's and my stuff into the van and trailer Thursday morning at his shop.
Arrival and setup at the Fairgrounds on Thursday afternoon/evening went well and we spent some time catching up with other Swap Meet sellers I met during my first event attendance last year and that Steve has known for years. Weather on Thursday was really nice. Not too hot and a decent breeze to help keep cool and discourage the bugs from hanging around.
Friday morning started off with a beautiful sunrise shown in the pic Peggy posted for me above. The day was hotter and not as breezy than Thursday, but none of us melted. Both Steve and I made some good sales on Friday while also taking some time checking out and finding a few deals for ourselves, trading off sales duty here and there throughout the day. Also met and gabbed with Stovebolters' Don "2-Ton" and Kevin "Shakey61". Friday night included a side trip into town to a nice eating establishment for a great sit down meal with Swap Meet friends.
Saturday started off like Friday, beautiful sunrise and many more sales, with a few more buying excursions - of course - LOL! Met 'Bolter Caleb "Millenimech" and family and caught up with them for a bit. The day continued going great, until about noon when the thunderstorm cells that were supposed to miss us moved farther South and hit hard. After the first 2 storm cells blew through with downpours and a lightning strike on a power pole less than 200 feet from us, we made the decision to pack it in and head back home. The weather radar showed at least 4+ more hours of storm cells headed our way. We managed to get things packed up between a couple of the storm cells, with things mostly still dry as we had overhead cover and tarps to protect us. Left the fairgrounds about 3:00 and headed North for home.
We stopped at a family style place for an early dinner about 4:30 as lunch was interrupted. After refueling ourselves we continued North for about an hour or so when the next whammy of the day popped, literally. Drivers side trailer tire decided it was done doing it's job and blew out with a no warning "boom". Fortunately we only had to ride the shoulder of the highway about 200 feet to exit off on a farm road so we could change the tire out of traffic.
The blown tire kinda tore up the AD fender on the trailer, partially ripping out the upper center brace and rear brace, not to mention turning the rounded fender to more of a boat tail design. Fender was reformed a bit after removing the loose/dangling braces and sturdy enough we didn't have to do more to it before changing the tire. The tire changing team made short work of that, with me doing the removal and Steve the install, then getting back on the road using the farm roads to the nearest gas station as the "spare tire" pressure was a bit insufficient for the remaining highway driving we had to do.
A couple miles on gravel farm roads, getting the tire up to pressure with a coin operated air pump at a no-service gas station, and final back on the highway for the remainder of the trip back to Steve's shop went off without further surprises.
I had to trans-load my stuff to my daily driver once we got to his shop, then made it back home, arriving just a bit before 10pm. Still got stuff in the truck bed to put away, but it's covered with a tarp, so no hurry. No Grandpa duty tomorrow, so I'm leaving it till then.
Hope everybody else had a great weekend!
