Buena Vista Gem & Mineral Show “Contin-TAIL”

Fortunately I arrived Wednesday for set-up of the Contin-TAIL show late, as just before I got there 60 mile an hour winds wrecked havoc on all of the vendors tearing up tents and upending tables. I successfully set up my tent, anchored it heavily as well as tying it to my mini-van just in case and went to have a nice steak dinner at Qunicy’s.

Thursday, I woke to a beautiful double rainbow. It rained off and on with high winds all day. It was stressful setting up and putting everything away over-and-over and my sales were minimal, no worse than minimal. I decided to close up shop and go visit the vendors that were still open. I bought some good things for my 2011 collection. Jay, Jack and some new friends invited me to dinner we went to Mother’s were we sat outside until the rain chased us off. After diner, I enjoyed music over in Jay’s camp in the evening while we all watched the sky for the Perseid meteor showers. The gem show is in a flat field with little light pollution so it was a great place to watch for shooting stars. I brought my UV flashlight over and picked out some more Florissant minerals for my growing collection.

Friday held no rain, but the ballistic winds persisted, as did the slow sales. At one point in the show a gust of wind came and picked up my table loaded with all of my jewelry in trays, shelving towers with velvet busts and threw it behind my booth leaving a strewn field of my jewelry, shelves, etc... I have never had the wind throw one of my tables! I picked it all up dusted it off, weighed down my tables and then replaced it all. That night I learned of the passing of my friend Jeanette’s cat, TQ (short for Tequila), we were all roommates for 8+ years so I was very close to TQ as well. I decided to go to Cottonwood Hot Springs to soak in the open-air pools and watch the shooting stars. I froze the night before, as it was really quite cool in the evenings in Buena Vista. The pools were warm and great and I had lots of nice discussions with other soakers, many from the gem & mineral show. I slept solid and woke rested.

Saturday morning started off glorious… nice and cool and clear, the afternoon brought the high winds but some great customers blew in as well. Thank you loyal customers!! I had a record sale to an individual for a personal collection. Several repeat customers came to visit and buy and I also had two new customers with good size purchases. Jay invited me over for pork green chili made in the cast iron Dutch oven. It was delicious! The skies and surrounding peaks were continuously providing amazing views! A musical crowd gathered after dinner with four guitarist, a flutist, and some singers. It was a fun time. We had birthday cake for Wayne.

Sunday brought more of the same as far as weather goes. Repeat customers came and made me happy, in the end the show turned out well despite the wind. Again Jay invited me to another dinner party with another Dutch oven masterpiece of pork chops, rice and beans. Yummy, I’ll have to look for a cast iron dutch oven!