Boy, I didn't have much time to think about this trip--I just knew I needed to make some money after slow shows and web sales in April and May. So, I checked my list of possible shows to do that were up North where I figured I could sell a bunch of soap and settled on Occoquan, Virginia.
Occoquan is a quaint little community about 25 miles south of Washington, D.C. I fell in love with it the minute I drove into town. I had been on the road since about 5 a.m. and I had pretty good weather all the way up in spite of the forecast for rain. I did hit some rain and traffic in Richmond, which slowed me down a lot. How do people drive in traffic every day. My road rage tendencies would get the better of me, I think.
I met up with the guy running the show and he verified all the information. I could set up after 10 p.m. which meant I could get some sleep in vendor parking before hand. So, I parked and slept until then. Trouble was that my space was right in front of Madigans restaurant/bar. So at 10, my space was still being used for parking cars. Same thing at Midnight, but, I did run into another vendor two spaces down who was unloading.
Diana the Jelly Lady, gave me the scoop on the show and ended up saving me $50 in parking fees by telling me about a place to park overnight just down the block. By the time we were done chatting, the two cars in my place had vacated, so I threw the tent up and unloaded the van before moving over to the FREE parking area next to Diana's van. A big motorhome was there too taking up LOTs of room, but, at 1:30 a.m. I didn't have time to think about much except hitting the hay.
The show turned out very good for a summer show! Especially when I compare it to what I might have done in Florida at say Lakeridge Winery. I did probably four-five times as much business and had really nice weather to boot. It was actually kinda cool out...and of course I didn't bring enough clothes (or sleep gear) for that matter.
On one side I had a painter who did mainly "Red Trees" and on the other side the coffee people who turned out to be super nice. The man was a truck driver so he gave me excellent instructions for getting around D.C. and past Pittsburg, PA, on Sunday night once we were packed up. They also had lots of splenda sweetened drinks that they shared. Yummy!
So, all in all...this is a show I would love to do again. I would even like to get the Fall show up there on my October schedule. But at 12 hours drive time each way, it might be a hard one to do in the Fall when I have shows EVERY weekend.
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