Good morning. Greetings from Louisville, Kentucky! Home of the Kentucky Derby which takes place in two weeks. Apparently, the next two weeks are crazy as they build up to that 2-minute race! The main bridge was blocked off last night as we were getting to our hotel, but thankfully our hotel was on the right side of the bridge and we had the GPS to guide us past that detour as the highways leading to the bridge were blocked for a massive fireworks display. We watched the display on TV in the bar as we ate dinner.
The last day of Paducah! Funny how we use the word Paducah - while it is a town in the middle of Kentucky, it is also a mecca for quilters. The aisles were much quieter today than the previous days. But we still managed to get people to sign up for our newsletter and we still had giveaways. Quilters love giveaways.
Patti and I managed to get out a bit on separate occasions, but with a steady trickle of people still coming by - our goal was to capture them! I did buy two more things from the booth next door to Northcott - a couple of cute bag patterns. While there are many shops here, there are also a lot of companies that only do shows. Wow- that's a lot of hard work - setting up, standing all day and then tearing the booth down at the end of the show.
And it can be dangerous as well. As I was returning our cart to the loading dock area, a rather large man was running down the dock with a large cart that he was trying to control and well - I envisioned a disaster. He did manage to get control of the cart before it rammed into the side of a van that was parked at the bottom, but stuff fell off the cart. Ah - I've learned over the years that it's best to back down those ramps or you are going to be in trouble! He just got incredibly lucky or he was very strong to stop that cart - I think he was desperate and adrenaline kicked in and he had momentary, super-human strength to stop that cart.
We said our farewells to some familiar faces whom we'll see again next month at Salt Lake City, we said our farewells to the new friends we made at the booths next to us and then we were tearing down.
It took 45 minutes to get everything down and packed into boxes and then an additional 15 minutes and we had everything in the two cars and we were off. The back seat of Patti's car is a tad full, but we managed to get everything in that was to go back to the office so that is good. Rich went home with a much lighter vehicle! Of course - we handed out a lot of giveaways so that emptied a box or two as well.
It was about a 3-hour drive to Louisville and we chatted up a storm. I have to say that I'm about chatted out! Can you imagine that! Patti regaled me with stories of the history of Northcott and it was fun to listen how the company has evolved over the many years of its' existence.
We have a long drive ahead of us today. Guessing it will be about 10 hours in total so I don't expect to get home until dinner time or shortly after. Now who was it that said that travel was fun? I enjoy the shows, I enjoy meeting the people, but the long days and the traveling to and from - well they are tiring! Oh my god - could I be getting old? Would I want to give it up? Of course not! The fun definitely outweighs the tiredness.
I was pretty stiff when I got out of the car last night, I can't imagine what I'll be like tonight! Better have a cane ready for me when I arrive home!
We went into the Central Time Zone on our way from Atlanta to Paducah which helped with our timing since we had a late start that first morning. Somewhere along the way yesterday, we switched back into the Eastern Time Zone. It was good that it happened last night - I would hate to be on the road today and thinking we will arrive at 6 when in fact, we will arrive at 7.
Oh yes - it was hilarious to watch people pack up yesterday. I was sitting in the hotel lobby having my breakfast and people were trying to shove all their packages into their vehicles. Vans with luggage carriers on top and I'm guessing they were packed full. The backs of vans were jammed with stuff - it was great fun to watch! It would appear that instead of going to the show and leaving on Friday after the show, that many stayed the night and then headed out on Saturday morning.
No pictures today - I did take a few and I'll get them posted this week coming up.
Have a great day!
Ciao!
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