Paducah 2017 - Day One

I remember the days of travel when you had to hook up your computer in the hotel room with a cable. Half of the time it didn't work and it was a pain. That was many many years ago.

Now you just hook up to the wireless and things are good.  However, when I went to connect, I thought we had to pay and I refuse to pay a crazy amount for the internet, but there is free internet in the lobby.  Had to get dressed and zip down to the lobby to do what I needed to get done. Over to the breakfast place where I couldn't seem to get the internet, but there I'm sitting with a computer, an iPad and my cell phone and I needed all of them for what I needed to get done.  Total craziness!

Then I realized that we didn't have to pay for the internet in our rooms so now I'm still sitting in bed as I write this! I love technology!

Thank goodness hotels are learning that we have devices that need to be charged. I have a veritable charging station beside my bed. The lamp has a regular plug plus two USB outlets. I have two iPads to keep charged, my phone and I'm charging a new little camera that I bought. More on that another day. Thankfully the laptop doesn't need charging at the moment. I only have one cord for the two iPads, so must make sure that one is charged before bed and the other gets charged in the morning.

I had a good breakfast - that is the key when attending these shows. If I don't have breakfast - well, it's not pretty. If you've ever been to Paducah, our booth is in the dome.Which is much brighter and nicer than being in the basement of the convention center where we were last year. Although it's not as easy to pop out and see the quilts because they are in a different building. And I think we might have rain the next couple of days which will make it less fun to run from building to building.

That's OK and it might just save me some money!.

Our booth is decked out in Stars and Stripes fabric and our little giveaway is stars and stripes. Oh yes, I can now share the items I made but I can't upload the pictures. I must make sure to take those photos today. It's been fun to meet up with a few Canadians, some I know, some I don't. The more we do these shows, the more people you get to meet and they know you and you know them. In particular the vendors, but some of the quilters as well.

There is a quilt display right in front of us by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. The quilt directly in front of us is HUGE. It's 9 feet tall and 30 feet long. Imagine binding that one!  It was made for an art installation in New York City and I believe is going to hang in the lobby of Simplicity.  I had a little chat with Victoria. She is a very friendly person.   But for the life of me, I keep calling her Virginia!  I was chatting with someone else later who had attended Victoria's lecture and apparently I'm not the only one as she made mention of it in her slide presentation. No - she even had a slide - my name is Victoria, NOT Virginia.  Isn't that funny why we're all making that same mistake.

We have a one hour time change here and I'm not sure if that is affecting me or what. I was exhausted last night. We were in the restaurant and I had to leave. I needed to get to bed. The National Quilt Museum was open all night - it's still open and we had plans to go, but I couldn't. I came back to the hotel and I was trying to figure out how to charge my camera and my brain just shut down and I was out like a light!

I figured it out this morning - I had put the battery in backward. And it even mentions that in the online manual.  Now here's the thing - why make the stupid battery so that it can be inserted two different ways?   Make it fit only one way.  ah - that would be too simple.

So last night for dinner, we decided to walk to Fat Ed's which is just down the street about three blocks. Once we got seated, we noticed that the sky wasn't looking too friendly outside and sure enough there was lightning and thunder and torrential downpour. Hmmm - it's only three blocks back, but we're going to get soaked. After a couple of drinks - I didn't even have a beer as I knew it would put me out even faster, but I couldn't hold on to full alertness!  Thankfully by the time we left, the torrential downpour had subsided somewhat, but it was still raining and the puddles on the street - well my shoes got a bit wet. But not too wet. There was a HUGE flash of lightning as we were racing along the street and Patti is ducking down so that I'm the tallest figure running down the street. We had a good laugh over that one. I told her she would have to come out of retirement to replace me if I got zapped!

Anyway, I did have a good sleep, but I must remember to bring in a quilt from the car.  There isn't enough weight in the bedding to keep me comfy.  I like a heavy duvet on my bed and this one is pretty skimpy. But there are two quilts in the car that I could use and I've got to remember to bring them in tonight.

I guess I had better check on my farm of charging devices to see who needs more time. And I'll be able to have breakfast in peace and quiet with NO electronics by my side!

I did get out for a bit yesterday and chatted to a number of people, checked out the vendors. So many cool and interesting things, but I don't need anything! But I did find a couple of interesting things (not fabric) that I might just have to buy today!

Have a super day!

Ciao!!!