Motels booked up around here

I didn't decide upon doing this event in Cambria until about one month ago. Back then I began checking motels in the area and found that they were all filled up in San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, San Simeon, etc. The only ones I could locate were the ones for $150 per night and there was no way I was going to pay that much.

I checked Motel 6 over in Atascadero and was able to reserve a room there. However, it was all sold out heading into this weekend due to the graduation at Cal Poly over in SLO. At the front desk, I heard one of the clerks tell somebody that the room was completely booked for Saturday... and I really hope that this place isn't full of graduates partying, etc. Lots of noise in this motel and I think that we have a bunch of elephants up above us. Can't get no respect.

Our room is located close to the swimming pool and if I hear them partying outside, I'll be watching for naked ladies' (over 21 years old, of course) jumping into the pool.

Cambria on Saturday

We left the motel around 5:15 and headed north on Highway 101, taking the Hwy 46 exit about 7 miles up the road. As we were climbing in elevation (summit is only 1726 feet), we could see patches of valley fog tucked within the mountains. After we drove to the top of the hills, we began to descent into the fog, which was quite think in some places. When we made it over to Highway One, we had some cloud cover and hopefully, we'll get some eventual sunshine, since we were doing the A&C show in Cambria.

The sun never managed to show itself in Cambria and temps staying the mid-50's. People were coming out from Fresno and saying that it was pretty hot. Reports of 100+ degrees in Atascadero. Much, much cooler in Cambria, Not too many people showed up until around 2:00, but still much less than other shows we have done here, Mike had a full compliment of booths again and there was some very nice 'artsy' stuff in the mix. However, it didn't seem like the tourists made it out, because we always get good sales from them as they buy our shoulder bags, wrap-skirts, fannypacks, etc. and that just didn't happen. Not too many people carrying bags, etc. and I don't think any vendor did exceptionally well.

After we closed down at 5:15, we headed down the street to the Main Street Grill for some of their great BBQ Ribs. Evey time we are in the area.... Morro Bay, Cambria, Arroyo Grande, we always come here. After we drove away from Cambria, we saw some sunshine about two miles down Highway One. Wow. Unbelievable.

Gas in Cambria was running from $4.69 to $4.89. I thought it would be cheaper in Atascadero and I gassed up at a Chevron station for $4.69. Shell was selling for the same price.

Cambria A&C Show

Drove down to Cambria for one of Mike Knapp's shows at the Veteran's Memorial on Main St. in Cambria.

Left Hayward around 11:30 and headed down 880 to 101. We are staying at Motel 6 in Atascadero since virtually all the motels are booked on the Central Coast (Morro Bay, SLO, etc). A month ago I was able to make reservations in Atascadero.... they are completely booked now. This is the weekend for Cal Poly graduation.

After checking in at the motel, we headed West on Highway 41 down to Morro Bay, where we stopped off at Giovanni's along the waterfront and bought some Halibut & Chips and a Combo & Chips for my wife. We drove over to a parking lot near 'the Rock' and ate our food there. The water was completely calm there and the ground squirrels were all over the place.

When we were in Atascadero, it was quite warm... temps in the low 90's. As we approached the coast 22 miles away, there was much cloud cover and when we arrived in Morro Bay, it was much cooler with no sun shining. Perhaps mid-50's.

After we ate, we drove up Highway One to Cambria, approximately 15 miles away. Still overcast up there. We drove down Main St. and park in a lot across from the Craft Fair to wait until the Farmer's Market cleared out. We then set up our canopy, grids and covered up and headed back to the Motel. Thankfully, we didn't have to head into the sun....which was setting brightly behind us as we drove up and over the hills. Will return on Saturday morning at 7:00AM and finish setting up our display. Hopefully, the tourists will be around.

We returned to Atascadero on Highway 46, which is much easier to drive than HWY 41. Cloud cover disappeared after we had driven about 5 mile on the road and the bright sunshine was with us once again. If you are a conniseur of wine, this is the place for you, as there are many wineries situated along the route.

Gas Hits $4.61 in Hayward

Gas prices rose again today. Driving past the Southland Chevron station, I saw that it was now up to $4.61. Absolutely disgraceful. It went up $.10 on Monday... so that makes it $.20 in less than 3 days. I went down the road and got $75.00 (debit card limit) worth of gas for $4.55. And I didn't even fill it all the way up. Oh gosh.

The Moral of the Story - other than riding a bike..... always fill up Sunday evening. Looks like the prices never rise on Sunday, but they sure as hell go up on Monday.

DandL CREATIONS imported clothing.

PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR SELECTION OF WRAP AROUND SKIRTS. MANY DESIGNS TO CHOOSE FROM. Perfect for Paradise!!! Be sure to see our shell and semi-precious necklaces while shopping at DandL CREATIONS. Lots of great buys. Custom sizes. We make all the necklaces. Lovely cowrie shell chokers also. Very popular.

DandL CREATIONS Wrap Around Skirts

Some bad festivals we have done

We've been doing events now for over 15 years and we have most certainly done some real doozies. Here are some of the one's we have done over the years (in no particular order)

Vacaville Bizarre Bazaar. Held in downtown Vacaville (CA) on a couple streets. I guess it was held in April and we did it three times in our early years. It seemed to always be raining or cloudy and cool. One year, the vendor next to us tripped on the curb and broke his ankle. As the name of this blog suggests, this ain't paradise!!! A bad show.

Vacaville Harvest Days. This event was held over two weekends at the Nut Tree in Vacaville, adjacent to Highway 80. Long ago, there was a restaurant, etc., there by the name of Nut Tree and it was a great stopover for travelers. People that traveled Highway 80 between San Francisco and Sacramento back in the 70's and 80's would remember the place dearly. Very nice place to take the kids, grab some snacks, etc. However, it hit hard times a number of years ago and closed because people had other places to go. October 20-21 and October 27-28.

Anyway, they have capitalized on the Nut Tree name and built a number of stores there. The show was poorly organized. On the first weekend it was held in front and there was virtually no foot traffic. Heavy winds at night blew over our canopy. Thank gosh we had taken our merchandise home because we were aware of the local riff-raffs!!! On the second weekend, it was held in the back in the Pumpkin Patch, which turned out to be even worse. Everybody had poor sales. Everybody!!! Very poor traffic flow and people just were not interested. Take the kids to the Pumpkin Patch, grab a pumpkin and drive away. We were forced to walk a very long ways to the bathrooms. Promoters claimed they couldn't put porta potties back there for our convenience. City this, city that, fire department this, police department that.... they were ready to blame the failure of Vacaville Harvest Days on everybody else except themselves. So, people the moral of the story is to never do this event. You are not going to make any money, There is no paradise there...keep on truckin!!! And the other moral of the story? If you are ever going to leave your canopy up overnight, either put up all or none of your side panels. Mistakenly, I only put up 3 and the canopy caught the wind over night and toppled over. What a mess in the morning!! Vacaville Harvest Days ... what a mess.

Watsonville Burrito Bash. This was an event that happed around 13 ago in Watsonville (CA), located north of Monterey. Very hot that weekend. Hot, hot, hot!! That year they decided to eliminate beer sales there and the people didn't like that. I say 'let em drink'... as long as they don't get rowdy, let 'em drink!! Quite often, some of them spend more money when they are saused. Located next to a very dry field and they were giving helicopter tours. Oh my gosh...when it took off, it blew dirt, sand, mowed grass and everything else all over the place. We were selling beaded-T-shirts back then and they got pretty filthy. We packed up early Sunday and got the heck out of there. I don't see this festival around anymore, thank gosh and paradise was never found here!!!

Newark Days. We did this event on September 22-23 last year as a fill-in. Rained quite hard on Friday, but fortunately the rain stopped around 6:00AM on Saturday morning. Occasional sprinkles on Saturday and cloudy much of the weekend. This was a bad event to do. Booths were located in a parking lot, away from the rides and food, so you are not going to get much of a traffic flow. Many of the people entered through this way and departed, not even looking at the booths. They claimed that they get 130,000 people for this event. I am sorry, we have to file a missing person's report on this one. I guess 100,00 people were abducted by aliens or something, I'm going to stay away from this one forever and a good idea for you to stay away also. Most definitely not paradise.

Next week, perhaps on Tuesday, I'll give you the lowdown on some more bad events we did over the years shows....Orinda Holiday Bazaar, Ripon Almond Blossom Festival and the Quartz Hill Almond Blossom Festival there too and also the Cupertino Fall Festival.

Join me later this week when we take a look at some of the worst weather we have ever had to endure at festivals. Heat, heavy rains and strong winds are three elements that I can no deal with!!We had flooding at the Chandler Ostrich Festival two years ago; rain, snow and 38-degree temperatures at Lake Tahoe over this Memorial Day weekend; 108-degree temperatures at the Dixon Lambtown Festival many years ago on the day that the power went out up and down West Coast; Coarsegold Mountain Festival last September; the Jackson County Fair (Oregon) and it's 106 degree temperatures with sand being kicked up by winds and dragging feet. Many problems.

My Other Blogs and Websites

Please visit my other blogs and websites. Please check them out sometime:

The Boston Sports Nut - a blog about Boston sports teams; baseball & basketball and general sports information.

Starving Vendors - a humorous look at the lives of many vendors; I tell the real stories behind a lot of events. You will find a lot of humorous (made up=Bull) material in here. Loads of information also.

DandL Creations - our main website. We shell custom-made shell necklaces at a great price and offer wrap-around skirts, shoulder-sling bags, fannypacks and a whole lot more. I have a listing of events that we do and provide reviews of our events we have participated in over the past three years. Serious reading material and funny too!!!

The Road Warrior - my blog about some of our travels. We have visited all 50 states and many provinces in Canada and I would like to share some of those experiences and give recommendations and provide info.

Our Gas up to $4.51

I knew it was going to happen yesterday. When oil futures went up ten bucks last Thursday, I figured prices to go up at least 10-15 cents. Damm. And just Sunday, I had driven by another Chevron Station here in Hayward and Regular Unleaded was going for $4.35. Ouch!!!

Explanation of our Gas Prices

Actually, there is absolutely no explanation for what is really is... price gouging. However, here are a series of charts which show 'everbody's take' on a gallon of gas. I find the chart quite interesting......especially the skyrocketing amounts the refineries are now making. This last week their profits increased from $.40 to $.76 per gallon. So, now you know exactly where that extra $.36 you are paying is going.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/margins/index.html

Please pay attention to the fact that it is the DEMOCRATS that are voting down every Bush plan to obtain oil from other sources. So, if you vote in Obamavondamma, you can probably expect oil prices to even skyrocket more because we will become increasingly dependent upon foreign oil (and the Alaskan slope, which will run out eventually). Got to drill, people... drill!!!

Inhaling Helium-filled balloons

While at the Hercules Cultural Festival there was a business in back of me giving away free helium-filled balloons. Child after child came over to get one and many of them would open them up and suck in the helium, enabling them to talk like 'Donald Duck'.

A while back, I read something explaining the dangers of inhaling helium (nitrous oxide). Sure, we all have done it many times and it does get kind of funny. However, I just did some research on inhaling helium (search Google yourself and see what you come up with) and found that this is indeed a dangerous practice. I have never myself seen anything happen to somebody inhaling helium and I do not want to be a party pooper, but reality is that.

Here is just one of the stories I read.

A 10-year-old in New Jersey child collapsed at a birthday party after sucking helium from a balloon. Is helium really that dangerous? It can be. Breathing in pure helium deprives the body of oxygen, as if you were holding your breath. If you couldn't breathe at all, you'd start to die in minutes—as soon as your body exhausted the supply of oxygen stored in the blood. But helium speeds up this process: When the gas fills your lungs, it creates a diffusion gradient that washes out the oxygen. In other words, each breath of helium you take sucks more oxygen out of your system. After inhaling helium, the body's oxygen level can plummet to a hazardous level in a matter of seconds.

You don't have to worry about fatal asphyxiation if you're sucking from a helium balloon at a party. At worst you'll keep going until you get lightheaded and pass out—at which point you'll stop inhaling helium and your body's oxygen levels will return to normal.

Link to dangers of inhaling helium

And another link

This blog contains a lot of information for vendors and I provide information regarding festivals, A&C Shows, etc. Basically, people who participate in or go to shows and festivals are the ones reading this. When your child runs over to get one of those helium-filled balloons, please be sure that they do not inhale the helium (or you either) and if you see a business giving away the ballons and you notice kids opening the balloons and inhaling the helium, please let them know that something bad could happen to them.

It's nice for businesses to give away the balloons to the kids...... kind of a 'pacifier' for some etc. But I think that these people that do give away the ballons have to post some kind of 'disclaimer' or a notice informing parents/kids that inhaling helium is unsafe. It is a shame though, that nothing will ever be done until there is a casualty at a festival someplace and parents lose a loved one.

Slat grids for sale

I have 8 5-foot tall slatgrids for sale. Excellent condition. $13.00 apiece. I live in the SF Bay Area (Hayward) and you have to pick them up. Going to put them up on Craig's list soon. Email me at dstefa4621@aol.com

You can use regular grid hooks, etc. and also slat hooks, etc.

Hercules Cultural Festival

Hercules Cultural Festival, Hercules, CA June 7-8

Did this event for the first time in about 10 years and hopefully will not do it next year. Mostly local vendors, but there were some 'professionals'. only 25 miles away for us and I would never ever recommend traveling for this one. Booths were in quads, which was nice and I highly recommend that all promoters consider this. However, not much room between the booths and they could have been spread out a bit more, since this was held in a park.

This is an okay community event, but not any good for vendors. No admission fees, but still crowds were down, from what people told me. On Saturday, a couple other vendors told me that they'll have much bigger crowds on Sunday. I don't know about that. Seemed like less people. People mostly just sat around and listened to the music, socializing, etc. Will need to file a 'missing persons' report on this one. There were some food booths, but I never saw much of a line at any of them.

Some vendors who have done this show previously (but not now) referred to this as being another 'flea market', but I wouldn't say it was that bad. People just weren't buying and some of them were bickering,etc. But I must say that there were a number of kids who were untamed.