Deschutes County Fair - Daily Log

JULY 29. Continued to set up on Monday morning. I think I like the weather out on the coast better. Only in the 80's here, but too hot. Spent the night in their new RV Park. Okay, but somewhat generic and in twenty years the newly planted trees will provide shade. Kind of hot, being out there in the open. Don't know if we have any other options on this one. Will do some things around town.....what town? Where's it at? Thank gosh I have my GPS..... it helps a lot.

JULY 30. First day of fair. I had been told by the fair, that it was a 'short walk' from the RV Park to our space. Bull crap. Must have been about a mile...one heck of a long walk. Had difficulties finding our space... a bit different when you come in through another gate and are walking. Very very slow day. It looks like we got totally screwed on the location of our booth. We are in the last #($#$ing row, away from the main traffic flow. %*$(#&($# ed. Weather was somewhat okay.

Deschutes County Fair

JULY 28. REDMOND, OR. We left a fog-covered Winchester Bay this morning around 7:00, taking Highway 101 up to Reedsport. Since it was foggy, we decided to leave the coast behind instead of heading up to Florence. We took Highway 38 from Reedsport over to Highway 5 on a seemingly endless journey, zig zagging through the forests, etc. A rather scenic drive, one which I have never taken before. Always crossed over at other locations.

We reached Highway 5 and proceded North up to Eugene. We took Highway 126 east. After a short distance, I ran into construction with many trucks, etc. Somehow I had veered off of the Highway and was traveling down another road, where I had to turn around and re-trace my tracks over to Main St. where I turned right and continued. No signs on that Highway and I wasn't really too sure if I was going the right way. So, I popped up my GPS and set it for Redmond and saw that this was indeed Highway 126 and I was 100 miles from Redmond.

The drive was quite scenic, with snow-covered mountains to our right. We drove through the touristy town of Sisters, which had some people strolling around.

As we approached Redmond, my GPS began directing me off the Highway and zig-zagged our way through back roads to Highway 97 and then continued to the Fairgrounds exit 6 miles away. Not too sure if I could have found this place without my GPS.

After driving around the perimeter of the fairgrounds, I was having difficulties finding the 'office.' I walked over to the Administration Office and they pointed me over the office for vendor check ins. There I picked up my passes and my space number and was given directions.

We drove through the North Gate and attempted to find our space. We checked several areas and then I was finally able to locate one of the people who could help me. She showed me my space #222. So, I pulled the motor home and we unloaded all our things, intent on finishing tomorrow morning. The location really does not look good at all. We are not located on one of the many main aisles. We are just across from the pig area. Oh gosh.....I hope this doesn't turn out to be a doozy.

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Deschutes County Fair

July 27. WINCHESTER BAY, OR --Okay people..... here we come. A number of vendors have departed the Coos County Fair in Myrtle Point are are heading up to Redmond for the Deschutes County Fair.

Coos County ended last night and attendance was fair. We packed up our merchandise... wrap skirts, shoulder bags, shell necklaces and a whole lot more and left everything in our booth overnight. We loaded up our motor home with our things around 6:45AM and after saying good bye to fellow vendors, we left there around 10:15 and headed across to Coos Bay, where we gassed up ($4.23) and picked up a couple weeks groceries at Safeway. Don't you people have stores like Food Maxx or Costless? I believe that you do have COSTCO, but I don't need 12 boxes of corn flakes, 8 jars of coffee, 64 rolls of toilet paper. I'm exagerrating if you believe I am serious about COSTCO.

We do our grocery shopping at Food Maxx back home in Hayward and the prices have to be at least 30 percent less. We try to stay away from those higher priced wallet-busting chains like Luckys, Safeway, etc.

After picking up our groceries, we headed to a gas station and filled up and began our trek northward on Highway 101, which has been one of my favorite drives. Great scenery, very relaxing drive.

I had the address (sort of) of an RV dump site in Lakeside, but I didn't find it. We headed up to Winchester Bay again and dumped our holding tanks and then chose a spot to park for the night and relax the rest of the day away. Tomorrow morning, we'll head over to Highway 5 and Eugene and take Highway 126 to Redmond, an area where I have never been to.

Can't quite decided where to cross over at...Reedsport or Florence. I can save some time by crossing at Reedsport since part of the trip will then be taken on Highway 5. I might try to get to Redmond, where I can pick up my paperwork for the fair and maybe begin unloading and setting up our booth. Don't know what we'll do...still trying to recover from this morning's loading of the motor home which wasn't easy.

Later this week, the Winchester Bay Dunesfest http://www.dunefest.com/ will kick off. Looks like a really nice event for ATV's, etc. This is held yearly and the parking lots here are beginning to fill up with huge motor homes and gigantic trailers containing dune-ware. Check it out if you are on the coast. However, if you are out on Highway 5 near Eugene, come on over to the Dechutes County Fair in Redmond and check us out...... DandL CREATIONS

Pink Hat Hoodlums strike Coos County Fair

JULY 25. MYRTLE POINT, OR. Last night a bunch of hoodlums calling themselves "The Pink Hat" gang robbed a number of vendors after the fair closed down and intimidated and threatened several other people and there was some outright vanndalism. Supposedly a group called the Pink Hats has been been frequenting this event and were free to road at will since there was inadequate security at that time and poor lighting.

Where was the security force at? I have no idea. One of the vandals was caught with drugs on him and supposedly he was the only one taken in, because he was on parole. This whole thing is one ugly mess. The Fair promises to have added security next year, along with spotlights, but I am afraid that the vendors will have to foot the bill with increased booth fees.

I never knew that Myrtle Point had these kind of problems.

Coos County Fair Daily Log

For info on the fair...entertainment, schedule, visit this website: http://www.co.coos.or.us/coosfair/entertainment.htm

Weather report: http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/USOR0238?from=search_10day

Tuesday, July 22. Senior Citizen's Day. Large amount of kids in carnival area. Good sales until 3:00. Night crowd mostly stood around socializing. Lots of $1.00 sales in evening. No sun all day; breezy at times. Cooler in the evening.

Wednesday, July 23. Weather prediction. High 69 Low 48. Partly cloudy. It was sunny all day long with occasional winds. Mostly kids today, but more adults than on Tuesday evening. However, sales were slow and many booths closed at 10:00.

Thursday, July 24. Sunny during the day, cloudy and cool in the evening. Breezy occasionally. Mostly penniless kids (after paying for rides) around. Crowds less than Wednesday. No real drawing card. Rodeo starts on Friday, which should bring people in. But will they bring their money? Vendors quite friendly and need support.

Friday, July 25. Great weather. Little wind and sunny. Where's Waldo? Rodeo has started but sales are slow for everbody....slow, slow, slow until around 7:00PM.

Saturday, July 25. Good pre-11:00 sales was a good indicator that people were going to out buying. Best weather day of the fair. Tailed off during the afternoon, but picked up after 6:00PM. Packed up our stuff at 11:00PM and covered up the canopy and left it overight, return Sunday morning to load up and head on out. They had the finals of their Rodeo Saturday evening, which drew a decent crowd.

Saturday, July 26 Last day of event. Good buying crowd in the morning and early afternoon. A bit warm and slightly breezy. Most of the vendors, etc., will be packing their stuff and leaving tonight, but we'll just pack our stuff and load up in the early morning and head on up the coast, taking a couple days to reach Redmond. The vendors will mostly be heading off to one of three different county fairs.....Blanton County Fair in Corvallis (we were there last year); the Del Norte County Fair in Crescent City, CA and Deschutes, where several of us will be headed. I expect to see a lot of our fellow vendors at the Douglas County Fair in Roseburg in two weeks.

Be sure to check out the beautifully decorated booth, Coral Reef Smoothies for a cool, refreshing drink or try a slice or two of great-tasting pepperoni pizza next to Marcella' s Thai Food, which is pretty good also. Should be constant lines of 30 people waiting later on in the week. And of course, come on over and check us out. We are on the right hand side about 8 booths down next to the trailer selling cell phone cases. We sell shoulder (sling) bags, wrap skirts, sarongs, shell necklaces and a lot more.

NOTE: There is no major entertainment at this fair; the main attraction is the Rodeo

Myrtle Point - Coos County Fair

July 21 Arrived here this morning around 8:00 and set up our canopies. Weather was excellent...temps in the 70's, sunny, and hardly any wind....thank gosh. We had four days of very strong winds down in Winchester Bay which was quite bad. This fair starts tomorrow, July 22 and runs through Saturday, July 26. Come on down and check things out.

Bohemia Days Mining Festival

Just did the Winchester Bay Oceanfest (July 18, 19, 20) and have decided to do the Cottage Grove Bohemia Mining Days festival in 2009. Any of you vendors out there ever do this event? Let me know about it. Thank you....

Sunday in Winchester Bay

July 20. Sunny most of the day, but it was awfully windy again...all day long. Sunday usual late crowds. Far less people today and lower sales. Took three hours to pull down our stuff, having to be extremely cautious of the wind gusts.

I don't think that anybody did exceptional at this event and this was our second time here. I like the area but just too much wind and of course, people not buying. Maybe they ought to check out flea market someplace. Met a lot of nice people here, especially other vendors.

Please be sure to read my review in Starving Vendors.
http://www.starvingvendors.com/events_Winchester_Bay_Oceanfest_2008.html

Next year, look for us at the Cottage Grove Bohemia Days Mining Festival, which is a 4-day event. Now, it's on to Myrtle Point for the Coos County Fair, which begins on Tuesday and runs through Saturday. See you there.

Winchester Bay Oceanfest

July 19. Opened up at 8:40. Just about everybody else had opened up. Some people walking around. Topay was a bit cooler and the winds picked up around 10:30AM and continued throughout the day. A little stronger than yesterday. Never have I ever seen two days of wind like this. My windiest show ever.

More people today and sales were much better... in line with what we did last year. Gosh, how can anybody walk around the booths in this friggin wind. All day long...again. The winds lasted past midnite last evening and I guess more of the same. Don't know how we'll be able to take our things down tomorrow. Hopefully, it will not be as windy in Myrtle Point for the Coos Counjty Fair, which begins on Tuesday.

Voice of the Vendor

Hello fellow vendors. I now have an area on my Starving Vendors website where you can view comments made regarding shows, festivals, promoters, etc. If you have done a show recently (good or bad), place your remarks in the 'comments' area below and I will put them on the following page:

http://www.starvingvendors.com/voice_of_the_vendor.html

I will post this notice every Monday and I would like to hear from our vendors out there on how they did the previous weekend. Thank you very much.

Winchester Bay Oceanfest

July 18. Friday. A typical Friday as far as sales and crowds go. It was sunny most of the day with arriving and departing clouds. The winds blew and sales sucked. Take it from there. Winds began to increase just before noontime and did not let up until late PM.

We drove over early...... 8:15 AM to make sure we could get a parking space nearby. I was expecting a large crowd? Uh uh uh uh. Around 9:00 we walked over to our space to prepare things for the day and to finalize our set up. It was like a ghost town. The streets were still rolled up! Hardly a soul, but the event started at 10:00. There were some vendors open and maybe 5 people walking the street.... Early 'lookers' are usually flea marketeers.

The day started very slow and the 'crowds' increased just after noontime. Look like mostly tourists came by. Quite a numbe of families with kids that had the 'itchy finger syndrome.' The winds were pretty fierce all afternoon, whipping around the top part of our canopies. However, the canopies barely swayed due to the precautios we took by adding lots of weight to the legs.

I suppose there were some return vendors that did pretty decently, but it was obvious that the people were not buying very much. The weather this time around is much better than last year, when we had some scattered showers and a 'Watch out for Flying Canopies' Thursday and Friday.

Regardless, we will return here next year, as this is the front end of four events for us and I prefer to kick off things with a weekend event. Four county fairs is just a bit too lon for me.

So people, come on over to Space 58 at the Winchester Bay (OR) Oceanfest and see what DandL Creations has to offer. We've got a good deal for you... we've got shoulder bags, fanny packs, backpacks, wrap-around skirts and pants, animal backpacks for the younger people, stools, amethyst, dream catchers, beautiful hand-made shell necklaces, hats, visors, shell creations and a whole lot more. Bring your money...bring your checkbooks, bring your credit cards. Come on down to the Winchester Bay Oceanfest.