On 2010-05-09 22:31, Jon-O the Great wrote:
Windy? I tell you about WINDY!!

I had driven 1000 miles from San Antonio to Great Bend KS for the 3I Farm Show, Wed-Fri last week. I was gonna work with my friend, Lowell, from Omaha, who met me there. I had signed up late so could not get a space inside. Since we were outside, among hundreds of exhibitors, on concrete, we didn’t set up on the usual set-up day, Tuesday, but waited ‘til the morning of the show.

Since we were pretty far from the entrance, we were not worried about taking too much time setting up, because all we really had to do was put up the 2 tables and the EZ Up. I did drive out and take a look at my space, 25’ front by 40’ deep, plenty of space for a couple of 4’ tables. I also noticed that all the tents there, dozens of them, were tethered to big concrete blocks, each about as big as my bath tub. Did they know something I didn’t?

When we arrived the next morning, the wind was projected 15-25 mph on that flat Kansas prairie. Not a prob, I thot, tho I couldn't drive a stake into concrete, I’ll just extend the front legs on the EZ Up and leave the rear legs down and the wind will blow the rear legs into the concrete, kinda like a sail, helping to hold it down. And that’s exactly how it worked. The 1st day. The guy in the tent next to us allowed us to dolly our stuff into his tent at the end of the day, so we didn’t have to re-load the van.

However, on the 2nd day, the wind had shifted 180 degrees and was now projected to 40 mph, so attempting to do the same thing as the day before was out of the question. I had driven my van into the space, thinking I’d tether at least the rear legs to it. Not possible. Even hooked to the van as tightly as I could, the front legs were dancing like Arthur Murray teaching the Cha-Cha.

We took the EZ Up down and just sat there, working in the sun all day long. Lowell left about 2 because he had business in Omaha, but I stayed ‘til 5. Really wasn’t hot because the wind blew so strongly and when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t appear to have a sun burn. I again put my stuff into the tent of the guy next to me. But by the time I got back to the motel, my face and lower arms were as red as an embarrassed apple.

I immediately showered to remove the show crud and slathered on Noxzema. Really had no pain but was just redder’n a Commies heart..

The NEXT morning, when I got to the show, several tents (and these are REAL tents, with REAL poles and REAL anchors) had their side curtains blown away, many displays inside also gone. The guy where I’d stored my stuff the evening before was sitting in a chair about 10 feet from his tent, holding onto my dolly. Everything that had been inside his tent, tables, displays, samples—all gone. His tent was empty. Wind at that point was probably about 30 mph.

“When I got here this morning, everything was blown away. I found your stuff on the other side of the aisle. I put as much as I could find back in these boxes and hope it’s all there. I’m really sorry.”

I thanked him, told him not to worry, it wasn’t his responsibility, didn’t even look to see what had been salvaged. Even tho there was one more day of the show, the wind was so strong I just loaded up my van and left. As had many others before I arrived. Many empty spaces.

All in all, even tho I was only there for 2 days, I did relatively well. Probably netted $500 those 2 days, in spite of show cost, gas, motel and food. Very hard to do cards because they would blow away. But compared to the others, many of whom lost EVERYTHING, I was pretty lucky.

Next year, if I can’t get inside, I think I’ll skip the 3I show.

Jon