Getting ready for Weekend Shows

Today was spent getting ready for the upcoming show, Bikers On Main in LaGrange, GA. Part of getting ready for an upcoming show, especially one that you have not attended in the prior years can be an exciting and frightening experience. This is the first year that we are doing any shows in Georgia so, obviously, this is the first year we have attended this rally.

To prepare, the first step is to get here. As many of you may have guessed, we do not live on the East Coast, but much further West. We come to the East Coast every year while attending an event called Run for the Wall (you have most likely read some of those blogs earlier this month..) and then we traditionally work our way back West by attending various motorcycle rallies. This year we opted to attend some new rallies in Georgia. The problem is that neither of us have been in Georgia for any amount of time, so the fact that we were able to navigate to our intended city was an accomplishment. (There are times that I can be very directionally challenged)

Once we arrive in the city that the rally is to be held, we traditionally take a trip to where the actual rally is to be. This alleviates some stress because we are then somewhat familiar with the streets and layout of where all the vendors will be set up. Also, at time of set-up, we won't worry about getting lost trying to locate the vendor check-in area (again, my directionally challenged problem). So, today we were successful in locating not only the city (which would be pretty hard not to find...) but we were also able to drive around where the vendors were to be set up. That means tomorrow morning we will actually know where we are going (sort-of). One less stressor to check off the list.

The next challenge is where to place the rig when we are working the rally. That little issue has yet to be resolved, and will probably give us heartburn until tomorrow when those questions will be answered. Usually we have a good idea where they want us to put the rigs and trailers, but this time, I forgot to ask. This is not usually a difficult task, but especially with new events for us, we both do stress about where the rig goes because our critters are in the rig while we work. We do not like to take our animals in our booth, it can be very distracting for both us and the customer. You want people to pay attention to your booth and the items you have to offer, not the critters you have frolicking around your booth.

Then the last worry we had was locating a place to be for the night before the event. Since we do not live around here, it was important to locate some place local to stay the night before. I did have the presence of mind to remember to ask for local camping options and am very glad I did. The downside to that is that I missed the turn for the campground. Under normal circumstances, that would not have been too much of an issue, but this time, since the campground was on a relatively narrow two-lane road, we had to drive an additional 15 miles before we could find a safe place to make a U-turn. I like to think of these little "detours" as an opportunity to explore, but the other half of this party does not take kindly to my attitude of "detours". I enjoyed the scenery, but the additional 30 miles we really didn't need to make in the rain today. Even though, it was still a very pretty drive in the country. We got to see some really cool homes...

Well, now it is time to call it a night, it is an early start to the day tomorrow, and we still have yet to resolve the issue of where to put the rig when we are working. I know everything will work itself out, but fear of the unknown will make for a tad of a restless night tonight.

If you are interested in finding out more about what we do and what we offer at the various rallies around the country, please visit http://www.hawgwash.net/ for more information. If you would like some advice or assistance in getting your own home-based business into a rally, please feel free to contact us at hawgwash1@yahoo.com.

Until tomorrow...