Going to shows always has challenges. Packing up and moving what is essentially a tiny, self-contained store involves considerable organization. Trying to stuff everything into my beloved Duncan has become impossible, so I now rent a little U-Haul cargo trailer. This allows me to load my showcases already assembled, saving time at the destination. But hauling a trailer brings its own challenges. I’ve driven tens of thousands of miles hauling horse trailers, but the single-axel cargo trailer handles differently when backing up. Consequently, I find myself searching for “pull through” options whenever possible. Once at our destination, it is common to be able to pull up immediately adjacent to the booth location and unload. At Malibu, my booth location was up next to a building, under a nice shady portico, but about 100+ yards from the parking lot. The photo shows everything packed up and ready to schlep back down to the parking lot after the show. Thank goodness that I brought a dolly! The darling old “Woody” auto belonged to the adjacent artist. Sometimes you don’t know what you are going to find at a show until you get there.
Driving up Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu, I experienced a near miss of a serious accident when the car immediately in front of me was “T-boned” by another vehicle crossing over the median. The impact was hard enough to cause the car in front of me to roll over off to the right and also hard enough that the offending car recoiled backwards. This left a tiny lane between them for me and Duncan to slide through, as a rain of debris fell upon us. After that, any challenges posed by the booth location seemed pretty minor.