July 2-4  On Wednesday, we left Hayward around 10:10 and had a few stops to make along the way.  We arrived in Weed at 4:15PM and checked into our Motel and took a little rest.  As we left the motel there were some drops of what I originally thought were rain on my windshield.  But believe it or not, it was actually snow because of the shape of the crystals.  I could not believe what my eyes were seeing.  Maybe 5-10 small flakes that melted immediately.  I looked over in the direction of Mount Shasta and saw some really ugly dark, ominous clouds surrounding it.  We arrived in Mt Shasta City at 5:30 and began setting up our canopy.  We stuck around until 8:00PM and didn't really accomplish very much since it was still quite warm.  We also encountered a few sprinkles of something here and there and we had some threatening cloud formations.  We closed everything up and headed back to the motel for the night.

THURSDAY.  Wake up call:  5:15AM.  Somewhat quiet in the motel.  One of the more quieter Motel 6's I've stayed in and I always stay at this one in Weed. One year we brought our motor home and camped at a KOA campground and every hour or so a train would come barreling through town and wake us up.

We arrived at our space around 6:00 and undid the covers and finished setting up.  It was a bit cool in the early morning and it felt pretty nice.  Wish it was like that all day. but it wasn't.  We fixed up a little area in the back of the canopy with a cover above to protect us from the direct, hot, sun.  We've been coming here for several years now and we have experienced 108 degree temperatures.  However, today it would only be around 93 degrees.  NICE AND COOL?

        

left - booths on Castle St.  That is not my booth that says 'DandL CREATIONS'  I photo-chopped the sign that showed the name of another business which dwarfed us.  Our booth is located in the next space.
right - three of the food booths across from us.

I really don't know why they had this show on Thursday and Friday as opposed to Sunday and Monday.  Of course, July 4th is the big part of the show.  There are booths in two locations  The ones on Castle Street, where we are, are there for all three days.  However, the ones on Mt. Shasta Blvd., are there for only two days because they have a parade on the 4th along with a 5K Walk and Run. 

SALES were very slow and this was one of my worst days of the year.  I guess we had six sales in the 8 hours that we were open.  And it was hot in the booth.  I hope that we don't have more of the same on Friday.   It's brutally agonizing when you run into days like this and there is nothing you can do.  It's so stinking hot out there, you want to just close down your booth and head over to your nice, cool, air-conditioned room at the motel.  When you get into the afternoon, around 1:00PM and there's hardly anybody there and you know that you are going to get very few sales, if any, the rest of the day, it gets rough down in the trenches. 

CROWDS were extremely small and I think that these were just locals.  I was across from two food booths and there wasn't a line longer than one person at one time and they too, would go long stretches without sales.  When I stepped outside my booth, I looked up at snow-covered Mount Shasta, but unfortunately that does not make me feel any cooler.

DA FOOD.  I had an Italian Sausage with peppers and onions and it was good.  I would rate it as being in the top 25 percent of sausages I have gotten at festivals.  Not bad  The best Italian?  Castro Valley Fall Festival had one that was absolutely delicious and that made me feel like I was back at Fenway Park (pronounced 'fenway pock').

PHILLY CHEESESTEAK.  I am Cheesesteaked out.  They have one selling them. but we have been making our own at home for the past couple months and have decided not to pay the $6-9 that these places charge.   Saving my taste buds for the good Philly Cheesesteaks they have in Myrtle Point at the Coos County Fair in Oregon.  Of course, none of these can compare to the 'real deals' they have back East in Joisey and PA.  They have boxes of frozen 'Philly Cheestesteaks' at Smart and Final and you can make decent ones with all the trimmings for just under two bucks a pop.

THE STORE.  After closing up at 6:00, we stopped by a grocery store in Mount Shasta to pick up some more drinks.  I looked for some lemonade (ready-made from the frig area) and couldn't locate any.  I asked one of the employees where the lemonade was located (they had about 50 brands of Orange Juice) and he said that they had none and he was hoping that the truck would bring some tomorrow.  I looked at him.  "I'm not waiting until tomorrow."  This ain't one of those things where you are waiting in line for days to get tickets for a great event  or pick up a new game machine.  Can you imagine 200 people standing in line at 5:00AM waiting for the place to open so they can get some lemonade.  Only two per customer please.  Oh man. I gotta go to the bathroom, can you hold my spot for me?  Hey dude, back of the line, I've been here since yesterday morning.

So we paid for our things and decided to drop by the smaller grocery store in Weed. All they had was the 'Paul Newman' lemonade, so I picked up a couple containers.  Got back to the motel, got some ice and drank away.  It was good and refreshing.  It has it's own special 'twang' to it.   I guess that I had gotten a little dehydrated.

FRIDAY.  Supposed to be cooler?  Forecasting only 91 today and sunny.  Oh oh.  We arrived around 9:15 and opened up.  I guess that around 1/2 of the booths were open where we were located.

There were substantially more people today and sales dramatically higher.  Not too great though.

WEATHER:  I guess temps were in the low 90's throughout the day but we had some nice breezes throughout the afternoon.

 

LONG HOURS for all of us.  The show ended at 8:00PM today and several vendors closed up a tad early.  As for the people selling  out on Mt Shasta Blvd.  they had to wait almost to 8:00 also but they had to take down their booths and depart. since that was a two-day show and they have many activities tomorrow on that street. 

FOOD.  I decided to go about a block away to a burger place for both lunch and dinner.  For lunch I got my wife a Chinese Chicken Salad which wasn't all that good.  No dressing. Can not even compare this salad to Jack in the Box and Togo's.  I had, believe it or not. a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich.  It was small. but the price was reasonable $5.95 snd it was okay.  No real complaints.  For dinner. my wife had shrimp and chips and I had fish and chips.  They were somewhat okay   The fries?  Not really that great.  This fish and chips can not compare in any way whatsoever to the ones I get in Morro Bay at Giovanni's.  Best fish and chips I ever had in my life.  Actually, it was halibut and chips ($9.95), but you know what I mean.

When we arrived back at the motel around 8:30 the parking lot only had 5 cars in it.  Last night they were packed.  Sold out.  Full house.  What happened?  Friday night on a holiday weekend.  Dunno.  When we left in the morning, the parking lot was pretty well filled up.

STOP THE MUSIC.  Much of it has been pretty bad these past two days.  I'm glad we are not located closer to the stage.  Would need earplugs.

Saturday. July 4   Arrived around 6:30 and almost all of the good parking spots were taken.  As we walked across the street to the event, they turned on their music extremely loud again.  Same thing every year; same recorded stuff.  We took down our sides and did some re-arranging in our booth to accomodate more people.  People began gathering for the 5K run/walk and we didn't get too many sales until mid-morning.  The crowds began growing larger as the morning went on and they started the event around 8:40.  Sometime around 11:00, they had their parade.

We had large crowds by noon time and things got pretty busy and we did decent until around 2:00, when people began leaving.  I think that overall, a number of vendors, including us, were dissapointed in sales because we all had high expectations.  But nonetheless, we came away somewhat satisfied since we all knew that the economy is pretty raunchy right now and YOUR president (not mine, I sure the hell didn't vote for him) is not adept at swinging things around. 

FOOD.  Went back to the same restaurant.  Wife wanted the same Chinese Chicken Salad and I got a Swiss Mushroom Burger, which was pretty good, I must say.

COOLING OFF WITH A SMOOTHIE.  We had smoothies both days there and they were okay.  These can not compare to the ones we get in Oregon County Fairs from one of our friends, Michelle (and family) has.  Best one's I have ever had and her booth has won many awards for the 'best decorated' at many events.  There was a booth here in Shasta that was selling 'shaved ice.'  However, they served it up in one of those round plastic colored bowl things and I find that it melts a lot faster than when you have one in the plastic styrofoam cups. 

PORTA-POTTY REPORT (aka 'Stinky Stalls')  They were surprisingly clean during the afternoon and they looked like they were hardly used.  I guess they had around 30 of them situated in a parking lot behind the booth area.  I walked around at 8:15 and saw a huge line of 'green shirts' (walk/run people) waiting to use the facilities.  Not too sure if they all were able to take care of business before the race started.  Actually. that looks like one of those races you can start any time you want.
 

THE DRIVE HOME was okay until we reached Fairfield.  Had to hold the steering wheel with both hands because the winds were blowing us all over the place.  We reached the top of the hill overlooking Vallejo and there were loads of cars parked in the lot and along the highway, which I guess provided gawkers with a good view of the Marine World Fireworks.  I knew that this was a bad time to pass this way. since people were on their way to view the fireworks.  Traffic was slow through Berkeley and Univ. Ave was closed.  They had some kind of event there.  Over on highway 880, it was dangerous to drive there because the traffic flow was at 65mph and you had some idios slowing down to 40   to watch the fireworks.