As I woke up this morning, yet again to the sound of rain and realized that summer once again was being elusive after a very short appearance this past weekend, I couldn’t help feeling relieved that we are getting ready to escape this year’s lack of summer in the Puget Sound Region. For those of you outside the Pacific NW that have been suffering through horrible heat waves you have my sympathy and you may not totally understand the excitement we’re feeling right now. Having lived in Dallas for 11 years, I really do not miss the stifling summer heat. However, I do enjoy summer and this year seems to be a year when the Puget Sound Region is just not going to be granted a summer. We’ve had way more rain, way less sun and much cooler temperatures than usual and our results at the shows have reflected the fact that people are disgusted with our non-summer.
Forgive my exuberance, but YEAH!! We are hitting the road for 4 back to back shows in Richland WA, Couer D’Alene ID, Sand Point ID and then Chelan WA. All beautiful locations, all shows on the grass in parks or a college campus, all next to either a river or lake. 3 out of the 4 shows are the same ones we did last year, had a blast and are anticipating another great trip, bringing along the portable BBQ to enjoy a few dinners with fellow artists and time to relax and socialize after the shows. The last 3 shows are also in popular summer tourist destinations which is usually a plus for our sales.
We’re hitting the road with Tazzy cat (our sun worshipping, overly spoiled kitty), our travel trailer, a few tools / supplies for projects to work on while we’re on the road and plans on how to have the most fun possible during and between shows. Wineries to sample, bikes to ride, family to visit, sunshine to enjoy, evening swims after each show day, we are looking forward to each and every experience that will make this an enjoyable road trip.
This is one of those times when I’m really grateful that my “real job” is 90% work from home, or in this case, the RV and I’m very thankful that they have yet to implement video conferencing! I've saved a few vacation days to spend some time in the sun and am really looking forward to this trip.
I promise a report on the shows after the road trip, I may not be posting much while we’re on the road because the less time I spend in front of a computer and the more time I spend in the sun, the happier I will be!
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Well, all good things must come to an end and our summer road trip has ended. Happy to report that not only did we have a fun trip, but as Nels would say, we made some Moola along the way and are returning home with a bit more in the bank account than we had expected, nice to have reality exceed expectations for once. One fantastic show, one good show and two that were at least reasonable, all in fun locations, with lots of sunshine. Both of the shows we labeled as “reasonable” may or may not hit the list of shows for next year, but both replaced shows that we had decided to take a break from and both shows were slightly higher than our average at the shows they replaced, overall, not a bad outcome. And 2 galleries want us to send them some of our work. Wow, that was an unexpected result and a way to continue to build a presence in communities we visit once a year for art shows.
Returning home on what had been the warmest day of the summer so far for Seattle meant a very stuffy house when we arrived home at 11:15 PM from Chelan (since most houses here do NOT have air conditioning). Opened a few doors and windows, turned on a few fans and fell asleep, tired and contented to be home. Woke up to cloudy, overcast skies that brought lots of rain Monday afternoon to remind us why Washington is called the Evergreen State. Did it really have to rain on our first day home? After 4 weeks of sun, temps in the 80’s to 90’s during the days, 50’s-60’s at night, did we really have to have a rainy Monday? OK, I know, I’m whining, I’ll stop, but unpacking the RV in the rain didn’t put either of us in a good mood. We had to remind ourselves that we took a road trip to summer, we enjoyed our summer and it looks like we might have a little more summer in Seattle later this week, if you believe the forecast. Talking to our neighbors, it was a wise choice to take the “road trip to summer” as this has been a summer in Seattle without much real summer weather, even by Seattle standards.
We did enjoy more R&R than we had expected, bike rides along the Columbia River in Richland, WA, riding the trail of the Coeur d’Alenes in North ID, hiking in North ID, visiting wineries in both Eastern WA and Northern ID, dinner with artist friends in various locales giving our portable grill quite a workout, visit with extended family members and even the chance to have dinner with an old friend we hadn’t seen in 11 years. We spent more time in the sun in this one month period that we probably do the rest of the year combined and can safely say we’re home without that Western, WA white pasty look. We’ve even had comments on the fact that it doesn’t look like we’ve spent our summer in Seattle!
Traveling for this long with our cat, Tazzy (yes, that is short for Tasmanian Devil She catJ), proved to be quite an adventure for her. Camping where she could see herons and wild turkeys (Pasco WA) didn’t allow time for much cat napping, camping in various places in Idaho brought more squirrels and chipmunks than she could watch from the windows meant lots of exercise as she hopped from window to window with plaintive meows, camping near the horse stables in Chelan was a bit uncomfortable for her as we found her hiding under the couch in the trailer, overall, though she had quite the adventure and has proven to be a great traveling cat.
So what have we learned and where are we going next?
Yes, we do have a mini-studio in our motorhome, but the "dirty" work like polishing and soldering goes on outside. We have sliders on our basement compartments, so Gary just pulls out his bench and goes to work. Of course the picnic bench is very helpful. In the summer we also choose many shows based on locations we want to visit, but we won't sacrifice a big money-maker just because we don't like the location (unless it's in tornado alley during the tornado season!). Our first year on the road we had a brush with one in Nebraska headed to Washington, and it wasn't a pretty picture!
It sounds like you guys are addicted, and I can't think of a better addiction. If we can be of any help feel free to e-mail us at garyshull@hotmail.com. Safe travels!
So, the road trip continues, only a week left. Time has flown by quickly and we've been having a wonderful time. I think this lifestyle is one we could become addicted to!! We met one artist couple who are full time RVers who select their shows based on which mountain bike trails they want to try!
Gary and Maureen - would love to hear more about how you manage to create your art on the road. Do you have a mini studio in your RV? We're starting to investigate the possibility of full time RV'ing and are really intrigued on how artists manage to create their art while on the road.
Sounds fantastic Ruth!
This adventure is off to a grand start, FANTASTIC first show to the road trip - yes, I will write about it when I have time, but for now we're having too much fun. First show of the trip was a Friday/Saturday show so we spent Sunday riding bikes in the morning, visiting a winery in the afternoon, having dinner with friends in the campground Sunday evening who also had a great show, splurged with grilled steak for dinner and cheesecake for dessert and good bottle of wine. Life is GOOD!!
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