I spend a week in Wickenburg, showing and selling my jewelry at the Gold Rush Days Art Fair.

After Tucson, I headed up to the Phoenix area for lunch with a friend, my annual FAA flight physical, and some shopping. You know: the usual socializing and errands. From there, I headed to Wickenburg.

At Sophie’s Flat

It was Tuesday and I was supposed to meet my friend Janet in Wickenburg on Wednesday morning. It was late afternoon when I got into town, after stopping for a moment to get a pollo asado burrito at Filiberto’s on the outskirts of town. From there, I decided to try the campground at the rodeo grounds (Constellation Park) for a campsite for one night. I didn’t even have to pull in to realize that it was already packed.

Gold Rush Days is Wickenburg’s big annual event and has been for more than 50 years. A completely made up event — it’s not associated with any historic “gold rush” in the town — it’s a big draw, especially since it hosts Senior Pro Rodeo over the weekend. Wickenburg, which had become an old ropers’ town since I moved out in 2013, took its rodeo seriously and the place was overflowing with the horse crowd.

Since the campground there was full, I continued down Constellation Road. I figured I’d pull over on BLM land and just park for the night. Unfortunately, there was no place to pull over. So when the road forked, I took the left fork onto Blue Tank Road and followed that all the way out to Sophie’s Flat, which I knew from my horse owning days. It had been a stop along the Land of the Sun Endurance Ride I volunteered on every year and my friends Janet and Steve had stayed there with their horses one year long enough for a BLM ranger to chase them off.

The site had changed. It looked bigger than I remembered it and it was surrounded by welded pipe fence. There was a pit toilet in a trailhead parking area. There were already about a half dozen RVs parked, including one horse trailer with living quarters that had set up a fence for their two mules.

I found a level area away from anyone else and pulled in for the night. My burrito was cold by the time I ate it, but it wasn’t worth getting out the generator to run the microwave to heat it up and heating it on the stovetop would have taken too long.

Camping in Town

Janet and I were planning to camp with the other show vendors in the downtown park walking distance from the show. The goal was to get their early enough that we could set up next to each other.

Of course, I’m an early riser so I was heading back into town by 8 AM. I stopped at a gas station in town where I could dump my tanks, top off my fresh water supply, and refill my propane tanks. I was early enough that there was no line — there would be a week later — and got everything done by a little after 9 AM. So I went over to where I was supposed to meet Janet and waited.

When Janet came, we shuffled around our campers so she was at the end and I was in front of her facing the opposite way. The idea was to have enough room between us for her to park her truck and enough room behind my trailer to park my truck. That worked, at least that first day. Unfortunately, someone took up half my truck spot the following morning when I went to set up my booth and didn’t move until Sunday evening. I got creative with my parking and, fortunately, no one seemed to mind.

I had more socialization to attend to later that day: lattes at the airport with airport friends and dinner (which a shower first!) with my friends Jim and Cyndi and some of their friends. I also managed to get some grocery shopping in; my cupboards were bare and my refrigerator was empty.

Setting Up for the Big Show

The Wickenburg Art Fair was the first outdoor event I attended where it really mattered what my booth looked like. I’d been at a county fair the previous summer (which I didn’t even really count as an event because it was so dismal) and had been at a rock show in Mesa in early January. Neither of those had any rules about booth appearance. But this show was different. It was juried and had serious artists. My booth had to look good if I expected to ever come back.

Setup day was Thursday. I offloaded my tent and tables and a lot of my display material from the trailer into the back of the truck and drove it over. I backed into a spot near where my booth would be and got to work setting everything up. I did it by myself, despite the fact that there were other people around to help me. The way I saw it, I had to know I could do it myself and the only way I’d know that is if I actually did it.

I was baffled about how to set up my tables inside the booth and asked Janet and Steve, who were setting up their double-sized booth nearby, for advice. Since my booth was on the end, I could be open on two sides so she recommended that I put my three tables around the outside of the booth so people didn’t have to worry about walking in. So after a few trials and errors, I figured it out and set everything up except the merchandise. I’d do that in the morning, before the show opened.

I buttoned up my booth by dropping the sides and fastening them down for the night.

In the morning, I ran another load over to the show: my merchandise. It was early when I arrived and I got a parking spot. I offloaded everything, tucked it into my booth, and then ran the truck back to the camping area. I took my electric assist bicycle back to the show after securing Penny in the camper with food and water. Unfortunately, artists were not allowed to have pets in their booths.

The vendors who hadn’t set up the day before showed up and worked quickly to get everything set up by opening time at 10 AM. I worked mostly inside my booth, utilizing a few of the new displays I’d made. I’d also made some new turquoise, chrysocolla, and azurite pendants, which I put on display on the seven-piece “neck.” I set three trays of cabochons for custom piece orders out on the side table which was less likely to be seen. When I was finished, my booth looked respectable, if not downright professional.

My booth in the morning sun on Friday. You can see my bike parked in the little alley to the left. The building behind my booth is the library.

I took a moment to enter my Heirloom Rosary in the Art Show Contest inside the library. It wound up winning First Place in the jewelry category. To be honest, however, I’m not sure how much competition I had. But you can be that I’ll show the ribbon with the rosary at future events.

My booth was cold, although it did warm up a bit when the sun finally hit me. Arizona was having a cold spell that would stick around for a few weeks. My booth was wonderfully warm for the two hours when the sun hit it and much cooler for the rest of the day.

The Art Fair

Shoppers began arriving even before setup was complete. It wasn’t long before I was making sales. That day — Friday — was the best of the three days. I sold a lot of earrings and a handful of bracelets and rings. I also sold a few pendants.

Janet had a great first day: she sold a very large painting to a repeat customer.

Saturday was supposed to be the big day of the show, although no one expected things to get busy until after the parade. Unfortunately, Saturday was also overcast and cold so the crowd we were all expecting never materialized. Still, I did reasonably well, fueled, in part, by a woman who bought 12 cabochons for her daughter, who is just getting started with wire wrapping.

For my own comfort, I’d planned ahead and brought my little electric heater into the booth, along with an extension cord. I’d spotted an outlet on the side of the library building and I plugged in. With the heater under the table pointed right at my legs, my bottom half kept warm all day.

It was lucky for me that Janet had Steve with her. In the middle of the day, he’d go back to the campers to let out his dogs and would also let out Penny. I really hated cooping her up for three days in a row like that, but although I do have paperwork showing that she’s an emotional support animal, I hate to play that card. So she stayed in the camper, warm and cozy, while huddled in my tent in front of a heater.

The weather improved on Sunday, but it was still chilly. I think I did a little better than I had on Saturday. The woman who’d bought the stones came back to buy more. I sold a few pendants and more earrings.

I also had some visitors: my neighbors from home who were staying in Scottsdale for a few weeks. They stopped by to check out my booth and take in the show but decided to skip the rodeo.

For me, the show was all good. I’d covered my booth fee on the first day so there was no stress. I was very pleased with the show and decided to do it again the following year.

Shutting Down

The show ended at 5 PM with a mad rush by the vendors to pack up their booths. Rather than get my truck and fight them for a parking spot, I packed everything up, took down the tent, and got everything ready to move. Then I took the bike back to my campsite, locked it up, put Penny in the truck, and brought the truck back to the show grounds. I got a relatively close parking spot and made about 10 trips to load the truck back up.

Meanwhile, Janet and Steve were working hard to get their big booth with its wall panels taken apart. They didn’t need any help, despite the fact that it was getting dark. In fact, Janet returned to camp before Steve, telling me that he’d sent her away so he could finish alone.

Before it got fully dark, I needed to offload the truck and store everything neatly inside my trailer. It had gotten to the point where everything fit inside like pieces of a puzzle. I finished up in the dark, with a lantern stuck to the ceiling of the trailer.

Then I pulled out the bottle of champagne I’d been saving for the end of the show out of my fridge and brought it over to Janet’s camper. Steve made it back in time to join us for the last round.

Breaking Camp

It wasn’t until after 8 AM the next morning that we all hooked up and pulled out. By then, about half the vendors had already gone.

I had some aerial photo work to take care of from January that required me to get photos printed and mailed to a client who didn’t have a computer. Janet had paperwork to do for other shows she was planning to attend.

We both pulled out of the camping area and wound up meeting a short while later in the parking lot next to CVS and the post office. After jumping through a few hoops, I got my photos printed and mailed. I also mailed in my application for a show in Borrego Springs in mid March, which was longer than I’d originally intended to stay south. Janet did her paperwork and got it in the mail. We went for lunch at a Mexican place in the shopping center and then went our separate ways. We planned to meet up again for camping and hiking near Borrego Springs before that show.

I had one more stop before my next destination: that gas station to dump and fill my tanks. From there, it was more off-the grid camping, but close enough to civilization for more socialization and conveniences.