Ventura Venture

As if I hadn't seen enough of the south-of-Sacramento stretch of I-5 in recent weeks, I drove down to Ventura this weekend. That's about 390 miles southwest, on the coast. It was, as you can surely guess, for a poultry show. ;-) Up until just a week or so ago I hadn't been planning on going, but I hated to miss out on it since they were featuring the rose comb class, and I decided I'd turn it into a business trip and bring along all the artwork...the chicken art anyway.

It was a hazy day to begin with even up in northern CA, but by the time I was approaching the grapevine it was noticeable smoky outside. I couldn't see the mountains until I was practically right there.

In Ventura itself it was foggy too, so the outdoors was gray and gloomy. I got down there around 5 and cooped in all the birds and set up the walls and table for the art display.

In an attempt to save some money, since the host hotel was enormously expensive, I stayed with my aunt and uncle in a nearby town about 20 minutes from the fairgrounds. My friend S.S. went with me, since she needed a place to stay too. It was fun to see my relatives and so nice of them to let us crash there. My uncle even came to the show on Saturday, that was cool.

Since I was pretty much chained to the art booth I feel like I didn't get to see much of the show itself. It took a while to set up, and then a few hours later I had to take it all down. I didn't even make it out to the beach (a stone's throw from the show hall, just ran out of time, oh well). I really wanted to see more of the game fowl show but I only caught the tail end of it, thinking they would be around longer. Those birds are so gorgeous. I actually wouldn't mind having one, as long it's friendly to me! I'm kinda partial to birds with big tails and flashy feathers and I think these guys are great.


Even though it was a pain in the butt to have the art stuff down there I did pretty well with it, paid for all expenses and then some. Even covered the expenses of framing "Green Legged Hatch" and getting some new stuff printed. So that's not bad at all. Stupidly, I forgot to take a picture of my booth. Oops!

I got Reserve RCCL with one of my black Rosecomb pullets (not the same one from the Paso Robles show).


Somehow I managed to do something awful to my right wrist on Saturday night, probably while reaching behind me while driving to shove something out of my way in the rear view mirror. By the time I went to bed it was excruciatingly painful and I could hardly move it, and I woke up a lot during the night. It was a little better in the morning but I was still pretty freaked out that something awful was happening to me. I need my right hand! It's almost all better now, so I guess maybe I pinched a nerve or something. Egads, that was scary.


So it seemed like a really fast weekend. Definitely not relaxing. Fun though (no party on Saturday, everyone pooped out and went to bed). I hope to go next year too. As far as it is, the drive really isn't that bad. I guess I am just so used to driving all over the place that it doesn't bother me anymore. Plus I took the minivan instead of my car, and it's faster and I don't worry about it dying. ;-)

Next up is Bakersfield. I am still iffy on going for the usual reasons of 1) *really* trying hard to conserve money 2) worry about car 3) I've been gone 26 days in the last two months and I'm so far behind already. I want to go... I have to decide in the next day or two. There is also a game fowl convention down in Visalia a week after that and I'm really debating whether that would be worth attending with some prints and a portfolio. Hmmmm. I need to call the guy in charge and see how that would work.

I am starting a new scrimshaw pendant tomorrow. It's a wolf. Will be on the higher end of the price scale (~$175 probably) since it has a lot of dark areas... is for sale.

This evening there was thunder and lightning and rain. My attempts to photograph the lightning were completely unsuccessful but here are some pretty leaves instead, the light was interesting for a while: