Weekend Adventure

My last post was posted automatically while I was traveling.  Gaye and I hit the road north to Cincinnati on Thursday for the 19th annual Stampaway convention.  Hard to believe it has been 19 years, but it has.  These are samples from one of the classes Gaye taught (Cache Lavaliere) - even though I have seen these samples many times before, I am still amazed by them every time I see them spread out on the demo table.  And these don't even show the hidden structure inside the necklace.

And speaking of Gaye, a smart teacher always has her fan/necklace for those hot classrooms (or were those just hot flashes?).  FYI, Southern women don't sweat, they glisten.  Or so I've been told.

There were a lot of activities on this trip.  I explored hotel texture while waiting around in the parking lot...

We went to the botanical exhibit...




And we did some bird watching...

Actually, the "botanical" people had dressed that way to interpret the "flower power" theme of the Friday night show.  The first one is Greg from Marco's Paper.  He always goes all out.  The second one is the ladies who won the costume contest.  The last guy (from 100 Proof Press) took flower power to another level with his boxing gloves!

Some interpreted flower power to mean groovy clothes from the flower power generation.

Doesn't Chris Meador (right) look great in her retro clothes!??  And there is the "other" Kris with her, who now runs Coffee Break Design.

Gaye and I had a great three days, and both came home with some new things to play with.  We also made a slight detour north to explore the Ohio Valley Antique Mall before heading back south and homeward.

So how did we go from a bright sunny day (see the blue sky in the picture with the giant yellow duck), to (just a mere two hours later) huddling around this camping lantern in a stranger's basement with a nice woman, her two nice children, and their dog? 

As we got closer to Louisville, we were looking at the sky.  It really wasn't ominous looking until we were right under it.  That also happened to be about the time we turned down Gaye's street.  But the street was blocked by a huge tree across it.  We pulled into a driveway to turn around and go a different way.  But the wind was blowing so hard, the car was shaking.  We really didn't feel safe sitting in the car.  Gaye suggested we make a run for the nearest house, and where we parked the family was already looking out the door, having heard the tree fall earlier.  They welcomed us inside, even though Gaye and I got soaked in the 10 seconds it took us to run from the car to the house.  We could literally wring water out of our hair and clothes, the rain was coming down so hard.  Almost immediately, the power went out, and the lady instructed the kids to light the camping lanterns and take us to the basement.  We were given towels to dry off, and we all waited out the storm in the darkness, getting to know each other.  For me, the best part was when I was offerred a cup of coffee.  In spite of the chaotic situation, the first thing I noticed when I dashed through the front door was the smell of freshly brewed vanilla coffee... Since I had another hour to drive before I'd be home, I guess I already had the need for a cup of coffee swirling in my brain.  That hot cup of coffee was the best I have ever had, probably because Gaye and I were chilled to the bone from getting soaked in the rain.

When we finally did get to Gaye's house (and that was no easy task, as there were trees down on almost every street), we were relieved to see her property was fine, other than deck furniture blown over and some limbs down.  Her husband had to override the garage door opener so I could get my car out of their garage, then I was eventually on my way.  I could see why they had no electricity as I drove out of Louisville- there were trees on top of wires almost everywhere you looked. 

We were feeling very lucky overall.  And I saw a rainbow on my way home.  I'm hoping her electricity has been restored by now....