We’re looking at the calendar trying to figure out where in the world are we going to be for the next 6 months. In the delicate balance of maximizing our time on the boat and keeping enough cash in the bank we have come to a few conclusions:
- We can’t let our cash reserves get TOO low or we don’t enough money to pay for travel fees and entrance fees for festivals.
- We can’t wait TOO long to apply to shows or they get booked up
- Mini-Donuts don’t sell well in the blazing heat (and we have no desire to work in the blazing heat)
- The longer the show the better. A 4 day show will be better than a 2 day show.
Given these few revelations we are trying to figure out which shows to apply to for this summer season. The other big factor is the motorhome. It is, as of now, an unknown quantity. We’re really not sure what’s wrong with it and how reliable it will be until we can start digging into it- which takes time in Tucson and some cash.
So we have two potential plans. One is to sitck to the west coast but work our way up the coast line as the summer progresses to escape the heat. This would keep the driving to a minimum and thus the fuel costs down.
The other option is to head east across country and work our way up from the DC area into New England. This area of the country is VERY dense (population wise not intellectually) and we can find shows all summer long within a 300 mile radius of DC. Another bonus, we know lot’s of folks en route and in the same 300 mile radius. But we still have to get there in the first place.
We have another show booked on the 10th and 11th of April near Tucson and we’ll see how that goes. We just finished a show here in Tucson that while we profited and we were here anyways, was disappointing because there was a poor attendance and it shut down early because of poor weather. But don’t get me wrong, some money is better than none at all- so I’m glad we worked the show regardless.
After a LONG January and February working a 9 day show and then right into a 14 day show, we’ve decided we’d rather find these longer shows than set-up, work two days, break down, travel to another town, set-up, work two days, break down to do it all over again. It means we might only have to work one long show a month versus trying to work 3-4 weekend shows. It’s a lot less travelling (fuel costs) and a lot more time for friends and family.
The down side is of course the entry fee and opportunity cost. If we AREN’T accepted into a show and can’t find another we’re scrambling. These longer shows are generally more expensive, require payment father ahead of time, and are harder to get into to than small little craft shows.
We’re leaning toward the east coast because of family and friends that we want to visit, but the motorhome is the wild card right now.
We’re heading back to Mexico in a few days. We are planning on staying there through the end of the month with a possible weekend trip back to Tucson for a 4 month check up for Charley. While we REALLY need to start socking some cash away for the summer, spending time on our boat IS the reason we changed our lives so dramatically.
I could PLAN, PLAN, PLAN and reason that we should work our patooty off now so that we can enjoy the future one day, some day, but through all this struggle, change, and discovery of the past two years we realize that there is only now.
It starts to get hot in Mexico by June. We are playing things pretty loose but envision having the boat hauled out and stored on the hard for the summer by end of May. That means that despite all the craziness of 2009, we may actually be able to log about 10-12 weeks on the boat in San Carlos by then.
That’s a very fulfilling notion. After all, not all objectives are measured in money.
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