After a day's drive on long stretches of highway cutting through the deserts of Nevada and California, I have arrived in Arizona. I am at my vendor space here in Quartzsite, my home for the next 4 months. As I survey the space I realize how large 40' x 40' actually is, and I wonder how my largest booth configuration of 10' x 15' will appear inside this monstrosity of a vendor space. Granted, in addition to my vending area, a portion of the space is for my living area, but still, even with my converted van camper and my cargo trailer it seems as though I am parked on a football field.
I parked, unparked, and drove around at least four times before I unhitched my trailer. It just seemed as though anyplace I parked on my space was just not the right place. One would think, with a space that size, there wouldn't be a problem, ...one would think anyhow. But to a vendor who is used to 10' x 10' or 10' x 20' spaces, the brain was on tilt when I tried to envision how to set up my "store". Then I drove across town to another vendor, one who specializes in stuff for vendors, to price and purchase additional tables and setups.
"So", he said, "twice as much space this year, huh? That means twice as much profits!!" I just stared at him blankly as I tried to wrap my tired and overwhelmed brain around his comment. "Wow", I said. "I'm glad you put it that way. That helps alot." I'm not sure he believed me or not, but when I go back there tommorrow to buy some tables and displays I'll thank him more sincerely. I'm sure he could see that I still had that "Road Warrior" look about me and just needed some time to chill and digest the situtation.
The funny thing is, I have enough stock to fill my space- I'm just not used to having enough space for all of it. So now I can actually fill my space the way I really want to, instead of having to squeeze everything into a tiny booth. And so the initial shock of this enormous empty square marked in white spray paint on the rocky desert floor has turned to an eager enthusiasm. I unpack my trailer and I see the possibilities are endless to turn this desolate spot into a beautiful bustling storefront full of beautiful rocks, jewelry, gold, silver, copper, lapidary and prospecting supplies, and all kinds of other great stuff. And if there is still more space left, there are rocks, rocks, and more rocks, to fill it with. And it's a good thing I just collected several buckets of Utah Wonderstone two days ago.
And then there are the buckets of dirt. It occurred to me today, when I crossed the Arizona state line, that the last time I was in Arizona in the Spring of this year, I was gold prospecting. After digging, processing and panning for several days, it was time to go. I left out with several buckets of dirt, intending to pan it out at my next location, keep the gold, and get rid of the dirt. But this summer was insanely busy. I was in 5 different states, including South Dakota and Wyoming, rockhounding and prospecting. The buckets of dirt got shoved to the back of the trailer, behind all the new South Dakota agates, all the half-finished pieces, and myriad boxes of rocks, and I realize that in the past 6 months I have transported this dirt through 9 states, just to end up bringing it back to Arizona again.
Maybe there's a reason I have a 40' x 40' space. Maybe part of it is supposed to be dedicated to my buckets of special, well-traveled, dirt. Even if it doesn't yield any gold, it still has seen more states than alot of people have. That should account for something, right? In this competitive world, where every business is trying to find that special edge that sets it apart from the crowd, I may have found mine- in addition to my rocks and stuff, at MY booth you can find unique, special, and awesome...buckets of well-traveled dirt.
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