I had a day to do laundry and pack for the return to Tucson to be a dealer in the TGMS show. The first load of laundry was in the machine when the power went out. As the next hour or so went by, the outages increased and the only explanation from the power company was it was likely due to the storm. Being that we are in a rural area, it has in the past it has been a day or more before we have power restored. We have a generator — but it refused to start.
So plans changed. I packed for the coming week, loaded the car and headed south to LA where my daughter lives. It was a miserable drive down US 101 in the rain.. Fortunately there were not that many others crazy enough to be out driving in the storm so I could usually keep lots of space between my car and other vehicles. And the majority of the other drivers were being as cautious in their driving as I was.
Laundry done and a head start for the rest of the drive, accompanied by my daughter who had been drafted to help at the show, I started out the next day for Tucson. It rained until we were past Palm Springs. Unlike the previous day, there was a lot of traffic. First it was just the normal LA traffic, and then more and more of it was big trucks going long distances on I-10. It was a good feeling when I finally saw familiar Tucson landmarks and got to check in at our hotel.
The next day after I picked up our credentials at the Tucson Convention Center, the storm caught up with us. The wind was powerful enough to move the orange barricades used in the parking lot and carried small bits that stung exposed skin. It was the last day for the motel shows on the other side of the freeway and the storm caused some of those in more exposed outside spaces to pack up early.
The weather was definitely the significant feature of the week. Wednesday morning was set up time. We were lucky that there was a pause in the precipitation while we hauled things into the building. As we were heading back to the car after the booth was set up, a few drops of rain fell. No sooner than we got in the car, the skies opened. I decided, to just sit there and wait hoping the cloud burst would go as quickly as it came. And then the sound of the storm got a lot louder. It was hail! All we could do was sit there and laugh until it passed (and try to take a few photos of the hail on the windshield).
Thursday morning the show opened to the public. The ballroom where we were located was opened at 9:30 while the big exhibition hall did not open until 10. It wasn’t the out-the-door first day crowd I experienced as a visitor to the show pre-pandemic. As the day went on people trickled through the ballroom. Some of the other dealers complained that a lot of people just did not realize there were more dealers in the ballroom and only went to the exhibition hall downstairs. It was interesting that most of the sales that day were cash sales. We had done okay. Enough excess cash to make a deposit in the bank before heading to the hotel and then out to dinner.
Friday the show opened at 9am for local school children to visit the show and participate in special educational programs. The show dealer chair took note of the complaints about traffic to the ballroom and for the remainder of the show, the hourly announcements included mention of more dealers in the ballroom. That did seem to help bring more traffic. Of course, there wasn’t all that much I had to offer for the kids to purchase so the increase in people coming by did not help overall sales. The major difference was that on Friday, more of the sales were using credit cards rather than cash.
Saturday morning started with more rain and a much bigger crowd in line to enter the show. However, our sales did not reflect that increase. There were actually fewer sales and only two stones not from the $50 and under boxes. Only one of the sales was a cash sale. So the day was a bit disappointing. Lots of people came by and admired what was on display, but they were not buying. I was getting the feeling that the most of the people who would be interested in the gems I had to offer had already left Tucson.
As expected, Sunday was slow. It was also Super Bowl Sunday, so there was extra completion for the public’s attention and our sales reflected that. As a result, I had a chance to make a quick tour of the exhibition hall. Several of the dealers were already packing well before the 4pm official show closing. Tear down always goes faster than set up and it wasn’t long before we had everything back in the car and were heading to the hotel.
Monday morning we started for home. This time the trip was a very long but uneventful drive in good weather.
Tucson 2024 was history.