STARDATE 2019 8-06 THE STARSHIP HAS FOUND ITS MOTHER PORT

STARDATE 2019 8-06 THE STARSHIP HAS FOUND ITS MOTHER PORT

SUMMER ROADNOTES

As the summer wears on we power up the photon boosters on the Starship and go where no leather smiths have gone before.

Brookings Summer Art Festival is the first stop. It is held in a beautiful city park in amongst the trees, everybody has shade and shade is a valued commodity in these parts!
The festival is in its 48th year and people here know how to “event build”. We salute the city of Brookings and all of the volunteers and contributors that put on a grand event!

Without repacking the trailer we orient off the stars of the galaxy and head North by Northwest to Buffalo Wyoming for a very curious event called LongMire Days.
Longmire days is a Net Flix TV series and now that it has completed its last show the movie stars come to this town to enjoy their fan club.
Everyone gets to mingle with the stars of this show. The town of Buffalo is about 5,000 and the event makes it triple in size.
We meet people from many parts of the world that enjoy this town and this curious TV show.
This is the first time we have exhibited at a “recycled” festival called “Lovin Junkin!”
It was a great show and we found lots of old customers and made lots of new friends.

Restart the engines and head six or eight hours north to Polsun Montana the following week to the Flathead Lake Art Festival.
It is positioned at the southern edge of the Flathead Lake on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Perhaps the most beautiful Lake in North America and the art festival setting is equally beautiful as it is on the Lake.
Light breezes, shade, comfortable park setting makes this rather new festival one to watch in the future.
Its growth potential is significant.
We were the “newbies” and enjoyed 100% new customers from everywhere, even Yupik Natives from the Yukon in Alaska.

A day spent at cousin Dan Getman’s Cherry Red Orchard on Flathead Lake (mile marker 20).
Dan and Sheryl receive 150 phone calls per day to come pick cherries at their Cherry Ranch.
They shout through the fence “Are you farmer Dan?” “Can we come in!” Dan is gracious and accommodating.
His confidence is buoyed by the fact that he is known to have the very best Cherries on Flathead Lake.

We don’t overstay our welcome, because Dan and Sheryl are swamped with orders for Cherries.

Blast off to Bozeman, Montana to the Sweet Pea Festival. A main event for Bozeman each year, it combines music, arts, and entertainment.
The city is one of my favorite in the western United States. Because of the University of Montana resides in this city it is filled with interesting and educated people, everyone has an interesting story.
Bozeman is the best!

Our show is over and we realize it has been four weeks on the road. It’s hot and we are stumbling tired as we pack up our trailer for one last time. It takes an hour or two when we are energetic, tonight it seems like an anchor has dropped and we shuffle a bit slower that at the beginning of our expeditionary tour.

We gauge our trip homeward to try and miss the Sturgis Motorcycle rally. So we slow down and stop in Sheridan, Wyoming at a curious shop that sells musical instruments, antiques, and curiosities.

John Quarterman spins a specialized cone that is used in resophonic guitars, they are called Quarterman cones. This isn’t that John!
However the John Quarterman that I have come to know is a musician, anthropologist, world traveler and ethnomusicologist. The time spent with him was kindred, we seemed to play off each others smarts & nonsense.

At 5:30 a.m. we arose and commandeered the Fleet Starship back to our mother port in Worthington, Mn. The winds were light and the heat index kept us from self immolation.

Our month on the road wasn’t for the faint of heart. It was warm to hot during most events and the Grand Children in Milwaukee and St. Paul seemed to be on our minds.

We can see our lives in slow motion, changing nearly every festival. Our customers mean a great deal to us, the endearment to life long friends that we have met on the road keep us traveling.
I’ve come to realize that I’ve been failing at retirement for the past two years.
This coming month we are fortunate to abstain from travel and balance our work with our children and grandchildren.
The people we’ve met along the way, Londoners, New Yorkers,Cheyenne, Crow, Aricara, Blackfoot, South Carolinans, Arapahoe, Yupic, and Lakota and Montanan’s
We are grateful to call most everyone family.
Your patronage fuels our enthusiasm and causes us to consider the road as part of our home.
In Romani Gypsy an expression is often used. “Latcho Drom” it means “Safe Journey”
Thanks for being apart of our adventure.
Billandlauri
Buffalo Billfold Company

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