The 10 hour drive from Concord to Paducah was uneventful. When we reached the outskirts of town I started to get real excited. We were going to duke it out with the big boys.
When we arrived at Vendor Check In there was just one other vendor in front of us. I overheard the lady at the reception desk say to them "You're in Circuit City. It's about 3 miles down the road by the Interstate. Here's a map" I thought that they must be one of the vendors in the side shows. They weren't a prestigious, top drawer vendor like us with a spot in the main Expo Center. You can guess what happened next. The lady at the desk checked our credentials and said "You're in Circuit City. It's about 3 miles down the road by the Interstate. Here's a map." I said "No, no, no! We're in the main Expo Hall. There must be some mistake!" She replied "Sir, the Ohio River is flooding. By tomorrow night there will be 21 inches of water in the main convention hall. We've rented a couple of empty retail buildings by the Interstate, and we're putting vendors there. Each vendor will get a 10 foot by 10 foot space." We had paid for a 10 foot by 20 foot space and we had a trailer full of stuff for that size booth. So I said "Can we get a refund of our booth fee given the circumstances." The answer - "No. We're having a show and we have a booth for you so no full refund. However, we will refund part of your fee since your not getting all the space you paid for. The Vendor Chairperson will get back to you on the details. If you don't take the booth we have for you, you forfeit the entire fee."
What could we do. We had just driven 10 hours and paid for a week of hotel rooms plus our daughter's air fare (all non-refundable). So we headed to the abandoned Circuit City. The facility was alive with workers setting up booths. Unfortunately, the booths were 8 feet wide and 12 feet deep. If you put one table in the front of the booth nobody could get in it. We went to the spot where our booth was being set up only to find a giant black oil stain right in the middle of it. Judy was was in tears. We had committed substantial funds to the show so far (well into 4 figures), and that didn't include the meals we would have during the week and gas for the trip home. I could read her mind - "Why did I decide to come to Paducah? What possessed me to start a quilt business? Why was I born?" The "Holy Grail" of quilt shows was not off to an auspicious start.
There was nothing else we could do that day, so we left Circuit City and went to find our bed & breakfast. It was pretty far out of town down some country roads, but it was very nice. The only problem was that the owner didn't quite understand that we were there to work, not have a romantic weekend. Breakfast had to be on the table a 7:30 am sharp so we could get to the show on time. She did a pretty good job of hitting the deadline, but I could tell she wasn't happy about it.
The next day was set up day, so after a good night's sleep and an excellent breakfast, Judy, Virginia and I headed back to Circuit City to see if we could make some lemonade out of this lemon.
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