SHOWS OVER - LET'S GO HOME

So. The show. The Santa Fe Lounge in the Leatherock Hotel is a good sized room that looks out onto the railroad tracks and the town's water tower. Bright winter sunlight streams onto the wood panelled walls as trains roll heavily by blasting their whistles. We couldn't have pictured a more perfect location. By 9.30 friday night, after an 11am start, we (well pretty much Jim) were done hanging the show. We stuffed our faces at Pizza Hut and crashed at the Leatherock that night. It felt good going to sleep with the work right next door. Saturday. Opening day. We woke up and didn't have a clue how things would pan out. We made some final adjustments and Jim went out to get snacks for the hoped for visitors. By the time he got back and we'd put some coffee on, folks were banging at the front door. Who knew? We'd expected to hand out a few flyers and drum up a tiny crowd but Wayne at the Leatherock Hotel had got us a mention in the papers and on the radio and a whole bunch of people showed up. All sorts. Little kids, old folks, youths - from all over Kansas. I don't know how many we had on that first day. 50? 60? A whole lot more than we expected anyway. We were really happy so many people got to see the work. And everyone seemed pretty happy with the show (except for one little guy who expected us to demonstrate skate tricks for him). That night, Larry fired up the barbie on the hotel's front porch and treated us to a Kansan bbq dinner. Thanks Larry. Come Sunday, we were all talked out and tired. But sure enough, as we returned to the hotel from breakfast in a nearby town (where a waitress recognized us from our picture on the front page of the Sunday Paper) cars were already pulling up for the show. Some local artists brought their work by for us to look at. One guy donated a skateboard photo he'd taken and even the Mayor of Cherryvale stopped by. It was a good day. A top weekend. The show all done, we packed everything up in double quick time and hit the road. We'd stayed in this most incredible place and met some good people. Especially Wayne and Larry at the Leatherock, who made sure the whole thing went really smoothly. We need to figure out what we're going to do for next year so we have an excuse to come back. Suggestions welcome.