The Plan for Saturday was to check out of the hotel, load up the truck, shop until around 2, then head back home. So we would have time to price on the way, and have a nice calm drive back. That was The Plan, anyway.
So at 3, when we were only half done shoping, there was a slight panic. We had to go to the other place to find the Fluorite man, the Pendant Guy, and The Other Cool Clasp people. So off we went. After fighting freeway construction and parking lot squatters, we managed to mark the last few items off the list. And by then it was 5:45. Might as well eat a nice “lunch” since we haven’t had food since 8:30.
It was getting dark when we left, with a sliver of moon hanging in the sky above the palm trees. (Very nice, but my camera is incapable of that kind of feat.) No pricing in the dark, though.
We drove through the night, past the signs still warning us that dust storms still might exist, until we were too tired to go on.
In case you need to find a room in Van Horn Texas at 2:30AM on a Saturday night, don’t. After some quick math, we figured out that this room costs 1/5th of what the Tucson room cost. So was it 5 times worse? Nope, more like 7.4 times worse. So we got out as soon as the sun was up, didn’t even comb our hair. And drove. We got back to Fort Worth late Sunday afternoon. We unloaded the truck, and said “Stick a fork in us, we’re DONE!” Our job is nearly finished.
As we unloaded, we realized that we bought a LOT of stuff. As in “where can we possibly put all this stuff?” Maybe there really isn’t enough room, and we can’t make the store bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. But it’s all so gorgeous! I mean, we got some awfully freakin’ amazing beads! I want them all!
Preview night is Friday, all these new beauties will be displayed and ready for you to take home! There will be plenty left on Saturday, probably, but the ones that make me try to grab and hide them (because I turn into a Gollum-like troll that says “But I wants it, my precious!”), those will probably be among the first to go.
We’ll post the times later in the week, but it’ll be after regular store hours.
We’ll see you soon!