The 100-Day Project, Day 71,72,73: Departure, Arrival, Set-up and Opening!
Rolling several days of the 100-Day Project together here, and I am actually trying to write this post on my phone, from our hotel in Ocean Shores.
The hotel and convention center is a big building in the middle of nowhere.
Because of all the preparations done ahead of time, loading up the truck yesterday was actually pretty quick and painless.
This might just be the most prepared we have been for an outside event in years, in spite of the fact that we are participating on rather short notice.
Of course, part of that is courtesy of the event organizer letting us have an extra night's stay for free!
We were able to leave home at about 1:45 in the afternoon, and with a couple of stops made it to Ocean Shores by about 5:30. Thankfully it was a beautiful sunny day, which certainly beats driving in pouring rain, as we often end up doing.
Vendor setup for the event formally begins at 2:00 PM, but when I spoke to the organizer he said we could start as soon as he gets here, and has approved the facilities reset from the previous group who leave at noon.
It's actually nice to have this bit of slack time before having to be "on" non-stop for a couple of days!
Time Passes...
As it turned out, the vendor spaces were available already at 11:45, so we were able to load in earlier than expected!
The vendor hall getting set up!
Since we are used to having only 90 minutes to two hours to set up for events, the luxury of having six hours to work with means being able to move at a leisurely pace.
In come all the show bins!
Although the events area had been remodeled since our last visit in 2019, there was a back loading area to park the truck and haul in our stuff.
Which was a good thing, since it otherwise would have required a very long walk through the casino area!
All set up!
We were fully set up by 4:00, so that left time to grab a snack and come back to fine tune the space before the event doors were opened. Official opening time was 6:00, but people started to be let in already at 5:15.
Moro to come tomorrow!
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2024.05.03 AS-TXT-259/229