Tales From the Road – Wire Works Custom Jewelry

Tales From the Road

Part 1

Last night we had a few friends over for dinner of homemade New Mexico Enchiladas.  After dinner we retired to the front porch to enjoy the incredible sunset and each other’s company. While enjoying beautiful Grand Lake, the stories began to flow.  Soon we were “cuttin’ up jackpots” which is simply the telling or retelling of stories about our journeys and the mishaps we have experienced as we travel across the country.

Many of the travels taken by Jim and me over the years consist of pulling our trailers full of wire jewelry displays across country.  These travels were always centered on our adventures of hauling a trailer behind our Greyhound Bus Motor Home Conversion.  During the early days of our business we couldn’t afford trailers.  Our Ford Van was loaded with the wire jewelry tools, the displays and all our worldly possessions. Of course, the most important of these goods were the gold and silver wire we use in our beautiful jewelry which you can see in our Online Store .  We headed across country to various locations just for the opportunity to display and sell our custom wire designs to folks attending these various events.  Our greatest hope was to pay for our expenses and make a little extra cash.  Sometimes we hit the road without having a solid commitment for space. Should someone not show up or cancel, we were in!

During the summer of 1983, we took off  from Wichita, Kansas to work the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Missouri.  Crossing a bridge that arched over a railroad track, we entered Augusta, Kansas.  Jim, who has little tolerance of bad drivers, looked up and asked, “Who is this screwball trying to pass me?”  I strained to see what was going on and shouted, “Jim, it’s our van”…THE van that held all our worldly goods inside.  It had broken loose from the bus hitch and was in the other lane passing OUR BUS.  Jim kicked into his John Wayne mode and sped up to get in front of the van in the hope of using his brakes to slow it down.  Any minute I expected to hear the crunch that would put our lives on hold.   However, the van continued to run into the back of the bus as Jim continued to apply the brakes of the bus.  Eventually, we were able to stop our runaway van before our “runaway” did further damage.  As for the bus, well, let’s just say it looked like it had enjoyed a night on the town.  After a lot of nervous laughter and a few heart pounding minutes, we hooked the van back onto the bus and continued our trip to Sedalia.  As we setup our wire jewelry displays we continued to laugh at our latest road escapade.  Despite this adventure, we were able to enjoy a wonderful show designing the many unique and affordable wire jewelry items for the Fair goers of Missouri.  As I recall, this was a record year for us in making brand jewelry for the farmers and ranchers in Missouri.

What a TRIP!