Sigh.  Deep sigh.  Relax.  Just finished packing up the booth after the show at the Denver Merchandise Mart and driving 45 minutes south to my brother’s home where I have stayed during the show. An advantage of this nomadic life is getting to see family. Now it is just a matter of watching the weather reports and hoping I can drive the hour north tomorrow morning to the airport for my flight to El Paso where there is more family. Then the 500 mile drive home. HOME!  Home to reload and then head to Tampa. More on that later.

My technology skills are progressing. Right now I am using my Blackberry to access the internet on my Mac. That is a handy trick a show friend just taught me. Prior to that when I couldn’t get WIFI I would spend the day at a Barnes & Noble using theirs.

I will post photos early next week. Please return as there will be some beautiful and inspirational photos. Just a hint: “after” photos of a friend who has triumphantly dropped 130 pounds!

Watching snow reports hoping to fly from Denver to El Paso tomorrow Sunday!

One of the benefits of being a quilt show circuit rider is going to so many places where I have history.  One of the best things about being “this age” is that I now have old friends.

While in Phoenix, I was able to reconnect with one, Janice Miller Sanders, and meet her bridegroom Bruce over a great dinner at Persian Garden Cafe.  We shared a toast and shed a tear for another old acquaintance of whom we were very fond, Darlene Higgins, who passed away in August 2009.  Janice, Dar and I worked together at Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company, in my previous life, from 1979 to mid-1983.  Janice’s and my paths crossed again “coincidentally” from 1991 through 1998 when we both worked for FHP and subsequently Pacificare.  I am so grateful I am no longer working in the health insurance industry!  What stressful and challenging times it must be.  Janice is now “retired” from that occupation, too, and I think a career as a professional photographer can’t be far off!  See what you think:

Old Friends

See Jim & the Curve Master at Las Cruces (New Mexico) quilt guild show Feb. 5-6 at Corbett Center, NMSU!

See Sandy & the Curve Master at Rocky Mountain Sew Expo, Denver Merchandise Mart, Feb. 4-6 at the Just Curves booth!

Pilgrims Crossing into Algodones

I am officially initiated as a member of America’s senior citizenry having made my first pilgrimage to Algodones, Mexico, in search of wellness and healing.  (Or for the less romantic, I was lookin’ for cheaper glasses and meds.)

We seekers pour across the US – Mexico border, by some estimates 30,000 daily, in search of affordable (or just less expensive) medical, dental, vision, and pharmacy services.  In the four-square block area that is Algodones, barkers entice passersby to come inside and see the delights that await you in the dental chair.  Free examinations with cleanings, root canals, extractions,  bridges, crowns and dentures, at 75%-80% of the price in the US.

The Purple Pharmacy

Many different pharmacies (“the best ones are the purple ones,” my optician receptionist assures me) provide your medicines, with some prescriptions at 95% of the price in the US and most others at significant savings.

One Price List

“But if you won’t drink the water, how can you trust dental tools in your mouth?” you ask.  And, “aren’t you afraid of the drug wars raging in the border cities?”  Word-of-mouth (no pun intended) from satisfied customers abounds on the internet and in personal interactions with other pilgrims.  Claims are that all the professionals in Algodones (rumored to be 350 dentists, for example) have a vested interest in keeping it safe for us to visit, as it is their livelihoods.  And indeed, we have never felt unsafe there, no more than the usual discomfort of being out of my comfort zone.

Not all is doctors, dentists, opticians and pharmacists, though!  Pinatas, painted iron work, and other Mexican art make the market place colorful.

Pinatas

The worst part of the whole experience?  The LONG line waiting to pass through Immigration and Customs to get back into the USA.  It doesn’t seem like there are 30,000 shoppers in Algodones, until you walk blocks to the end of the line!  Most folks don’t drive across into Mexico as auto insurance is expensive and a security-patrolled parking lot is conveniently provided by a local Indian tribe within easy walking distance of the border on the US side.

The Long Line Home

Here are two outstanding young quilters who participated, along with about 15 others, in showing quilts they had made this year.  Aren’t they fabulous?  (Caitlin, if I’ve misspelled your name, let me know by leaving a comment here and I’ll edit this!)

Here’s what Barb has to say about the Curve Master:

The Yuma quilt guild does such a good job with their show, especially when you consider that so much of the population is “Snow Birds” who are part-time winter residents who flee the cold weather for warmer parts.

We left California in enough time to be ahead of the predicted El Nino rains. We made it to Yuma with enough time to set up  our 5th wheel trailer.  Although it was leaning as noticeably as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, due in large part to a hurry- up job done by Mr. Right in a rush to get onto the golf course, I was assured that it was fine.  (You may know I say I married Mr. Right…I just didn’t know his first name was “Always.”)

That evening the storm downloaded Yuma’s total annual average rainfall in one evening.  By the second day, and second of four storms predicted, the trailer had to be rehitched to the truck in order to be repositioned safely….and in order to accomplish the rehitching, it had to be jacked up with two well placed hydraulic jacks and the loan of some lumber from our friendly Canadian neighbor.   No comment.

Here are some photos from the show:

Yuma Viewers' Choice and First Place 2010

Yuma Viewers' Choice and First Place 2009

From the Road to California show, happy visitors kept stopping to say hello.  Come see us at a show near you and share your love of the Curve Master to be a blog star!

Here are some testimonials of Curve Master fans who stopped by the Treadleart booth where we were guest demonstrating the Curve Master at the Road to California show.  Thanks so much for your kind words!