The Artist Market at Historic Honey Horn

The trip started out with a bang. Literally. About 20 minutes into my journey last Thursday I watched a small white car on the opposite side of the interstate veer sharply to his left and begin rolling up the embankment beside the road. The car eventually ended upside down in the middle of the frontage road.

About five drivers who saw the incident stopped to help the driver. I was already on the cell phone with 911 when I reached the car. A woman who was the first to get to the vehicle yelled to me that the driver was alert and talking which shocked me due to the severity of the wreckage. Turns out the woman was a trauma nurse at our local hospital. So we waited for EMS to arrive and talked about how lucky the driver was.

Just a few moments later our conversation was interrupted by a loud crash and the screeching of tires. We watched in horror as two other vehicles were wildly leaving the opposite side of the highway; one was stopped by the steel cable guard in the median while the other flipped and rolled to a halt on the opposite frontage road from where we were. Evidently one driver slowed to gawk at the first accident and was rear-ended by the second vehicle.

Out of all that carnage there was not a single serious injury. Those that witnessed both wrecks are convinced we saw two miracles. Needless to say I drove a little more alert than usual this past weekend.

Thankfully there was far less drama the next few days. Sales were slow for many of us and I actually didn't make expenses from actual weekend transactions. But I'm fairly certain that I will get a very nice commission piece that will culminate in June. I've already begun some sketches for it so I can e-mail them before I leave again Thursday.

The weather was again awesome! Perfect for the coast: hot and sticky. In fact we hit 90+ degrees today here in Greenville. Summer is knocking on the door.

Here are the promised pictures....

I fed deer each night. Two of them by hand. This guy was the friendliest so I named him Deer Ben.

First taste of salty air this year and it was goooood! Taken at Hunting Island State Park.

This is a view of about a third of the market. This is the "wild & rowdy" section.

The Outlaws! On the left is Philip Simmons who shares many music friends I've had through the years including working with Jackyl prior to my gig with them. In fact it was his advice that led to me getting hired. Philip won second place money just shy of getting Best in Show.

In the middle is Tony "Soprano" Cacalano, a connoisseur of all things Italian. I shared a few beers and "war stories" with Tony and his lovely wife Peggy when the buyers left to find air-conditioning. I felt like some young musician getting befriended by Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. It was honor to get to know these guys.

The next photo needs a preface. The most successful artists travel around in their huge RVs and get to camp at or near the show site they are attending. Just like the Snow Birds that travel to Florida from the North each fall they pull another vehicle behind them so they can get around town while camping. I promised Joan that one day we'd arrive and be able to do the same thing. Given how the shows have been going this Spring I found something that fits our budget:

If Joan doesn't like it I guess The Outlaws can use it for a tour bus.

Here we see the Beaufort River Bridge lined up with cars waiting to make their way to the interstate. It took me 2 hours to travel the 15 miles between Hunting Island and this bridge because the main Causeway was closed. Many scenes from the films I mentioned yesterday were shot within a mile or two of this location.