Off To Bandon

Well, it's shaping up to be another strange weekend in my chosen career. When the radiator hose blew on the way to Jacksonville, the mechanic said that bursting a radiator and then a hose is often an indicator that something bigger is wrong and causing the engine to overheat and tax the cooling system.

Well, the van ran weird after the hose blew. It limped home without much power, and I thought maybe water got in somewhere and just needed to dry out. Well, a week later it's no better. There was no money or time to fix it this week before coming to Bandon, so I decided to leave super early (while it's still cold outside) and stop often to let the engine cool down. And so I did. I drove carefully and made sure that I got to within 100 miles of Bandon before stopping, since that's how far AAA will tow if I needed them to.

My morning break brought me to the Bear Creek Park on Highway 42.

This park is beautiful! I'm a big fan of old bridges, mostly because of the honesty in their construction. You can see exactly how they're built and what they're made of. The wooden bridge above is quite a bit of engineering to let people walk across a creek that's obviously dangerous in the rainy season.

While at the park, I added a quart of oil, some fuel injector cleaner, and let the van cool for an hour before I continued the rest of the way to Bandon.

I arrived in Bandon at around noon. The first thing I noticed is that it's COLD! This is perfect after last weekend. I threw on a ruana and walked around Old Town looking at the shops and galleries. One of the local gallery owners looked at me and said "Well, you know how to dress for Bandon!" before walking into her shop. I have to say that a thick cotton cloak is exactly the right covering in weather like this.

I also noticed that the culture here is based on the wind. There are wind socks and wind chimes everywhere. Again, this is great if one is trying to sell cloaks and shawls. Tourists, including myself, seem to be a little surprised by the cold and ready for another layer.

I also notice that this festival seems to be a big deal here. There are flyers everywhere, the paper had a special insert dedicated to the festival, and many of the locals are talking it up. They say that thousands of people come into town this weekend just for the festival. "We're just out shopping while our husbands golf," was one quote I heard on the street. Sounds good to me.

Cloak weather, check!
Beautiful location, check!
Well-publicized event, check!
Tourists with spending capacity, check!

All indicators seem to point toward a great show. I've got my fingers crossed that I can fix the van, pay rent, buy more yarn, and still have money left over to start paying for wintertime expenses.