What a start to the beginning of June?!?!?! We had the opportunity to go to the Homestead Festival again this year with our dear friends and help out at their booth. Now we are back home, have had some time to run around like chickens with our heads cut off and now sitting down to chat. It has been a tad bit on the crazy side here at the homestead since returning but I think we should take some time to chat about The Homestead Festival!
Our time started on Wednesday when we took the drive to Spring Hill, TN. We managed to get a few hours into the drive when we ended up having to pull over and sit for a few minutes because a decent size storm was passing through. It wasn’t too bad with how much rain was happening but the wind was hitting us just right that it wasn’t so comfortable to drive with a camper in tow. So to be safe, we pulled off at a rest stop, which was a total God thing because he provided it just about 1/2 a mile from when we decided it was time to get off the road. Not a long wait but we managed to get back onto the road maybe 10 minutes later. Once on the road we traveled to our accommodation and the group we were with was down right a wonderful bunch of people. 10/10 I will be requesting to use their place again. They helped Jeremy back up the camper (it was an odd fit but worked just fine) and even let us borrow the power line for the camper because ours was not long enough. One after another, they turned around and just showed love and understanding. We ended up going to Walmart, making dinner and then headed back to the camper for an early evening!
Thursday we had the opportunity to take it slow in the morning before we had to head out for the day. So Jeremy and I worked on a project together, did some computer work, made breakfast and lunch and the kids were taking a chill morning. We then headed out to help set up the booth space for our friends and it turned into about 2 hours of working on the space. It didn’t take long at all. But then we headed to a different friends place (the place she was using for the event) and the kids all were playing while the parents had the chance to sit down and talk. We enjoyed some cigars and wine while around the campfire and had to bust up laughing that we were the rowdy bunch of the campground. To which, when you see the bunch Im talking about, it kinda made me laugh because I don’t see how that was fitting. But that campground was calm. Finally at 10:30pm we headed back to our camper, got ready for bed and went to sleep.
Friday, bright and early, we were up, packing up the lunch and snacks, grabbing the breakfast to go, getting the dogs settled and getting the kids up for the day. We headed out and went to the Homestead Festival. Double checked the set up for the booth space, met some people and then the event started!!! At that point, the day kinda went by in a blur. Our friend did a speech, lots of people coming to the booth to purchase items, talking to some random people, the kids running around the kids area for fun and finally it ended up being about 6 pm when we got out of the event. Our evening plans changed and that gave us time to go to the camper and just relax in the evening. To which my body was thankful for that! Bentley ended up cuddling up to my side and then completely fell asleep snuggling up! Off to bed he went and same with me shortly after!
Saturday, once again, bright and early we got up, got lunch and snacks, got the breakfast, got the animals set, kids awake and off to the event we went. We had a slower morning at the event but I will say that was a nice change to the plans. This day we were able to actually chat with friends more than Friday. Then on top of that I ended up in about 4 different conversations with people that I didn’t know but took decent chunks of time. One lady and I chatted probably for like 1 to 1&1/2 hours alone. But at the end of the day, we headed over to our friends place to just have time to chill out and relax. I’m not gonna lie, I was the party pooper that said time to go when it got to be about 9pm. I was sleepy! We said our goodbyes as we won’t see some of these friends for a while and headed to the camper. We got ourselves settled and into bed!
Sunday, the day of traveling. We thankfully took this morning slowly. I needed to not be on the run and rushing and we did just that. The travel was thankfully uneventful and I really appreciated that! But the down side is we got home and maybe 20 minutes later a storm came through and started down pouring. We rushed to get the dogs out of the camper and into the house and just waited for the rain to slow down enough for us to be able to run outside. After a little bit of time, we got the entire camper unloaded and were able to just get ourselves ready for bed. Thankfully it was an easy evening once home.
Overall I will say we absolutely loved this event. We love being able to see our friends and see people we don’t get to see except what they post on social media. I had a few people that I absolutely loved seeing because they had such a crazy year and it was so nice to talk with them. I didn’t go to any of the talks and thats completely fine with me. I go to this event knowing I’m here to work and share our friends brand. I like being able to show love by being there so she can maybe have an easier time. I know there were tons of talks that would have been so fun to sit back and listen to but I think our rendition of the festival is always my favorite. I get to talk to so many random people. Have like minded conversations. Be inspired by others. See friends that we won’t get to otherwise and just taking the time to have fellowship with others. Yes the point of these festivals is to learn but I really can’t complain being able to learn from others instead. I absolutely loved talking to someone about her gardening season living in Florida and the other persons medical struggles and how she is planning to work on it. The medical person and I ended up exchanging numbers because when you live the chronic illness life, a random friend is always useful.
Our perspective is always different with this event because we are working as vendors but I really think I will take this over being a guest. Yes, we do get to walk around and see other booth spaces but at the same time, I absolutely love being able to stay at the booth and chat with others! I can’t wait for next year for this event. I really think this fills the tank is such a wonderful way!