Riding Off Into the Sunset

N said it best on the last day of our big-city market: "I'm sad but also not-sad that the market is over."

How true it is. It is with mixed emotions that we closed up our final big-city market. What an experience is has been, and thanks to S for setting us up and allowing us into the operation so late in the game.

It was kind of sad to say goodbye to all of our newly found friends, and I would love to keep in touch with them, but that will depend on how much effort we want to put into it.

We also scored some friendly mementos from it all. NL from the alpaca farm gave me a hat, which happened to be too big for the average human being, but fit my melon head just right. She refused to take money and said we had given her so many dumplings and it was the least she could do. Either way, I'm grateful. Also, the ladies of Swallowtail WW baked us a cake for helping them with their tent disaster last week. I was floored, mainly because we only did what any person would have done. Either way, just another example of how cool the friends we made at the market are.

Speaking of friends, we made many new ones, and saw a side to life that many people don't often get to see, and had a number of experiences, both good and bad, that have stemmed from this adventure. All in all, I think it was a positive ride but one that will need tweaking and modification if we hope to do it again next year, and we definitely hope to do it again next year.

Of course, we don't have time to sit back and stew in the satisfaction that it is all over, because there is still much more work that needs to be done, but in the meantime, at least we don't have the stress and anxiety of having to make all of those dumplings. It really makes life hard.

For the record, the local market will continue for a few weeks, but that is a much more mellow market, and should not be as bad.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to lonewolfsh for the pic.