Out of Money= Bye Bye Tucson

I am fairly certain that the Tucson Gem Fair goes on for ever.  It's endless, a bottomless pit of beads metals and rocks.   I mean it may be possible to see everything there is to see but I have never even tackled one fourth of it.  Did I mention its massive?   Running out of money and heavy suitcases--- thats what prompts me to leave every year.

When we began our trips to Tucson seven years ago, you could fill your suitcases to the brim- as long as you could lug them out of the car onto the sidewalk, you were golden.  Times have changed!  I shipped 150 lbs of beads home UPS and we still had to shuffle weight between our 4 bags at the airport.   Bless Southwest for letting you take 2 bags on for free you can actually take 7 more for $50 each (cheaper to ship UPS or FedEx Ground).  So we packed up our jewels, our piles of receipts, business cards and our new design ideas and headed for home.