Room 610

This post is a test bed for my Not Going to BreyerFest "Clarion" album on the FaceBook group.  I've accumulated many pictures of this most special of all my model horse locations; everything shown was shot in 2019.  I wanted to put them all in one place.  I even took movies of the halls, when I heard they were going to be torn down.  The movies were taken before almost anyone had moved in, so I'm afraid they're on the bland side.

First, Room 610 as it was set up last year, right before the inundation of sales ponies (the black shelves).  I've been in 610 for the last decade or so - I don't have exact records at the moment.  I've stayed at the Holiday Inn/Clarion for BreyerFest since the early 2000s, when I became too involved (or too old) to be sleeping in the back of the pickup at the campground.  The 1999 heat wave probably helped with that decision.

Below:  the ironing board is set up to the left.  By my tradition, everything on it is free.

View out the window, July 10, 2019, about 10 in the morning.  The white utility trailer is Heather Wells'.

The bed features my trademark serapes and sheepskin.  This is before everything gets covered over by all the stuff my roommate/partner-in-crime/fellow seller-of-horses brings in.

This is the view in the hall.  Even with the new paint on the walls, the lighting is not exactly great for this room.

This is a movie of the parking lot view, from the window of Room 610.  July 10, Wednesday of BreyerFest week, 2019, about 10 in the morning.

This is a movie of the 600 hall of Clarion, taken the morning of July 10, 2019.  That's Kelly Korber Weimar hanging stuff on her door.  No, she didn't know she was being shot--!!
Apologies for the awful sound.

This is a movie of the highest, farthest-away hall of the Clarion, the upper 600s.  I linger on a small group of posters because, of course, one of them is mine!  (It's the same one as on the 610 door.)  Later I sweep over the empty walls of the upper stairwell because I can remember so well how they were once covered with posters -- even here at the end of the world.  July 10, 2019, about 9 in the morning.

Now for some photos from the depths of excitement in Room 610.  This captures it.   Eleanor Jones Harvey (right) and Colette Robertson (left) are doing business with me.  I'm in my favorite position, ensconced on the sheepskin.  I do not know the identity of the dark haired girls in the background, so if someone will let me know, I will gladly update this--!!

Another view of the action.  You can see the Saddlebred in front of the flatscreen, and behind him my tack display case (more orange stickers).  July 10, Wednesday, about 4 in the afternoon.

More action.  Colette naturally hated having her picture taken, but this so captures her persona...

 One of the Clarion tricks I learned early was to bring my own lamps.  Setting up one's display, arranging the lighting cords, finding the right drop cloths (I've always used serapes, gotten originally in Nogales and later in Tucson) and labelling one's wares (I use orange stickers on the horses) are individual behaviours evolved and refined over the years.
I've been to all but two BreyerFests.  I went to the Pennsylvania one of the four held in 1991.  I was 'medically prevented' during 2010 and again in 2014.  Come to think of it, 'medically prevented' is pretty close to what's happening this year.

It's not an exaggeration to say that some of the happiest hours of my life happened in Room 610.  Year after year, friends and hobbyists would wander in and out.  Prizes were found, scrapbooks shared, sales and swaps started, sustained and concluded (or not), tackmaking tricks passed on and new friendships forged.  Once a year a week of my life happened here.  NANs were accomplished, and I ran in the 5K race.  One year I was dreadfully sick (2018); I was so glad I didn't have a roommate then.

BreyerFest is my Olympics, Christmas, Mecca and Piccadilly Circus all rolled into one.

A month later, these shots were taken in August of 2019 after the Covered Bridge/Model Meet Up day, described in  A Driving Adventure.  They were taken in my own back yard.  What a great way to see not just me but the same pink serape for a tablecloth and the same orange stickers on the horses.  The two horses on the table not for sale --  Emerson/Palatlakaha and Dundee/Barbahamia -- are personal models, accompanying me as friends and examples of what happens to a horse that falls into my hands to stay.

For more information on sales of the Guide, visit my website:  Guide to Making Model Horse Tack
For more information on sales of Compact Discs of the Guide and the Draft Collar Tutorial, visit my website's page on them:  Tack Sales Info.
For more information on sales of the horses, medallions and leather lace spools shown, email me at sbytsii@verizon.net.
Sorry, the Roman is not available/gone. 

Here's hoping that such fellowship, and such a gathering as BreyerFest in its natural habitat, can happen again in the years to come.