We are almost done with delivery of the February edition of All Things Country Magazine after picking it up from the printers yesterday morning. With the help of my wonderful husband and sister, we have completed delivery in Estill, Powell, Lee, Wolfe, Madison, Fayette, Clark, Bath, Rowan, Montgomery and Carter counties. I'm pretty sure I'm leaving out a county or two, but I'm a bit tired tonight :-). We've got eight or nine counties left tomorrow and we'll be done ... for this month anyway.
It's really kind of fun going out to deliver the magazine. Who doesn't like it when the door opens and someone is bringing you something for free? So people are happy to see us! Of course, most of these businesses have ads in the book, so it really isn't free. But, our hope is that they get business off of their ad too, at least enough to pay for it!
It's interesting to hear people say, "Oh, I thought you'd be here today." Or the one we hear the most, "people have been calling to see if it's here yet." It's very gratifying to hear so many people say they like the magazine. It makes it worthwhile. For the most part. We certainly aren't getting rich off of All Things Country, but things are starting to pick up and that's good news too.
Our delivery days are very hectic. We usually pick up the magazine about 7:30 in the morning and load both of our rigs to the very top with them. I deliver part of Winchester, then head for Carter County and leave Uncle Bobby bundles for the Carter, Elliott and Lewis county areas. We've got some great readers in the Eastern part of the state. On my way back towards Winchester, I deliver to businesses in Morehead, Farmers, Cave Run Lake area, Owingsville and Mt. Sterling. I finish up the rest of Winchester before heading back to the farm. I can't do all of Winchester that morning because some businesses aren't open until later on, so I kind of divide it up.
Dave's day includes dropping off bundles at the farm and then delivering all of Estill County. His second day he takes them over to Powell, Wolfe and Lee counties for me, while I head to Lexington for a few stops over there and on to Richmond to deliver Madison County. Whew, lots of miles go on our rigs over two days. Good thing I don't mind driving! It's actually Dave that hates driving, it makes him tired.
We wrap up delivery of the magazine by, again, going in two different directions. One of us will take the southern route, which includes Berea down to the Welcome Center near Jellico, Tennessee - the other, up to Paris, Carlisle, Cynthiana and then up to the Welcome Center near Cincinnati. We kind of switch back and forth on day three, usually depending on the weather.
It's supposed to snow tomorrow, so we'll be out of here early in the morning and hopefully we can both get home before the roads get too bad. I've driven in my share of snow, so it doesn't bother me too much to drive on snowy roads, it's mostly the other drivers around me that make me nervous. Of course, yesterday when I couldn't make it up my Uncle Bobby's hill in Olive Hill, now that wasn't a whole lot of fun. I don't much like backing down a snowy road! And the brakes on these cars nowadays are kind of weird feeling when you are sliding...... enough said!
I do get to meet some mighty interesting people along the way though. Marty, the owner of Lying Lee's Used Cars between Morehead and Olive Hill. Now what a character! And they were one of the most hopping places I'd been to that day. What a bunch, that group. I'll probably never drive by that place again and not at least stop in and say hello! Heck, they'll probably be eating something while I'm there and I'll get lunch too. And to think that I've been driving by there now for six years and never did stop. Come to find out Marty is one of the organizers of Poppy Mountain Bluegrass Festival, which I've wanted to go to since moving here. And good news .... I walked out of there with tickets :-). So, we'll be there this year! And, better yet.... he's going to sponsor several Abby Tracks prizes before the festival in September, so some of our readers will be able to go too! You can find details about Poppy Mountain in the March book.
Today I had a great visit with Mike Chaney over at the Country Place in Richmond. They have such beautiful stuff in there. If you have never been there you really should plan a visit. They carry a fine line of antiques, pictures, candles, just all kinds of decor and other items. I could literally walk around there for a couple of hours and find stuff I'd love to have in my home. They are going to sponsor an upcoming Abby Tracks prize also.
So, all in all, we've had a great couple of days getting out the magazine. And now, the whole process starts again. I'll be out again Monday picking up ads for the March book. The Dave person thinks he has a job lined up starting Monday, so I've kind of lost my help all of a sudden. I panicked for a minute when I thought about doing all of this myself, but it only lasted a minute or two. I'll be okay. And I'll get to meet that many more people.
Have a great evening everyone! Time for some knitting before bed.
Pam
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