Snowed in

[tradgreenhorn]

The wife and I tried to get to K-Zoo. Had to turn around as the wind was blowing snow to white out conditions and road was drifted shut.        I will try for Sunday. I have about a 4 hour drive to K-Zoo sure hope the roads are clear.     Hope all that went had a good time. And pray for safe travel to all.

[buckracks7]

Yeah, I always wondered why they hold it January.

[ripforce56]

Michigan weather has been brutal this winter to say the least, this is the first year I didn't attend either! We got 14inches plus in Northern Mi on Friday now back to Sub zero temps didn't want to risk it!

[bluemoonrising]

The expo needs to be held in the spring/summer. People are going to get hurt and vendors are losing a lot of money because of the weather. Peace!

[WESTBROOK]

Stephan, a few of LaClairs buddies from the UP (Hidden Hunter blinds) had to stay in St.Ignace friday night. The Mac was closed and all roads back to the west UP were closed.

I drove down and back saturday, took a little longer that normal. Typical winter travel in our neck of the woods.

If ya want a summertime Expo go to Comptons, same folks are there..probably more..

Its in January 'cause there aint much else to do in the winter, summertime time schedule is a pretty full plate already. Most of the vendors have been doing this show for nearly 20 years and they know the odds the weather offers.

Eric

[ARCHER2]

Wow! Ya'll are having a tough winter for sure!

[Mojostick]

How was turnout at the show? I'd assume it had to be down. I didn't go and I'm only about an hour drive on clean roads.

The tough part is, being from West Michigan we're mostly all good drivers in conditions that cripple much of the country, because we get lots of snow/lake effect snow and driving experience in snow. But it also makes us wise drivers to conditions. Sure, I probably could technically have made the K-Zoo show, but what would have been a 2 hour round day trip would have been a 6 hour white knuckle drive round trip and if some other jerk going too fast forced me into a ditch, I'd have sat there for 8 hours waiting for a tow.

My daughter had her birthday party at 3pm yesterday. My plan was to be at the show when the doors opened, make a pass thru all the vendors, buy a few things and be back home by 2pm. Well, that was simply impossible due to conditions. As was getting there Friday night, as the blizzard hit. Today I had to get my inlaws to the airport by noon. So the storm really ruined my plans. I was really looking forward to the show because I, like many others, have some cabin fever going on.

[Bladepeek]

The reason K'zoo Expo is held in January is that I couldn't have waited 'til spring or summer for my new RER LXR. I'll post some pictures soon as I get them uploaded to Photo Bucket.

We do have our fair share of idiots here in MI. Many of them flew by us, tail-gating and drafting like NASCAR heroes. We saw a lot of them telescoped together or sitting WAY out in the ditches on the right or in the median on US-131 south-bound.

I'm sure the weather hurt the vendors, but there was a pretty good crowd on Saturday given the conditions. The good news is that I was able to spend a lot of time talking to bow and knife makers because the booths weren't so crowded.

[Wabasis]

I've been looking forward to the Expo all month. Between the weather conditions and family things staggered through the weekend it hasn't worked out to make the usual 1.5 hour trek down there. I sure hope that the turn out was good enough to make it beneficial for the vendors. Now will start setting the sights on making to the Compton's event to meet up with the vendors. Think Spring!

[bluemoonrising]

Actually, I hope the turnout is down. Dollars or lack of dollars could help move the date to a "safer" time of the year. JMHO Peace!

[bluemoonrising]

Don't get me wrong--I want the vendors to do well, but a March/April Expo would have a lot more fannies there.Thus, the vendors would do extra well. Peace!

[olddogrib]

One of the great mysteries of the trad archery world, it's a wonder the weather doesn't wreak havoc more than it does.  The one year I attended I took a chance and bought a non-refundable ticket at a great price months in advance and then kicked myself for such poor judgment on a trip the weather would probably ruin. Flew from RDU to Detroit Metro and drove to K-zoo without incident.  Had a great time only to get back to my return flight and find out RDU was iced in. They sent me to Houston which had the last connection, trying to kill time until the airport re-opened.  Got there just in time to see the "cancelled" light go up on the marquis next to my flight.  Go figure!

[Jon Stewart]

Myself and President of the Michigan Traditional Bow Hunters  worked the MTB booth Friday and all day Saturday.  It was really slow Friday and so so on Saturday.

LaClair's buddies arrived Saturday afternoon and set up next to us.  That spot was supposed to be occupied by Christian Bowhunters but Dave Roose thought better of trying to drive down from Cadillac.

Winters in Michigan are a crap shoot.  All of us that live there no that so we just deal with it.

There were several vehicles in ditches on the side of the highway and  on Thursday we had an ambulance roll over on it side with two patients inside.

Everyone just needs to slow down when driving in this stuff and you will make it.  We did 45 mph most of the way down.  It may have taken us 45 minutes longer but we made it.

I do feel bad for all the vendors as they rely on these winter events to hold them over until summer time shoots show up.  I did get a chance to spend a hundred or so on the grandkids.,LOL

[Mojostick]

I like the K-Zoo show in January. It's a nice break to Winter. This was just kind of a fluke storm. Typically, some snow isn't much of an issue for Michigan. But this time, we got about a foot with high winds. I'm thinking schools may even be closed tomorrow and Tuesday. What do you do? Hard to plan for a every couple of Winters type blizzard.

If anyone recalls, Compton's got crushed a couple years ago with a huge Summer storm. The tents blew down and the mud was like Woodstock, except we had to walk in the mud sober. LOL

I feel bad for the vendors too. I used to do similar fly fishing shows. My guess is, few made enough in sales/future orders to cover the costs of travel, lodging, possible trailer rentals and booth costs, to justify the event.

Perhaps there could be a "K-Zoo show sales" thread here and the vendors who had show specials or discounted items could post them and maybe move them? Or something like that.

[bluemoonrising]

Good ideas Mojo, but I'm hoping that somehow the Expo can be moved back a little so that it comes right before turkey season. Obviously, bad weather can happen anytime, but I believe there would be a heck of chance that the Expo would have a huge turnout and the vendors could do quite well. Peace!

[Mojostick]

Getting dates at the Expo Center may be an issue.

[Ibow]

Originally posted by Mojostick:
Getting dates at the Expo Center may be an issue.

How about moving it to that place off West River Road Bob?    :D  

The guys I was supposed to go with didn't want to risk it so my wife went with me for a couple hours Sat afternoon. Indeed it was a white knuckler down there and back up but I'm glad we did. Always good to see old friends and the Black Widow guys as well many other vendors.


Not sure when would be a good time of year. I'm just glad the Brumms and others put all the effort into creating an event such as this, year after year.    

[Mojostick]

Something about 5 minutes from home would be sweet! My guess is, all the guys from Illinois, Indiana and Ohio may not like that extra drive to Grand Rapids.