Hey all,

So Went to the Highland Games to help Hearthstone Art sell some pottery. Mike developed a fever so Rich stepped in and he and I handled things today. Things were going pretty well, however we were dodging some nasty weather throughout the day. Well, mother nature decided to hit us and hit us hard. Around 6:30pm we were hit with a micro-burst and Rich and I were lucky to get out unharmed. Lightning was striking all around and the winds picked up maxing out around 70 MPH according to noaa.gov. The tent collapsed and a large rip has nearly split the tent in two. One of the mug displays flew about ten feet across the tent set up and unfortunately several pieces of potter were either damaged or destroyed. We are tentatively estimating losses at a few hundred dollars, especially since several of the pieces damaged were the hand painted.

Essentially all the vendors took severe damage. There were T-shirts and souvenirs strewn all over the field. Not only were the pup pop up tents new atmospheric displays but the large heavy tents with thick hollow tube aluminum tent poles with ratcheting straps took to the air. One of those actually took to the air, poles and all and came right toward Rich and I in that 70 mph wind. Needless to say, we did the running dive to the ground to avoid getting hit then the flying pottery came…we were lucky to leave unharmed. There were people hurt and several ambulances were on scene. As we were running the MILE (literally) to my car we could see (through our wet foggy glasses) the rows of portable potties all overturned. I REALLY hope no-one was in on of those then they were blown over.

After telling the significant others of what happened. Gabrielle lovingly had dinner waiting for us and all the comforts of home at the ready. We are now safe, joking around, fed and generally feeling lucky to not have been hurt in this very scary ordeal. We are going back tomorrow early to take account of everything and if the fair is still on we’ll be there. Come on out and see us. That’s it for now cuz I’m tired and stil drying off.

Kilted