Another successful wood carving competition has come and gone.  Not even a trace of the piles of sawdust and oil residue.  Record crowds attended this year’s wood carving event that lasted three days last week.  The first day the carvers worked feverishly preparing their works of art for the first of two auctions on Saturday and Sunday.

From the raw pieces of timber emerged kissing bunnies, noble and frightening eagles, playful bears, a tribute to fungi in the form of an enormous morel mushroom, massive benches, and outstanding plaques, whimsical wildlife like cardinals and bluebirds, and then there he was…..my prince. I had to have him.  The most darling frog I’ve ever seen.  A plump little fellow with a goiter for a throat, a proud, bloated belly, and the sweetest webbed feet you have ever seen.  After he was placed on Sunday he watched me from his perch atop his tree stump, back and forth I worked the Sunday crowds, happily reuniting with a charming lady I had met last year at a downtown event, Vickie Hughes, who had her eye on a black walnut eagle that looked as if he was about to tear your heart out, incredibly life like.  But my little frog sat undaunted by some of the more ferocious sculptures and seemed content in the thought that I was going to rescue him and take him home.  I had work to do and put froggy out of my mind.

Then along came Mary Kellogg I was anxious to show her the carvings and pointed out my green friend, she hardly gave him a glance and went straight to another regal eagle sculpture, quickly purchased it, foregoing the auction, and off she went, Jeremy in tow hoisting the eagle head.

Auction time, such incredible deals, Jason, one of the artist carvers was buying up pieces from his fellow competitors left and right, to put into his gallery and hopefully make a killing on these works of chainsaw art.  My job was to deliver the carving number to the winners of the bid, after the auction the buyers would take their number to the cashier and purchase their carving.  RD Coonrod, the director of the Loghoggers, was also the auctioneer.  When auctioning the various numbered pieces he did not do so in sequential order so I would often times scramble through the stack of numbered cards to select the proper number for the proper piece of art.  RD called carving no. 21, it was the frog, I looked into the palm of my hand and there was the number 21, no searching through the stack, the number was right there on top.   A sign that I was to have the “frog”.  I waited for the first few bids, trying to get a feel for where this would go, I was sure everyone wanted that frog, so when the bidding started to wane a bit, I threw out my bid, my bidding rival, fenced with me at increments of five dollars, till I grew weary and gave my final bid, staring at my rival with a steely gaze.  Going once, twice, three times, SOLD!  To me.  I was thrilled, satisfied, and sure it was by divine design that I should have the frog.

My victory brought applause, laughs, and congrats.  I’m looking forward to next year and more chainsaw art.

It’s a Small World.

At the Titanic Museum we have visitors from all over the United States and the world that come through the exhibit.  We have had over 1,600,000 visitors since we opened in 2006.  Some of course were already planning a trip to Branson to see all the great shows and other attractions and fortunately for us made us part of their travel plans.  A few have come specifically for our museum, there was the young boy from Queens, New York that stayed a week along with his Grandmother, the young man that came all the way from Hawaii, spent two days, a total of 17 hours in the museum, but this last week we really have a faraway fan.  A young teenage girl had heard about our museum and her and her Mother made specific plans to visit the Titanic Museum Attraction in Branson, Missouri.  They hailed from the country of New Zealand.  When asked what else was on their travel agenda, they replied that they had come to see what they wanted to see and would be traveling back home the next day.

The Titanic Museum Attraction has indeed become a “Travel Destination”.  Not just a add on to an already great vacation but a must see, got to go, this is what I came for.

All I can say is “Thank you, and I’ll be right here to greet you.”

First Class Maid, Jaynee

P.S.  Get your reservations ASAP for the PRINCESS TEA PARTIES, October 17th and 18th.  Starring First Class Maid Jamie and hundreds of princesses from many kingdoms.  Full report on the goings on next week.  Ta Ta.

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Tags: Titanic, Titanic Branson, Titanic Events, Titanic Museum

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 11:31 am and is filed under Jaynee's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.