I was told last week that Columbus Day weekend was the highlight of the month at Belvedere Plantation and I'd see declining business for the rest of the month.  This information didn't come from TJ's man, Steve, or any of the plantation folks, but from another vendor.  Combine that with a much cooler weekend, I assumed my funnel cake sales would probably go up, but my lemonade sales would significantly drop.  I planned my weekend with that in mind. Those assumptions were totally wrong. I arrived at Belvedere about 7:30 am Saturday after Tank and I had a huge high school game (Jefferson Forest vs Amherst) on Friday night.  This followed a decent day at the auction--3 loins instead of the pre-Ramadan four.  But still a good day.  After I got home Friday night about midnight, did my dishes and packed everything for the weekend, I layed down around 2:00 am hoping for a couple hours of sleep before leaving at 4:00.  Unfortunately, I never closed my eyes. Peggy got to the Plantation about 8:30 and we got everything ready to open at 10:00 am.  Since I had figured lemonade sales to be down, I decided to go the showy way and squeeze and shake to order.  By 10:30, we had a line and didn't see the end of it until I sold out of everything.  I ran out of lemons, ice, paper napkins, oil for the fryer and corn dogs.  I sold more than I'd sold last weekend in two days.  And since I had had no sleep, I was dead on my feet.  I was forced to close down about 6:00 pm rather than 10:00 pm per the schedule.  So, I missed a bunch.  It was like a good football game, only all day instead of the three hours. Sunday morning I cleaned out a local Walmart restocking everything for the second day.  And it was bigger than Saturday.  Counting everything, the auction, the high school game and Belvedere, it is the best week I've ever had. This week, Peggy and I are staying in Fredericksburg with the auction on Thursday, and Belvedere on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.   The right people tell me this week will be even better than last.  Tank and crew will be doing a band event at Liberty on Saturday totally on their own.  I'm dropping everything they need off on Wednesday before I head out of town. A couple of my dear readers have asked about Belvedere.  It is a 1,000 acre totally organic farm which grows strawberries in the spring and mums and pumpkins in the fall.  The fall festival features everything from hayrides to the pumpkin patch and bonfires to pig races and tractor pulls.  They have a petting zoo, a peddle powered tractor go cart track for kids up to 220 pounds and 65 years young, and lots of food.  There were literally thousands of people there all weekend.  And they say next week will be bigger!!!! Peggy and I drew one conclusion.  Escapees are usually girls! What, you ask? Escapees are those 2 year olds who find themselves in open spaces maybe for the first time in their life who take off running to see a John Deere or a horse drawn wagon or the fat funnel cake guy, leaving mom, dad or grandma in their dust. They seem to be all girls.  The little boys hang back with their parents much more.  We found that curious. One good thing:  the cooler weather helped some with the flies.  And, I still can't figure out why people stand in line for hours to get a funnel cake.  I just hope they never stop.