It normally takes a great deal of effort to get me off of this mountain, but with a little prodding and generosity of a couple of WINS members, on Thursday, February 16th, I found myself on the way to St. Louis to meet a few WINS friends and attend my second coin show. After a 4-hour bus ride followed by a 7-1/2 hour wait at the airport for my flight, the aircraft captain's announcement that a 120 mph tail wind meant that we'd be landing about 40 minutes early was good news. That is until I began to wonder if Joe Garbarini and John Mundwiller, who were meeting me at the St. Louis airport, were aware of the new arrival time. It turned out that John was on top of things and they were at the airport in plenty of time, but an easy meeting wasn't to be. One of the flight attendants made wheel chair arrangements for me (something I normally avoid) and I was so tired I readily accepted. Trust me, Internet coin images aren't the only images that don't do the original subject justice. I went right by John and Joe without any of us recognizing the other. I suppose my year old picture of a bald guy may have contributed to the problem (I'm now sporting a full head of hair and a full beard), Joe's picture has got to be several years old too and John's wasn't even available. However, an announcement on the PA system soon took care of that and we were joined and soon off to Joe's home.

On Friday, February 17th we arrived at the coin show at about 11:00 AM and met up with John and Doug Smith. After exchanging pleasantries it was time for the main event, the show itself. John was actually working the door and stayed put, but Doug was off to make deals while Joe zoomed around the room and I sauntered at a much more leisurely pace looking for dark side dealers. The 108 dealers seemed like twice that many probably because of the small room and the large number of buyers and lookie loos. It was a bit difficult to just cruise and glance at a dealer's cases it was so crowed, but I persevered. An hour and a half or so later the four of us were off to "Bandanas" a well know local Barbecue eating establishment for lunch. Here we had the first pictures taken.

Lunch over; it was back to the coin show to continue the search for those ever elusive "dark side dealers", and my persistence paid off. I located two of them, each with a coin (or two, or three) that would look good in my collection. But, I'm glad I went with my gut feeling and didn't make any purchases, and while I realize that I ran the risk of loosing those coins to another buyer, it didn't bother me. I hadn't expected to make any purchases at this show for a couple of reasons. First, this was mainly a trip to meet WINS members, and second, I know that there are few folks that collect what I do so I wasn't too concerned. Tomorrow is another day, why spent all of my money (both dollars) on day one? When it was time to call it a day, we made arrangements to meet the next day and made plans for a special dinner get together Saturday evening.

Dave Noble met us at Joe's home midday on Saturday, February 18th, but Joe wasn't feeling up to it so just Dave and I went to the show. Upon arrival I immediately went to see if the treasures I found the day before were still available, and they were. But, hot ziggity! I could hardly believe my eyes; one of the coins I really wanted was in a new holder and priced half of what it had been the day before. It was a Marie Theresia Taler produced between 1780 and 1795 in an affordable grade. And while I really wasn't looking for anything in particular, the other dark-side dealer had a pattern coin from Japan and an early copper from Jersey that I felt would look better in my collection than his cases. While roaming the browse floor I met up with both John and Doug. John was having a good time finding Roosevelt dimes and Doug seemed quite pleased to fill some orders, but I don't believe that Dave found anything that he wanted to take home. As for myself, I was darn glad I'd had the foresight to pay for my bus fare from Phoenix back up the mountain in advance because funds were gone. So I merely meandered through the room looking at coins I would never own for many reasons, the first being large price tags. I was admiring a Morgan error where 2/3 of the coin was slabbed in one holder and the other 1/3 was slabbed in another holder. The dealer handed the first part to me and as I turned it over to view the reverse he mentioned the price - $75,000, $75,000! I almost went to my knees! And I thought the $5200 Bust Half Dollar that Joe had been looking at and had me hold the day before was pricey. OK so what if it was one of only two broken planchet Morgans known to exist? I guess you'd really have to be into error coins to purchase that puppy.

The real highpoint of the day, and maybe even the whole trip, was the dinner gathering that night. Joe treated us (John, Dave, Doug and me) to one of his favorite eating establishments, "Kreis' Great Steaks & Seafood" where he highly recommended the Prime Rib. We were having a good time munching on the warm bread and tellin' stories when the waiter set a plate in front of me. My immediate response was, "Holy crap!" whereupon the entire room bust into laughter and applause. It turns out that most folks knew what to expect and it was very apparent when someone was eating there for the first time. Sitting in front of me was probably the largest piece of meat on a plate I had ever seen, and boy was it goooooooood! I could only manage to eat about 1/3 of it and took the rest back to Joe's and ate on it for the next couple of days. But, I'll have you know that one person in our party finished his entire meal, Doug Smith. Now that man can put away the food.

It was really good to finally meet Joe and be able to spend some time with him. I only wish he had felt better. And it was equally good to meet Doug, Dave and John, and whenever I think back on this gathering I'll fondly remember John's constant good nature, Doug's smiling red face and the fact that Dave broke his wife's car. For those of you that missed this gathering, I hope you will get to meet other members in the near future. It is a real hoot! Many thanks to those of you that made it possible for me to make the trip. I had a ball!