Good Mornin' Folks,
So yesterday somewhere around Baton Rouge Louisiana, Gerald McCasland calls me on my cell phone and says "Hey dude, how does it feel to ride home with a celeberity?" I said 'What" he replies "According to the posts at Rodbuilding.Org. your wife is now officially a celeberity in the Rodbuilding community!" Just great....now she has even more leverage to use against me.

Folks, we had a TREMENDOUS show! The people were great, the show was great, the accomodations were fantastic, the food was good, I have not one bad thing to say about anything! I cant tell you how gratifying it was to see old froends like Ralph O' Quinn, Bob McCamey, Roger Seiders, Tom Kirkman and Andy Renzetti. And for those of you with whom I have been doing business with for several years now, it was fantastic to finally be able to put faces with names! I am really looking forward to establishing relationships with all of the new clients we picked up as well.

I don't want to turn this post into an Academy Awards speech, but I really do want to personally than each and every one of you for stopping by our booth, even if it was only to say hello and chat for a few minutes. For those of you who couldn't make it, you HAVE to come out next year. It was absolutely far and away the finest Rodbuilding event I have ever attended.

We all owe a great debt to Tom Kirkman for his dedication, hard work and tireless promotion to make this show what it was.

Regards,

Andy Dear
Lamar Manf.

I was unable to attend the show, but my heart and thoughts were with the event and all the effort that went into putting on the show by Tom's enduring dedication to the craft. The participation and support by the manufacturers, fellow vendors, and of course all the rod builders and anglers attending allowed
such a huge success for the National Rod Builders Show.
I'm only further excited to hear that so many went and had a great time and got to see first hand the involvement of product and information about the custom rod building craft today.

Rich Garbowski
Richard's Rod & Reel

Speaking of owing great debts, don't forget to charge me the $60 for the blanks and reelseats I picked up on Sunday!

Andy Dear - "The man who sells rod blanks out of garbage cans." Almost as good as Ralph's new title, but not quite. Seriously, you added a lot to the show and your seminar on wood turning for the rod builder drew almost 80 people. It was very well received. Jet and Delta should probably send you a comission.

..............

Hey now, I bought two of those blanks!

FYI,
Gerlad came up with the Garbage Can idea. Two months prior to the show, I had SO many blanks (over 1000) that they were stacked up in every room in the house, including the guest restroom. I probably had 500 blanks in a Garbage Can in the restroom. So, whwnever the local builders would drop by to pick up a few blanks, they'd ask "Where are the Hot Shot blanks at?" I'd reply "In the can...literally!"


Andy

& I got an Austin 10/11 out of the can. :) :) :)

Nice to meet you Andy, I wish I would have gotten more of that cork - it's beautiful!

Andy,

You're even nicer in person than you are on the phone...and that's saying something. The good people on this Forum would have been startled by your fly casting skills ... straight as a pin on both the forward and back casts. Very sweet!!

Emily is simply nonpareil...having no equal. It was a pleasure meeting her.

Your lathe demo was truly inspiring. I am no longer intimidated by the machine or the process. A Jet 1014 is definitely on my wish list now.

The Burnt Burl and Light Burl cork were the best new items I found at the show. I think you should name the Burnt Burl: Chocolate; and the Light Burl: Peanuts and Chocolate! They look delicious!!! I'll be expanding my order for both.

Having forgotten which blanks I had set aside for you to ship I have the fun of being surprised when they arrive. You and Emily could not have made the shopping experience any better.

I agree with you that Tom Kirkman deserves our utmost appreciation for his tireless efforts in making the 2005 National Rod Building Show the fantastic event that it was.

I look forward to meeting up with you in Texas in the not too distant future. Maybe I can lure you up to the Catskill Mountains for some of our top quality river action. I'll throw in a grand tour of the Big Apple!

David

Andy,

It was great to meet you personally, and that goes for your wife as well. I came home with a load of your stuff.

Please don't forget to send me my cork clamp and a 3/8 wood turning mandrell.

Great show, great group of people, many thanks Andy!

BOB

Andy- while Emily was writing up my sales ticket, I happened to mention something to her about how my wife would get even with me. (She calls it retaliatory spending).

Emily replied with...."Oh...Andy doesn't even realize the shopping I'm going to do after this weekend."

Dude....quick.....hide the credit cards.

Pete K.

Holy Crap....thanks for the heads up.

Andy

Andy,
I very glad you did well at the show. That wife of yours is too good looking to be from the Hill Country; she must be from around these parts. I have been sitting here doing such mundane things as trying to figure out if I ran backwards at the speed of light would I still see the headlights of a car coming towards me. Actually, I have been tying a bunch of flies for when you come down.
Cheers, Ellis

Ellis ... let's not talk bad about Kerrville and surrounds ... Luckenback ok 'sides that one outpost store there ain't much but that Hill Country is mighty purrty

You are right Ken, the Hill Country is beautiful especially in the spring when the bluebonnets and indian paint brushes are in bloom.
Cheers, Ellis

Yeah it is really nice up there. There's a river / stream that sort of meanders through the east side of Kerrville that I sorely wanted to fish when I was last out there ... instead we fished a large reservoir / impoundment for large mouth bass. That too was a good trip with a friend but I still remember that clear stream! I have several good friends that live in Kerrville (retired from Gov't service) I've been meaning to drop in on again. They live on a working ranch / hunting preserve on the East side of the highway ... Really nice location.

Ken,
Youre referring to the Guadalupe River....or perhaps, the Lllano River a bit farther north. We live only 25 minutes from Kerrville. You make it up that wya again, and we'll do a float on the Guadalupe. It's a great little river with a ton of Bass, Panfish. BUT the best thing is that it is loaded with HUGE Carp, which can be sight-fished witha flyrod...great fun!

Andy Dear