[SEL] Portland 2005

[badams at tractors.bloomington.in.us]

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005, Paul Pavlinovich wrote:

   snip ... the up at 5am off to bed about 11pm when the beer-bullshit
> ran out only to do the exact same thing again the next day.
>
G'day mate,
         A very apt description of how I spent my time at the show this
year.
         I arrived about noon Tuesday, threw my kit into Leroy's new
covered utility trailer with fold-down bench.  Unloaded the Economy at the
list area, and Steve Sewell and I took off for the vendor area.  We
cruised the vendor area until we lost the light then shared the evening
with the SEL and tractor campers.  Each evening was spent in this pleasant 
pursuit of knowledge and calories.
         I ran the Economy all four days.  With help from all the list
group it's become a two pull starter.  One with a choke and another gets
it off and going.  Sweet.  Tried to run the early shift until the motel
crowd arrived.
         The swap area was larger this year and as active as usual.  I 
over-used a knee on Wednesday and then walked it off on Thursday.  My 
current strategy for shopping at Portland is working.  See something I 
might want but don't really have a immediate need for, think about it for 
a hour, come back later and it's gone.  There were at least four boilers 
in the swap area this year in the 1/2 horsepower range.
 	Special thanks again to Dave for making the dinner and auction the 
wonderful experience it was.  I understand we raised about 2K, the food 
was good, and Glenn's auctioneering was well worth the drive.  I mentioned 
Leroy's kindness to me personally above but also want to thank him for all 
his (and Brandi's) work with the list camping area and staking out the 
list area in the "land rush".
         Portland is still the easiest place on earth to take 3 hours on a
15 minute walk.  Saw old friends and met new ones.  There is never 
enough time to talk to everyone and several conversations were 
interrupted that we'll finish them next year.
 	Hope to see you all next year.
Brice