Short-n-Sweet:  I've finally (almost) recovered from the enormous rust-induced
hangover that followed me home from galootapalooza.  Seriously, there were
more sweet tools in one place than I've ever seen before.  And that was just
the cookout!

A bit longer:  Headed out to Chicago on Saturday morning not quite knowing
what to expect (never actually having met a real live galoot before!)  Rolled
into the Kane County fleas a little later than I would have liked.  Figured
the swarm of locusts had already descended...  Did manage to find a really
nice countersink for a brace (50c).  Ok, I'll admit it, at this point I was
kinda dissapointed (and hot, tired, thirsty, etc)

Little did I know what was in store later ;).  Just an aside, anybody who has
not been to a Galoot together really needs to find one nearby and just go.  Or
set one up themselves.  Seriously, just do it!  Mortgage the house, sell the
children, trade that GA mouthed infill for a plane ticket! (Ok, maybe the last
is going a bit far...)  Just get to one any way you can.

I'm not going to bother describing it further (other people who were there
have done that much better than I could anyway) other than to say that the
food, conversation, and toolin' were all served up in such overwhelming
quantities that it was hard to pack into just one night.

For some unknown and unknowable reason, the MWTCA meet was set to
start at 6am on Sunday morning.  Needless to say, despite a valiant attempt at
being there to "help unload the vehicles" I was almost an hour late ;)

As I pulled in to the parking and saw the screaming hordes and flying tools,
I knew in my heart that I wouldn't find anything cool left over.  Boy was I
wrong!

It took me a good hour of walking around just to get a good grip on what was
there and what I might like to look at further.  Kid in the candy store, I
was.

Keep in mind, that this whole time there are more cars, trucks, etc pulling in
and setting up!

Down to business, I've got cash burning a hole in my pocket and several
ideas.  More ideas than cash.  Uh oh.

Ended up with a really nice 3 patent date #3 (small smoother, Jeff) after some
good-natured taunting by Joe Palazzolo and a Miller's Falls miter box that
seems to have _all_ the pieces present and accounted for.  Mirror finish
blade, perfect etching, _sharp!_.  Cut some hard maple and I swear that I can
just make out my reflection in the end grain ;)

I ended up leaving tons of great stuff lay.  Keep in mind that after close to
3 hours of pillaging by determined galoots and tool collectors, there was
still a lot of good stuff left!  Amazing!

Tune in next week when our hero scours the countryside around Des Moines
and can't even find a saw worth buying :(

Tad Anhalt
Des Moines, Ia.

At 1:34 PM -0500 8/5/99, Tad wrote:
        [snip]
>anybody who has
>not been to a Galoot together really needs to find one nearby and just go.
>Or
>set one up themselves.  Seriously, just do it!  Mortgage the house, sell the
>children, trade that GA mouthed infill for a plane ticket! (Ok, maybe the
>last
>is going a bit far...)  Just get to one any way you can.

        I can't promise the convergence in my backyard on August 28 will
live up to this billing, but we're going to give it a try.  Let me know if
you need directions.
                Tom Holloway