Trip Report - A Very Nice Trip to FUN

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by V. Kurt Bellman, Jan 9, 2017.

  1. V. Kurt Bellman

    V. Kurt Bellman Yes, I'm blunt! Get over your "feeeeelings".

    Hey! That's my woman you're mocking there. Be respectful!
     
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  3. Silverhouse

    Silverhouse Well-Known Member

    if you have the opportunity you should really check out Coral Castle on u.s. Highway 1 25 miles south of Miami. talk about the eighth wonder of the world. .
     
  4. V. Kurt Bellman

    V. Kurt Bellman Yes, I'm blunt! Get over your "feeeeelings".

    We arrived, again through Port security, to complete our mission. We had exhibits to grade and for novice graders, a comment on every element of every scoresheet is REQUIRED. They need insight on what went into your scoring thinking. This presented a little challenge for me, because my handwriting never did fully get back to acceptable after 2009 and I was still a little extra shaky from my medical underdosing. I hadn't gotten my right hand back to normal yet. But I forced myself to write slow enough to maintain legibility.

    Cripes! Writing out comments on judging sheets can be time-consuming! By the time we got down to serious writing and evaluating, it was 11AM. I pulled up a chair, because some of the exhibits were loaded with small text. A judge has to read EVERY word of every exhibit. No skimming. To save you the agony, exhibit A-1 was interesting numismatic material displayed with all the overall visual appeal of a dirty Q-Tip. A-2 was a classically designed exhibit with material much lower in condition than the exhibitor himself said was readily available, and A-3 was loaded with factually inaccurate statements and was easily seen as a 2015 exhibit that was quickly thrown back in cases to harvest another award. Yecchh! The top three winners at Red Rose Coin Club's local show would have put all three of these in 4th place at best. And this was the F. U. stinkin' N.?!?! Sooooo, I had a lot to write about. The deadline to return our scoring sheets was 4PM, and I finished around 2:30, so I did a victory lap around the bourse. Nick continued to write.
     
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  5. V. Kurt Bellman

    V. Kurt Bellman Yes, I'm blunt! Get over your "feeeeelings".

    Again, this victory lap was more visiting old friends than buying, but I found a place to upgrade my wartime British half crown for my U.K. type set. It was a gorgeous 1945 in MS65ish condition. The same guy threw in a loose 1970 proof ha'penny and thruppence. I have those series by date and I hadn't added the proof-only 1970's to either Dansco album. I have several 1970 sets, but didn't feel like breaking them up.

    I checked back with Nick about 3:15 and he was done and had submitted his score sheets in the World section. By this time, the Public Address system had announced what my Apple Watch had told me hours earlier. There had been a shooting event at the airport, and flight operations were shut down. Were FUN a Saturday-ending show, a Friday event might have changed some dealers' plans, but since FUN runs until Sunday, the impact was negligible, except for the people glued to flat screens tuned to CNN in the hallway of the convention center.

    We weren't going anywhere toward the airport Friday evening, since we had long decided Friday we'd scout for dinner across the ICW on the beaches areas. Before that, Nick found a dealer with several Soviet 1 rouble commemoratives from the 1980's and 1990 that were missing from his set and had a stock box pulled apart and a stack of "takers" started. When they announced the 5-minute warning for the day's Spider Press drawing, we settled up quickly and got there with less than a minute to go. This time I won #56 in the series.
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2017
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  6. Insider

    Insider Talent on loan from...

    Just make sure you are going 80 + in the slow lane or pull over to the right when I flash my lights! ;)
     
  7. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    Kripes, last year when I was going to the Tampa show, I was just keeping up with the traffic and casually glanced at the speedometer..........I was doing 85! Man you guys drive fast down there.
     
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  8. Insider

    Insider Talent on loan from...

    One thing I've learned about driving...There is ALWAYS someone driving faster...so watch your mirrors.
     
  9. V. Kurt Bellman

    V. Kurt Bellman Yes, I'm blunt! Get over your "feeeeelings".

    My attitude is if I'm driving at or near the speed limit, unless I'm changing lanes, which I do sparingly, if you want to drive faster, it's YOUR problem, not mine. I'm already upset by the extra fuel I'm burning at 70 compared to 60.

    And no, I'm not some tree hugger; I'm that cheap! I am of Pennsylvania Deutsch stock; it's in the DNA.

    The Pennsylvania Deutsch - stocky legs, broad powerful shoulders, heavy growths of facial hair, and the men even more so. :smuggrin:
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2017
  10. V. Kurt Bellman

    V. Kurt Bellman Yes, I'm blunt! Get over your "feeeeelings".

    With our second spider press souvenir card for the show under our metaphorical belts, we headed for the parking lot and the exits. The Caribbean Princess was still in the dock, and there were police and Broward County sheriff vehicles everywhere!! (I am still getting used to this - in Pennsylvania, County Sheriffs and their deputies have no more police powers than you, I, or any citizen have. They are glorified courthouse security guards and process servers, PERIOD! The state and MUNICIPALITIES have all police powers, the counties have none.) I later learned that all the eyewitnesses from the airport shooting had been transported to the convention center for debriefing. Good idea. Lots of private interview spaces and more comfortable than most airports, and only a 3-mile trip. Not too bad.

    That did make the exit traffic toward A1A and the beaches a little hairier. It took awhile to get over to the beachfront. We had enough time and light to dip our tootsies into the Atlantic Ocean in January, not a smart thing in my latitude. There were some hardcore beachgoing kids in the water fully (air temp was mid 60's), but a little wet feet was all we were up for. Besides, I was getting hungry. We randomly selected a typical beach town bar/bar food joint and I had a half rack of baby back ribs and a local dark brew, and Nick went for the brisket and a Yuengling Black & Tan, brewed 30-some miles from home. Real adventurous, there, kiddo!

    Fed, tired, and running out of inspiration, we took yet another route (Siri took us a different way each day!) back to the hotel, prepared to pre-pack for the return trip the next day after phase 2 of the Judges' Familiarization & Certification course - The Results.
     
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  11. V. Kurt Bellman

    V. Kurt Bellman Yes, I'm blunt! Get over your "feeeeelings".

    Day 3, Saturday, dawned just plain old hot and humid, with a Snowpocalypse predicted for the Carolinas and northward, followed by just plain mean cold air after it. And we were going to be driving right into it. We're tough, we know how to drive in a little snow. Yeah, sure. We didn't know what North Carolina doesn't know.

    We did some serious bourse shopping before a great talk on doubled dies at 11:30, where the speaker used Silly Putty to emulate the process of how regular Type II and Type IV doubled dies get formed. He handled RPM's, overdates, all kinds of wickedness that can befall the die-making process. Great talk!

    One more bourse stop (a gorgeous little sterling St. Bernards medal - patron saint of skiers and mountaineers) and the witching hour of 1PM approached. This time, we were on time.

    Bottom line: the ANA has two brand spanking new certified exhibit judges:

    V. Kurt Bellman in U.S. Coins
    Nicholas R. Bellman in World Coins / European

    I was tougher than the "real" judges on my exhibits, but my grades showed that Irick and Lighterman found my scores more correct than the "real" judges' were. He hoped that I'd strongly advocate for my lower scores at future judges' conferences. Anyone here think I have a problem advocating for my views? Hmmm? I didn't think so. If you doubt that, read back posts here on CT.
     
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  12. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    lol. The only thing I move to the right for is my exit! ;)
     
  13. V. Kurt Bellman

    V. Kurt Bellman Yes, I'm blunt! Get over your "feeeeelings".

    So anyway, we set out in search of a Speedway gas station, the one whose bonus points I'm in. By the time we hit I-95 with a full tank and head of steam, it was about 3PM. We had no hotel for the night, so we decided to drive as far as we felt we could. The skies ahead told a story of a massive collision of air masses ahead. Yup, yup, yup.

    The tank of gas took us into Georgia. I had been watching the temperature outside tumble on my Apple Watch. When we left Fort Lauderdale, it was 83 degrees. By the space coast it was low 60's, and by Jacksonville it was just plain cold. The clouds seemed to require Carl Orff's Carmina Burana as background music. Ugly and ominous. The Georgia stop saw a change of drivers as Nick took over. He immediately complained the car was pulling right. Low right front. I darn near froze my hands on the tire air pump. I did some calculations and told him our temperature gradient had been a drop of one degree Fahrenheit per 6.5 miles recently. Nick has a heavier foot than I do, and the Taurus was more than game, so Nick bashed us through South Carolina and up to Fayetteville, NC when the gas tank got light again and he was developing butt cramps. I had done mini-naps through SC, so I was okay to drive. But the North Carolina highway crews on I-95 didn't figger no Yankees be fool 'nuff ta drive on no 95 affer a snowfall, no siree!
     
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  14. ldhair

    ldhair Clean Supporter

    Have the results been posted on the exhibits?
     
  15. bdunnse

    bdunnse Who dat?

    I'm staying tuned in to read the rest of the story!

    Good stuff!
     
  16. V. Kurt Bellman

    V. Kurt Bellman Yes, I'm blunt! Get over your "feeeeelings".

    Fayetteville was COLD! Mean cold. Ugly cold. 2AM wind howling mean ugly cold. There were wisps of snow blowing around. Ice collected at the base of the gas pump islands. Nobody was on the roads, nooooo-body. Meh. I figured so what. Army town. Ft. Bragg. No problem.

    Uhh, big problem. As I turned the Taurus northward back onto I-95 from US301, I saw my first little wisp of black ice, which slipped neatly between the track of my wheels. Nothing much. But it quickly went from meh to bad to worse. Black ice was just the beginning. Around Rocky Mount, the untreated nature of I-95 became ridiculous. That road had seen no pretreatment, no salt, no sand, no nothing. I-95 was a washboard of various thicknesses of packed untreated ice. The maximum practical speed was 35mph and the car sounded like a Sherman tank traversing a log bridge. The speed limit of 70 was but a wish wrapped around a fantasy. Nick slept through it all. Cars and 18 wheelers off the road were an every few miles occurrence. I got sideways at least six times. The traction control light on the dash looked like it was sending out Morse code.

    Nick and I nearly died 12 hours into our ANA judging careers. Thanks for the great time, North Carolina highway department. There was a Rest Area right at the Virginia line. You're in NC when you enter and Virginia when you leave. The in-ramp was snow-covered and the out-ramp was clear. The facilities were under construction, so I stood alongside the car and peed for what seemed like 5 minutes.

    Virginia had a few black ice wisps hither and yon, but nothing like the North Carolina I-95 experience from hell. After that, I was getting drowsy the farther into Virginia we went, so I took 95 rather than the Richmond by-pass to keep the visual stimulus up. That only worked so long until I had to have a Starbucks recharge, which I got south of D.C. Nick took it on home and I slept like a dog through Washington and Baltimore. One last fuel stop north of Baltimore to avoid SOME of Pennsylvania's obscene gas tax finished the stops, and we rolled into Nick's place at 11:22 Sunday morning. I got home about 12:45 and never saw a snap of the NFL playoffs.

    Zzzzzz.

    Next trip: ANA Orlando in March.
    Southwest on a bonus voucher southbound.
    Amtrak on Guest Rewards points northbound.

    You may have noticed I buy virtually no U.S. Coins at major shows. The prices are just too astronomical compared to what I get at local backcountry auctions and estate sales.
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2017
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  17. bdunnse

    bdunnse Who dat?

  18. tulipone

    tulipone Well-Known Member

    It sounds like an epic journey!
     
  19. V. Kurt Bellman

    V. Kurt Bellman Yes, I'm blunt! Get over your "feeeeelings".

    Well.... my son is half Greek. It's kind of a cultural imperative.

    BTW, this whole tale is now also on my blog (VKurtB) on the ANA's website, www.money.org
     
  20. V. Kurt Bellman

    V. Kurt Bellman Yes, I'm blunt! Get over your "feeeeelings".

    Obviously they have by now, but I left before seeing the ribbons. Here are MY scores and the range that the "real" judges had on them:

    A-1: American Ingenuity; Real judges - "low 70's", Me - 74
    A-2: U.S. Gold Coins from the Carson City Mint; Real judges - "low 80's", Me - 77 (My sheet was marked "good" for marking this down significantly from the real judges)
    A-3: 30th Anniversary of the American Silver Eagle; Real Judges "high 70's", Me - 73.
     
  21. Dave Waterstraat

    Dave Waterstraat Well-Known Member

    Pictures or it didn't happen. :p

    But seriously, great read, I really enjoyed it and in case you didn't hear, the Packers opened up a can on the Giants.:)
     
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