Hamfest, Joplin, MO, 8/27...who's going??? ;-)

[timbo]

I think I'm going to hit up my very first Missouri hamfest next weekend in Joplin, MO, about 3 hours from where I live. I am SO spoiled living 45 minutes from the Nearfest flea market,

This place is bragging over a 100 tables!!! WOW!!! LOL ...and it's inside! I'm guessing it's going to smell like a gunshow.

I have to go to Springfield, MO anyway so it's not that far out of my way (about 60 miles one way). I was hoping that I might be able to visit Dayton someday but it's still 12 hours away...too far to make it worth my trip.

Should be interesting...

 

[greencobra]

Should be interesting...

it does. it'd be a good excuse for a road trip...new england nes-ers going to visit mr. timbo, stay with him for several days and take in hamfest. as someone on the cusp of breaking into this area i think hamfest would be a good take. not wild about missouri though, but it begs a second chance.

 

[timbo]

it does. it'd be a good excuse for a road trip...new england nes-ers going to visit mr. timbo, stay with him for several days and take in hamfest. as someone on the cusp of breaking into this area i think hamfest would be a good take. not wild about missouri though, but it begs a second chance.

indeed, come on down...or over, or even up, depending on one's domicile these days. SO many NESers have assumed orbital velocity and escaped the gravitational pull of Mass and other New England states and ended up outside of the northeast.

 

[timbo]

So I went to the Joplin, MO hamfest yesterday, a six hour round trip. Interestingly, most of the road from Springfield to Joplin, about 60 miles, was on old Route 66. I'm finding that MO is a big state. I was just a couple of miles from Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle.

I was impressed. It certainly wasn't Nearfest but it was inside and air conditioned so no smelly bodies. There were approximately 150 tables. I didn't see any non ham stuff except one guy's wife that had a few crocheted thingies. She kept my wife busy for a while as I perused the tables. My wife said she actually enjoyed it but I think she more enjoyed me looking at the stuff (she's a keeper). I actually only bought two items...a 3D printed callsign thingy to put on my desk and a Diamond V-2000 6/2/440 vertical. I used to have one of those years ago but it got hit by lightning which, of course, got blown to smithereens. Fortunately, I had unplugged it from my gear, as I always do when t-storms are in the area, so I was only out the antenna. I'm hoping to get it in the air tomorrow sometime.

I think next year, I'm going to bring a bunch of stuff to sell and get rid of. I have plenty to sell and didn't have time to take it to Nearfest before I moved out here.

 

[KBCraig]

So I went to the Joplin, MO hamfest yesterday, a six hour round trip.

On one of my wife's recent ER visits, the doctor was from Joplin.

My grandfather and father were KCS railroaders, and worked Pittsburg, Joplin, and Neosho. My first wife went to college in Joplin and worked in Webb City.

 

[timbo]

On one of my wife's recent ER visits, the doctor was from Joplin.

My grandfather and father were KCS railroaders, and worked Pittsburg, Joplin, and Neosho. My first wife went to college in Joplin and worked in Webb City.

It was a great trip though a bit long...once we got past Springfield, as posted above, we found ourselves on RT 66. Kind of cool actually. Some parts of it you could tell was asphalt over concrete road...you know, the click, click, click as you drove over the expansion joints. Beautiful country though with a lot of history.