T +4 - Memphis

About 500 participants in the conference -- there are a lot of blacksmiths in the Appalachian and South Eastern USA so conference attendance is a lot higher than the 2006 one in Seattle. Lots of vendors and it was nice to be able to look through a book before buying it -- there were a lot of interesting titles I had seen references to but there were a bunch of ones that after looking at, I declined for one reason or another. Backfilled in my tools collection a little bit -- a cutting tool and a couple of scroll tongs. I had also been interested in getting a power hammer and the manufacturer I was looking at has a booth here. He is able to cut me a deal on an older model so I Will be heading out to north of Dallas, TX after the conference and spend a few days at his shop learning how to set up and run the puppy. Much better than just having a crate arrive at my doorstep... Just have to cut the roadtrip back quite a bit -- as von Clausewitz said: "No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy" One other person from WA State that I met so far. Heading out to dinner and then back to the motel.