I can't really say I know the purpose of the convention, besides the opportunity for lots of super rich people to get together and "one-up" each other. Maybe that's it, I dunno.
We checked in at 10am, and didn't get done till closing time at 5pm. That's a lot of walking. And schmoozing. And ass kissing.
Steve was mostly excited about seeing his old helicopter buddies, who were there working.
Personally, I think he was nervous.
After walking thru acres of aviation displays, heart pounding, Steve found his good buddy Brian.
"Hey. What's up."
"Not much. What's up with you?"
After a little bit of re-aquaintance time, the boys were hugging and laughing.
And we saw lots of helicopters:
Our one celebrity moment was actually several moments. Don Laughlin and his girlfriend chilled with us for a little while. She seemed like she wanted to hang out more, but Don wanted to see the rest of the show. Don started a little town back in the 70's in southern Nevada, it is called Laughlin. It has grown to a city of about 40,000 residents and of course since it's Nevada it's like a small Las Vegas. Lots of casinos. Don offered to pose with me for a photo. I was surprised at that, him being a man of about 85 years old!!!!
He and Steve spoke briefly, but neither of them seemed to have anything in common (as you MIGHT be able to tell from this photo)
At the end of the day we struggled for the energy to get us thru the huge parking lot. I had to take a moment to photograph our proximity to Disneyland. It was across the street:
