good thing I skipped the show

For the 1st time in 5 years I skipped the NPE. Turns out I've been fighting this miserable cold. I can imagine shaking hands and networking with dozens of vendors and other contractors and making them all sick. NPE didn't miss me.

Nashville is going to be better!!! Mike In-Line

I missed you this year. Sorry you're feeling bad. I have been washing my hands 20 times a day. Can't afford to catch a cold. The show has been fun. I didn't think Charlotte was a good place for a show, but it turned out to be one of the best. But I can't wait till next year - Nashville!

What do you think of the NPE West? This November it will be in Las Vegas. I was wondering if it is as good as the NPE. It seems like the same group but just on the other side of the country. Anyone been to both? Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

I missed Charlotte too, that is the only city an NPE has been too that I have missed, oh well I am already looking forward to Nashville!!! NPE West is a slightly smaller version of the East coast show. It is good in its own way, while you will see similar things, you do add in the fact it is in Las Vegas, and you have one heck of a vacation / education experience. With the exception of Charlotte this year, I attend both shows each year and will continue to do so. I am to the point that I enjoy the networking with other contractors and vendors more than anything.

Was a strange feeling I didn't expect. I "begged off" doing seminars in Charlotte for many personal reasons but never realized how much I'd miss the show (not Charlotte in particular). Charlotte would have made 15 in a row for the East and I'm at 5 in a row for the West. After all these years it was just a strange feeling like I was "supposed" to be somewhere all last week, and I must say, as much as I love ragging on my old friends, there are many that's the only time I get to see in person and "socialize" with. Ah but... next fall it's Vegas again and then back to Nashville, home of my famous "3 point stance"

Oh Don you would have torn the speaker at the roundtable apart. When he said he has not used sand for the past two years. -Dean

Was that the moderator or a participant?

He was a moderator and he was from New Mexico And he says he put down (I believe he said) 80,000 to 100,000 gallons of sealer down and he was using coal tar from vance brothers. -Dean

Sheesh... I can't leave them alone for a minute. I can't believe they would use a moderator that would say something like that. Of course if he's using that much and paying freight from Oklahoma (nearest Vance plant) he's either got a relative at Vance or is paying too much for his sealer

he said the reason he stopped was partly because of help and things like paper from the sand getting in the mix, spilling to much.. I saw a few get up and leave and I just stayed to hear if anything else funny was going to be said. I think i heard him say and I might be wrong but I thought he said he was going to leave the latex out of the waterbased paint this season..