The second day of the IPMS/USA National Convention in Las Vegas was a Thursday (19 August), and it was the first full day of the convention. More attendees arrived during the morning and events were in full swing at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Not only were more attendees entering contest models, buying raffle tickets, and shopping among the vendors, but there were also several seminars on scale modeling topics during the day.
Besides me, there were five others from IPMS/Gateway at this convention: Mike Brickman, Rick Keasey, Marion Morris, Jim Triola, and Jim Victor. Marion's wife Regina also came.
That morning, I did get a convention T-shirt that my friend and IPMS/Gateway founder Del Miller had ordered. He was not able to come to the event but asked me a few weeks before the convention to get the shirt for me. This was the same pattern T-shirt I picked, featuring the US Air Force Thunderbirds on the back. (The other t-shirt pattern had an alien on the back.)
I got lucky with the raffle, winning two prizes during the convention's first two days. People with winning tickets were asked to come up on the stage in the contest room and select their prize from the available donated items. Most of the prizes were kits, but there were also detail parts, decals, paints, and tools to be given away. Both times my tickets were picked, I selected paint sets--one for World War II US Army Air Forces aircraft, the other for natural metal aircraft.
Two much listened-to podcasts aimed at scale modelers were present at the convention. One was Plastic Model Mojo, which is co-hosted by my friend David Knights. They were set up inside the vendor room. The other was The Model Geeks, who had a table outside of the vendor room.
After several hours at the convention, I drove to a nearby In-N-Out Burger restaurant for lunch. It was my first experience with this legendary fast-food chain from southern California. I ordered a cheeseburger with French fries--both cooked to order--and a soft drink. It was most tasty, and I was glad to enjoy this lunch experience.
After lunch I returned to the Rio for more of the convention. When it wrapped up for the day, I joined the Morrises, Triola, and Victor for dinner at Metro Pizza, a short drive from the Rio. It was a nice pizzeria, and we had enjoyable conversation over dinner. In my case, it was the Bleeker pizza, with Italian sausage and garlic. It was most delicious.
Our party returned to the Rio after dinner, and I then got into my car and drove to Hostel Cat to get some sleep. Before turning in, I made sure to charge up the batteries for both the camera and cell phone, so they would be ready for the next day's activities.
The third day of the convention will be in my next post on this topic.
Later.
Websites of entities mentioned in this post:
IPMS/Gateway: IPMS Gateway Chapter (google.com)
Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino: Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino Las Vegas | Caesars Entertainment - Official Site
Las Vegas Tourism: Las Vegas Tourism, Official Site
Plastic Model Mojo: Plastic Model Mojo
The Model Geeks Podcast: The ModelGeeks Podcast
In-N-Out Burger: In-N-Out Burger
Metro Pizza: Metro Pizza
Hostel Cat: Hostel Cat | Las Vegas No.1 Hostel
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