Early yesterday morning (17 August), I left the house for the drive to Grimes, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines. I was heading to Prairie Creek Church, the site for Mid Iowa Modelers Expo (MIME) 5 NNL, a model car show and swap meet hosted by the Glue Brothers Chapter of the International Plastic Modelers' Society/USA (IPMS/USA).
I arrived at the show site around 10:30 a.m. after about 6 1/2 hours of driving and stops along the way. I brought along two car models I had done a few years before--a 1:25 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28 SS and a 1:32 1963 Studebaker Avanti. Neither was a terrific model, but the hosts said to bring them anyway since this was a rather informal show.
The hosts were very happy to see me, appreciating the effort I made to come to this show. I enjoyed talking with several people I know from within IPMS/USA Region 14 that were there. I also admired the other models on display and browsed among the vendors on hand.
I went to a convenience store a short drive away to get lunch at midday before returning to the show. They had some very nice models on display at the tables, though it seemed not quite as many as the year before.
Late in the day, the raffle tickets were drawn. I got a Ferrari car kit. Sounds like something I can build for next year's show. Then, the awards were presented. These included the Top Five models as determined by popular vote of the attendees and the People's Choice Award.
I packed up my models and headed out after thanking the hosts for this event. It was back in my car for the long drive home. After covering a total of 731.3 miles (1176.9 km), I arrived home just after 9:30 p.m. I was tired but happy.
This Saturday, I am back on the road to another IPMS/USA show, which I will tell you about next weekend.
Later.
Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:
Prairie Creek Church: Prairie Creek Church | (pcgrimes.com)
IPMS Glue Brothers: IPMS Glue Brothers - Des Moines, Iowa | Facebook
