As I m sitting here at Tavern on the Ridge reflecting back on our spring show, and giving you an update. I think again about the weather that our Schell show has endured and all the years we ve tried to keep pushing it back to the latest possible date, which ends up being the last weekend in April. And even in doing this we have encountered some lousy weather over the years. This year was no exception. We loaded up the car early Sunday morning and headed up the road driving through some scattered showers and cloudy skies. All the while praying that the sun would break through, clear off and make it a nice day. And knowing full well that it probably wouldn t. We got to the brewery and people were already there. Stevan Miner greeted us as we pulled in front of the brewery. We backed the car up and started to unload chapter supplies. It was raining so like the old days everybody set up in the old taproom. Somehow we all squeezed in and managed to make it work just like 30 years ago. As the morning passed by there was actually some pretty good buying and selling taking place. Even Steve Miner was able to pick something up for his collection, so you know there had to be some decent things there. Lunchtime rolled around and we did a free will lunch which was well received and very tasty. A big thanks to Chapter President Gary Sprenger for getting that handled. Also a big thanks to all of the chapter members who brought side dishes and donated them to the lunch table. We couldn t do it without all of you. We had our raffle and that went well. We made close to $ 400 that day with the free will lunch donations and the raffle. We donated the proceedings from the show to the restoration work being done at the old Hauenstein brewery where they re preparing to put in a museum in part of the brewery. Some of us that stuck around after the show were fortunate enough to go over to Hauenstein and get a tour of part of the facility, and some good information from John Vorwerk. After that we hit Smiley s for a couple of beers and then it was back to Iowa. As I sat reflecting back on the show on the drive home I realized we just had a very good day. The show was a success even though attendance was down due to the weather. There was some buying, selling and trading. Some beers were drunk. Stories swapped and an all-around good time was had. The brewery also had the gift shop open as usual so people were able to shop in there as well. And as I thought about it and I realized that there is no bad day at a brewery, unless someone spills beer. At our recent meeting we discussed the show and the weather again and in the end it was concluded that the show has been a long-standing tradition and it will go on as usual next year, the last weekend of April. We ll all gather around a Schell s beer and have a good time. We ll buy, sell and trade, have a few beers, swap stories and enjoy the day. So if you weren t there you missed out on some fun and we hope to see you next year, and if you were there thanks for coming. On to the next spring show at Summit Brewing Company in St. Paul Minnesota.
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