I didn't take any pictures, but I did go today. My wife and I set out from Dayton around 12:30. I smoked a bowl of Penzance on the way up in a Kyriazanos Bulldog, a pipe that previously until this afternoon had only had Balkan Sobranie smoked in it. That bowl of tobacco was one of the best that I've smoked in a long time. I had the A/C blowing cold with Roky Erickson on the car stereo. It was a nice drive.
We arrived at the show and and right off the bat noticed less vendors. The hallway around the ballroom was about a third less filled than in 2014. My wife and I did a lap past all the tables and nothing caught my eye. We went to the end of the hallway and picked up a tin of each of the show blends; Night Wraith, Invasion, and a tin from last year's show Varoom! We did another lap around the ballroom...
There were quite a few carvers there. I saw Brain Levine, but he's not a carver. Missouri Meerschaum was there. BriarWorks had a nice display of their pipes. Nate King was wearing a lab coat and was set up right in line with all the other carvers from briarlab. I thought that was a nice touch. It gave me hope that the FDA bullshit doesn't f things up too much for pipe carvers.
I luckily ran across Old Dominion Pipes on the way out and met Bob. Bob was a breath of fresh air that made this show worth it for me. He just oozed calm, cool, and collected passion for pipe history and pipe making. I bought a couple Laughing Kings and a Venus. It was a pleasure meeting Bob, and the best part of the show for me.
I smoked a bowl of Varoom! on the way home in one of the Laughing Kings, and both were great. The Old Dominion cob was a comfortable clencher with a nice draw that allowed me to get nice big mouthfuls of smoke. The guys at the show couldn't tell me anything about Varoom! and there's nothing on tobaccoreviews about it, so here it goes... the only thing I've read about this blend is on the side of the tin where it tells a story about a couple of nice sports cars driving in a desert through a ghost town, a chest of old tobacco is found, G.L Pease brings it back to life and the blend is born. It's a coarse cut balkan with a spicy/plum wine/nut flavor profile; it's heady and produces nice thick smoke; additionally it has a very light and natural dried floral essence to it in the tin and in the air. I wish I had picked up 10 tins.
The drive home also included a severe thunderstorm that produced torrential downpours and 70 mph gusts of wind. The was fun. All in all it was another good show. There were fewer vendors and a weird feel that I imagine is just an early FDA dip in energy, but spirits still seemed high overall. Sorry no pictures, but at least I gave a report. My wife did take one picture of me on the way up, but that would break my computer.