My trip to Cleveland to speak to C-SEA

November 20 - 22, 2008: The Board of Directors from the Cleveland Saltwater Enthusiasts Association contacted me to come out and speak to their club... This trip included visiting a couple of stores in Columbus, a bunch of snow, and a visit to Savko.

We all left with something from Phishy Bushiness. I got a Salifert Magnesium test kit that I've desperately needed. I was allowed to decide our next stop: Savko. That is a place we often refer people to to buy special plumbing parts - www.savko.com - and with it being in the same town, we just had to stop there.

The store is small, and I never got past the counter to see the treasure in the back, but we each left with a bag of goodies.

I bought some uniseals, a true-union ball valve, a 2" strainer and 2" nipple for my manifold project.

Then it was time to travel back to Cleveland, the land of snow and ice. :)

We stopped at Kevin's house to pick up the projector for the meeting, and I got to see his basement setup. He was being very quiet about it, as it needed some TLC. While I was there, I lent a hand for about 20 minutes, and then we drove straight to the meeting place at the Cleveland Zoo. It was dark, we had five minutes to get inside the door, so here's a picture I took of the entrance last April. Just imagine snow all over the ground, and that it is night time. :)

John Janda was set up to make sure everyone in attendence was accounted for, and he also handed out raffle tickets.

Quite a few people began talking to me before the meeting started, and I forgot to take any pictures of the group. There were probably 50 people present, and that was good considering the weather. Refreshments were available, and I gave a presentation about Reef Photography.

Afterwards, we all went out to dinner at TGIF again. I had to get more people to drink Mudslides with me before I left town. Kevin even took the opportunity to nail me with a nice wet snowball that hit me just above the collar of my coat so I could feel it for a while. I found a huge chunk of the dirty snow that accumulates behind the front wheel of a car, but missed him. He's had far more practice playing in the snow anyway.

Saturday morning, it was apparent the snow was melting. Time to head to the airport. Jen was kind enough to drive me there.

So planes can land on this stuff, huh? And take off too, for about six months a year.

This was supposed to be our plane.

However, after waiting it was announced there was a problem with the cargo door, and it had to be repaired. Thinking how it would be nice to fly home on a safe plane, it was nice to see this one roll up to the next gate.

The flight home was uneventful, which is always a good thing. My luggage made it even with the plane switching, and when I got home my reef tank was in great shape thanks to my son's careful attention to detail. Here are my goodies from the trip, along with 300 pictures, and more fun memories from Ohio. :)

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