Words can't fully describe how awesome it was to meet so many Steemians face to face!
I was pretty bummed out having to miss the Springfield, MO meetup back in January due to moving to St. Louis just a few weeks prior. Even though I did get to talk with @Papa-pepper and @Stellabelle on the @steemittalk podcast through Discord...it just wasn't the same. This time around I was DETERMINED to make it no matter what!
Just like time spent here on Steemit, it felt like there was SOO much packed in to a couple of days. @Jacobts and I left St. Louis on Saturday morning and managed to get to the park in time to help @Stellabelle get things setup. I was absolutely flabbergasted by how much she put into this with things like having "Fun Car" spelled out on her vehicle in black tape, had Ned dollars attached all over the place, her HUGE Steem-bling necklace and a massive amount of fantastic food. I have to give her mad props for all of this on top of the actually organization of the event which is no easy task.
She even had the amazing idea to have "Full Vote Certificates", a Steem Coin and a business card for every attendee. The best part about these is that once a certificate is used, we are supposed to pass it and the steem coin on to another Steemian who can then redeem it once and pass it along again! What a great idea...I love it! :D
I didn't get to take a ton of pictures (especially compared to some of the others), instead focusing more on getting to talk with everybody, especially the newbies (shocker I know.) It really was a great time being able to meet everybody, put a face to the names and just spend some real life time with so many great people!
The passion, intelligence and friendliness of every person there was beyond compare!!
I was also really excited to be able to meat the non-virtual @VirtualGrowth who I've worked with for so long dating back all the way to the beginning of the Steemprentice mentor group.
The Few Pictures I Took
I did wander a bit at one point to take some pictures of gorgeous flowers that were around the park. I've posted a few of these and will have the rest in a separate post. There were some people who I didn't get much time to talk with, but I honestly hope to be able to rectify this at some future meetups!
Special Thank Yous!
I wanted to give a special thank you for @Stellabelle for making this all happen and to @JessamynOrchard who had a phenomenal performance (and made sure to bring the Weird Plastic Baby!)
It was great to meet everybody that made it there! It was really a very special experience for me!
I was so inspired with my FIRST EVER Steemit meetup that I just can't wait for more! Over the weekend many of us already started talking about getting St. Louis and Springfield Missouri ones organized ideally in the next few months!
After all talking with @stellabelle, @virtualgrowth, @jacobts and @fungusmonk until about 11pm..it was finally time to at least get myself checked into my hotel for the night. Myself, Virtual and Jacob then skidaddled to find somewhere for some dinner, ending up at the Green Room, which just happened to be next to the improv building that Jacob had done a workshop at in the past.
How amazing was it that the stars aligned that he was able to run into some of this old friend how came through the restaraunt after their show!!
The Next Morning and the Drive Home
@Jacobts's sister was nice enough to let him and @VirtualGrowth stay at her house for the night. And the next morning I met back up with them over there, where Jacob made us a fantastic breakfast while the three of us talked Steemit and Crypto for HOURS!! Thank you Jacob!!
After being on the road for a while, I started to get really tired and wanted to pull off for a bit. We were just going to do this in Columbia, MO and find somewhere for me to wake up. But WAIT!! What was that sign right there?!?!?!?!
Russell Stovers Store?!!?! YESS!!!!!
Every time I traveled from Springfield to St. Louis I would see one of these shops but never stopped. NOT THIS TIME!!! OMG OMG OMG!!
The shelves and shelves of chocolate, fudge and other sweets! I ended up grabbing a few boxes (one for me, one for my mom and one fro my sister.) If we stayed much longer, I would have REALLY been in trouble.
This was JUST what I was needing to finish the drive home. Man was I exhausted, but I'll remember this weekend FOREVER!
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