Shortly after the August Oak Creek Show, I flew out to Colorado Springs with my folks and Lisa to attend my niece's wedding.

While I absolutely hate airports and airplanes, I do enjoy being a tourist, as I thoroughly enjoyed Colorado -- what a beautiful place.

I had been to Colorado Springs once before when I was 12 and I traveled there with my folks and my little brother. We had a wonderful trip.

I largely had a wonderful childhood. My folks loved to travel and as a kid they took me all over the U.S. and around the world. Highlights were regular trips to the Beau Rivage Resort in Miami in the late 1960's and early 1970's, Disney Land in 1973, maybe a dozen trips to Disney World in the 1970's, regular trips to Lakeside and Mackinac Island in Michigan, Six Flags in St. Louis, Aspen, Vail, Hilton Head, SC; Washington, DC; Maine, Niagra Falls, Cooperstown, Vermont, Tucson, Grand Canyon, Wisconsin Dells, Las Vegas, Montreal, Hong Kong, China, Switzerland, and England, to name a few.

After a lifetime of travel with my folks, I figured the trip to Colorado Springs would be the last one as my parents are slowing down at age 88, so I took time to savor this one.

We arrived in Colorado Springs in the evening and found a Waffle House near our hotel. I love Waffle House and don't understand why we don't have them here in Illinois.

The wedding was at a beautiful country club in the town of Castle Rock. It was nice to spend some time with my sister, who lives in Colorado Springs and I have not seen her in three years. I can't even remember the last time I saw my niece, maybe 10 years ago. My nephew flew in from Houston. I absolutely love that guy. A total character with a great sense of humor. Luckily, I get to see him every so often as he travels for work and has to be in the Chicago area on occasion.

The trip was too short. I promised my sister that Lisa and I would be back soon. I've got to find time to get back to Colorado!

Pictured above, left to right, is my sister Lori, brother-in-law Hal, niece Tory and her husband Alex. It was my first time meeting Alex. I found him warm and charming and his family was kind and welcoming.

Loved watching my sister and her daughter dance at the wedding. So lucky to be related to these ladies. 

Saturday, August 9, 2025, Salvation Army Community Center, Oak Creek, WI

You guys have been letting me know that I haven't blogged since the National. I appreciate the concern expressed about my health. I'm still battling some things, especially fatigue, but I am in a much better place than I was at this time two years ago.

The real reason I have not been blogging is that I have been crazy busy along with, honestly, losing my motivation to blog. I have been doing this here little blog now since 2011 and, frankly, I am a little bored with it. There is only so much I can say about a card show.

Fear not, dear readers, I am not discontinuing the blog but I would like to change it up on occasion to make it a little more interesting to me. As you know, I worked as a newspaper reporter in another life and one of the things I miss from those days are writing feature stories. I would like to add a new wrinkle to this blog and pen some feature stories on vintage sports collectors -- which means YOU, the follower of this blog. I want to learn about you, your collection and share it with all my followers.

Anybody who is interested to share their story and collection, send me an email at [email protected]. I'll send you some questions and you send me your responses and some photos and hopefully we can put together some interesting profiles.

So while I was not blogging, I was still attending shows just about every weekend. I don't have many tales to tell but I do have photos to share.

First up, after the National, was the August Oak Creek show. Admittedly, I was exhausted after the National but had no time to rest as the Oak Creek show was on the following Saturday.

On the Monday after the National, I was on the horn contacting my Oak Creek vendors to confirm that the regulars were setting up. Problem -- a large number of vendors were unable to set up at the show because I moved it back one week so it would not conflict with the National. Many vendors told me they were available at the normal first Saturday, but not the second Saturday, the day the show was scheduled.

So in addition to contacting all the regular vendors, I had to work the waiting list which is a complete pain in the ass because I always have to contact three or four guys off the list before I can get one to commit. The result was an exhausted me working the list all week to fill up all the vendor spots for the August 9 Oak Creek show. I was also trying to price some cards to sell at the show. It was a crazy week.

In the end, the show went off without a hitch. We had an excellent crowd considering Oak Creek is just 73 miles north of Rosemont, the location of the prior week's National convention that drew 150,000 people.

I don't remember a whole lot from the August Oak Creek show. One thing that sticks out was that I was flush with cash from the National and looking to restock. I ended up buying a nice pile of 1950's and 1960's star cards and a near set of 1964 Topps Giants from my pal Larry Larsen. Thanks Larry! 

I already had a nice back stash of '64 Giants and just placed a near set into a binder for next week's group of shows: Saturday, October 18, 2025, at Woodstock North High School; and Sunday, October 19, 2025, at Downers Grove North High School. Both of these shows are in Illinois.

Next Oak Creek show is November 1, 2025. As usual I am sold out and overbooked. Next Oak Creek Vintage Show is November 15. I have plenty of tables available for the Vintage Show. 8-foot tables cost just $35. Send me an email to register at [email protected].

Below are some photos from the August 9 Oak Creek Show:

I don't remember who, but somebody had an unopened pack of 1934 Goudey baseball cards.