Last Wednesday night we shipped Rusty off to attend the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money Show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to host the annual Carson City Coin Collectors of America general meeting as well as attend a book signing event for our new James Crawford: Master of the Mint at Carson City – A Short Full Life book.
Being Rusty’s assistant, I was the one who made all of his travel arrangements for the show, along with finalizing his book signing event and C4OA meeting agenda. As most of you know, I love this position because it gives me a chance to really get in there and make sure that all the details and accommodations are accounted for and taken care of in a timely fashion. Usually, this persistence pays off because I know that all of our arrangements are in place and events will go off without a hitch. Well, this well-oiled machine fell off the hitch for this event to say the least…
Rusty arrived at the host hotel for the ANA show a little after midnight on Wednesday night. Knowing that Rusty was going to be arriving that late to the hotel, I called that morning to confirm his room and to have the desk-clerk make a note of his very late arrival even though I made his reservation three and a half months before that day. When Rusty made his way up to the counter to check-in that night, to our shock, his reservation had “disappeared.” I am sure by now you all are experiencing that same “sucker punched” feeling that we felt that night knowing that we had a confirmed reservation, that it was so late at night, and that the majority of the surrounding hotels were booked due to the large ANA show attendance. And to say the least, it did not help that the host hotel employees did nothing to help Rusty find another hotel or even offer an apology. The nightshift employees even went as far as to claim that he never booked a room in the first place. I couldn’t imagine what it was like to be kicked-out into the streets of downtown Milwaukee at 2:00 A.M. knowing that you had to find another place to lodge for the night on your own and that you had to get back up just hours later to put your best foot forward at a book signing event and to run a general meeting. But being the super hero that our boss Rusty is – he did both events that he was scheduled to do regardless of his horrible treatment the night before.
(The picture above is fellow author and C4OA member Weimar White and our own Rusty Goe.)
The book signing event was actually Rusty’s first book signing of sorts for the new Crawford book. The entire event was meant to feature authors within the ANA and to our disappointment, the turnout was lower than we expected. It seemed as if this “authors table” was a last minute idea by the ANA and not much planning went into it. It is amazing how much events like these rely on publicity and getting the word out to the public. But nonetheless Rusty had a great time visiting with some old (and new) friends.
At 1:00 P.M. on Thursday Rusty hosted the annual Carson City Coin Collectors of America general meeting. About twenty bright-eyed members attended the meeting learning all sorts of things related to that “CC” mintmark we have come to know and love, as well as getting caught-up on the latest news in the club. The member who traveled the farthest to attend the meeting was hands-down Mitsuru Okada who is our international member in Japan! And we thought Rusty had a long flight…. For more information concerning this meeting and other C4OA news please refer to the C4OA blog which the link can be found on the homepage of our website.
(The picture above features our international member Mitsuru Okada, club president Rusty Goe, club member and blogsite adviser Jeff Shaw, and club member and journal contributor Tom DeFina. Each of them are holding up one of the quarterly journals of Curry's Chronicle.)
Rusty flew back home on Thursday night immediately following the adjournment of the meeting. Thankfully he finally found some time to get some rest. But not for too long, as we booked him for another book signing event just two days after he returned at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City.
-Amy