The Pen Addict 352/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	352
Title:	Mandatory Cookout
Release Date:	March 27th, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Ana Reinert
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 352
Audio File:	Audio Episode 352
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 352
Length:	8080 min <br />1.333 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 352, and this is our pre-game at the Atlanta Pen Show. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, Eero, and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am so happy, and it's always a pleasure to be joined by Anna Reynet. Hi, Anna.

Anna Reynet: Hello.

Brad Dowdy: I introduced you first today. Brad Dowdy's also here. You got me there. I know. He's building it up. You were like, oh, he's being so nice to me. No, no, the guest deserves the warm introduction. You just get a mild hello today, Brad.

Lamy Safari

Myke Hurley: Absolutely. I could not agree more, Anna.

Brad Dowdy: I say guest. Let me correct myself. Co-host. Third co-host.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Thank you.

Myke Hurley: Myke, Anna, and some other guy.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But yeah, you had me. I had like my breathing pattern was corrected for getting ready to speak. And then I had to like hold it and like spit it out to the side of the microphone. It's like, you got me there.

Myke Hurley: So good job by you, mate. I can't wait until you pull these shenanigans on me next week live and in person.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Can't wait. We've got a big show today. We're going to be talking about a bunch of Atlanta Pen Show related topics, but that's not all. It's not going to be all Pen Show for those of you that won't be in attendance. We're also going to be talking about a bunch of other interesting things. I want to start actually by talking about a tweet that Brad sent late a couple of days ago in the evening. It just says, I just realized I want an Arushi Lamy Safari. Good night. Brad, explain yourself.

Myke Hurley: I was heavily medicated because I finally went to the doctor last week and got some real drugs. So I was a little bit spaced out and on all this medication. And I don't even know what I was doing. I wasn't doing anything work related or pen related. I think I was just like sitting on the couch kind of, you know, was later in the evening. And I was just, I don't know how that came up. I guess I had recently used my Lamy Safari with the Lamy Bronze ink. And I guess that kind of cross-pollinated with me thinking about Arushi pens and maybe seeing Jonathan soon and things that he does or, you know, one of my Nakaya Arushi pens, which I don't even have out right now. And I go, huh, this would be fun if it was coded in Arushi, wouldn't it? So I just tweeted it out and then I went to bed at the end. Like this is, this is how my brain works, Myke. I don't know why you're surprised by this.

Brad Dowdy: What's the price point on an Arushi Lamy Safari?

Myke Hurley: It's got to be like at least $500 probably.

Myke Hurley: I know I ask another question. Would you pay that? It's probably, it's probably less than that. It's probably less than that. Three to $400.

Brad Dowdy: But would you pay that? Would you pay $400?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: There you go, Lamy. There's your special edition. That's how you finally put an end to the Lamy versus AL Star Wars is by bringing out an Arushi Lamy Safari.

Myke Hurley: Well, actually we don't because Anna chimed in this morning right before the show. I think she was taunting me on purpose knowing right before the show I'm going to be reading my Twitter feed. She says, well, I have an AL Star ready for Arushi. So what do you think about that, Anna?

Anna Reynet: Well, I think you'd have to start with the AL Star. I don't think the plastic would be a good base. I think you'd need the metal.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. We'll have to ask Jonathan like technically how that would work, how it would stick.

Brad Dowdy: Well, so here is my next question then. Could this be done? Could somebody like Jonathan do this? Like if you gave him a Lamy of some kind, could it be done?

Myke Hurley: I don't know enough about it to totally say I think you would have some connection problems around the center of the pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Visually, like aesthetically. Could he make it? Yeah. Could he make it aesthetically pleasing where it didn't look like, you know, a fifth grader doing paint by numbers?

Brad Dowdy: Because I guess there's a few things you would lose. You would lose the shape, right? Like ultimately you would lose the shape. I don't know that you would, to be honest. Or you'd lose the hole in the middle. You've got to, surely.

Myke Hurley: No, you've got to keep that. Like we've got to keep everything.

Brad Dowdy: No, I'm saying that's what you would need to do for it to be a Lamy Safari, but like can it be done? That's what I'm wondering.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to vote that it can.

Anna Reynet: That's why I'm locking up my bronze.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you see all these decapods, right? Like the decapods and the decapod twists. They can shape this thing. I don't see any reason it can't be done. I just don't know that it's a good idea.

Brad Dowdy: I feel like something to look forward to on our next episode is the answer to this question.

Myke Hurley: Actually, yes. So we'll interview Jonathan before the show. He will not be, he's been a special guest at our Atlanta Pen Show episode, which we can talk about those guests. We didn't put that in the show notes, but we have our guests planned for next weekend or a week and a half from now. And we'll, in the pre-show, we'll find out from Jonathan and get an answer to this question and what can be done.

Brad Dowdy: All right, moving on to...

Myke Hurley: It's the important questions.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we're really cracking open the case here.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, Brad's drug-induced delirium has now created a podcast topic. That's great.

Brad Dowdy: There is a, well, of course there is. I mean, I feel like this could be a recurring segment. We can make an entire show out of the fact that there is yet another interesting looking sailor limited edition. Do you want to tell us about this, Brad?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, one of these days I'm not going to post these. Like, I am not interested in talking about this every week and neither of the people are not interested in listening to this every week.

Brad Dowdy: Why are you saying that?

Myke Hurley: I don't believe. I mean, it doesn't mean we don't love them, but, you know, at some point I don't need to talk about every orange, lime, pink, translucent sailor that gets made. And this one wasn't. It was different. It is apparently a metal wrapped that looks like it's like a hammered metal type of barrel on a sailor pro gear.

Pins

Myke Hurley: Trying to get the details of this pin are difficult. You know, one of my good Twitter friends and friend of the show, Calligraphy Nut, always sends me all the crazy sailor stuff. This one just happened to be crazier than normal because it had a metal barrel and it looks like a very well done hammered finish.

Brad Dowdy: It's from Oita made? Yeah, Oita.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So the problem in trying to figure out the construction, the real construction of this pin as Google Translate is not really good.

Brad Dowdy: Please let me read it. At its job. Please let me read it. Please, please let me read it. Okay. Can I read the whole paragraph? I'm going to read the whole paragraph. Yeah, go ahead. It is a special fountain pen that brings together the traditional colors of Japan. There is a character, that has not been translated, then love, for the manufacturing of local companies. All right, everyone's on board so far, right? It's looking good so far. After three years of research and development, Oita's manufacturing companies have developed innovative materials colored with smallpox. Now, I understand what is attempted to be said here. I think the smallpox is meant to mean like the rivets, like the little, the tiny hammers. But it's just beautiful translation. Taking advantage of that technology, the collaboration between Oita made and Sailor Fountain Pen created, the Japan Blue Fountain Pen, which is what this is called. It's stunning.

Myke Hurley: I mean, it's beautiful. I, like, I am, again, I would break my moratorium for this. I'm not going to, but I would. It's a fantastic pen. It's very expensive, even for the, in the Sailor Pro Gear price range, it's still very expensive, 50,000 yen, which is translates right now to 454 US dollars. It's crazy. So, I just wanted to bring this up, number one, so you could see it. Number two, because Google Translate is always good podcast topics. And number three, I wanted to know if Anna has a problem with any pens in her life, like you have a problem with Sailor Pro Gear limited edition.

Brad Dowdy: I think before Anna answers that question, I should round out this by saying I've emailed this company. Of course you have. I emailed them, because they have an email address. They're just like, please contact us to receive a pre-order. And I emailed them. And Myke's like, why, yes, I will contact you. It's like, oh, thank you so much for putting that information at the bottom. That's perfect for me. And they said to me, I'm happy to be interested. And this is, they said this to me. I'm happy to be interested in the Japan Blue Sailor Fountain Pen. It is possible to respond. Please give me a little time. Again, this is obviously gone for a translation. I think what they're saying is like, thank you for your interest. You'll receive a pre-order, like, form soon or something like that. But yeah, I will buy this if I can, because I think it's. Super weird and amazing.

Myke Hurley: It's pretty amazing. Are you vaccinated, though?

Brad Dowdy: From the smallpox, I guess we'll find out. Now, that would be the real twist, wouldn't it? Like, oh, how did Myke die? Oh, it was the Sailor Fountain Pen. That ultimately put an end to him.

Anna Reynet: It did you in.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Good to say that. So anyway, I'll repeat Brad's question. Anna, do you have any problems with specific pens? Like, I have a problem with Pro Gears.

Anna Reynet: No, I don't think so.

Brad Dowdy: It's a very unique situation I've got going on over here.

Anna Reynet: But you went through a phase where Retro 51s sort of did you in.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and then Field Notes. I have my Field Notes phase. I go, this is a thing for me, right? Like, I go through these phases.

Anna Reynet: I mean, when I go to pen shows, I tend to look for the Franklin Kristoff Pocket 45s. But not to the same extent, I don't think. So my worst crime is Lady Schaefer's script sorts. But luckily, there's a limited number of designs. Yeah. They don't make them anymore.

Myke Hurley: You always seem to come up with something at a pen show. Like, you scavenge pretty well. And we'll maybe talk about this a little bit later. But like, you'll come back. Like, I'll see you around in the corner with this little grin on your face. And you'll reach into your pocket. And like, one pen won't come out. It'll be like a fistful. She's like, look what I got. And most of the time, it's Lady Schaefer's. Yeah, but you do the same thing. I do. I do. We all love showing off our own little fascinations of the things that we're really into. We all have our things.

Brad Dowdy: Talking of showing off what we like, the pen show is coming up. So one of the first things that I wanted to know about you guys is we approach kind of like our Super Bowl of the year, I think. We'll call it that. What pens are you each planning to bring? I don't necessarily need a full inventory. But is there anything special or a couple of special items that you want to bring to Atlanta to show off to the people that make it? What do you have, Anna?

Lady Schaefer Pens

Anna Reynet: I usually try to bring some of my Lady Schaefer's because people do like to see those.

Brad Dowdy: And you have maybe a collection that most people wouldn't have, right? Because you've spent a bunch of time putting it together. So there is, even if somebody has some Lady Schaefer's, they would still want to see yours, for example, because you've been collecting them over time.

Anna Reynet: Yeah, I do. I have some that have what's called the brilliance, which is like the little ring of gemstones around the middle, which people kind of go crazy about those. But yeah, so I bring some of those. But yeah, I always try to bring a few that are just different and unusual.

Myke Hurley: I'm kind of the same way. It's like I want to bring the outliers, right? Like I want to bring a Sailor King of Pen, not because I want necessary to like show off the King of Pen, but I want people to be able to use one to grasp the size of a pen like that, right? You can only talk about a pen like that so much. You have to like actually pick it up and use it. So I bring that type of thing. And I bring a Nakaya so you can see the finish with your own eyes and feel how different it can feel in the hand. And then I bring like a Pilot 823 just because I talk about it so much. And that's just a pen people tend to shop for, but it's good to have them, you know, try it ahead of time. And last year, I know like I bought a Pelican 800 because that was around the time the Ocean Swirl had come out. So I wanted to bring one that was that size. So people have like, you know, a relative type pen.

Anna Reynet: Doesn't your 823 have a posting nib?

Myke Hurley: It does not. My 912 does. So that one I bring for the nib. So like, so that's a perfect example though. But because when I bought mine, they didn't have all those nib options in the 823, but they have like crazy nib options now. So if they ever come out with another color in the 823 lineup, hint, hint, Pilot, which I think we've asked for for a long time, I might try to get one with a PO nib. So yeah, I like to bring like that outlier type of stuff just so people can say, even if they're not interested in it, they can try the thing that they've maybe heard about, right? So that's kind of my goal. And I try not to bring too much. Like I might bring 10 pens, something like that.

Anna Reynet: Atlanta is easy to bring a lot because you drive.

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Very, very different. Because no pens will explode in your car like they 100% will in a plane, right? I don't know about 100%. This will never die. I am planning on bringing a bunch of my rarer or limited sailors, right? So like some of the stuff that people might not have seen, some of the weird stuff that I bought from strange places on the internet. And then also kind of like similarly, just things that are relatively interesting or unique. So like, you know, I have a couple of Brooks pens and I'll bring those and maybe like I'll bring a canalea or two, right? Because they're like different things that people don't get to see very much. But like you both, I'm going to... I have in the past like brought lots, you know, like I have a big folder and I brought lots and lots of stuff. But over time, I'm like trying to just like pare that down a little bit. So I'm probably looking in the realm of like pen again to bring with an extra case put back to my suitcase for anything else that might find its way back home with me.

Myke Hurley: Because that's for sure. And like you told me before the show, Myke, your pens are going through their annual cleaning before they make this trip, right?

Brad Dowdy: I wouldn't say annual, but I would say a more typical deep clean than my usual cleaning regimen. One would say. One would say.

Brad Dowdy: They'll look their best. They are.

Myke Hurley: Shot them up.

Brad Dowdy: Now we're talking about the pen show that we're going to be going to in Atlanta, but every day can be a pen show if you just go to Pen Chalet. They have all of the pens that you're looking for. They have all of the brands that you love. They have rollerballs and fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. And they have brands like Pelican and Lamy and Sailor, Caveco, Monteverde, Pilot. They're an authorized dealer and they're adding new stuff all the time. New brands, new products. They're always adding new things. Every time I see something new, Pen Chalet is picking it up these days, which I love to see. Because Pen Chalet, they're a great partner of ours, but they're really great for the customer as well. You get free shipping on orders of over $50 in the U.S. They do great shipping rates elsewhere. They back everything up with their 100% satisfaction guarantee, as well as their low prices on high quality products. So, go to penchalet.com right now, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, and click that podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict. This is where you will get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet at any time, and also to find special deals for this episode. But, Ron at Pen Chalet said for me to, like he gave me a specific one this week to point out that they have a deal on some Platinum Balance pens right now over at Pen Chalet for penaddict listeners. But, as you know, Ron always does his thing and sneaks some other stuff in there as well. So, you want to go and check that out at penchalet.com right now. What do you think, Brad?

Myke Hurley: Like, he snuck in a crazy price on the Diplomat Aero that I haven't seen that low before. And a bunch of people love this pen. It's a really, really solid, good everyday writer, great looking pen at a price point that, again, doesn't seem right. Like, it doesn't seem possible. And then I noticed on the homepage, not necessarily on the deals page, but you can always get the, use the coupon code PENADIC. They have the Lamy Crystal Inks. And, Anna, I wanted to know what you think about the Lamy Crystal Inks. Because I know you guys have reviewed some at the Well Appointed Desk. Have you ran any through the ringer yourself?

Anna Reynet: I've reviewed two. So, I reviewed, crap, I don't even remember the names of them. A pink one, which was almost exactly the same. Is it Rode Knight? Yeah, the Rode Knight. Yeah. And then there was a teal blue.

Brad Dowdy: Which would be the Amazonite, probably. Yes.

Anna Reynet: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That one looked really good.

Anna Reynet: Yeah. That was really nice. But they are more expensive than their standard line of inks in slightly smaller bottles. So, just something to consider. But there's several other colors that, like, one of them is sold out everywhere. So, people are crazy for it. And then there's one that's slightly waterproof. Just to take, something to consider. And most of the websites, like Penchelle, I think, are listing that one. It's like a blue-black.

Brad Dowdy: I think I am all about the Rode Knight, the pink one.

Anna Reynet: Yeah.

Pen Chalet

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's good. I might have to get myself a bottle of that, actually. And I know the place to do it. Penchelle.com. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Thank you so much to Penchelle for their continued support of this show and RelayFM. Blackwing, Volume 811, the Library Edition. We're into the limited edition release portion of this week's episode. We've got Blackwings, and then we're going to play the Field Notes game. So, Brad, why don't you tell me why you are, I'm sure, obviously excited about the new Blackwing release?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they're doing, they're kind of hitting their stride with the storytelling aspects of these products, which is what I like, right? Like, none of us, well, no one who listens to a podcast about pens is in their right minds. But people who buy, like, an inordinate amount of pencils and later on notebooks, you know, that more than we'll ever use in our life, we still like to be surprised with all the things that we get. And Blackwing, with their last few editions have, or last couple of editions have really, I think, kind of made, like, the perfect, perfectly executed editions for the story that they were trying to tell. So, this, the library, this is, you know, based on, like, the retro styling of the green lamps in the library. So, it's got this green, gradient green barrel with a phosphorescent coating that makes it glow in the dark, supposed to be, like, the dim glow of the lights. Gold ferrule, pink eraser, give it that perfect retro look. It's got the firm core. Just kind of everything about it is right. Like, is it my favorite pencil of all time? Well, of course not. But I look at it from, okay, what is Blackwing trying to do? And then they deliver on it. And I think they did. Like, it's just about perfect in my book. And since it's green, and we have Anna on the show, I want, I don't want to assume what she thinks about this pencil. But do you have any thoughts on what this edition is, Anna?

Anna Reynet: I am really happy about it. The last few were not my favorites. So, this one is really good. I love that it has a literary background. Yeah, definitely made my top five.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, for sure. Like, the last one, the space one, I don't even remember what it was called. Like, I thought that was a great, well-done pencil. I will never use that pencil. Like, it's just not for me. But, like, this one is. And then, like, previously, the one I did give a hard time was the 33 and a third. I thought they did a poor job executing that. But they had some other, you can't win them all. And they had some others that they executed really well. But, like, this is definitely the best out of the last several editions. And I think universally, it's, you know, being praised around the stationary blogosphere. It's just, like, if you're talking about people who are into writing tools and library things come out, like, that's just going to be a win. And I think they did a good job telling that story.

Brad Dowdy: I like that it glows in the dark.

Anna Reynet: And it really glows in the dark. Oh, yeah? They said they, there must have been, like, seven coats of the phosphorescent on it so that it really glows. And it's brighter towards the end you sharpen than as you get further up. So, you'll lose a little bit of that as you sharpen it. But it still looks really cool.

Myke Hurley: And it's funny, the way it's finished and the gradient. Like, the light that I'm in now shows off the gradient really well. But, like, I remember when I opened up the boxes, I thought it was a solid color pencil, right? It really kind of changes a little bit based on the lighting. But this is going to, I mean, this will be a sellout. Like, it's just really well done. Like, I'm not a gold, ferrule, pink eraser person generally. Like, I don't really care for those on the regular 602s. But on this pencil, it's killer. Like, this is, like, 1950s right off the desk at the library. It's great.

Anna Reynet: Yeah. It was a good combination. Yep.

Field Notes

Brad Dowdy: All right, let's play the Field Notes game. So, there's been a new Field Notes release. So, as we usually do, rather than saying what we think about it, we will guess what each other thinks about it. So, I think we're going to do it in this way. Brad, I am going to guess what you think. You will guess what Anna thinks. And, Anna, you can guess what I think. So, we can do this pretty simply as, like, do we think, so, do I think Brad likes this edition? I think that this one is going to be an absolute knockout for Mr. Brad Dowdy. So, this is the Mile Marker edition. It features three books of three different designs, which I know Brad really likes when they're all different and they're all simple. They all evoke different kind of, like, roadway signs and, as well as the big bright colors. They have, like, a really cool holographic crown foil on them. So, they would, like, like a street sign would give you some glow back when you shine a light at them. And if you're a subscriber or you can buy it separately, they're going to send out a map that they made of American highway. So, like, it's a highway map. It's a national highway map, which is a super interesting thing to do. So, I'm going to guess that Brad Dowdy loves this edition.

Myke Hurley: So, do I answer now or do I go ahead and try to guess Anna?

Brad Dowdy: I think for the movement, answer now and then you can guess Anna.

Myke Hurley: It's better than the space edition that they just released two editions ago. There's my hot take. So, that should tell you everything you need to know about what I think about this edition.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, so you'd love it then?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Huh. Yeah, because I know that you like the space edition a lot, right?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: When I got the email about this one?

Myke Hurley: I want to use this edition a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: The space edition, I wanted to look at that edition a lot. That's a difference in my book. So, and we can talk about it more. Let me guess, Anna. I think, this is a tough one. I think Anna likes it. It won't be a favorite, but I know she appreciates the highway system, the style, and the finishes of the exterior cover. I don't know that it would be a favorite of hers in the grand scheme of things. Although, saying that, I don't know what her favorite field note styles are. So, it's a little bit harder to pin down where, like, I kind of know Myke's thoughts and my thoughts pretty well. I don't totally know Anna's thoughts. So, I think this, for Anna, this is a like, not love.

Anna Reynet: You're pretty close. I was expecting a little bit more with the covers in terms of the design, but I do like the holographic foil, and the map is super cool.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Anna Reynet: But yeah, so they're like, just slightly above meh.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's about right. I'd say, yeah.

Anna Reynet: So, my guess for Myke is, I know that he's said before that the endless Americana is getting tiresome. And this is another case of American national highways. And the fact that it comes with a map of the U.S. is just going to be something that he's like, what am I going to do with this? So, I think he's going to like the bright colors and the cool printing techniques and the dot grid. But it's not going to be a favorite. So, he's probably more on the meh to not a favorite.

Brad Dowdy: Very close. So, when I got the email, I was like, ugh.

Brad Dowdy: Because it was, you know, like the wonder of the American highway. And I was like, here we go. But I clicked the page and the design of these is like triggered in my brain. Like, I think these are absolutely stunning because they're so beautifully simple. I think like the big, they chose three very different colors, three very different like emblems. You know, it gives a different street signs. I adore the kind of crown foil that they've done. I think that's a beautiful touch. So, basically, Ana, you've got all of the little parts. But I actually do, I think that this is a really great looking like set. Because the look of these, I don't think is so heavy in America. They're just like really interesting looking road sign kind of things. You know, like, I'm trying to think of like a way it could have been different. But like if it maybe would have, oh, you know what I thought it was going to be and it would have changed it. I thought they were going to go with another like photo-y edition of the highways. That would not have worked for me. Because that's just like pictures of American highways. Like the map is like that is I'm like, okay, this is nice. But like, what am I going to do with this? But this reminds me more like the coastal edition than three missions. Where they've taken a thing and they've made a nice design out of it, which evokes something in America. Rather than just straight up putting some pictures on the notebooks. So, I think this is a very, very strong contender in my top list. I'm looking forward to getting it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and I'm glad it's, you know, dot grid. You know, I love that. I love that format. You know, two out of the three covers are really could be. You could find those types of street signage anywhere in the world. You know, the deer and the exit interstate signs, you know, are really kind of universal. The only, you know, super Americana one is the Eisenhower logo. And the traditional red, white, and blue. But like, I just think, like I said, I want to use as many products that I'm subscribing for. You know, obviously, you know, I'm not subscribing to these things to just sit there and have them look pretty. And I want to use this edition like heavily. Like I want to more so than the previous one. I want to call it conspiracy, but it's not conspiracy. See, what's the previous one? Clandestine. And then the three missions. Like those are perfectly fine, great looking additions. Like, I mean, you know, the three missions was spectacular. I didn't really want to stick it in my pocket, grab a pen, and head out the door. This one I do. It invokes something different.

Brad Dowdy: I'm getting some real strong day game vibes from these.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, for sure.

Brad Dowdy: And that was an addition, a very early addition that I got used. Because that was just like a really cool three pack.

Myke Hurley: Right. Right. So, Ana, I'm going to ask you, I'm going to give you a task between now and Atlanta. I want you to get in touch with our friend Brian at Field Notes and ask him who he paid off for the street sign. Or did he just commando hack it? We need to figure out his Department of Transportation, yeah, access level for the video. Because I thought they did a good job. I thought it was cute. I really liked that. I was like, they're not going to put that on the sign, are they? Are they?

Anna Reynet: They did it. I really bet he's had that since he was in college.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, that was really good. So, that's your homework for the show. I need to know. Behind the scenes. We need to know what level of shenanigans Brian went through to get that done.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, this is like the electronic road sign, right? They got like Field Notes on it. They got like Field Notes on it.

Anna Reynet: We know Brian and I know each other because we both ride scooters, right? Yep. So, there were scooter shenanigans in our past.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So, that's perfect. So, that's why you're the one for this task. I know you can pull it out of it, pull the truth out of it. So, good job by Field Notes. This is one of those additions that's actually been requested for about five or six years now, right? When, you know, people try to guess what additions are going to come out next. American Highway Systems was always on there, on that short list. So, I'm glad to see one that they did and executed so well. And I'm interested to see how the four-wheel stamping looks, too, when we get them in hand. So, mine have not arrived yet, but I'm sure we'll have them before next week and I'll bring them.

Brad Dowdy: All right. This episode is also brought to you by our friends over at Eero. With Eero, you can build a Wi-Fi system perfectly tailored to your home. And considering the high-bandwidth world that we live in right now, this is something that you need because distributed systems are very important to make sure that you get the best speeds available to you for whatever it is that you want to be doing online. And with Eero, you can install an enterprise-grade Wi-Fi system in your home in just a few minutes. Everything starts with the second-gen Eero device. It has three 5GHz radios, which allows for increased speed and range. And it sits flat on any surface connecting either over Ethernet or wirelessly to your network. Then you can easily expand the coverage throughout your whole home by adding in small Eero beacons. These are just additional devices that plug directly into the wall, allowing you to reach every corner of your home. Basically, if there's a plug socket there, you can put an Eero beacon in, and then you'll be extending your connection, your super-fast connection, wherever it needs to be. Eero is now also introducing Eero Plus, which is designed to provide simple, reliable security to help defend all of the devices in your home from malware, phishing, and unsuitable content. Eero Plus can automatically tag sites that contain violent, illegal, or adult content, so you have powerful parental controls at your fingertips. There's an ad blocking function to help improve load times for websites that are full of privacy-invading ad tracking. And it's also possible to have Eero Plus check the sites that you visit against a database of millions of unknown threats to help prevent you from visiting malicious websites. Eero Plus even includes subscriptions to 1Password for password management, malwarebytes for antivirus solutions, and encrypt.me. Brad, can you tell me a little bit about Eero and how it changed your network at home? Eero Plus I can't. You know why? Why?

Myke Hurley: Because I never have to do anything with it.

Myke Hurley: It's that good of a product. I know I scared you a little bit there. You did.

Brad Dowdy: You were like, I'm throwing it out the window.

Myke Hurley: It's one of those products that just works exactly how it says it's supposed to work. Like, I plugged it in. I set it up. My internet coverage in my house improved and I never have to look at it again. It's just always on and always working. So, I can't tell you much more about it than that, Myke. It's really good.

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Atlanta Pen Show

Myke Hurley: So, we are ready for the Atlanta Pen Show. At least I'm ready. I don't know if you're ready. Sure. Myke or Ana. But we have, between Ana and myself, we've already been to, what, three PEN shows this year. Ana, you went to LA and Little Rock, right?

Anna Reynet: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: And then I've been to Baltimore. And I wanted to talk about and continue to talk about PEN show etiquette and what people can expect at different PEN shows based on our experiences. Now, we've covered this topic a lot of times before. But the reason I'm bringing it up again is because it continually comes up and it continually changes. And there's always new people coming into this. And then, you know, Ana and myself and Myke might have new thoughts on the types of things to expect. Like this question and the answers to it never get old and they never get stale because things are always changing. If you went to a PEN show, you know, five or ten years ago, it's very different. At least some PEN shows. Some PEN shows not as different. But in general, you know, these things are changing and there's always new people in it. And we want to allow everyone to have the best time possible at a show. So, as much information you can have about going into a show, I think it's a worthwhile topic for us to discuss. Especially with all three of us about to head to Atlanta and a bunch of people coming to Atlanta, including some new people and some experienced people.

Brad Dowdy: And this is information that is usable for any PEN show that you might go to, not just Atlanta, but also in general, I think any type of convention, you can apply a lot of this knowledge or this experience to that as well.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So, I know, Ana, the experience between LA and Little Rock is very different. And I don't know that we need to... Yeah, I don't know that we need to, like, review, like, the actual shows itself, you know, and why one was different than the other or better or worse or any of that stuff. But did you pick up on anything between the two shows that you would just want to, like, reiterate to our listeners or to someone who's considering, you know, going to their first PEN show or someone who's been to, you know, a dozen PEN shows? Like, have you picked up anything this year that you just want to, like, reinforce or something new?

Anna Reynet: Well, I mean, Little Rock and LA are literally the antithesis of each other. Because the LA show is a large show and the Little Rock, the Arkansas show is a very small show. So, I mean, in the way that, like, the Long Island show is not a huge show either. And then San Francisco is a really big show. So, I mean, you could use those as comparisons as well if you wanted. You know, and their venues are very different as well. So, if you were going to your very first show and were trying to pick a show to attend and say you lived in, I don't know, Oklahoma City, I would definitely say maybe go to Arkansas as your first show and not the LA show. Or go to Dallas, which is a two-day show rather than San Francisco for your very first show. Because it would be less travel distance. I mean, Dallas is still a big show, but the hotel is a lot less expensive. You know, that gives you more money to spend in the market, you know, shopping with the vendors and that kind of thing. So, it's just thinking those types of things through. And the smaller show gives you an opportunity to sort of circle the same vendors a couple times rather than a really big show where you might not even get to see all of the vendors in two days.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think that's important. Like, an important difference between a small show and a big show. And I don't know that the attendees of LA would have guessed this beforehand if they weren't involved in the behind the scenes and knowing what the changes were. That when they walked into that door, number one, it might be a few hours before they got in the door. And number two, they probably got one crack at passing a table just because of the crowds and the inefficiencies of the ballroom floor. So, like, that's kind of, like, you can't account for that ahead of time. But I would hate for that to be someone's very first pen show experience. They would probably never want to go again. And then, like you said, Little Rock's the antithesis of that. And Baltimore's probably somewhere in between, right? It's big and busy, except the difference is you could get around. You know, it wasn't overly big. But it had, you know, any vendor you wanted to see there, any product you wanted to see there. And you could see it multiple times. You could go look at something and then go ask your friend a question. Or, you know, shop, you know, different vintage pens from different dealers and see who's got the best quality products or best deals. So, like, it's always good to take your time anytime you go to one of these events. And we've said that from day one. And, like, you have to, like, be careful about freaking out like Myke did the first time he came to the Atlanta pen show. It was like, I needed one of those, like, little baby leashes for Myke that year. Because he just, like, ran off and he, like, come back with, like, handfuls of stuff.

Brad Dowdy: It's like, settle down, Myke. I still stand by my original fault on that, which I actually think is still a fine thing to do. You can go wild as long as you don't go over your budget. And I didn't go over my budget. I still had a budget and the budget was set. And I went crazy, but I kept within the budget. And I think budget is the more important part of that kind of equation.

Myke Hurley: I think a budget is more important than a list, than a shopping list. Right. So, like, I've gotten out of the shopping list, but that's just because of a different, I'm in a different place now with, you know, my pen show, you know, wants and needs.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's in the same way that, like, I don't really set budgets anymore because I am less inclined to buy everything.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, I don't have a fixed budget, but I know, like, what that number is. Like, I know what that limit is. It's like, okay, that's enough. You know, you have to be able to, you want to be able to figure out what your budget is so you know when to stop. Because you get that FOMO of not being at the pen show. Well, I'm not going to be here tomorrow, so I need to get this today. Well, and the reality is, well, maybe you could get it six months from now if you're still interested. If you're not, like, 100% committed right now, it's okay to say no, and it's okay to wait. Like, that's one of the topics that I put down. Like, it's okay to say no, and it's okay to pass on the thing. Like, take it slow. Pace yourself. And if you have any questions at all, it's okay to say no. Like, there's going to be other opportunities. There's going to be other pens and inks in the future. It's okay.

Anna Reynet: Most of the vendors, if there is something that you're interested in but not sure about, ask for their email address. Ask for their phone number. Ask to take a picture of it, and you can get back to them. Because especially with a vintage vendor, in a lot of cases, no one else is necessarily going to buy that particular pen. So you have that opportunity to sleep on it, think about it, contact them, you know, the following week, and say, you know what, I really am interested in that pen. And, you know, you email them later, you know, contact them, and have that, you know, you can continue to have that, you know, relationship with somebody. But, you know, get their business card, get their contact information.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's one of the things I wanted to point out that you wrote in the notes. One of your tips was visit a vendor you made a purchase from last year, and, you know, maybe mention, hey, I bought a pen from you last year. I bet you they'll remember. And even if they don't, they'll lie. And then they'll remember you this time. But that relationship ends up being priceless. If this is a thing that you actually get into over the years, you start to have these evolving relationships. And you know that, hey, I can go to Jane, and she has X. And it was really good last time. And she knows what I like now. And now we have this relationship. So, you know, I thought that was a really good, a really good point.

Anna Reynet: So, if you buy anything from somebody, see if they can give you a business card when you make your purchase or write down there contact info. So, even if you never have to contact them, you do remember who you purchased it from so that you can go back to their table the following year. Because sometimes you won't remember. Guys, it's wishing best.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. The other thing you asked, which is something I just started doing. And I'm not big in the vintage pen market, but I do like to have a few here and there. Especially, like, if something really catches my eye. And you put down, if you buy a vintage pen, ask the vendor how they acquired it. And if there's anything special about it or how they got into collecting that type of product. And if there's anything you'll realize, it's that probably, I'm going to put it at 90% of the vendors would love to regale you with tales about how they found their fountain pens or how they got into certain things. Now, there's going to be some that don't. And you'll know pretty quick. And then the lucky thing is there's someone next to them that will, you know, give you the time of day. And they just, they want to tell you about these things. So they're usually more than happy and glad to share information, especially, like, very beginner information. Which I've definitely seen a change over the past several years to the openness of some of the more traditional and vintage vendors who, you know, weren't really used to this younger newbie crowd that had started to come and populate these pen shows. Well, guess what? That crowd hasn't changed. And, in fact, it's probably gotten younger and maybe newbie-er. So they're learning to, hey, we should probably work on these things. And I think we're starting to see a change. Would you agree with that, Ana?

Anna Reynet: Absolutely. I feel like, you know, people like you and I worked pretty hard to start breaking down their defenses, you know. And so now they're starting to warm to new, younger collectors. So we did the hard work. So it'll be the next group.

Myke Hurley: And we keep doing it. Like, I will continue to, like, I will continue to, like, chip away at, like, the ice frozen exteriors. Just because I'm kind of obsessive that way. It's like, if you're not going to give me the time of day, I'm going to keep asking you what time it is until you do kind of thing. So I'm not in a pesty manner, but just in a, hey, we're all in this together. And it would be cool, like, if you were part of this, too. So, you know, that's something I work on.

Anna Reynet: Well, the fact that we're all at a pen show means we already have a shared interest. Yeah. And so we have something we can talk about.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And we see these people a lot. Like, it's not, they, they, I'm pretty sure they recognize the pink hair girl from show to show. Right?

Anna Reynet: Except for the organizer at DC. That's true. Who still cannot pick me out of a crowd.

Myke Hurley: That's true. That's true. So we'll figure it out. One of the things along the vintage line of questioning that I always ask is, is this pen restored? And did you restore it? Like, those are two kind of separate questions. So I will tend, I'm not in a place where I'm comfortable, like, restoring pens. If I'm buying a vintage pen, I want it to work perfectly. So I'll want to know, you know, if they have restored it. And then that way I know they can tell me more about it than, you know, just any generic. And a lot of people selling like vintage pens, they will absolutely not restore the pens. They have, they have bought or found these pens at estate sales and will sell them as is. You'll get them cheaper that way, but there's more than likely going to be some problems you're going to need to work on. So I always ask, is this pen restored and did you restore it? So I think that's good. A good way to, to go about that. Anna did this. You did a really good job with the show notes. Yeah. That's why, that's why it's worthwhile talking about these things over and over and over again, even if people think they've heard it. I've never written down this, even though I practice it. Buy something for a friend or a loved one. I think that's great. Like, that's something I do. Like, I buy things for other people all the time, but I've never thought to actually put that down as a pointer. So what, what made you put that down there?

Anna Reynet: Well, Bob and I were talking about it and it's like, if you're at the show for the full weekend and you're doing your, you know, third lap, and it's like this time walk around thinking about what can I take home? What can I take to a friend? What can I take to a loved one? Um, and look with different eyes at the table, at the tables, you know, do the next round looking for things for somebody else. Heck, you could even be looking for a friend who is at the show with you or somebody who couldn't make it to the show. You know, what would they be looking for?

Myke Hurley: And that completely changes the perspective when you're staring at a table, right? Like if I'm looking around at, I don't know, whatever I'm looking for, you know, perk of vacuumatics. Well, I kind of fixate on that, but if I'm not looking for that and I'm looking for something I wouldn't consider, consider buying, I might see completely different things that I never would have noticed on the table the first time, you know, then it could be anything. And I don't know, I just thought that was a really interesting topic. Yeah. Yeah. I like that a lot. To think about.

Brad Dowdy: Especially if you're going to spend so much money on yourself, you know, maybe a little gift for someone that you care about is also just a nice thing to do.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Yep. Absolutely. One thing we can all agree on, and actually I want to give a listener, Todd, a shout out for sending me like a super long email about, you know, his tips and tricks for going to pin shows and we're going to kind of, we'll be in and out and a lot of, a lot of things we'll, we'll touch on. But like one of the things that we can universally agree on, and I still see, you know, newbies being nervous about this is asked to touch the pin. It doesn't matter what it is. Obviously if it's really expensive, you don't just want to like pick it up, but even like small, you know, or least less, lesser expensive pins. Sometimes I am just in the habit, even if I know, have known someone for years and years and I eat dinner with them and I share a drink with them at the bar, if I'm at their table, I'll say, can I pick this up? Because I, number one, I want them to know that this pin is in my hand at their table, even though they know me, like I don't have to do that, but it's just the respect. It's like a mutual respect from both sides of the table to ask that question.

Myke Hurley: You know, I'll always ask, you know, may I pick this up? And I'll even ask, you know, how do I unscrew it? Or how does it, how does it cap? Or sometimes they'll just give you that information, you know, where there's a screw cap or a pull cap. You don't want to shoot ink across the table. Like, you know, we've all done, you know, Myke's told his story. We've all done that before, you know, just picking up a pin and pulling a lever or something like that and shooting ink. It never hurts to just ask. Then you can kind of start that conversation too. It's like, you know, maybe that's the jumping off point to learn something more about the pin. But like, no matter how, like, how well you think you know somebody, you know, it never hurts to say, hey, can I pick this up and take a closer look?

Brad Dowdy: Here's a general rule for you. Consent is important.

Myke Hurley: Consent is important. There's just a general rule for everything in life. Yep. That's a good way to put it.

Anna Reynet: So for me, sometimes it's just catching their eye if they're talking to someone else and just touching it and say, may I? And they'll just nod. And, you know, the best rule of thumb is twist first. The worst of these is you'll end up with the back end of the pen in your hand.

Brad Dowdy: Lightly. Lightly twist first. Nib up.

Myke Hurley: Nib up. Nib up.

Anna Reynet: Nib up.

Myke Hurley: We've all, we speak that one from experience. Yeah, absolutely.

Brad Dowdy: I've taken many pens apart that were full caps. If somebody is explaining to you a filling system, don't act out what they're telling you. Because I did that. Yes. And squirted ankle over a vintage pen owner's table. They were just telling me how it could be done. They were not telling me to do it.

Vintage Pens

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So one of the things that Todd brought up was when he's buying a vintage pen. And I think we, you know, like we have a couple of different, you know, discussion points about this. Like I, he wants to, he mentioned that if he's really interested in a vintage pen, he doesn't want to just dip test it. He wants to fill it with ink and write with it. And like, I can understand that from a buyer's perspective. I can also understand not wanting that from a vendor's perspective. So, and it varies by vendor. Some will have all of their pens inked up for you to test out. Some will have none of their pens inked up for testing out. Some will allow you to dip those pens to kind of get a feel for the nib. But like with a vintage pen, the filling system is the key to whether that pens in good shape or not, right? Can you get a good fill in whichever type of old filling system it's using, you know, has it been restored and things like that? I'm okay. Like Anna mentioned, I would ask maybe to fill it with water to ensure that its integrity is intact, right? Like it's in good shape. I don't know that I would need to fill it with ink, but I get the idea. And if I'm spending a lot of money, I may be more stern on that, right? Well, I really want, if I'm spending, you know, $300 on this pen, I really want to know before I go away. And that's fair. And if you get pushback on that, it's okay to say no. It's not the end of the world. Maybe it's wasn't, it wasn't the best experience with that vendor. And you know what? Sometimes that just happens. But you're going to find varying degrees of where vendors are willing to go there. I think in general, they're more and more open to allowing you to really test. Like if there's genuine, genuine interest in making the purchase, they're going to do what they can obviously to help you out to make that sale. So you're going to run into instances where they're going to say, no, I can't let you do that. And you know what? You say, thanks for your time and we'll move on to the next one.

Anna Reynet: And it also depends, like on a Friday or a Sunday, they may be more inclined to do that when it's not as busy. On a Saturday, when it's really busy, they may be less inclined just because of the time it takes to fill the pen. And then if you decide not to buy it, they have to remember to empty that pen before they put it back in their case. So, you know, I would respect that it just might be timing if they're curt on a Saturday just because usually Saturdays are the most busy day. They're probably not, you know, it's just one of those things where it's like depending on how busy they are, they may, it may just not be the best time to ask somebody, can you fill this pen for me so I can test it?

Myke Hurley: Right. So speaking of asking, let's wrap up this part before we talk about the Atlanta show specifically. Let's talk about haggling at a pen show. So Todd's email, he was very adamant about like, you have to haggle. And he basically said, you shouldn't even be there if you're not willing to haggle. I get the standpoint of that. But it's obviously not, you know, an across the board, black and white type of rule type of thing. You know, if you're working with, and he obviously, you know, alludes to that in the email. And I'm not going to share the email. It's really long and really good, really in depth. So I appreciate that, Todd.

Myke Hurley: With vintage vendors and secondhand merchandise, I mean, there's room to haggle, right? There just is. And whether you're comfortable with that or not, you know, that's one thing. I tend to not go into a purchase like, I'm going to work this price down as part of my job to get the best price, right? I'll go into it as, well, what do I want? How bad do I want it? Is the price fair? You know, am I buying multiple pens? Does that change my, you know, negotiating leverage? You know, if I'm buying multiple things. So I just tend to think about several different things if I'm going into haggling. I generally will for vintage or used or secondhand merchandise. I almost never will on new merchandise because those prices are somewhat fixed. You know, there is a little bit of wiggle room in new modern merchandise. And like I said, if I'm buying two pens from someone else, I might say, hey, can we just call it this, you know, round number for the ease of me saving a few bucks and you not having to do as much math? Like, you know, those kind of things work. But if you think you're going to get, you know, necessarily, you know, like 25% off like the vintage pen price that, you know, maybe they're only going to make, you know, X amount on, you know, they may or may not. The worst they can say is no, right? I'm like, I'm not against haggling. But you got to, I think there's an art to it. And like Anna says, this is the perfect place to practice it, right?

Anna Reynet: Absolutely. And there's some vendors who are notorious for haggling and others where if you are pleasant and a nice customer, they, and you show genuine interest in something, they may just come down on the price a little, you know? Yep. So it's, you kind of just have to, you know, sort of play your odds. Like if you come in and hardball right away, they may just be like, nope, that's the price. Yeah. You know? But there are specific vendors that it's just like haggling is just how they do business.

Myke Hurley: And those are the ones whose tables where nothing's priced, right? I don't shop at those tables because I'm not knowledgeable enough to have a starting point in general, right? So I will just like continue to walk. Hey, how you doing today? And then I'll just move right along. Because that's not my wheelhouse. Is that a little enough? What chance do any of us have? I'm talking about vintage stuff. Okay. Okay. I'm not talking about like modern stuff, anything in the last 20 years. Like I kind of know what it is. But vintage, like someone's got a really beautiful table of all kinds of vintage Parkers or Esther Brooks or, you know, Watermans, any of like the really great vintage stuff. And I don't have that mental capacity to know that I will feel satisfied making a purchase, right? At the end of the day, I want to feel that I spent my money well, you know, that I got value for my personal, whatever my ideal goals are, like that I did a good job. Not question myself. Oh, did I get a good deal? You know, I don't want to put myself in that situation.

Anna Reynet: I actually watched two vendors haggling on Sunday at the Little Rock show. And Laura and I were watching and we're like, look, it's an immovable object and an unstoppable force. Let's see how this goes. And it was like, we couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was like, we're like, this is not going anywhere. And it's like, eventually one vendor walked away. We're like, nope, didn't get what we wanted. Like about 30 minutes later, he came back and they were at it again. And we're like, you think this is going to work out this time? We're like, no, don't think so.

Myke Hurley: These notes that we're sharing are endless and we can't cover all the topics. We can't cover all the topics in depth, but just know that you have friends at the pen shows you go to, even if it's your first one, you know, you will find familiar faces or online names or me or Myke or Anna who are more than glad to help you and hold your hand and ask you questions. And I walk people around all the time. It's like, hey, let's go look at this. And hey, I know this guy. Let me introduce you to him. You know, use the resources you have at hand, you know, ask a bunch of questions, ask for help. You know, we didn't know everything when we started and we don't even come close to knowing everything now. But we're in a little bit better position to where we can get to those answers or have some guidance that, you know, you may be learning for the first time that we've experienced. So feel free to come up to us and, you know, you'll, you'll be able to meet a lot of people and, you know, bounce a lot of questions off some other friends at the show, new and old friends alike. So on to Atlanta specific things real quick before we get our last sponsor and a couple of, uh, ask TPAs and a little bit of story time from, from Anna Reiner herself. Um, the podcast next weekend, 6 PM Saturday evening at the Atlanta show hotel, the Wyndham. If you have done this before, you know, the routine, if you haven't, I implore you to come see me or Myke or Jeff at the not code table and get a ticket. If you're a Kickstarter backer, Kickstarter backers get priority into the event over the last few years, we've run at max capacity, but not over max. So we're able to get everyone in, but we want to make sure that our Kickstarter backers do. So come get a ticket. We will have tickets and we'll have a door prizes at the end, which we always do, which those tickets, uh, duplicate as your entry into the door prizes. But we want to make sure that all of our backers get a seat and, um, we've never had to turn any way at the door, but we always run that risk.

Brad Dowdy: Every year it gets closer to that happening. And I think that this year might be the year.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So it ends up being standing room only. There will definitely be a line to get in and, um, you know, just, we will, uh, we will do our best to get everyone in, but we will hit a max at some point. Um, you know, I just want to make sure the Kickstarter backers are taken care of. If you're a weekend pass holder, the show promoters do something really cool on Friday night and have a cookout for everybody at the hotel. I just implore everyone. If you're doing that to attend that, um, I know, uh, Jimmy Dole of the show promoter really enjoys putting on that event for everybody. So I just wanted to throw that out there as a, if you're a weekend pass holder, don't forget about it. Like it's not a mandatory event or you don't have to go, but just know that it's offered it's free food and drink. And it's just a good, it's a way for Jimmy to give back to the community, but he likes it when a lot of people show up, he likes, you know, doing nice things for, for us at the show. So don't forget about that. I think that's just a really cool thing that Jimmy does. That's a little bit different than some of the other shows. So, um, those are just a couple of things I wanted to mention.

Anna Reynet: I think it makes Jimmy feel like Papa Pen show.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, for sure. He is definitely Papa Pen show. Um, he is, he is Santa Jimmy. So, uh, he's just, he really wants to take care of everybody. And that's you showing up to that event, like makes him feel good. Like the year I just, I say this because I screwed him one year by taking everyone out of the hotel. And he was really upset. Like, he's like, where did all the people go? I was like, well, I didn't know any better. I took everyone to knock for a party. Um, ever since that was our first year. And that was when he got super mad at me. Like, you know, not obviously like yelling mad, but he couldn't figure out what happened. And I didn't know any better that this was like part of his gig is like to have this cookout for everyone who comes to the show. I was like, well, we should, we're part of the show. We want to, we want to support Jimmy. So like, let's do this. Like he's doing something nice for us for free. So we will be there, um, for that event. And, um, Atlanta is a good show. It's chill. You know, it's, it's small ish. It's just right sized. It does get, it gets a little bit busy and crowded and hectic on Saturdays. Friday is usually pretty busy there too. And then like, if you're local and you happen to listen to the show and you only have one day to come, like, and you're not going to do like the event stuff, it's usually pretty quiet on Sunday. You can get around pretty well on Sunday in Atlanta, but, uh, it's a great show. I look forward to seeing everybody once again, especially you two, um, who I have not seen this year. Right. I haven't seen since October. Yeah, it's been since October. So I'm ready.

Brad Dowdy: Uh, we'll also be attempting as we always do to live stream the show. Um, so if look out for that kind of around six, 6 30 PM on Saturday night in East, it's Eastern time, right? Yes. Eastern time. Yeah. So we will attempt to be live streaming, but hotel wifi needs to be our friend for that. However, the episode will be out, I reckon by like 9 PM Eastern. Um, so that shouldn't be a problem. You know, it will be out quickly.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let's, uh, I want to hear, Ana's got a, uh, tales to regale us with. Okay. Um, and I've, I've purposefully not picked her brain about this waiting for this opportunity. So, uh, let's talk about our good friends at Harry's because you know, they're going to be a big player next weekend. And then we'll, then we'll talk about, uh, Ana's travels.

Harry's Razors

Brad Dowdy: Harry's founders were tired of paying for razors that were overpriced and overdesigned. So they knew a great shave. They know what it's all about. It comes from having great razor blades. It doesn't come from having gimmicks like vibrating razor heads or handles that look like spaceships. These are just things that happen and the prices go up. This isn't what Harry's is about. They combine a simple, clean design with German quality, durable blades, and they sell them to you at a fair price. Harry's bought their factory. That's been making blades for over 95 years, allowing them to sell their cartridges at just $2 each, which is half the price of the big brands. All Harry's blades come with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you don't love your shave, let them know why. And they will give you a refund that they believe in their product. And Brad, why will people love their shave?

Myke Hurley: Uh, because it's fantastic. Like I did, I like, I did the, the pre beard trim, you know, for the Atlanta show this morning, which, you know, for the beard trim, Harry's, you know, doesn't have like the electronic trimmer that I use, but what I do do, their blades are so good. They can clean me up sharp and nice around the edge of the bottom there. And I just ordered, I just reordered like my travel supplies. Like I use the, I use the big, um, shave cream at home, but I take the smaller ones on the road. And so I just reordered. And every time I reorder, I always do the little, the little mystery gift. You like add $5 for a mystery gift. They sent the giant bottle of body wash was my mystery gift this time, which I was almost out of the previous one anyway. So that's a pretty solid mystery gift for five bucks. So I was, I was happy with that in my latest order.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So these are just some of the reasons I'm sure why Harry's has over 20,000 five-star reviews at Trustpilot and Google. Uh, so people love these products and I think there's good reasons why you can get a $13 value trial set that comes with everything that you need for a close, comfortable shave, including a weighted ergonomic handle, five blade razor with lubricated trimming trip, lubricated strip and trimmer blade, and a rich lathering shave gel as well. And a travel blade cover all in that one set for you. And then listeners to this show can redeem their trial set by going to harrys.com slash pen addict. So go right now, harrys.com slash pen addict to redeem your offer. And then they'll know that you came to them from this show. Our thanks to Harry's for their continued support of this show and Relay FM.

Myke Hurley: All right, Anna, I want the dirt. I want the nitty gritty. I want the secrets because you spent a large amount of time driving with our good friend Lisa Van Ness from Little Rock, Arkansas to Los Angeles and back in the ink van. And I can't imagine, like I've spent a lot of time around both of you and it's one of like the highlights of my life just to be in the same space as the two of you and just talking and hanging out and having fun. But you spent more than a normal amount of time confined with Lisa. So give us the secrets.

Anna Reynet: Davina actually rode with us on the way back.

Myke Hurley: That's right.

Anna Reynet: There were three of us. There were three of us and like, I don't know, 500 bottles of ink.

Myke Hurley: Like, whoa, 500 bottles of something. So yeah, just Davina works at Van Ness Pens in Little Rock. So just a heads up for those who don't know Davina. So hi, Davina. So yeah, give us the lowdown of this road trip. Not even the pen show part. Like, I don't even care about that. But getting out there and coming back. Because I talked to y'all a bunch, but that was a fraction of the time you actually spent doing this.

Road Trip

Anna Reynet: So I drove from Kansas City to Little Rock, which is like a six-hour drive in just pelting rain.

Anna Reynet: And, you know, because it had like snowed and iced the day before I left Kansas City. So I was totally looking forward to being in Little Rock because the weather was warmer. But just drove in total rain. So I was like, this does not bode well for this trip. But I got there. We loaded up the van in the rain. And they do this so often. They like totally had a system for like how to load the van in the rain, which I was so impressed by. Nobody dropped an entire ink thing on their shoes, unlike Brad.

Anna Reynet: And then we left Monday around 1 or 2 o'clock. And we got as far as, I think, like Oklahoma or something. We didn't get very far the first day. And then the second day we drove through like Texas and we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch. And so we took pictures out there. And it was kind of windy, but the sky was clear. It was really nice. We had a ton of fun. We stopped at some restaurant, like the 72-ounce steak. It turns out to be like three and a half pounds of meat. We did not order that. But we stopped at all these like crazy different restaurant, like diners, like all along the road. And we went to like the Route 66 museum on the way out and drove through Albuquerque, which I used to live in Albuquerque. So that was kind of fun to just sort of see it. But, you know, we only had like three days to get out there. So we, you know, we didn't get to do a lot of stuff. But we tried to stop a few different places. We stopped in New Mexico and hit a couple little touristy places as well. I kept picking up anything that had green chilies in it. So we got like green chili, caramel, popcorn to bring back to Bob.

Myke Hurley: Oh my God.

Anna Reynet: Then I realized that like I basically carried around for like 10 days. So by the time I got it home, it was a little stale. But he was entertained anyway.

Anna Reynet: But yeah. It was, I mean, like I was surprised LA was colder. Like when we got there, it was raining when we got to LA. That was the crazy thing. Like it never rained in LA. And it rained. It was like just pouring rain when we got to LA. And like cars were sideways on the highway. Like they didn't know how to drive in the rain. They were like freaking out. And we're like, this is ridiculous.

Anna Reynet: It's like the way people in the South get when it snows. Yeah, exactly. They totally freak out. I'm surprised they weren't all at the store like buying bread.

Myke Hurley: Who did most of the drive? Who did most of the driving on the way?

Anna Reynet: On the way out, we basically split it half and half. And it's kind of funny because I usually drive a Mini Cooper and then I was driving this giant van. So it was a little bit of an adjustment for me.

Myke Hurley: So then you, you like have this. Go ahead.

Anna Reynet: Having to screw this seat back because, you know, Lisa's really tiny and I'm not much taller, but I had to really make adjustments.

Myke Hurley: So y'all get out to LA three days out. You have, we'll call it an interesting time at the LA Pen show.

Anna Reynet: Very interesting.

Myke Hurley: We need to belabor that point. And then Sunday night, y'all pack it up. Y'all head back out Sunday night or Monday?

Anna Reynet: We packed up, ate dinner, and then we wanted to at least get outside of LA so that we didn't hit rush hour traffic in the morning. So we drove like basically just to get on the other side of LA and we were no more than an hour outside of LA. It started to snow.

Myke Hurley: Like the biggest snow that you've ever seen. This is when my phone starts blowing up for like the next two days, right? Like I want to know number one, like how insane the inside of the car was while y'all are driving through this mess.

Weather Conditions

Anna Reynet: It was, we were just, it just got miserable. Like the rest of the drive, like all through Arizona and New Mexico, like it was snow, sleet, hail, fog. I mean, we hit every kind of weather condition you can imagine. And I was like, this has got to be a joke. At one point, Lisa was asleep and Davina and I were like, is that fog? Yeah, we've now covered fog. We have had all the weather. Like the only thing we're missing is tornadoes and hurricanes. And we're not even saying that because it might happen.

Anna Reynet: But at one point in Arizona, like I-40 was down to single lanes and it was just us and the 18 wheelers. Cause it was like the, it was, the weather was so bad and the snow plows hadn't come through. And, um, the windshield wiper, uh, fluid had frozen. So we couldn't like wipe the snow off the windshield because they are so dry that as soon as it hits the windshield, it dries. So it was like crusty on the windshield. So we'd have to like pull off like every 20 or 30 minutes. And Lisa would have to jump out of the car, splash water on the windshield so I could make the windshield wipers, like wipe it clean. Cause we were just like driving in complete gray and then keep going. It was just awful. The drive home was miserable. It was so bad.

Myke Hurley: So did any of the ink freeze? No. Overnight? Like, did y'all have to stop overnight and like any, have any like inventory problems? Like I was curious about that.

Anna Reynet: Yeah. That was the one thing. Like we were worried that that would happen, but nothing in the car froze. Nice. All right. So we even kept like water bottles like that were, that had like, you know, an inch of water in them on the dashboard because we figured if anything would freeze, those would freeze first. And when we came out in the morning, those were not frozen. They didn't even have any ice cubes so that, cause it didn't get quite, I mean, it's just at the like thirties.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. All right. So let's wrap this up on a couple of questions. Number one, would you do this again? And number two, what did you learn about Lisa that you didn't know before?

Anna Reynet: Let's see. I had to use a lot of my vacation days from work. So I have, I'm like going to skid by for the rest of the year for the pen shows. I'm going to have like zero vacation days, which I've never had happened. So I don't know that I would do like 11 days. So true. Again, anytime soon.

Anna Reynet: We had a lot of fun on the way out. We were really trying to come back in two days, but the weather was not cooperating. Like if the pen show was like two weeks later or something and the weather was a little better, I think it would have been okay. But we just hit every guy there. What did I learn about Lisa?

Anna Reynet: I think when she got stressed and tired, her accent got thicker.

Myke Hurley: That's pretty good.

Anna Reynet: Yeah. So occasionally I'd have to have her repeat something because I wouldn't be able to understand her. And I've lived in Tennessee for 10 years. So I understand most Southern accents, but she would hit a point where I was like, what?

Myke Hurley: To be a fly in the cabin of the van during this trip, I think would have been quite a sight to behold. Like I said, I talked to y'all a bunch on the way out and on the way back and while you were at the show. But I couldn't even fathom what it was like hanging out with two of my best friends just on the way out to a pen show on the way back. So we'll have to figure out maybe one day the three of us, one of our events could be a road trip across the U.S. I don't know. We might all kill each other by that time. But maybe we can drive to a pen show one year. Myke, what do you think?

Brad Dowdy: I wouldn't be adverse to that idea.

Myke Hurley: I don't know if it would ever work.

Anna Reynet: Overall, it was actually a lot of fun. Like the drive and everything. If the L.A. show itself hadn't been what it was, I think that the road trip would have been a success. But the fact that the show itself wasn't great made the trip back even more stressful, I think.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So maybe I'll save my mile marker field notes for the time that we all take a road trip and we'll document it on the road again with the Pen Addict podcast. So that would be fun. So we'll have to think about that one year, right, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: I like it.

Myke Hurley: All right. Well, I think let's hold this Ask TPA, Myke. I think I'm just so amped to get to Atlanta and just talk about pen shows and travels. And there's a lot going on right now. I think, you know, we got some good Ask TPA. I'm sorry if we're not going to get to it this week. But I think we're at the right spot. Do you want to talk about who we're going to have on our live episode next week? Do you want me to? Do you want me to put the pressure on them to not back out on us before we get there? We'll leave that decision up to you. So we'll tease next week's live episode. We have two guests that I've booked, and I'm pretty sure at least one of them is going to come through. And that one of them is our good buddy, Jessica Coles of Esther Brook repair fame, of Well Appointed Desk writing fame, of pen show fame, and podcast, one-time podcast guest fame.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, as great holiday, well, honeymoon, filling guest for me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so she's wonderful. Y'all know we all love her to death. So she's going to be a guest. We'll talk about pen shows and repairing pens and all that stuff. So no pressure, Jessie. You are locked and loaded for the show. She can't back out. Can't back out now. I won't let her.

Anna Reynet: Nope.

Myke Hurley: Our second guest, I joke about backing out because I know him well enough that it's a possibility. And the more I publicly shame him about it, the more I hope he will actually show up and do this show. But I have a backup plan in case he doesn't. And that's Chris Roth of Right Pads. I'm actually getting him out of Baltimore, which he never likes to do. And on the road to Atlanta, so Right Pads is going to be at the Atlanta Pen Show. And we've got Chris.

Brad Dowdy: I'm excited about that personally because I've been wanting to see these notebooks for a while.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so we've got Chris on to talk about printing. And I'm going to talk a lot about his business outside of the Right Notepads. And he's a long-term print guy. So this is a bigger story than just what we know him for. So he'll be a great interview. We just got to get him there. So I kid because I love Chris and we're good friends. But I know how he thinks. And he'll be denying it until the moment he shows up there at the Pen Show, whether he's coming or not. But I have faith in him, Chris. I have faith in you, buddy. You'll be there. And you'll be a guest on the show. If not, it's on record that you know showed now. So I've called you out.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So on that note, we're very excited to be at the Atlanta Pen Show. I can't wait to see those of you that are going to be in attendance. But if you can't, it's totally fine. We're going to give you the lowdown. And we're going to give you a great episode of the show next week with some wonderful interviews as well. But remember, that episode will be coming out on Saturday. So you can find us all online. You can go to penaddict.com for Brad's work. You can go to knock.co. You can follow him on Twitter, where he is at dowdyism. And you're a penaddict on Instagram. You can go to wellappointeddesk, where you can find all of Anna's work. And if I'm right in remembering, Anna is well, a PPT desk on both Twitter and Instagram. Is that right, Anna?

Anna Reynet: Yes. Yes, I did it.

Brad Dowdy: I did it. I am YKE. You can keep up with everything that we do. And I'm sure there'll be lots of Instagram stories and all that kind of stuff coming out of the Atlanta Pen Show. So you can maybe live vicariously through us all. But can't wait. Really excited to get on that plane next week. Once again, thank you to everybody who made it happen. We'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, everybody.

Anna Reynet: Goodbye, everybody. Bye, everybody.