Yesterday afternoon I was hanging around the house when the doorbell rang.
It was my neighbor from across the street, Mike Perreault.
As you all remember, Mike was featured in my recent post covering the April 17th launch here in Castle Rock.
Mike is new to the hobby, and is as enthusiastic as they come.
Turns out he had just returned home from a trip to Penrose, Colorado.
He had managed to score two slots for the special scheduled tour of the Estes facility, so he and his wife spent the day at the 'Model Rocket Capitol of the World'!
How cool is that?
Mike described the tour, which was personally led by Bill Stine himself. They got to see most all of the operations there, except for motor manufacturing, of course.
Part of the tour package included an Antar kit signed by Mr. Stine.
As an added bonus, Vern and Gleda Estes were both on hand at the event, meeting the guests and autographing various items.
They graciously added their signatures to the two kits presented to Mike and his wife.
Mike had brought one of them over to my home to show it to me.
I was delighted to see a pristine Antar kit bearing the signatures of so much model rocketry 'royalty'.
Then, to my immense surprise and amazement, Mike handed the kit to me.
"This is Yours", he declared.
HOLY MOLEY !!
He insisted that I have it, pointing out that he has another at home.
The item, never to be opened, now proudly has a special spot in my model rocket display cabinet.
THANK YOU A BILLION, MIKE !!!!
As I am writing this, an interesting thought has struck me -
What are the chances of two such rare model rocketry collector's items ending up residing in two homes on the same street in the same town?
Wow!
Cheers!