Rapid City is a really shitty place if you like going to conventions that don't involve a) motorcycles b) farm tractors or c) buffalo poop

When I lived in El Paso or Tucson or even Fort Hood there were at least annual conventions of comics or toys or porn or something I was remotely interested in. El Paso and Tucson had dinky monthly toy shows where I could see a handful of roboplasticos for sale and Fort Hood even had something resembling a sci-fi convention at the sports bar every year. If there is a bright center of the robot nerd convention universe, western South Dakota is the planet it's furthest from.

So last week I got excited when I read about a Black Hills Model Engineering Show that was happening over the weekend. With a name like that I was sure it was a robot modeling convention. Would there be booths full of Macross model kits by Hasegawa? Would there be dealers selling Gundam and Evangelion model kits from Bandai? Would companies like Yamato and Kotobukiya show up with fantastic prototypes of upcoming toys and resin kits? Of course that would be best case scenario and I prepared myself for a more traditional American modeling event that would at least have awesome sports car models and stuff from Star Wars. What an idiot I was!

I showed up with my camera ready to take pictures of all the fantastic robot stuff that was bound to be at teh model engineering show. I should have run away when I noticed that the large room the show was being held in looked like a barn. I got in and sure enough it was tables and tables of guys showing off thier scratchbuilt scale models of John Deere tractors and tractor engines. Some guys made little prototype engines for imaginary tractors that exist only in their heads. Apparently farmer technology has not advanced to the point where these futuristic space tractors exist yet. I also saw model motorcycle engines and unbelievably there was even a can of poop on display in a box. Yup, this was one model show that could only be held in South Dakota. I remember when I was all depressed about missing out on Botcon. Somewhere there is a farm boy hating life because he missed this model space tractor show. Life is stupid.