So your humble blogger, against all advice, made the trip to Louisville last Friday for the first day of Kenuckiana’s GI Joe Winterfest, and despite the looming awful weather, we had a great time.

Steve Stovall and the Winterfest crew adjusted the show to make it easier for people to attend in the face of the approaching winter storm. The Friday preview night was extended by two-an-a-half hours, and the early-bird admission was waived. No matter which day you attended, the admission was a mere ten bucks. Vendors were allowed to set up early, and if the weather hit on Saturday, they could also leave early.

It was the best way to salvage a toy show when unprecedented bad weather was on deck. Everything was handled in a reasonable and responsible manner.

And the show was tremendous fun, despite the weather. Several Vendors had to cancel, but there were still plenty of fantastic toys to be found. I didn’t buy as much stuff as I usually do, but I got to see friends and spend time chatting with Steve, Rocko Jerome and Derryl DePriest, and it was a nice change of pace, when we got home, to not have to make so many trips to unload the car.  We missed the Saturday session, but I’m sure it was also a lot of fun.

After careful consideration, Mel and I had changed our original plans, which would have had us staying in Louisville Friday night, then staying in Lexington Saturday night before coming home on Sunday. Instead, we left the show Friday and drove to Lexington Friday night, and on Saturday, which was still perfectly clear, we shopped a little, then drove to Ashland so that we wouldn’t be too far away come Sunday morning. We could have easily driven back home Saturday, but we wanted the Hilton points and Mel wanted some whirlpool tub time.

The drive home from Ashland was a bit of an adventure, but we did make it home. What would have normally been a one-hour drive was closer to two hours, and that little light on your dashboard that tells you the roads are slick got quite the workout. But we made it home, walked around the large tree branches that broke off in the storm, and stayed inside until Wednesday. After I moved the branches out of the walkway, anyway.

Now your PopCulteer is a wee bit behind schedule due to annoying power flickers, so the rest of this post will be filled with captionless photos from the show. The plan, weather and power lines permitting, is to have a music video of Winterfest ready by Sunday, along with more photos from the show. Today we’ll show you some of the toys, and Sunday you’ll see photos of actual humans.

But for now, with a focus on the toys,  it’s wordless photo time!

With that last shot of Mr. Zilly, we will temporarily take our leave of Winterfest, but the plan is to bring you a music video of the show on Sunday, along with maybe a dozen extra photos.