All I can say is this: It was amazing to (first) listen to Lee & Betty Piester's story about the origins and eventual destiny of Centuri Engineering, and (second) to meet them, just as "people", if you know what I mean.
But perhaps the "coolest" moment of the weekend was standing around a table of Centuri memorabilia and listening to Lee say, "Oh, yes, Bob drew that picture, and the kids on the cover of this catalog were the sons of the photographer we hired to take the pictures", and to hear Betty say, "Oh, Lee, look --- this is the guy that ran production for all those years". The spontaneous stories and anecdotes were the highlight of the conference, so far as I'm concerned. Lee & Better were just the kind of people you'd WANT to be among the founding icons of our hobby...smart, gracious, funny, and just the best sort of "folk" to be around.
(and, Jim, speaking as an attendee of the UFFO MITI with my 11-year-old son, your styro cup kits are a BIG hit...it's all he talked about on the way home. He excitedly showed his mom and little brother the Triglider and Splitfire he bought, but then said, "But look at this UFO I built! It's all cups! Isn't this the coolest thing? I'm gonna figure out how to build more things like this!" Needless to say...a trip to Wally World for a bag of styro cups is on the agenda for later today)
I think one of the other "cool" moments was watching Lee and Carl in deep discussion in Carl's booth, talking about Semroc's kits. You could just see the "engineer's" and "saleman's" wheel turning in Lee's mind as Carl showed him how the SLS and other kits were put together. Here's hoping Carl shares some of his feelings either here or on TRF; and that some of the zillions of pix that were being shot around moments like the ones I've described make it here, or on TRF, or Sport Rocketry...it was definitely a weekend I won't forget anytime soon.