[MikeM]

As requested by DickB, I'll be posting pics and sharing my observations of the 2004 BKKS National. Feel free to jump in with questions or comments.

As readers of this board know, it happened that I was on a family vacation in London on the weekend of the National. My family took off for a day in Paris (originally it was supposed to be shopping, but they upped the ante). I headed to Newark with the help of travel directions given by Mark Gardner. (Thanks again, Mark. You are a fine travel planner.) Having never dealt with the British train system, I allowed a margin of error. No need. All went smoothly and the trains were on time. I arrived at the Newark train station shortly after 8am, hailed a taxi, asked to be taken to the "show ground" and within minutes was standing in a gravel parking lot with lots of signs about horses, "kit cars", an arrow pointing to "koi show vendor parking" and not much else. I was promptly greeted by a fellow in military camouflage, wearing very real looking insignia, who rather authoritatively commanded that I reveal my "purpose". I said: "To look at the fish". I suddenly had the mental image of being in some Monty Python time warp and just cracked up laughing. Regaining composure, I explained there was a koi carp show someplace around the show ground. He acknowledged there was, and then escorted me past horse rings, all sorts of out buildings, through fences & gates to the koi show area. Seems I'd arrived at the wrong gate. I learned later that there was an admission charge I had not paid.

This is what I first saw: