If you're like me, and the only reason you go to Knob Creek is to buy knives at the Busse table, then (at the risk of increasing competition) your "best" plan (as long as the Busse crew does it) is to go to the motel on the night before Knob Creek starts. If you want to attend the show too, that's great - stay the night and go - but the "first come" selection of steel (and Amy's cheesecake) happens that night at the motel.

Last Fall, I brought a bottle of 10-yo Rip Van Winkle, which almost no one was interested in -- I ended up taking more than 3/4 of it back home with me. This year, I think I'll probably bring some plastic cups/forks and paper plates -- those were in much higher demand than booze (at least until Garth sent someone out on a run).

I'm not saying that the show isn't fun, although after my first it became sort of "same old" to me. Last time, I didn't even sit down in the bleachers to watch the firing line. The final day's night shoot would probably be a different story, but as I said, my target was the Busse booth, so I always came on Friday mornings and was in-place waiting for the show to open.