Where to start.. When we first got to the expo it was $12 to park (welcome to california). Then we were faced with the issue of whether to pay the standard $10 admission or the $40 admission which included a t-shirt, bottle of High river sauce "tears of the sun" (which is amazing) and 5 beer tokens. The $40 choice was the clear best value so thats what we went with. The first booth i went to i accidentally tried the hottest first and set my mouth on fire so i had to take 5 to regroup. I worked my way through about half the vendors trying some amazing sauces and and found ourselves at the puckerbutt booth (smokin ed currie in attendance). Luckily we got there early enough before the crowd started to form and i had a chance to take a picture with smokin Ed and pick his brain for a few minutes about what he had in the works. He told me about his new pepper that was over 3 million scoville and a little about his humble beginnings and passion for growing peppers. It was a very pleasant experience with a truly down to earth guy. I ended up leaving with a few reaper pods that i wanted for seed and an autographed bottle of hot sauce from smokin Ed. Ultimately i ended up trying countless samples from numerous amazing vendors. The only problem that i have is the lack of diversity in all the sauces. Everything was either habanero, cayenne, ghost pepper or reaper. When i pressed some of the vendors as to why they don't use any more "exotic" varieties and the answer was always the same. "Not commercially available in large quantities". It was a little disappointing that i didn't see the wide array of peppers that i know exist being used like i thought i would see. But nonetheless, the hundreds of sauces available for sample were all very tasty. Fast forward to when i get home.. I had a burning desire to eat one of those reaper pods i got from smokin Ed, so thats exactly what i did. The flavor was average but the pain was insane. I drank an even more insane amount of milk which hardly helped at all and about a half bottle of pepto bismol. Lol. The stomach cramps have subsided and now i think its time for bed.. All in all, it was a great day and i met some pretty cool people. This is my pain from the reaper.