• Full plane from Cleveland mid-day on Sunday. Browns game update from the pilot met with boos. Most of the passengers, turns out, are headed to the show and weren’t about to let that bum them out.

• If you’ve never been to McCarren Airport in Vegas, let me describe for you. One part shopping mall, one part casino, one part way-station for those who had a bad week on the Strip, and one-half baggage claim with giant billboards looming overhead.

• SEMA has an outstanding media center, with plenty of computers and workspaces and supposedly quiet meeting rooms (not so quiet, really, but at least they have doors and chairs). Even better this year: less media! In past years the place was crammed with “media” – a confab of legit media types (like us) fighting for space with hordes of wannabes – unemployed freelancers looking to score along with anyone with a blog or podcast or a Web site or newsletter that even hinted at mentioning cars. This, frankly, irritated us regular media folks. Perhaps the recession put a kink in their plans.

• Ran into a lot of people from non-exhibiting companies wandering the show floor. No names please, but it was good to see them. Even saw a few folks who left the industry but wanted to see what was going on. Best thing about these gatherings, in all honestly, is the opportunity to catch up with old friends. The older I get, the more valuable that time has become.

• TIA’s new Tire Industry Honors event was a HUGE hit. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony was first class, and nearly all of the six inductees were represented. Our presentation of Enger Tire as Top Shop Award winner was well received, and we got a lot of positive comments after the program. It was a great evening, and I hope TIA will continue to build on it.

• Not surprisingly there were very few evening cocktail parties. Had more dinner events than in the past, China’s Triangle Group held a “press conference/dinner party” to discuss its green initiatives. CMA had a lovely, relaxing evening dinner get together. Nokian rolled out a new tire line – its first all-season product for North America – with a nice sit-down dinner.

• Show floor was full Tuesday through Thursday, which was nice to see. While I hate having to play dodge-ems while trying to scoot from booth to booth for one event or another, the fact I had to say “Excuse Me” so much was a positive sign. Now, if I could figure out how to fly….

• Had real nice meetings with execs at Vredestein, Tire Rack, GE, TIA, Nitto, Pirelli, Cooper, API, Hankook, Conti, ASA Tire Systems, AskPatty.com, Hercules, Schrader, 20 Dealer Strategic Planning, Vee Rubber, Kenda, Tenneco, and Nokian. Lots of positives all around.

• Talk about the recession! Wheels company exhibitors are always good for the most, well, shall we say, “interesting” booth “models.” Showing an unusual sense of honesty, one wheel firm bought two department store mannequins, dressed them in slinky evening wear, and used them as its booth babes. Well done kids!

• One of these days, Vegas will have no road construction projects. Cab fares got pretty ridiculous as cabbies dodged and darted around trying to avoid massive tie-ups caused by all of this year’s DOT efforts. Six-lane streets were cut down to two on a couple of mains to the Strip. Of course, that was if you could even get a cab after the show. Understand the cab firms cut back on how many cars they had on the road; with all of the conventions in Vegas hurting, they were trying to cut costs. Ugh!

• Heard a lot of crazy rumors. Too many, in all honesty. One, which came up a half dozen times, was that the North Hall at the convention center was closed. Poppy-cock. Sure, exhibit space was reduced. No surprise there. But there was pretty healthy attendance all week, which bodes very well.

• Amazing how many folks we saw from big name dealers and dealer groups…Discount Tire, ATD, ACCC, TAG, TBC. It was a veritable alphabet soup of tire distribution. Guess they thought the show was worth it.

• Even in the wake of the new 35% added tariff on imported passenger tires from China, there were a ton of Chinese tiremakers showing off their PSR lines…in addition to their light truck, medium truck, OTR, industrial and ag lines. And India’s JK and BKT were on the floor, too. Nice to see, and good for the industry.

• Had to spend four painful days gaping at a Pagani Zonda 2 parked not 10 feet from our booth. Those buggers from Pirelli thought they could taunt me by rolling in a $2.2 million super-supercar. I should have shifted our booth slightly so it’d looked like ours! That was a real show-stopper car…but I’m glad I didn’t have to insure it!

• Met Brian and Ashley Yoss, owners of A1 Tire Inc. in Ostego, Minn. They’ve been in business since 1992 and have a new venture – Cody’s Tire Snot. Named for their precocious 7-year-old son and future tireman Cody – who coined the “tire snot” term – it is not snot. Or gooey. It is a new bead lube they developed that the Yoss’ think is pretty good. They’re selling it online at www.a1tireinc.com.

• From all of my chats during the week, here is the early line on SEMA 2010: It’ll be big!