On the weekend of April 5, 2025, I attended (and Redgate sponsored) SQL Saturday Richmond. Having lived for 5 years in the Virginia Beach (and worked for a company there for 20 more), Richmond events have long been a staple of my SQL Server community involvement.

This year, I did not submit a session, and I just showed up to learn some new stuff and be one of the sponsors. Simple Talk usually doesn’t get a table at these events, which gives me time to just be there as an attendee.

This event had some interesting differences from the events I have been to before. The first was way more PostgreSQL content. I attended one, and I know there was another there that I had seen at the PostgreSQL Conference a few weeks prior.

Memories of the past and future

The person on the right is Jamie Wick. Jamie has been a part of the Richmond SQL Group for a very long time, as has the person on the right, Wayne Sheffield. Along with Az Arunachalam have been the organizing team for SQL Saturday Richmond event for many years.

However, Wayne has been around since it started, 15 years ago with SQL Saturday Richmond 2010, Sadly, I don’t have photographical evidence of that day stashed away amongst my > 1TB of Dropbox space being used for pictures. The only thing I have is the listing on the website, and an expense report.

Well, this will be Wayne’s last SQL Saturday Richmond to be an organizer so they gave him the nerdy version a gold watch, a big tumbler and a blanket. I didn’t see exactly what was on these things, much less get a picture because I had sat to the side in the front row to be out of the way (and to draw for the Simple Talk raffle prize.

Wayne isn’t giving up SQL or anything, just organizing. this event.

What is great about this, is that they have a team, and one person stepping back isn’t going to destroy the event like it has others. I will miss Wayne if he doesn’t attend events (especially this one), but I get not having time/energy to run an event. Just sponsoring them can be a lot!

The Scenic Route

I like to drive to events whenever possible, and Richmond was a definite for me. Having driven through there 50+ times over the years, I wanted to see the sights and stop at the few places I have left (like Snoopers Antique Mall). What I didn’t realize was that not doing this drive for 5 years now would cause me to get all thinky (it is a word, I promise.).

Thoughts of driving up with my dad in a U-Haul to get move to Virginia in my first big move from home. He died a few years later and that was one of our best times together (we went together like sand and cheese most of the time.). Driving up the 81 corridor always reminds me of that day I nearly was hit by a huge truck that had hit a patch of ice. And then, as I saw the signs, my trips frequently included some time in my favorite national park: The Blue Ridge Parkway.

So on my way home, I took a detour through the northern parts of the parkway and took these pictures, And more, but as much as I do quite well with theme park photography, my eyesight makes it a bit hard to focus on things behind things (sometimes behind things. I am not super happy with these pictures, but especially if you can open them up on a larger screen, you hopefully can get a taste of the glory of the Eastern US mountains. They are smaller than many other mountain ranges, but the greenery and the colors really pop. It is also not quite the best time to get pictures here, as some trees are green, but others are still holding out.

What’s next?

Next trip up is Chicago PGDay 2025.This will be my third PostgreSQL conference ever, but the second time that Simple Talk has sponsored this event. I just missed going last year due to physical issues.

I am not driving to Chicago, but I will be going to Nashville to fly out, so I have a few ideas for the scenic route, depending on the weather and such.

Till next time!