Wednesday, June 20, 2001

 Arrived here early afternoon after meeting up with Keith Zang at the airport.  After a short time, Joey Everitt and Barry Vedros and family arrived at the hotel.  Rooms got squared away, and a little relaxation was in order.

 After a while we went over to the Crown Center Mall.  WARNING: Everything closes EARLY. Heck, the roll up the sidewalks at that time.  We stopped at Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant for dinner.  Burgers and such.  Good food and really good prices.  Fed seven people for $45.  They deliver your order on an overhead train system that lowers a basket to your table.  Pretty neat!  Everyone got a kick out of it.

 After a little more relaxing in the room, Joey, Keith and I headed down to the bar.  There’s a pool table and several TVs for sporting events.  Barry Pippen and son and another gentleman were there (name blank!).  A few beers and a few more laughs found us eventually at the pool table.

 Buddy Finnethy, Jack Hall, Brian Becket came down and were soon joined by Barry Vedros, Darryl DePreist, and Barry Kay.  We had a great conversation about Joe collection, conventions, and even the pink aisle.  Heh, the look on their faces when they heard about the size of my motor pool was worth the trip. <big evil grin>

 When we were headed off to bed last night, it was raining.  Boomers and sheet lightning accompanyied it too.  Looks dry as a bone right now tho.

 That’s it for now.  It’s Thursday morning now and I just got off the phone with Pat Kelly of Diorama Dreams, who’s also here at the hotel.  Going to meet up with him sometime today and steal that 1/6 SCUD launcher he’s built <grin>

 Look for some photos later today.

 Cheers!