After a Saturday of crazy basketball, including being an Uber driver for the girls to an ABA game, plus a late downtown dinner with the crew afterwards, resulting in Millie going to a sudden sleepover, it was determined that Maja and I would go to the Allentown Spring Thaw Train Meet, followed by who knows what.
Pre-COVID, the train show was a Sunday morning with the girls, grabbing breakfast, wandering Ag Hall, then dropping the girls off at my Mom's while I did some face-to-face gaming at a friend's place. Between my schedule and life in general, face-to-face gaming might be a reality post-Easter, but could adapt in a similar vein.
Grabbing Maja nice and early, we hit the road, but first a detour over to the White Haven Diner for breakfast. Historically, we took PA-309 south down to breakfast at the Beacon Diner in Hometown, before meandering down to US-22 and 15th Street in Allentown. We were already running behind and since White Haven was en route to the Turnpike and a faster trip, we both had hearty breakfasts, and still nearly made up all our lost time by taking the Northeast Extension.
Signs that both Maja and I are getting old. Maja is officially old enough that she doesn't get in for free was one thing, but the horror on her face that's she's too old for the ATMA train races was like part of her childhood was ripped away. I empathize, but considering when I was a kid, I never got to do the train races, I don't empathize too much.
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| Nothing like a corn maze on an HO scale run of the Strasburg Railroad |
We walked up and down every aisle, and with the big scenery guys not there, and only a handful of Marklin trains, I grabbed a set of files, a big bottle of Zap-a-Gap, and a few Models of Yesteryear trucks not in my inventory, and I tried to figure out what to do with the rest of our day.
A call to my Mom while we were still in the parking lot garnered us a later visit, because some senior citizens do not wake up at the crack of dawn. That gave us a little time to meander from Allentown to Easton, and since it was already after 11, we'd try to hit every game store on the way to her house.
The Encounter is still on Union Blvd. Lots of Magic, lots of Funkos, lots of discounted graphic novels. My main appeal to the place was an arcade version of NBA Jam they Maja and I played for free. I could finally explain explain to her why every middle-aged dude thinks throwing elbows in basketball is 100% legit, thanks to the gameplay. I figured a two-player full-length four-quarter game was worth whatever odd anime purchase Maja was interested in. For a guy who loves inventory in stores, the Encounter can be overwhelming, burdensome, and cluttered. It also has an odd smell to it that I haven't witnessed since Beachhead Comics was still around.
Steel City Comics and Games has closed. Considering it opened at the final location of Dreamscape Comics I feel a little sentimental, and reaffirms how hard it is to get a foothold in comics/gaming retail, especially with the pandemic.
The Portal was certainly open, and buzzing with some sort of well-attended event. Very well-stocked, with a few sales that even I was tempted to delve into. Everything I picked up was for Maja.
We then took the scenic route to Easton, passing by the Just Born plant to see the Peep-mobiles in the parking lot, and a grand tour of "Dad had it rough. When he was a kid, everything was a cornfield."
Maja's travel for sports is letting her realize that (a) schools are wildly different in size and facilities and (b) I went to a freaking large school. To be true the old "everything was a corn field" held true, because thirty-plus years ago, everything in the "athletic complex" was still a cornfield, but we did a driving tour of my high school, drove down to see how much bigger our football stadium was to hers (heck the tiniest elementary school in Easton's district has the same footprint as one in hers, and Crestwood is only one classification less for sports.) finally ending in the Middle school campus for 6-7-8 (used to be 8th and 9th for me), and found out just how massive it was.
We checked on Mom, found everything to be in running order (moving around, no hallucinations, breathing easy without help) and head out with one last stop before coming home.
It took longer to drive over to
Cloud City Games in the Palmer Park Mall and fight the crazies who never drove in the parking lot before than it would if we had walked. And of the three shops we hit, it had the right ratio of stock product and intriguing curiosities, even if it's only flaw was that they were out of 5e Players Handbook (that sells more than any other gaming book, be year 1 of publication or year 10.) Plus I got to explain to Maja how a 5.0 graded comics was still $455, and got to stare lovingly at a Mox Emerald and Dual Lands and do my Magic the Gathering "cornfield" stories. I did snag the Star Wars Rory's Story Cubes finally, and a small baggie of glass agitators for my paint.
With all the ongoing craziness, I'm not sure if the train show is going to be a thing going forward. It might just be a Dad-only function leading up to face-to-face gaming in the future. but it was nice to have the Maja tag along and enjoy herself one last time, even if she's not the little girl I took to her first show ten years ago.
Painting Bench: Nothing to report
Project 350: No significant painting progress because I worked on the blog, finishing up the Gamma World backlogs, and cleaning up some of the old catalog. Down to 463 (302/161) from 472 (311/161) is a pretty big accomplishment. March looks to be crazy, but here's to finally lowering the number of scheduled posts under 150 by the end of March. I've got 11 more posts for March already pending, plus four new Gamma World posts, if I keep up. If I can just run a handful of wargames, I might just reach that goal.
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