Wednesday, November 08, 2006

On A Road Trip

Our good friend Lee from Australia flew to our home on Saturday Nov. 4th to take our bi-annual road trip to the Chicagoland Antique Gamesroom Show in St. Charles, Ill. with Tom and me. We no longer drive straight thru, instead we antique along the way in Sharon PA, Ravenna OH, Maumee OH, Coldwater, Allen, MI, Niles MI, South Bend IN, LaPorte IN to name a few of our favorites.
Sunday eve. we stayed overnight at a friend's condo on Lake Erie in Port Clinton OH. The condo is right on the lake and so pretty. The town jumps in the summertime, it's known for its Walleye fish. At this time of year though it was very quiet and the town's shops were closed by 4pm. Most restaurants were boarded up for the winter since their busiest time is summer. We have a favorite little restaurant we stop in for fish sandwiches each time we stay over in Port Clinton and a Mom & Pop restaurant that serves a breakfast special for $3.95.
Lee has never met Mrs. Hyde. She is still in hibernation, as I don't know what else to call her absence. I've had to deal with several irritating occurences on my own and I've handled them but not with the finesse that Mrs. H is known for. Oh how I miss her.
I like to think that Mrs. H. is along for the trip even if I'm not aware she is with me. A few times I thought she may have presented herself but I can't be absolutely positive.
We are having a nice time so far, we arrived in St. Charles yesterday evening around dinnertime. After we registered at our motel and unpacked we walked across the street to Ginos East for some famous Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. YUMMMMM
The guys left at 7 am this morning for the Kane County Fairgrounds where some vendors set up and to BS with their buddies. I neglected to mention that Lee collects pinballs, he has about 50 machines but is selling some off so he can start adding more jukes and soda machines to his collection. These items are not found in Australia so are bought here and then shipped over via sea containers. Last November Lee joined us for this same trip and whatever he purchased, we stored for him at our home until he was able to come back to make arrangements to get everything loaded on a sea container that was in Cincinnati OH. That container will be leaving the US at the end of this year.
Lee and his lovely wife Jenn are always asking when Tom and I will be visiting them in Australia. Tom says when he retires. Lee lives on the Gold Coast in a town called Surfers Paradise. Everything sounds wonderful when he describes it for us.........until he got to the part about the large spiders that frequent their home. They are fist sized and pretty much have freedom to roam whereever they please, even across the ceiling as you (try to) sleep. If that isn't bad enough, there are the 3 ft. long snakes ( I'm thinking they may be pythons by the way he describes them) that hang in the trees and if you have the bad luck to run over one...it doesn't necessarily kill them, but they can and do wind themselves up under the carriage of your car. You park your car in your garage and hours later when the engine has cooled and is no longer a warm spot for the snake to rest, it will uncoil and find a warm spot in your garage.
Well, I can just see Mrs. H now ....she comes across either of these Australian habitants it will not be pretty. Lee says they are more afraid of us .....................yeah RIGHT. You let them be and they don't bother you. The day I allow a fist sized spider to live in my bedroom or a 3-4 foot snake to roost in my garage is the day hell freezes over. He says geckos are also a welcome indoor visitor, as they eat insects but they do not eat spiders. What good are they then? I don't think I'd be afraid of those, thanks to the cute little gecko on the Geiko car insurance commercials. Although Lee says they are not green at all, they are brown during the day and clear at night. They also have the run of the house, running across ceilings and up and down walls.
Well the guys are back from the fairgrounds so it's time for me to sign off for now.
Later m8's.


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