Markito and Dr Galaga are Meetin' in person!

That's right, tomorrow (Friday) dr galaga (a.k.a. Brent) will be passing through my area and we have it all planned for him to visit me at my house.

I plan to show him my elaborate dedicated home theater, my collections and all of my Coke machines. Then we will raise an ice cold bottle together to salute all of our SMC friends out there who couldn't be with us.

Also, since I have a fun collection of arcade games and pinball machines in my gameroom, just like he does, you can bet we'll spend some valuable time down there.

I hope he brings in a sampler of the bottled sodas that he's been collecting as he's been crossing the country.

I'll report back afterward and may even post a pic or two if we remember to get out a camera.

I hope he likes changing diapers and burping brand new babies!  '>
Can't wait to finally meet you in person Brent!

~Markito

[Jim]

I'd be interested in hearing about your home theater system as well... PM me

I will soon Jim.

[BrianB]

That's awesome!! I wonder if Brent does diapers?  '>

[dr galaga]

Well, I'm back from my Northwoods experience - up to Ontario and then across Michigan to Minnesota (then finally back home to Indiana).  It was cool to meet up with Markito, see his stuff and talk about the hobby without typing (and no, I don't do diapers!).  
Came home with a bunch of soda.  Picked up some limited edition (only in Canada) Sour Apple Crush.  Pretty good stuff.  Also stopped at a few places and picked up some glass bottle pop.  One place in Wisconsin I walked in the door directly in to the bottling line and a guy shut it down to wait on me !  I think I'll have enough soda to last me awhile now.  Only old soda machine that I saw was in Wawa, Ontario (Young's General Store).  Already knew about it though, it is a prop set up on the porch behind their stuffed moose.

[dr galaga]

Here's part of my motherload - minus the beer

[dr galaga]

One place I stopped at had returnable 7oz bottles in a "variety pack".  The nice thing is that the bottle cap states what is in the bottle!
(plus this stuff is supposed to be made with sugar instead of HFCS)

[sodaworks]

That Sour Apple Crush sounds pretty good!! If I brought all that soda home my kids would think it was xmas...LOL

I had a wonderful time having Brent visit me at home.
He's a great guy and it was so fun to talk about my soda machine and glass bottled soda addictions with an actual living human in person rather than typing (like Brent said). I don't have any other person near me to talk about this stuff for hours with.

First I showed him the two Coke machines that are running in my home. Then I took him out to the garage to see the V-110 and V-83 that are yet to be cleaned and plugged in. I wish I had already picked up those two sliders that I bought on eBay, so we could also look at those, but I haven't yet.

Then we looked at all my glass bottles and finally down to the basement to play arcade games, drink chilled soda and talk soda machines.

It was really nice. He even gave me a few bottles of the stash he had gathered on his trip. The "Point" root beer (from Stevens Point, WI) with cane sugar and pure Wisconsin honey was delicious! I was able to pay him back with a few bottles and some home-made oatmeal cookies that my (visiting) mom had just taken out of my oven. Yum!

I didn't even make him change a single diaper. '>

Here is a photo of us in the corner of my gameroom.

Brent is on the left and I am on the right.

I'm holding my only 10 oz. Barq's root beer bottle (that Brent was kind enough to give me).

And before any of you WISEGUYS tries to point out that I have a scratchy wooden crate on top of my machine, Brent can vouch for me that I fastened a layer of soft, red felt to the bottom of the wooden crate.

I would never set myself up for that kind of abuse from all of you.

[dr galaga]

Quote (Markito @ Aug. 01 2005,4:29)

And before any of you WISEGUYS tries to point out that I have a scratchy wooden crate on top of my machine, Brent can vouch for me that I fastened a layer of soft, red felt to the bottom of the wooden crate.

First thing I did was look under the crate when I walked up to the machine!

Plus I was wearing my Young's General Store shirt!

 

[Eric]

I was sooooo close in saying something too!

Wish we could ALL have a meet somewhere!
It would be great meeting you all in person....
Anyone going to Chicago in November?!.... I AM this time...
I think we're going to stay at the resort this time.....
So.... who's going?........Who's in?!

Eric

[dr galaga]

I'm going.  Not sure what day though.  I just drive since I live 100 miles away.

[keithm]

Quote (dr galaga @ Aug. 01 2005,11:27)

One place I stopped at had returnable 7oz bottles in a "variety pack".  The nice thing is that the bottle cap states what is in the bottle!

Dr.

What is the brand of this soda ?  It looks very similar to something that I remember from my childhood.  Is it "Springtime" ?  The caps look very familiar.  It is made by Seymour or is that just the box it is in ??  I am a native Wisconsinite now living in N. Illinois and am intersested in the Wisconsin bottlers. I kept meaning to drop you a note before you left re: 2 bottlers that you did not mention in your earlier posts.  Sprecher in Milwaukee in more known for their beer and root beer, but they have a line of glass bottled "gourmet sodas" that they sell.  Another of my favorites is Black Bear in St. Francis, which is a suburb of Milwaukee. I have not been able to find them in glass yet.  Would like to hear more about the details of your journey through WI.

Keith

[dr galaga]

The place that I bought the Sun-Drop from was Twig's Beverage, Shawano, WI.  This is the place where the office door says "Use Other Door," which the only other one is the bottling line door.  Very small town - they are closed during the lunch hour and weekends.  The multi-packs were from Seymour Beverage, Seymour, WI.  Here I stopped at the local grocery store in Seymour.  I think that they use generic bottle caps because the Black Cherry caps are the same from Shawano and Seymour (haven't had a chance to try them yet).  Another place that I passed through, but did not stop, was New London Kist Bottling, New London, WI.  The person that I found out about these places has a web page with pictures here: http://www.canconnection.com/returnables.htm . He is from Minnesota and makes a journey to the Dairy state for his pop!  In Stevens Point I stopped at a large IGA right before the expressway to stock up on Point beer and soda - the Black Cherry Cream is awsome!  PM me if you need any more info.  Below is a map with a star showing where everything is.