Well... I may not have found a cooler... but that was probably the best time I have had...
The absolute highlight for me was meeting with everyone Thursday night...
About an hour out of town John (Signguy) calls me and says everyone is meeting for a dinner/drinks.
As my wife Tonya and I step into the restaurant I just kinda guess and say “Matt & Harrison”
and sure enough there they are.. Then Larry and his son Kyle, then in comes John and then Tom
and Jay! So here I am sitting with my soda buddys and 2 legends of the ol' Club Soda magazine
Jay and Harrison!!!!! listening to Jay's stories of finds of yesterday and the magazine stories of he
and Harrison was awesome! Tonya was impressed with young Kyle being there and we talked
how it won't be long till our 10 and 7 year will be making the trip...(I HAD to find soda caps
as that's what they are wanting to collect and my oldest wanted something in Orange soda)
Then Tom and Jay start talking about all the trucks and stuff they seen.. I was so pumped!!!!!
I can only express my feeling as how I remember Christmas night and Santa coming... Not kidding
I didn't fall asleep till about 10:30 waking up at midnight and again around 3:00.. scared I would
fall back asleep and miss the alarm I got up, got dressed walked to the lot to find Tom & Jay!!.... We were ready!!!!!
Well I walked straight till 11:00am running into each other and saying in passing “Find anything yet?”
How funny to think all these years we've been running past each other...
Matt and I helped John spend his money wisely... I watched a few things slowly be picked off as I
was holding out for the Orange Crush Quikold I was sure was on a truck... well... at 11:00.... that Christmas feeling I had?....
I said to John... “It's like Christmas came and all I got was a pair of socks!”
So we went to another cool restaurant.. the “Filling Station” there in town WOW! pumps, globes and signs everywhere! Good food and hanging out with John! (And Thanks again for lunch John!)
I did go in on Saturday and found a Columbus M model gumball machine ran into Larry and Kyle again... then met with the New Fun-tronics gang! and found a few bottle caps for the kids...
then took the wife to the mall.. and she spent the money on the real kids for Christmas!
All in all a great time!!!! You guys are awesome!
Tonya was really impressed with you guys!...“My Penpals” she called you... she didn't know what to expect not meeting everyone other than John (and I believe Joey and his wife on a road trip in Springfield a while back!)
Also got to meet Neal, another great guy, collector, penpal & email friend.
