NWPAS Day 3

I went to church. It was at a decent hour, and I was able to get sacrament. I sat next to a guy with a beard, overalls, and Batman earrings. A kid ran around the room, talking to people at every pew. They all knew him, and enjoyed his antics. There were maybe 50 people in the room. It was a small but gracious crowd.

The drive to the convention center was very nice. I decided to take a more scenic route, and passed by several parks, and nice houses. It left me lost at times, but the view was excellent so I didn’t care. The big discovery from all of this was the best spots to turn, and make it a simple drive. By coincidence, it was just a turn at the Alfa Romeo store/museum.

I met an artist. She was painting various arcade machines, and had included a Father and Son playing a game together. Eventually the Dad bought the painting. The artist was friendly, and dressed herself up as a Game of Thrones character. We made jokes about that.

The Shrek Pinball tournament happened. I missed it, but that was ok, the daughter of the show’s director ran it. She seemed to enjoy being a referee as well. The winner was a chinese immigrant, who had been adopted by a guy from my hometown of Middleton Idaho. The young man and his Mom were also celebrating their new family member. Mom carried around the baby all the time, and cooed as often as she could.

The Kid Zone began to lose tokens quickly. At some points I had only one left. We found them in the machines around us. There was also $6 in quarters.

They had their closing ceremonies, and raffle drawing. Oz, the guy who runs the kid zone, won the Batman ‘66 machine. It is his first ever new machine. We made sure to help him pack it into his car. He looked overjoyed at his newfound machine.

After closing ceremonies, the show was over, and we began to take machines apart. While doing this, I got to check out some of the first ever Pinball machines. One of them was the first to use flippers. They weren’t as long or as wide as the more modern machines. It was a treat just to see it. Brian, the former president of the show, made sure to show it to me.

Within an hour and a half, most of the machines were taken apart, wrapped, and placed in their groups. By 8:30 the building was empty.

During that time I hung out with folks, played Game of Thrones pinball, and ate the lovely meals they brought for us. I chatted with the couple I met at the beginning of the show. They talked about how he had retired from the Navy, and saved up his time and strength for this show. Their daughter wanted to be a robotics engineer, and build rescue drones.

The current president told me about how everything seemed to happen so smoothly. They had technicians, and crew with experience to do everything. There were people at the docks ready to move machines quickly. He said there was always a need for more technicians, and working on things. He wanted to work on getting more, because a lot of the older team members needed a break. He also told me about his marriage. It would come up later that summer. I congratulated him on it.

Others told me about the first shows. There were problems with loading in and out. They didn’t have docks, and had to be extra careful with items. It was also hard because they didn’t have the needed equipment to move things. They were done by 4:30 though, simply because the show was so much smaller.

My drive back was a lot easier, because I knew what route to take. I followed, and enjoyed the drive to the freeway without a bit of traffic. Then I dealt with the weird driving on the freeway. It was fun though.