Botstock Redux Vol 1

Today spent the day updating the retail website Http://RobotsInc.biz and upgrading the new computer.

Now to continue the Chicago trip.....

Friday April 21

I left to the airport by using the Flyaway bus to LAX. It is convient and inexpensive. My neighbor. Maria, took me to the Flyaway about a mile away from the house at 7:30 am.

I arrived at LAX fairly early, security lines were terrible but I had time for a $8.00! Burger King breakfast and boarded my flight which was comformatable! American Airlines charges me $8.00 for a snack box and $2.00 for headphones for Narnia. What a racket! But...I had a empty seat next to me.

I arrived at OHare and went directly to the train after buying a guide book on Chicago. I had asked fellow Alphadromers for a ride to the hotel ($130 taxi ride) but my scheduled arrival did not match anyone elses plans. So I took the train to the bus connection, easy no problem. The bus route happened to take a route where there were 2 accidents and since it was the surburbs it was difficult for the bus to detour. We stayed stationary around 30 minutes at one accident which invloved a 7 year girl being hit by a small truck. No outcome was known. Then we detoured around another accident. I finally arrived too late for my train connection. So I had 45 minutes to kill. I found a small Mexican diner near the tracks and had a Hot Dog. There are many Mexicans in Chicago, a surprise to me. When the train arrived the conductor stepped out and yelled "All aboardski" I was definitedly in Chicago! After a 30 minite trip, I arrived in Geneva and took a taxi to St Charles to the Holiday Inn. The trip from the airport took 3 and half hours!!! Instead A 40 minute taxi ride for $130. My fare for the entire trip from OHare was $15. Some Bad Luck!

I arrived at the hotel door to meet Jay from Robot Island, inside there was Joe K the arranger of Botstock, John Rigg (Robot Hut) and Morbius. Robert, Jannette, and their son Michael. Great people, all whom I met for he first time. I checked in and went to the very nice room to wash up.
I then went to dinner with around 10 Alphadromers at a Pizza restaurant! They hailed from Canada, Washington state, NYC, Germany and elsewhere.

Great Deep dish pizza (my first), Beer, and chatting with good friends. After dinner we returned next door to the hotel.

And then....

We returned to the hotel to commence the tradition of room trading. Earlier Larry7 has shown me some nice items but as a retailer nothing that I could move or add to my collection (maybe the two 80's T-28s?).

I was one of the first to visit our German visitors, Genot and Dirk. Gernot is a major collector and visits Japan often, so we planned to visit Osaka together. They were both so friendly and had a few items that I desperately wanted for my own. My original plan was to only buy for resale but these items and prices were too good to pass up. We made a deal to pay the bill by Palpal later in the week since I was low on cash. The items are below:

Room Trading results with the Germans....

OTTI Metal House 2005 Bare Metal Tetsujin 28 Cockpit Robot #27 of 40

1966 Tomy Mr. Mike (one of Toru's childhood toys)

1958 Blue Planet Robot with box

Toy Cafe Ltd. Edition Winup of T-28

Mini Die cast Mechanized Robot 2006 Rare Special Edition

and some free other bonus gifts and I bought two reference books from Dirk. (Dirky since I called him Kirk a few times)

Around 1 am, I headed for bed and to put the swag robot pins on the 50 business cards. Tomrrow off to the fairgrounds for the antique Toy show!