Hi all
Again apologies for the lack of any updates on the last few days of our trip - we arrived home into Sydney at 6am today and were in our homes by 8.30am.
VERY tired , but I am pushing through until tonight - hopefully.
Unsure how Bert is doing , he was planning on painting thee frickin house - I say good luck to him with that.
So I will wrap up this thread by jumping back around 4 days and showing what we got up to for the end of our trip
Bert insisted we went back down to Fremont St on our last night in Vegas - I was unsure why........see if you can work it out.
I even offered to pay for BERT to get in a big booby photo - but being a decent young man with high morals, he wouldnt do that.
Even the fresh band had a hotty up front tonight
And this guy was pretty good with the axe - but not when he sang.
At least he had the fan on blowing his hair back as he played which is vitally important
Earlier that day we had found a ( now famous ) little place some of you may recognise from TV.
Its actually right on The Strip but way way down towards downtown.
There was a queue to wait and get in, being Aussies, we naturally just pushed in ( accidentally I should say ) and got straight into the place.
It was worth the 5 -10 minute drive t go here for a peek.
Here is Bert out front - just before he blindly walked in the door without seeing the queue of people and therefore getting us in the joint quickly
Once inside he felt the need to become a poco-loco snoop dog type of character however !
Monday was always going to be a big drive - Las Vegas to San Francisco - around an 8 hour road trip
Our navigator - who we failed to nickname but in hindsight would have been called Gilligan , once again sent us on a road across the middle of the State that didnt 'feel' right, we drove for miles and miles and miles on a 2 lane road through MILLIONS of ( what we later discovered ) were citrus trees.
The NAVMAN eventually got our almighty high powered VW Passat to SFO by around 4pm that day.
Tuesday had potential to ne a good day and turned out to be one of the best days ( IMO ) of the trip.
We hit the road into SFO city as I wanted to drive Bert across a landmark , we made it to Vista Point , grabbed some shots and headed back for the city....
After this I headed smack into to centre of SFO town and up to a lookout known as Twin Peaks for what would be the best views possible of SFO city area....this is only a small slice of the view - the actual view available is more than 180 degrees of the whole town and bay area's
Then after a year if planning we headed for a little town named Alameda - across the bay ( east ) from SFO city - right next door to Oakland.
Alameda is a very tidy and neat US town - I really liked it and the look of it.
But we were headed for this place specifically
On this street.........
I had organised this visit on this day at this time - we arrived.....................
We then realised it opened in around 30 minutes.
So we had lunch right next door - the waitress advised ud that in this town a lot of places close in the arvo's if it aint busy.
Not much later we were in The Pacific Pinball Museum.
Michael Schiess is the Founder of the Museum and works tirelessly with a board of members who promote pinball in some magnificent ways on the West Coast of the USA and beyond. PPM were the organisers of Pacific Pinball Expo ( the event Tony and I visited in 2011 ) which was the largest pinball show on the planet. Michael is still looking for real estate in the Bay Area to house the 1000++ games they own as a permanent museum. On the day we were here Michael and his wife spent 2 hours teaching a class of kids about electricity - he does a LOT this wonderful man and his VERY dedicated team.
I had met Michael at PPE in 2011 and he had no hesitation last year in supporting our small Wollongong League by donating 6 T shirts that we were able to use in the league throughout the year
I didnt count all the games in PPM - but for $15 entry fee you get quite a large and decent cross section to view / play - along with artwork and stories and odd stickers scattered around the place - clearly he needs bigger / better premises and I believe this guy and his crew will find something very soon.
Some random shots from throughout the complex - there are around 5 or 6 rooms.
This is when you first enter the building
EVERYWHERE we went , Bert kept bumping into FLASH pinball paraphernalia and games - its a sign Bert - a sign I tell you !
And some rooms out back.......housing DMD's and SS titles.
Some I recall
Dolly Parton
Seawitch
Charlies Angels
Roller Disco
Black Knight
Flash
CSI
Simpsons
Funhouse
Dr Who
and many more
I always fond some love these days for this whacky game - and this one loved me right back.
Was this Rollerball in a wig ?
WHERE did they get this shot from ?
it was just stuck behind a game randomly - WHAT a honey hey !
Having spent around 2-3 hours at PPM it was time to move on to a night which I had been looking forward to for a long time.
We were going to the home of one of the LEGENDS in this hobby / industry.
A man who has helped to improve many of your own games in small ways time and time again
A dead set true gentleman as well ...........I give you ............the one, the only...............
CLIFFY !
What a frickin top bloke this man is, we met him in 2011 at PPM and instantly just 'clicked' and we have communicated since , so it was great to get to his actual place - take a look at his street and think about the classic American streets you see in movies - it is exactly the same as that , he lives in a great neighborhood with a cool neighbor named Dave who joined us for the few hours we were there. Cliffys place on the left where the Harley is.
Dave LOVES his Rambler - one of only 6 of this model in the entire USA we were told.
And here it is - and here I am in it - THE chair where ALL the Cliffy Protectors get made - by hand , one by one.
Here I am clueless as to what to actually do with the machine.
And here I am wrecking one while Cliffy watches on
We ate Burgers ( 5 Guys Burgers - AWESOME ) and spoke to Cliffy and Dave for a few hours, shot some games ( I played WOEFULLY of course ) and were very impressed with their hospitality.
A truly fantastic and long day
OK - our last day of playing tourist so we headed for The Rock
GO HERE if you are ever in SFO or planning a trip ( Stocky ) .....it is the best $30.00 you will ever spend.
You all know the history of the place so I aint going to commentate it out - here are some images of this decaying old place PACKED with history.
You do an 'audio tour' that is narrated by actual ex guards and prisoners , you walk the exact walk the new prisoners did when they arrived at The Rock, you stand in the exact spots where men were killed in escape attempts gone wrong, you see the cells where the 3 that DID escape , escaped from and you basically get to cover the entire prison - it is very good - and VERY bloody cold out the front of The Rock.
Those damn fine 5Guys burgers from last night were not doing me any favours on this walk today - LOL
You can see the state of the old Wardens house out the front of the island
And you can see exactly why it would have been mental torture for the prisoners to see and hear the city so close to them - this shot was taken just off to the right of the old Wardens house- it was FARKING FREEZING here
I wore my best prison shirt for todays excursion !
This is on 'Broadway' inside the main jail house
The cells were TINY - from memory 9ft x 5ft x 7ft - NOTHING
And here is one of the cells they escaped from as shown in many movies and doco's
After the main tour you can wander the island at your own pace and explore other parts.
Here is BERT at the bottom of a long STEEP set of steps also wondering why the F*CK he tae the 5Guys and fries last night
And a shot of the main building from the recreation yard
With the top dog Bert on the tough guy steps
Then yesterday we drove down to LAX for our flight home and made the mandatory stop right near LAX
I gave all my coins to a homeless guys ( well he was probably an actor and a millionare but heck I wanted rid of the coins so I didnt really care )
Flight out was on time and all home safely to some vegemite toast and a decent coffee and some Tim Tams . Lumped on 2.5kg which is surprising considering the SH&T that we ate and the coffee consumed ( remember I was here 3 weeks , and Bert 2 ) but should drop that quickly
Now I know that BERT has stacks more photos and video and he may choose to add some stuff to this thread as he gets time, but for me its finished and I trust whoever watched the journey enjoyed the ride.
