2,400 Miles to Pinball

 Minneapolis, MN to Austin, TX to Minneapolis, MN

We have Pinball Machines!

The Back Story

A few months ago I posted about settling down in Minneapolis for a year and buying pinball machines.  A friend of mine in Austin who already owns pinball machines reached out and asked if I wanted to borrow a few for a year.  He is getting work done on the house and he was going to put them in storage.  His philosophy is that pinball machines are meant to be played and that playing them actually helps keep them working.  I talked to Donna and she was down so we started working out the details.  I got a trailer hitch put on the van and planned a road trip to Austin to pick them up.  Donna was ready to relax in our new apartment so I asked my friend Bob, who already owns machines, if he wanted to do a road trip and he was down!  He flew out from Colorado and joined me on the journey.

Day 1: An Evening in Minneapolis

Bob arrived mid day on the 5th of July.  The plan was to head to LITT Pinball to play a bit and then catch dinner.  We also made a trip to Sushi Train for lunch.

Bob rips the spinner on Meteor for big points!

We ate dinner at Gai Noi.  It was fantastic and we will be back!

Day 2: Minneapolis to Kansas City

On Saturday we woke up and hit the road after some coffee.  Our first drive was about 7 hours.  We went straight down I-35 with a stop in Huxley, IA at Fenceline Beer Lab for lunch, and a stop in Independence, MO for a small snack at Mugs-Up Root beer for a root beer and a Zip Burger, which is loose ground beef and cheese whiz in a bun.

We had a quick rest stop at a casino right on the MN/IA border.

The door handles were corn cobs!

The gambling areas had tight entrances with security to keep the kids out.

Fenceline was a cool place in a small town.

The beer was good and the food was scratch made.

We hit another casino rest stop at a legit riverboat casino.

All of the gaming is across a little bridge and actually on a floating boat that doesn't go anywhere.  Americans love their loopholes!  Loopholes make things okay!

We arrived in Kansas City at around 6pm.  Our hotel room was ready for us so we dropped our stuff off and then hit the town.  Our goal was to go to The Green Lady for Jazz and cocktails.  Green Lady was one of our favorite places during our month long stay in Kansas City last year.

Green Lady was pretty hopping since it was a Saturday Night but we still got seats at the bar.

The drinks were solid as usual.

Before we left, I wanted to explore the downstairs area and it was packed and a 2nd band was playing.

The music was awesome upstairs and down.

Bob wanted to see the The Rocket on our walk back.

On our walk we happened by a pizza place so we thought we would get a late night slice.

All the drunk people ate all of the slices so we had to get personal pizzas.  I got one with ranch on it.  It wasn't the best idea, but I wanted to try something different.

Day 3: KC to OKC

On Sunday we drove from one city named after a state to another city named after a state with a stop by Magoo's Sports Bar for lunch and some hot pinball action.  

But first, we got coffee at a cool roastery.

It was motorcycle themed and they had an old non-working racing game I had never seen.

Magoo's is in Tulsa.  It's a bar that can host major tournaments and has the ability to stream events.  I have watched a few.  Oh and fun fact, it's the first time I have ever heard someone say Quesadilla with an "L" sound like in Dill Pickle non-ironically.

I think this might have been a non-working novelty BAC reader but I'm not sure.

It was a cool place to play pinball and Bob got to mark "Pinball in Oklahoma" off of his list.

We arrived in Oklahoma City around 5pm and checked into the hotel.  We were heading to a Tiki Bar so we both put on our Tiki shirts and headed out. 

The streetcar went right by our hotel but it wasn't going where we wanted to go.  Donna and I will be back to ride it.

2 middle aged white dudes in tiki shirts in OKC.  Not conspicuous at all.

Flamingo Tiki had cool mermaid door handles.

I spotted the branded swizzle sticks right when we sat down.

We were given a free Dole Whip to start off our island adventure.

The décor was kind of tiki light.

The cocktails were good looking and good tasting.

But their swizzle game was A+.

Day 4: OKC to Austin

On Monday we were driving about 6 hours with a few stops along the way.  Our first stop was U-Haul to pick up the trailer.  Trailers from OKC to Minneapolis were about half as expensive as trailers from Austin to Minneapolis.  This meant we had to drive to Austin with a trailer but it also meant we got to practice driving with a trailer before it was filled with precious cargo.

Hitched up and ready to roll!

We had another pit stop at the OK/TX border.  It was a giant casino.

Our next stop was in Fort Worth, TX.  When Bob and I were planning the road trip, I asked him if he had any items on his list.  He said he wanted to visit Sanctuary, a reference to Logan's Run.  We found parking and made our way to The Forth Worth Water Garden.  It was really cool but we were there for a photo shoot.

Logan's Run is a SciFi film about a place where you never grow old!  Sounds great right?  Well you don't grow old because you get "Renewed" aka recycled when you hit 30.  A crystal or life-clock is implanted in the palm of your hand when you are born and it slowly goes through colors until it hits blinking red when you hit 30 and then you are "Renewed".  Most of the inhabitants go along with getting renewed but there are a few that are called Runners and they are tracked by Sandmen who pursue and terminate the runners.  You can't have your party cake and eat it too I guess.

When the Runners get outside The Dome their life-clock crystal stops working and goes clear.  Bob brought us some clear crystals so we could cossplay.

It was, in my opinion, the best $5 Michaels purchase ever.

Before we left we watched our Logan's Run DVD and I took this photo of them at the Water Gardens.

After getting our photos we continued on to Austin.  We were supposed to meet at Chip's house at 3pm to load 4 pinball machines but we didn't get there until 4pm.

Chip had everything ready to go so things went pretty smoothly.

We had 4 people to load so it all went down without a hitch, well there was a trailer hitch but no other type of hitch.

We ended up putting 1 machine in the van.  I had read that a Dodge Grand Caravan can carry 2 machines and they were right.  We decided to put one in the van to make unloading easier.  We were going to only have 3 people to unload.

After filling the trailer and van with machines and pinball legs and back glasses and dropping off the TV I hauled down for Chip, we decided to leave the van at Chip's and Lyft to downtown Austin and our hotel.  I didn't want to deal with a valet driving the van with the trailer and it was cheaper to Lyft twice than to valet the car.  Once checked in to the hotel, Bob and I put our Tiki Shirts back on and headed over to Tiki Tatsuya, an amazing tiki bar in Austin.  We also went to Ramen Tatsuya.  It was a great night out.

Day 5: Austin to Wichita KS

Day 4 started with free breakfast at the hotel and then a Lyft ride back to Chip's house to pick up the van.  We just missed saying goodbye to Chip, he had to teach his class.  We pulled out and started the 8 hour trek to Wichita with some stops along the way.

I had to take the obligatory, "I'm picking up pinball machines" selfie.

We also did a spot check to make sure the machines were traveling well.

Another pitstop at the giant casino on the TX/OK border for a sandwich and a wee.

After an 8 hour drive, securing the trailer, and checking into the hotel, it was time for a beer and dinner.

River City Brewing Co delivered both.

After dinner we walked over to Lucky's Everyday to play some pinball

And learn about Neon.  Bob is a trained Neon artist and threw down some knowledge.

Day 6: Wichita to Home

We woke up the next morning and had our free breakfast and then started the 9 hour drive home.  It was pretty much I-35 the whole way.  We took turns driving so it went pretty quickly.

Unloading the trailer was a lot easier than I was anticipating.

Donna had the apartment all ready for the machines and helped document the work.

We had enough time to return the trailer and catch the rooftop sunset.

Day 7: Setup

Bob had enough experience to suggest that we have a full day for set up and we used it all.  When you move pinball machines, things happen, so we had to make a few trips to Home Depot and Tractor Supply Co to pick up tools and essentials I will need to work on machines.

But first, doughnuts!

Chip endured tons of text questions about set up.

We also had to playtest after every set up.  

We started a punch list of issues as we ran into them.

We also took time to figure out what languages were on the back of Tommy.

The jostling created issues for all of the machines so there is work to be done, but it's fun work!

The first issue we fixed was an air ball issue off the top of the ringmaster on Cirqus Voltaire. It ended up being an easy fix.  We used a Philip's head screwdriver to tighten down the metal plate on top of the ringmaster.

Tools were purchased.

Set up continued late into the evening.  We ended up getting Tron working perfectly but the other 3 have a punch list of things to do.  I will be busy for a while, but I am looking forward to learning.

Day 8: More Set Up

On the last day of Bob's stay, we hit up a Tractor Supply Warehouse and a Menard's to pick up more tools and stuff and then worked on the machines for a bit.  We fixed a few more issues before we went to lunch and then dropped Bob off at the airport.

Tommy has flipper issues so a rebuild is in order.  Another thing I get to learn how to do!

Since this photo was taken, we have spread out the machines a bit, put them on rubber feet to prevent them from moving and muffling some of the noise, and laid down a carpet to dampen even more noise.

Of course we went to a brewery for lunch and played pinball. 

My flipper rebuild kit arrived just after Bob left so now I have to go it alone.  I am sure I will be tapping into him and Chip as I get deeper into becoming a pinball tech!

It was a fun trip and now we have 4 pinball machines to mess around with.  A big thanks to Chip for lending us the machines and a big thanks to Bob for spending a bit over a week with me and providing muscle and brains.

That's it for now.  If you missed, Keeping Busy, check it out.