Becoming A Pinball Tech

 Minneapolis, MN

We went to The Dakota, a jazz club, for Zydeco music.

Keeping Very Busy

Since getting back from my pinball pickup road trip with Bob, we have been keeping very busy.  On Saturday night we went back to The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for their Firefly event.  We arrived just a bit before dusk and got to walk some of the grounds where there was good firefly habitat. They had experts there to answer questions, a group of performers to entertain people and tell stories, and interpretive signs.  It was really fun and we got to see fireflies.  

Experts answer questions about the event and fireflies in general.  We stumped them when we started asking about the bats we saw.  I guess you can't know everything about everything.

This is firefly habitat.  They were in there.

We also saw some cool fungus due to the recent rains.

I also started a flipper rebuild for the Tommy machine I am borrowing.  There were known issues that Chip told me about so I ordered a flipper rebuild kit, watched a few YouTube videos, bought a ton of tools, and made several trips to buy more tools.  It took me a few days to get them done due to getting blocked along the way for various reasons but they are done now and I know how to do it!  I even had to improvise a bit which was fun.  I did both main flippers and the upper flipper.  I took a lot of reference photos so I didn't end up taking them apart and forgetting how they go back together.

Flipper Stuck = Bad

Need more tools to get stubborn bold unstuck.  Vice grips for the win!

I freed the flipper!

The left one is done!  2 more to go!

I had to de-solder the wires going to the coil and the end of stroke switch so I made sure to note how they went back together.

That's a lot of wear!  And no I am not talking about the place on my thumb where I jabbed myself with pointy pointy solder.

This looks like a problem...

Cross it off the list!

You can see me in the reflection in the topper.

All That Jazz

Between going to Harbor Freight, Home Depot, and Menards, we found time to go to The Dakota Jazz club to see CJ Chenier & The Red Hot Louisiana Band.  We can walk to the venue and will probably be going to more shows over the winter.  The venue was great.  We also got dinner and the food was really good and reasonably priced.  As as added benefit, the show was really good.

Close up accordion action!

Still Mucking With Apartment Layout

We still aren't fully settled.  We have had to buy carpets and wall coverings to made the pinball area quieter.  The machines are very loud in a home environment, even with the volume turned down.  We are working to reduce the noise they make so we will feel confident playing them without disturbing neighbors.  We have noise dampening wall coverings coming and we bought a few carpets at IKEA.  We also need to move one of the machines out of the "Arcade" area because they are packed in there a bit tight.  

We had to cut the carpet a bit because it's impossible to find perfect sized carpets for a home arcade.

I will get some more photos when the arcade is all set up.  What do you think of Pin Hole for a home arcade name?

We have also been doing chores like getting our driver's license ordered among other things.  We are getting very close to having all of that "moving in" stuff done.  Soon we will have plenty of time for home pinball and tournament pinball, and league pinball, and pinball parties.

That's it for now.  If you missed the big road trip to Austin you can read about it here.

Dinner at The Majestic

 Kansas City, MO

Hamming it up with Gordon at The Green Lady Lounge

The Milwaukee Deli

Today our friend Gordon just happens to be in town.  He is on his way to Marceline, MO to visit Walt Disney's hometown and then going on to Hannibal, MO to ride the Mark Twain Riverboat with 2 of his friends.  We all met for brunch at The Milwaukee Deli.  Donna and I have been walking by the Deli a few times a week and we were wanting to eat there so it was great that it was on Gordon's list too.  

An original photo of The Milwaukee and Albert Ladzinsky (that’s him in the bowtie) smiling proudly in 1933 for the first beer delivery after the repeal of prohibition has arrived!

It was one of those meals where I didn't take many photos.  We just got caught up talking about travel and catching up since our last visit in LA.  I'm not sure if it is a regional thing but I ordered potato salad with my sandwich and German potato salad showed up.  I think that it would have been called German potato salad on the west coast.  It was delicious no matter what they call it.

After brunch Donna and I headed back to the Airbnb to hang with Francis while they went on to The Arabia Steamboat Museum.  You can read about it here.  

This afternoon I resolved to solve the camping problem I mention here.  We had a one night stay that didn't work out and had already booked the night before and the night after.  There were no valid campsites in the area and a 2nd night in Savannah didn't make sense due to the cost.  After a day or so of trying to think outside the box it came to me.  I moved our nights at Magnolia Springs State Park a day later and filled the missing campsite with Lumber River State Park in North Carolina.  It was a great solution to this camping puzzle we were dealing with.

Eureka!  We have a place to spend the night every night this year now!

Dinner at The Majestic

After an afternoon of lounging around and juggling camping reservations we were ready for dinner.  We were meeting Gordon and his group at The Majestic.  It's an oldish school steakhouse right up the street.  We met the group at the bar while we waited for our table.  We heard all about the Steamboat museum so it almost felt like we had been.  The meal was really great.  It was the best steak I have had in a long time.  My hot take in this post is that BBQ isn't really my jam.  This place is my jam when it comes to red meat.

The entrance

They had a nice whiskey selection

On Mondays they have a great piano player hammering out jazz.  Later another musician showed up to play along.

The Neon was shining brightly by the time we left.

The Green Lady Lounge

After dinner Gordon asked if we could get into The Green Lady.  All of the research I did on this day paid off.  We swung by the Airbnb to say Hi to Francis and then rode the KC Streetcar to The Crossroads and walked to The Green Lady Lounge.  It was the perfect amount of crowdedness.  We found a table to accommodate our group which was now 5 and had a drink and listened to the Jazz Trio that was playing.

I messed around with the night mode on my camera.  This is a photo of my Old Fashion.

I snapped this photo between sets

It was one those great days filled with friends and food.  So far on our trip we have been lucky enough to see friends in all of the places we have stayed.  This trend should continue in Baltimore as well.  We have 1 more week here to take everything in before our 2 week road trip to Baltimore.

On the walk home I took a two more photos.  Here they are.

If you missed yesterday's Art Deco experience you can see it here.

The Garment District Museum, Pinball, and The Green Lady Lounge

 Kansas City, MO

Trying on hats at The Kansas City Garment District Museum

The Museum Across the Street

During our adventures in the area we ran across The Historic Garment District Museum. It's a free museum and it is open from 11am to 2pm 2 days a week so we had to schedule it.  We went there today at around 11:30.  The door says to check in across the street so we tried to do that but the office was empty so we crossed back over to look more carefully.  It turns out those are old instructions and all we had to do was press the buzzer and someone came down to let us in.  It's a small museum but it was fun seeing old photos and old clothing as well as trying on hats!

Confusion about how to get in to the museum across the street

A segregated photo taken at the company picnic

Using a cloth cutter to cut stacks of panels that will be sewn together

Sewing together the panels

It looks like you used to be able to try this but it wasn't working

My new 4th of July hat (I wish)

A banner celebrating their unionizing 

Up-Down Arcade

After making some early dinner we headed out to Up-Down Arcade KC via the KC Streetcar. Up-Down Arcade is a chain here in the mid-west.  The one near us has specials every day.  Today the special was 10 tokens for a dollar vs 4 on normal days.  Every arcade machine and pinball machine runs off 1 token so you get a great deal on Thursdays.  I hear it gets really crowded but we were there from 3-5 so it wasn't bad at all and they had a great tap list.

KC Streetcar Incoming

Lots of classic machines in great condition

My beer in front of a Tapper machine

Donna's beer

The toilet was straight edge I think.

Kiss in its attract mode begging for quarters (or tokens)

The Green Lady Lounge

After Up-Down we headed over to The Green Lady Lounge for opening at 5pm.  We had read it gets really busy so we wanted to make sure we got our seat.  It's a $5 cover and music starts at 6pm.  We arrived an were the only ones there for at least half an hour.  We had the place to ourselves to take photos and explore.  The bar tender was really nice and gave us a lot of good local tips.

Photos of the Mercury room look awesome so we thought we would check it out on our walk over to The Green Lady.  It's upstairs so we didn't go in and later found out that the cocktails are $30 each!!!!

Green Lady Lounges doesn't look like much from outside

But inside it is AWESOME

I am sure I took way too many photos.

It reminded us of a cool bar and Haunted Mansion wrapped up into 1 place

There was a separate floor that wasn't open yet that would have a different jazz band.  The bartender let us go down there and check it out.

This was a tiny booth between 2 normal booths right in the isle.  

The cocktails were pretty good, not amazing but they were also only $11

That was our adventure for today.  Tomorrow we head back to Kansas.

If you missed yesterday's adventure you can read about it here.