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To All,
It was a great time and event that MichLUG did this past weekend at the GATS
Show in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was hard work, but I think it was well
received, and it was just a blast. Here are my notes, thoughts, and other
Scottism’s. : )
It all started many moons ago, with a lot of ideas and thoughts after the
Novi GATS Show in January. MichLUG had a few meetings to discuss how to go
about setting it up, and how do we approach it. Steve Ridge had an idea to
get a small barrier around to make it a little bit more hands off, as kids
love to touch stuff. We also used Track Designer to lay out the overall
layout, and made several changes and modifications to the layout.
Friday:
Friday came very fast, I barely got my stuff ready in time. I took the day
off, along with my lovely and adoring wife, Lynn, and we loaded up the
Suburban and we were off to Grand Rapids. I had to stop at the office to get
my laptop, which was the first line of mishaps that was to occur. : )
Lynn and I drove up separately, since she was going to see her parents as I
was attending GATS. We drove up 131, and you can run into every kind of
traffic backup, construction, you name it, we hit it! We finally got to
Grand Rapids around 2:30 or so, and we were running late. We followed
Larry’s instruction to the house, and were going fine until we ran into a
house fire, which closed the road, and e had to take a long detour around,
but eventually found it. Typical MichLUG meeting: Disasters, fires,
destruction, etc. : )
Larry lives in a beautiful home (Be sure to thank your wife for everything,
Larry, we do appreciate it!) and we took off in a long caravan, after some
initial plant / sprinkler problems (Sorry about that, Larry!) We went
towards downtown, and I think we lost half the caravan in transit. I lost
Tony and Rick in a crazy loop getting near the highway!
We eventually arrived on scene, and pulled in the back of the center, and
had to wait to unload (It was one entrance, very small, and they had to
control the number of vehicles in there), but we finally did, and parked
across the street. They did not turn on the air, so it was very warm, and I
was already exhausted. We had most of it set up that night, as we had a lot
of help, from the entire Bliss family, to my wife, and the rest, it went
very well, the layout helped a lot, and it just became a matter of details
after that. We had a lot of Godzilla’s downtown as we put down sidewalks
(2x2 tiles) and signs. Amy was working on her garden layout, her arboretum
and the fountain, which were both beautiful. Chris worked on his airport,
and worked on some other areas, such as downtown. Steve worked on his train
yard, Jason, worked on his factory, and Peter helped set up his restaurants
and other buildings. Larry set up his display, and helped with the layout
too. I worked on my Shell Station and my Octan center. Roll call for Friday
night, thanks goes to everyone (I don’t know if I got everyone, so LMK if I
missed any)
Friday Night Roll Call:
Chris Leach
Steve Ridge
Larry Pieniazek
Larry’s daughter and friend, I apologize, I forgot their names
Amy Hughes
Tony Hedglen
Rick Hallman
Jason Spears
Peter Guenther
Steve Bliss
K Bliss (Kristen? SP? ), Steve’s wife
Jamey (SP?), Steve’s Bliss’s Son
David, Steve Bliss’s. son
Scott Sanburn
Lynn Sanburn, my wife
We left at 9:00PM, a few people stayed at the Bliss’s (Thanks again!) and
some at Larry’s, Rick and Tony drove back to Lansing, and Lynn and I got a
hotel room nearby. Lynn and I ate at Olive Garden near the hotel.
Saturday Roll Call:
Chris Leach
Steve Ridge
Larry Pieniazek
Larry’s daughter and friend, I apologize, I forgot their names
Amy Hughes
Tony Hedglen
Rick Hallman
Jason Spears
Peter Guenther (Left early to meet parents)
Steve Bliss
K Bliss (Kristen? SP? ), Steve’s wife
Jamey (SP?), Steve’s Bliss’s Son
David, Steve Bliss’s. son
Scott Sanburn
Saturday morning rolled around, and I got up late (The alarm volume was
turned to zero) so I had to hurry to get there, I arrived around 8:00AM. We
were getting final details up, placing cars, trains, misc. buildings, trees,
etc. I forgot to get my small office building out, so we filled in a void
downtown. Chris felt a little sick, so he tried to work on the airport until
he felt better, I certainly felt a little quizzy myself. I think it was just
coffee withdrawal. The show opened at 11:00AM, and we were one of the first
tables again, which always helps. We had our info table in front, as well as
a 4561 running around, and then as others have mentioned, we pointed them to
the real display. We got the usual responses, and a lot of questions. I had
a 1256 Shell set out, so I can point them to the initial sets, and show them
mine. Amy was working on the outside landscaping of the church and the
garden / fountain area right up to the opening, as well as placing all the
minifigs in the church during the show.
The train yard was hard to run, as we tried to run different trains around a
lot, the Big Boy Steve made was a real entertainer, as well as the
Metroliner and Larry’s GOB trains. I love his white bullet train, we ran
that a lot as well. We had a lot of trains. The switching was a pain, simply
because it was a very wide layout, and we had a little blue finger item to
help. Tony and Jamey were running it as well, and Steve made numerous
corrections of wiring to ensure a smooth display. The Roundhouse is simply
breathtaking, a lot of people loved to see it work. Steve’s creations, from
his warehouse to the water tower to the coal loader to the control center,
was simply awesome. At one point, we got a 42 car train going, and it was
almost ½ of the whole train track layout! We also had 3 6399 monorails
riding around the display, which people always loved (I must have explained
how the worked about 100 times!)
We got interviewed by a reporter from the Grand Rapids press, who talked
with a few of us, Chris & I blabbered on about things, and we were even
mentioned in an article, here is a link to the article:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=57745
Thanks Steve for posting that!
Most of the rest of us were either outside the display, helping with things
(getting trains back n track, getting occasional monorail crash or fall off)
talking with the onlookers, etc. It was very tiring, as most of these shows
tend to be. Many thanks go to the Bliss family, who provided lunch, so we
did not need to leave. That is a great idea, maybe we need to get a cooler
for next year, get the ice and pop, etc. And just have that, save some $$
and get cold stuff! : )
Chris decided to have some fun, and had a plane crash into one of the
skyscrapers, with medical, fire,etc. on scene. We had to do something after
the Mc’D’s burned down last year.
We left shortly after 5:00 PM, and decided to go to Big Boy, nearby. We
arrived there, an the people working there were a little surprised but we
eventually got all seated in, and had a great time talking, with a few
occasional spills, and a great desert (Sundae, yummy!) Most of us headed
back to Steve Bliss’s house, and we had a good time talking about LEGO
items, and playing Euchre (SP?) until 1:30AM, Chris Leach and I barely won
against two rookies, ugh! Amy played a mean game, though. It was a sqeaker!
I went back to the hotel, and got to bed around 2:30AM.
Sunday:
Sunday Roll Call:
Chris Leach
Steve Ridge
Larry Pieniazek
Larry’s daughter and friend, I apologize, I forgot their names
Amy Hughes
Tony Hedglen
Jason Spears
Peter Guenther
Steve Bliss
K Bliss (Kristen? SP? ), Steve’s wife
Jamey (SP?), Steve’s Bliss’s Son
David, Steve Bliss’s. son
Scott Sanburn
Lynn Sanburn, my wife – came after closing to help pack up
I got up around 9:00AM, and left for the show, I stopped by and got a MD 12
pack, and got there right around 10:00AM. The show started again, and didn’t
really pick up until after 12:00PM, and slowed down after 3:30PM. We had
some interesting moments, such as when one of three monorails disappeared,
mine apparently derailed inside the Airport, which was frustrating, we were
looking all around to see if it derailed or something! We ended up getting
pizza delivered that afternoon, which was another great idea. We found out
we got first place around 2:00PM or so, we had a little shout for joy, and
put the ribbon on Chris’s tower. Tony’s family stopped by, and we had a
great discussion with his dad, just a super guy! We also had some film crews
from various TV channels come and film, I don’t know what was on it. We
started taking it down around 4:45PM, and we got it done in an hour and a
half or so, which was fabulous! We were out around 7:00PM, so all in all, it
went great. The labels and such were a great idea, we need to continue to do
that, and I will do my track for the next show.
All in all, we had a great time, everyone had a lot of fun, and I am looking
forward to Novi’s show in January. Now, what do I want to build next? : )
Scott S.
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