A Tale From Greenberg
Fri. March 26
1150 - After a busy morning at work, I grabbed some lunch before heading to Wilmington. Should be OK that I won't be there until later...
1245 - arrived at Shriner's Auditorium only to find that everyone was there and they had already unloaded the trailer! Seems that the message to meet at 1200 meant be here first, then go for lunch. I thought it was the other way around...
1315 - Matt and Chris arrive, bags of food in hand, wondering why no one was at McDonalds. Whew, I wasn't the only one!
1420 - tables are put together according to plan. I got to roll around underneath the tables with the drill securing bolts.
1645 - I needed to leave for a family event. All of my MOCs are now in place. Should be able to help finish up detailing the layout with minifigs and trees tomorrow morning.
Sat. March 27
0835 - arrived early to help finish setting up. Joe bought donuts - yea!! Helped put out minifigs and got the monorail track finalized, hooked up and tested. Eric did a splendid job planning the monorail for this particular layout! Teddy's mountain tunnel is also in place now, looks great.
0950 - Panic! Only 10 minutes left and we haven't tested any of the trains yet! Need to clear the tracks of boxes and bins so we can get done!!
1000 - Whew, made it! The last boxes were stored and the trains are all running exactly at showtime. That was kinda close...
1200 - crowds have been steady but not crushing, which is good. Unfortunately we already lost one train to the floor - Tom's. It was a spectacular crash, too. Pieces everywhere!
1300 - Took the last lunch shift. Decided to bring my own food for one of the two days to keep things kinda healthy. Does a fluffernutter on whole wheat count?
1330 - Am now in one of the two pits with the train speed regulators. Nice change of pace. Get to interact with the crowd a lot from in here. Folks at this show are very respectful of the layout - it's awesome!
1410 - Gee, how many pictures of the layout that people have taken am I in? Maybe I should always smile...
1500 - Done with the pit. Need a bathroom break anyway.
1600 - Show is done for the day. Taking lots of pictures of the layout after all the people are gone. Not happy with my camera settings; need to find the user's manual and figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Sun. March 28
1150 - arrived late as it's Palm Sunday. Meandering around the layout, answering questions and helping with layout issues as needed.
1230 - time for lunch. Got to eat with Linda and Jon. Mmmm, hamburgers...
1600 - Show is officially over! Went really well. Now need to start packing everything...
1630 - All my MOCs are put away. Packing up all of Jamie's monorail stuff. Might be the last show using his magic box of monorail, as he'd like to try to bring it back with him to Denmark next time he comes to visit...
1700 - Carrying all this stuff outside. Amazing that we can get it all into the club trailer!
1730 - All packed and done! 1.5 hours, not bad. The traditional after show dinner is dwindling in size, only 5 of us are going. Changing venues, trying the Horseshoe Grill vs. the Piccadilly Pub.
1900 - Dinner was very good! Place is really nice; I think we'd definitely go there again. Heading home after a fun but tiring weekend. Thanks, everybody!!
1150 - After a busy morning at work, I grabbed some lunch before heading to Wilmington. Should be OK that I won't be there until later...
1245 - arrived at Shriner's Auditorium only to find that everyone was there and they had already unloaded the trailer! Seems that the message to meet at 1200 meant be here first, then go for lunch. I thought it was the other way around...
1315 - Matt and Chris arrive, bags of food in hand, wondering why no one was at McDonalds. Whew, I wasn't the only one!
1420 - tables are put together according to plan. I got to roll around underneath the tables with the drill securing bolts.
1645 - I needed to leave for a family event. All of my MOCs are now in place. Should be able to help finish up detailing the layout with minifigs and trees tomorrow morning.
Sat. March 27
0835 - arrived early to help finish setting up. Joe bought donuts - yea!! Helped put out minifigs and got the monorail track finalized, hooked up and tested. Eric did a splendid job planning the monorail for this particular layout! Teddy's mountain tunnel is also in place now, looks great.
0950 - Panic! Only 10 minutes left and we haven't tested any of the trains yet! Need to clear the tracks of boxes and bins so we can get done!!
1000 - Whew, made it! The last boxes were stored and the trains are all running exactly at showtime. That was kinda close...
1200 - crowds have been steady but not crushing, which is good. Unfortunately we already lost one train to the floor - Tom's. It was a spectacular crash, too. Pieces everywhere!
1300 - Took the last lunch shift. Decided to bring my own food for one of the two days to keep things kinda healthy. Does a fluffernutter on whole wheat count?
1330 - Am now in one of the two pits with the train speed regulators. Nice change of pace. Get to interact with the crowd a lot from in here. Folks at this show are very respectful of the layout - it's awesome!
1410 - Gee, how many pictures of the layout that people have taken am I in? Maybe I should always smile...
1500 - Done with the pit. Need a bathroom break anyway.
1600 - Show is done for the day. Taking lots of pictures of the layout after all the people are gone. Not happy with my camera settings; need to find the user's manual and figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Sun. March 28
1150 - arrived late as it's Palm Sunday. Meandering around the layout, answering questions and helping with layout issues as needed.
1230 - time for lunch. Got to eat with Linda and Jon. Mmmm, hamburgers...
1600 - Show is officially over! Went really well. Now need to start packing everything...
1630 - All my MOCs are put away. Packing up all of Jamie's monorail stuff. Might be the last show using his magic box of monorail, as he'd like to try to bring it back with him to Denmark next time he comes to visit...
1700 - Carrying all this stuff outside. Amazing that we can get it all into the club trailer!
1730 - All packed and done! 1.5 hours, not bad. The traditional after show dinner is dwindling in size, only 5 of us are going. Changing venues, trying the Horseshoe Grill vs. the Piccadilly Pub.
1900 - Dinner was very good! Place is really nice; I think we'd definitely go there again. Heading home after a fun but tiring weekend. Thanks, everybody!!