I am here at my airbnb house, hosted by "Kayla", as accommodations during my attendance at the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors (NAWCC) annual convention, this year a 75th anniversary gala. The convention is being held in York, PA., and I am here in Manchester, midway (sort of) between York and NAWCC HQ in Columbia.
Tuesday July 17
I arrived in H'burg, PA, yesterday about 11:30 a.m. local time aboard one of American Airlines' commuter planes. We all had to check our carry on bag at the gate because there wasn't enough room in the overheads for anything besides our personal item. This they did for free. We hit a patch of turbulence approaching H'burg so violent that it lifted everyone off their seat. Had I not been belted in, I'm sure I would have been lifted high enough to hit my head on the overhead panel. There were even a couple of shrieks from the female passengers. I have never experienced a jolt on an airplane of that level before. So I guess there is a reason the airlines tell you to buckle up when seated.
The H'burg's airport is nice, similar in size to Madison. Budget car rental upgraded me to a midsize -- a Chevy Malibu -- at no extra charge. I left the airport, and within a half hour was sitting in a booth a Hinkle's luncheonette in downtown Columbia. I have been here many times in all my trips to Columbia since 1999. Hinkles has been a mainstay of Columbia for 125 years, and was a pharmacy/luncheonette up until a couple years ago. But changing times forced the then-owners to close, and fortunately someone bought it at the last minute, but did away with the pharmacy and is turning the whole place into a restaurant. Good, old-fashioned Pennsylvania Dutch style food with sides like pickled beets and "filling," which is the Pa.-Dutch term for stuffing. I had a hamburger steak smothered with onions, and cabbage slaw and sweet potato patties for sides, rolls with butter, and a Diet Coke.
 |
| Those are sweet potato patties on the left side of the plate |
Then I went to NAWCC HQ in Columbia, and picked up books that I had shipped there to sell at the convention. Gift shop manager Abby was very accommodating in accepting the books and holding them for me for my arrival so that I did not have to cart them on the airplane. One of the books is just off the press, a collector's guide to Elgin wristwatches that I started working on back in January while still in Florida.
From there, I stopped to see friend Nancy Dyer who, along with significant other Al Dodson, lives on the 2nd floor of an 1800s row house in Columbia's historic district. Nancy was NAWCC's library archivist up until 2017 when she retired, and was of incredible help to me in my numerous writing projects for the Association, and for the Hamilton book which I published in 2016. We chatted for about an hour, and made plans to go to dinner Thursday night to a crab house in Wrightsville, just across the Susquehanna River from Columbia.
Next, I made a 20-minute drive to Manchester to set up house at Kayla's place. The 20-something Kayla owns this tidy 3-bedroom, 2-story, half of a duplex, probably built some time in the mid-'80s. There's not much to Manchester, likely a bedroom community of York/Harrisburg. Kayla went over everything with me regarding bedroom, bathroom, kitchen layout, TVs and remotes, etc. She had even purchased groceries which I had requested ahead of time for making breakfasts here: bread, eggs, milk, cereal, cheese, butter, peanut butter, and coffee. I reimbursed her for those items, $16.83, gave her a twenty and told her to keep the change, and now I am set for breakfasts.
It was 4 p.m. by then, and I had been up 13 hours, so I retired to my room and took a nap. I have a nice bedroom with double bed, four pillows (!), dresser, side table, and a mini-fridge, which Kayla has stocked with bottled water. When I awoke around 6 p.m., Kayla was gone (dinner with her mom), so I had the place to myself and decided to cook a light dinner here of cheese omelet, toast with peanut butter, and Starbucks coffee from a lookalike Keurig coffee maker. I cleaned up dishes, then settled to watch a couple of Family Guy and Seinfeld episodes on Hulu on Kayla's complicated TV which has three remote controls.
Kayla got back around 9:30, and I took my leave and headed upstairs to bed.
Wednesday July 18
Up around 7 a.m. Another cheese omelet and PB toast, coffee, for breakfast. Kayla was up around 8:45. No breakfast for her. She immediately went to work with "Tony" who arrived at the house around the same time. They are coworkers, they work in the medical IT field, mostly from their separate homes, but today are working on a joint project out of Kayla's place. Kayla tells me that as of 4:30 today, she is leaving on a trip to Ocean City, MD, and that I will have the whole place to myself for the remainder of my stay, through Sunday morning. That will be awesome.
I have the day off, so not quite sure what I will do. I have a newsletter due for my Rockford Watch Club, so will probably work on that, and maybe explore the area for food. Convention activities start on Thursday, and the big selling day at the convention center is Saturday.
That's all for now. Hope everyone is well.
Bruce
Good luck at your show.
ReplyDelete