November 3, 2012

View of the day-The guys say farewell outside the TOMY store at Dyersville.

Al had another early morning as he got ready for Roger and Ken to pick him up to go to the big auction.  Marilyn stayed back at the camper, her job was to get it ready and hooked up for the trip home.

We had decided we had seen enough of the toy show and should start back for Canada.  Marilyn got the camper all flanged in and was on the road to Dyersville by 11:30am.  Even though the water had froze during the night, the sun had it thawed out so Marilyn could get the fresh water tank filled up...because we would surely need iton the road.

The plan was to park the right up at the Shopko lot by the school, but the traffic was insane and although it was a right turn on to the street where the Shopko was, that would mean makings left turn on to the main street...with no lights at the intersection. A long wait, indeed.

Marilyn opted to make a left off the highway and parked in the TOMY lot, then called Al to him know where she was.  The auction was still in full swing,so they weren't leaving to pick her up,but as luck would have it, there was a shuttle bus and Marilyn took advantage of it by catching it for a ride to the school.

At the school, she went in through the side door...what a lineup and crowd...she could hardly get into the gym, never mind trying to get through the masses to the auditorium where the auction was being held.  Since she was near the rooms where the dioramas were, she stopped to take some pictures of some of them.

She couldn't stop thinking about the one she had seen yesterday with some culvert work being done..the attention to detail...stunning. The barn with the farrowing crates, the tiling being done in the field...there was even one that had a black cover over it and there was a tractor working the field with its lights on, and the combine was dumping into a cart with its lights flashing. Unfortunately, taking a picture would not have done it justice...as with so many of these works of art.

After the picture taking was done,she fought the crowd again to try and find the guys...fortunately they were just down the next hallway.  They were pretty much done with the auction...a little too rich for their blood. That, and they had pretty much spent their allowance for the show. Marilyn hadn't, so she was able to pick up a set of Big Roy 1/32 tractors...the price was right, and they are an amazing set.

We got a ride with the guys back over to the TOMY lot and the camper, but we couldn't leave without taking Roger and Ken through the TOMY store.  We all came out empty handed, but they had a nice wrapping table if we would have found something we wanted.

Time to head for home. Neither of us had any idea of how far we would be going today...it was time to "shut up and drive"...something we do a lot of.

Al drove the first shift until we turned north on to I35, then Marilyn took over so Al could have a nap. Once we got into Minnesota, Al took the wheel again and we dropped the hammer hoping to make Jamestown, ND.

Which we did...and parked in the Walmart parking lot for the night...in the snow...