The Idle Pen - The Andrew Turnbull License Plate Gallery

7-15-2009: 2009 Erie Pa. ALPCA Convention, Part 3

By Thursday, I found myself comfortably slipping into and navigating the day's happenings. I started off the domino of events with the mild surprise of picking up an FM station from Kitchener, Ontario in the car. With my sunburn from two days before still a painfully fresh memory in my mind, I stopped at a converted Eckerd-turned-Rite Aid store to spring for a bottle of sunscreen. I nearly ran into a "Road Closed" sign in downtown Erie while completing the final leg of the trek over from the motel, but an improvised detour soon steered me to the right place. Of course, I really wasn't exposed to all that much sunshine for the first half of the day: The action, of course, laid indoors.

From left to right: A curious juxtaposition of licorice candy and Australian number plates, vintage road signs (dibs on the M-28 marker!), and expired and sample validation stickers galore...

I managed to finally complete my routine spot-check of (almost) every table in the hall, allowing me to shift my priorities over from frantic browsing to more selective combing of trade boxes, marveling at displays, and conversing with other collectors at last. New arrivals this day from the other side of Lake Erie were Jon Upton and Eric Vettoretti, who I encountered on the far end of the convention floor in the midst of frantically pricing their wares on the spot. After browsing through their traders in the vain hope of finding an early '60s Ontario with "10240" in the serial, I made my introductions and wished them well.

I was making a bit of well-wished progress at my own table as well. I parted company with a small stack of duplicate Plates magazine issues I had accumulated a few weeks earlier and sold a number of old license plates; including all I had from West Virginia.

My lodging arrangements for this night (and the rest of the trip) were at the Avalon hotel in downtown Erie; in collaboration with Jon Upton, Craig Hardesty (originally from West Virginia; who I had room-shared with in Huntsville two years before), and Craig's friend Chris (a last-minute addition to our plans). Fortunately I had the foresight of bringing a sleeping bag along, and the room was more than large enough to accomodate all of us with reasonable room...though wiggle room wasn't exactly at a surplus! After dropping off our bags and fiddling a bit with the climate control to no avail, we went downstairs once more.

If there was one thing that I hadn't seen very much of since arriving in Erie two days earlier, it was the city of Erie itself: I hadn't been able to afford more than a passing glance at its buildings, neighborhoods, and street scenes in the midst of convention action on the water's edge. To alleviate that, Chris, Craig, and I got together with Joe Sallmen (also from West Virginia) to scout out the surroundings and look for a good place for dinner. An ersatz block party was going on a block away (thus explaining the "Road Closed" signs I had seen earlier in the day), with radio music blaring away. In spite of that bit of action (and going around the block a few times), there wasn't really all that much to see. We wound up back at the hotel, which fortunately had a full-service restaurant directly inside.

Old stamps

One hamburger later, we continued our excursion around Erie. Our next stop was Joe Sallmen's motel...a glaringly unremodeled downtown artifact with two shaky stories and (in all certainty) a healthy supply of bedbugs within. While Craig, Chris, and I waited for Joe to attend to a few duties inside, I happened upon my strangest find of the convention: An envelope laying on the pavement that turned out to contain a block of four unused, ancient postage stamps within. Who did they belong to? How did they get there? I may never know.

The last time we had met nearly two years earlier, Joe had been driving a rapidly-deteriorating 1992 Buick LeSabre with a non-functional driver's side window and a battery cable that periodically lost connection for no apparent reason. Since then, he had "upgraded" to an ever-so-slightly newer 1993 Plymouth Acclaim with basic trim, almost no power equipment, and a sagging headliner: Not exactly a sight inspiring confidence; though in all certainty there were likely only so many things that could go wrong. Nevertheless we piled in, and paid a visit to Presque Isle.

Presque Isle (literally, "almost an island") is a peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie, forming a barrier to the city harbor as well as the site of a present-day state park. A notable feature of the peninsula is the Presque Isle Lighthouse, built in 1872 and staffed by various keepers until well into the twentieth century. By the time we had ventured to this point it was nearly dusk, and the shores of Presque Isle afforded a wonderful view of the Erie skyline just across the water. An amusement park is located nearby, and in fact a bridge to a roller coaster passes directly over the road out to the "isle."

After a day of adventure and surprise, Craig, Chris, and I finally rejoined Jon and turned into our hotel once again; where we encountered yet another surprise: The news that Michael Jackson had died. The events of the day had wound down, however, and I belatedly shut off the lights for another night.