TOGA: TreadleOn Gathering and Academy, an antique sewing machine swap meet and general rumpus.
I arrived in Monroe NC last night and checked in to the motel. No problems on the trip. Barbara came over from her motel across the street and picked me up. We went to the Fork and Spoon which I must say is the only restaurant in Monroe that I have actually enjoyed (plenty of fast food and chain restaurants if that's your thing).
Got back to my motel only to find that one of my tires was flat, and I mean TOTALLY flat.
This picture was taken after the air pump had already been running for several minutes. It was MUCH flatter than this to begin with.
Fortunately the night before I had charged up my car jumper/inflator/power thingy. I brought it not for its car superpowers, but because I can plug a sewing machine into it, so I can demonstrate machines outdoors without lugging them into the church.
I've used it and its predecessors (the batteries last several years but not forever) many times to jump cars but only rarely to inflate tires. This one was SO low that the battery pack ran til it ran out of juice and didn't even get the tire up to 20 psi (35 is what it should have). But it was enough to get to the Walmart on the other side of the highway. Where I sat for an hour until they told me they didn't have the right tire.
But they blew it up to 35 and I made it all the way to the other side of the strip mall to a tire store, where I waited a couple more hours, but left with a new tire.
Had lunch (actually it was breakfast and it was 2:30 by then), went back to the motel and took a long nap.
So that was my first day of TOGA. What was everyone else doing?
- Mary Jo's fabric store, reputed to be the best fabric store between Atlanta and DC
- A thread wholesaler. This is my spiritual home and it was devastating to miss. Even though I'm pretty sure I have the world's largest private collection of thread already!
- A trip to see Harry Berzak's private collection of antique sewing machines. Harry is one of the world's major collectors and his museum, which is not open to the public, houses THOUSANDS of antique machines. OK, I really don't know how many but it has to be thousands. I was there several years ago.
- Dinner. Breakfast at 2:30 pm of a Cookout cheeseburger (with bacon and grilled onion) did NOT leave me hungry at dinner time for some strange reason.
I did catch up with Linda, Caroline, and Linda's adorable little girls after dinner. So the day wasn't a total washout.
stay tuned for Friday's thrilling developments......
What a bummer, to be close and yet so far. Maybe I need to plan and come next year from Buffalo- it sounds really good.
ReplyDeleteNo fun. My car battery died 2 weeks ago, the night before we were to leave on a trip. Thank goodness it happened BEFORE, not during the trip. I did have a transmission explode on me on a trip (headed to the Arkansas TOGA a few days later). I had to get a new(er) vehicle, since the transmission had just been repaired, and the company would NOT stand behind their work unless I drove the vehicle 1200 miles back to their shop (like that could happen). I hope the rest of your TOGA goes nicely.
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