(also known as "The Humongous Buying Expedition" to the 1989 National Convention)

The advertisement in Crown Jewels of the Wire read, in part, "I will be starting out with an empty pickup and trailer and a pocket full of money. My goal is to buy lots of neat insulators and fill-up the truck and empty my pockets!!" 

The response to the ad was great, so much so that it was very difficult to choose which stops to make and which ones simply could not be accommodated as there were more offers than time would permit us to investigate. After developing an itinerary of stops and dates we were off very early Saturday morning July 1 hoping to get to southern Utah that afternoon. We left at 5:00 a.m. to try to avoid the searing heat of the Nevada desert since my Toyota truck did not have air conditioning. Well, as we reached Las Vegas, 400 miles from home, it was getting H-O-T, so we decided to stop for lunch at one of the millions of buffets on "The Strip". 

After lunch we went insulator hunting around the pools at the Dunes but it had already been picked over so we (mostly Bill) looked at the scenery so as not to make the expedition a total loss. (Honest, Becky....Bill made me do it!) Most of the specimens we saw were common, but had some outstanding tan glazes!!! 

As we continued I kept telling Bill that it would get cooler as soon as we left Nevada... this would be the first of several lies I would tell Bill on the journey (unintentionally, of course!) It was over 100 degrees all day! 

That evening we visited and stayed with Ed and Dorothy Lowe who retired from southern California to the beautiful St. George desert. After enjoying their collection and company, Mike tried to talk Ed out of his M-3490 lily shell porcelain sitting in a hole in his brick fence. He wouldn't sell but he was coerced out of the piece with a trade for a CD 110.5 National corkscrew. Ed mentioned that he thought he knew where more of the scarce multi's could be found so a contact was made for us to drive to central Utah Sunday morning to see about the pieces. On Sunday we met the man with the multi's and began to look around his huge accumulation of "stuff'. We found many pieces in flower beds, under eaves, and even three buried in the bottom of an old chest freezer. 

After all of the hunting, thirteen of the beauties were recovered. Their background is that they come from an old silver mine, the "Frisco", which was in production around the turn of the century. It was quite a trick loading these fragile large pieces in the trailer, especially since no boxes were available. After loading the "boat anchors" we were off again toward our first prearranged appointment in Colorado.

Late Sunday evening we arrived at the home of Ron and Mildred Crane in Buena Vista. It was an interesting and picturesque trip including a number of switch backs along a very deep canyon next to Tennessee Pass (alt. 10,000 feet plus). Ron is a charter member of the NIA and collected both glass and porcelain. We spent the next day appraising Ron's collection and subsequently buying it. There were some really spectacular porcelain pieces including a Pierce U-187, ink marked U-184 Harloe, U-183 Ranson Patent, U-197 Macomb transposition, etc., etc. The entire trip was already a success with these wonderful acquisitions for my porcelain collection but it was only the third day away from home! Bill commented on how full the trailer was getting, but I assured him we had "plenty of room left" for our other appointments. 

Tuesday morning we bid farewell to our new friends and said good- bye to the fabulous view from the Crane's beautiful home. We stopped at several rustic looking antique stores that morning and afternoon hoping for a rare find. At the first stop I knew Bill would need to use the restroom first, he being a coffee drinker. So I ignored the call of nature myself and told Bill to go first. As he entered the restroom, I walked to the back door of the store and immediately spotted several older porcelain multiparts including a dated Pittsburgh piece. When Bill came outside and saw my discovery he immediately claimed "FOUL!" thinking I had seen the pieces through the window and set him up by encouraging him to go potty. Even though I pleaded with him to believe me, I don't think he did and he never went to the bathroom again... well, at least not until we checked out the stores first!! 

We made it to Dodge City, Kansas, that afternoon where a July 4th celebration was in progress. We spotted an antique store near our motel so we did some window shopping. Bill quickly spotted a CD 128.4 Hemingray "big mouth". Thinking we could get a good deal on it we waited until the next day for the store to open only to find a price tag of $35.00 on the piece. As it turns out, the proprietors at one time had several hundred specimens which had been used on a experimental telephone line near Dodge City many years ago. 

The next day was spent visiting with a collector in western Kansas and traveling through to Nebraska outside of Omaha. Driving at night Bill got his first glimpse of fireflies which are not found in the far West. Driving without lights (there was no other traffic, honest!) was quite interesting with thousands of the critters lighting up the roadside. We passed on several motels because they were too expensive for what they offered. We settled on a place called the Rock Motel and thought it was a great deal for only $22.00! That was until the following morning when we found that the shower didn't drain! That same morning we found that one of our beloved multi-parts from Utah had been smashed in the crush of the trailer. 

It was clear that something had to be done so we called upon Paul Ickes of Council Bluffs, Iowa, to loan us some tools and his garage to improve the storage setup in the trailer. Paul opened his home to us and helped up pick up some lumber which was quickly fashioned into a second deck inside the trailer. Being able to "two-tier" the inside made all the difference in the world. After doing some looking, trading and talking we set off to visit an- other well known Iowa collector. 

On arrival we couldn't help but notice about 200 cats (well, maybe 50 hanging around the shade (it was still warm and we were far from Nevada where I said it would start getting cooler.)) After enjoying his great collection, the collector gave us a tour of his farm. Bill had many questions having grown up on a farm himself. He asked if there were ever any tornadoes in this area to which the collector/farmer replied in a deep voice, "Aw, yeah...last one really tore ____ outa us." 

After the tour he said he wanted to give us a present before leaving. He proceeded to walk to a clump of weeds nearby and up- rooted a six foot plant which he gave us asking only that we leave about one foot hanging out of the back of the truck. I suppose that leaving one foot of marijuana protruding from the back of the pick-up would be just about enough to get arrested! It seems that a very low grade of the weed grows wild in many portions of the midwest and is virtually everywhere to the point of being an extreme nuisance to the farmers. I declined the offer of the gift, not being a consumer of the stuff, and thinking back to the dozens of people I arrested for possession in 16 years of Law Enforcement! Minus the "gift" we were on our way towards De Moines where we stopped for the night. 

The next day was straight driving to Indianapolis where we got so confused with the time zone changes that we still don't know what time it is in Indiana. Saturday we drove to the famous town of Goshen, Ohio, which was home to the fabulous collection of Jerry and Marilyn Turner. Jerry had many wonderful opportunities to dig in the dumps of glass and porcelain manufacturers finding many unusual and unique items. Jerry also had many "boat anchors" he offered us but unfortunately we had no extra room in either the truck or trailer due to our purchases to this point. Jerry has many neat items for those of you who find yourself in the neighborhood. 

The next day we learned just how much weight a Toyota pickup can't stop on a steep grade. In western Pennsylvania we took a small two lane highway on our way to appraise a porcelain collection. On the way we encountered a 9% downgrade for about five miles. At about 45 mph and 4 miles into the grade the brakes faded and it was freewheeling the rest of the way. It was needless to say, a valuable lesson! Bill decided to leave me a gift from the experience so I now have his fingernail prints eternally imbedded in my dash board from his famous "I think I'm going to die" death grip. From that point on, any grade of 5% or steeper was taken in second gear at a maximum of 30mph!! 

After looking at the collection (a deal was made later for its purchase) we headed for Claude Wambold's home about 45 minutes from the show site in Allentown. Claude graciously permitted us to leave the trailer and half of the contents of the truck at his home while we traveled through New York looking at two other collections for sale. 

Our first stop in New York was at the home of Dick and Ev Bowman. Dick's collection is most spectacular. While there we purchased a large number (about 14 boxes) of neat porcelains which Dick had gathered in his travels. Dick also allowed us the privilege of looking at five embossed Fisher (CD 265) insulators he had the great fortune of acquiring. This was certainly a rare opportunity in view of the fact that, at the time, they were probably the only known embossed specimens outside of a singe piece owned years ago by Gerald and Esta Brown. Dick and Ev are great hosts and our visit was most enjoyable even if Dick tried to see how well barbequed chicken burns!! (Just kidding, Dick!)

Bill and Mike find FIVE embossed 
Fishers in upstate New York basement.

From the Bowmans we headed to the New York/New Jersey border to Doug Williams' home where we were to look at yet another porcelain collection. When we got to Doug and Donna's store we bought lunch and talked about the afternoon. Doug had previously indicated that he was going to be tied up after 4:00p.m. When asked what plans he had for the evening Doug casually mentioned that he was getting married to Donna that evening. After choking on my sandwich, I felt terrible for imposing on that special day. Doug, being the diehard collector that he is, said he would rather spend the afternoon talking insulators that hanging around waiting for the big evening so we hurried to his dad's house to see what he had for sale. 

Well, we went down to look and couldn't begin to handle the huge volume of neat porcelains he had available. We had to leave behind lots of multiparts, neat suspensions and other goodies due to absolute space problems. In fact, we couldn't get but six of the ten huge boxes we purchased in the truck. Doug made arrangements to bring the remaining four boxes to the show the next day. So, after interrupting his afternoon, we were off again. 

It was now Tuesday afternoon the week of the show and we had a decision to make. The decision was where to put all the stuff. We decided to head for Allentown to get a room and start work on sorting out the new treasures which were going to go home from the duplicates when would be sold or traded. This proved to be a good move. We unloaded twenty large, full boxes of porcelain goodies into our room and then drove to Claude's to pick-up our trailer and the other half of the truck contents. 

When we got back to the room we had so much more stuff that we started with it was alarming to consider how we were going to get it all home and we hadn't even received the Pennsylvania collection which would not arrive until Saturday and consisted of about 20 more boxes!! Of greater concern to Bill was whether or not he was going to have a bed to sleep in. He asked me if he was still sleeping inside the room well, Mike....am I? Mike Mike?!?" Well, Bill did sleep inside but the maids could not get to the beds to make them up!

Bill and Mike in front of motel room holding 'boat anchors".

A tick in the tub...a multipart M-3900... insulators like baths too!

Open House (er... motel room) at 
Allentown. "Take some insulators ------- please!"

The next five days were awesome! We sold, traded, and gave away the equivalent of thirty boxes of insulators. For a while on Thursday we had sixteen people in our motel room along with about forty boxes of insulators. It was a great "room sale" and many neat items found new homes before the start of the show. After a great time at the show we had the incredible task of loading the truck and trailer. Starting out we thought we had it made but by the time the last box was loaded we had room for about two more boxes and that was all!!

We had tentatively decided to make a straight line home across Interstate-80 (especially in view of the fact that we barely had time to cover the ground before we had to return to work. At dinner Sunday night, however, we received an offer from Larry and Mary Beth Veneziano to stop by their home in West Chicago, Illinois, to look at some more porcelain. We stopped there Tuesday and bought about 10 more boxes of porcelains which required unloading and repacking much of the trailer to accommodate and even then we had to ship one box home. 

While at the Veneziano's, Larry showed us a spectacular mold used to manufacture the largest of the porcelain "Cutter" insulators. Contrary to the photo, Cutters were not being made in the basement! After picking up about 400 more pounds of stuff, we were loaded as full as possible and headed due west for home.

The "Humongous Buying Expedition" was precisely that....humongous! I am only sorry we could not stop by all the collectors who graciously offered us the opportunity. In hindsight we were smart not to try to overindulge as we would have had major problems had we done so. Besides, there would be nothing left for next time if we got it all on this trip!

Mike and Bill uncover porcelain Cutter mold and 
insulators in basement of a famous West Chicago collector.

On arrival home (it was over 100 degrees hot that day!) we decided to weigh our cargo. Keeping in mind my faithful and indestructible Toyota pickup (with reinforced suspension, of course, was our transportation, we had a total of 2,400 pounds of cargo in the truck, 2,000 pounds in the trailer on top of the 600 pounds the trailer weighed! We actually had 5,000 pounds of insulators and other cargo aboard this rig and despite the weight still managed nearly 23 miles per gallon for the whole trip of over 7,500miles! My Toyota...... 92,349 miles and I LOVE IT!

For those who have never had the opportunity to drive cross country to a National show, I encourage you to find a good friend and try it....you'll like it. This year we only have a two day drive to Portland, Oregon, but in 1991 look for "Humongous Buying Expedition No.2".

Bill and Mike with Lima and New Lexington 
multi-part insulators. "Yes, Martha....that trailer is full!!"