Stop 1: Continental Bar & Grill, Arlington, VA - The tour started modestly with a visit to the bar near my work. World Poker Tour was gone and Spider-man was in, so I played a few games of that.
Stop 2: Game Time, Cockeysville, MD - This used to be a pool place where Mike and his 24 sons fixed games. I had been there to play pinball a few times, but it never seemed to be formally set up for pinball playing. Now it's basically a pinball store where you can play the games for an hourly fee. There was a pretty good selection of games, mostly from the late 80's on. I played Apollo 13 until I got the damn 13 ball multiball. I also got a chance to play Wheel of Fortune, which I figured would relieve the pressure to play it at later stops on the tour. Overall I was surprised that the games weren't all in amazing condition... I would say they were in decent pinball show condition, but not retail sale condition. Anyway, I had fun.
Stop 3: The Pinball Hall of Fame, Las Vegas, NV - I had to go on a business trip to San Diego at the end of last month, and when I found that I could fly into Las Vegas, drive to San Diego, then fly home from there cheaper than a round trip to SD, I was there. I took an early flight out and arrived in LV around noon. It took an hour or two to get my rental car and find the Hall of Fame, and I stayed for the next 8 hours or so. What can I say? It's awesome to have that many games in one spot. I played several games of the Pinball Circus, at right. After the initial shock of being there wore off, I started methodically working my way up and down the rows of games in a desperate attempt to play them all. Sadly, by the time I got the the last complete row I was about ready to fall over from exhaustion, so I started only playing the games that I hadn't played before or were really interesting. I managed to play about half of them, and if take into account the fact that a bunch weren't working, I'd say it's more like 75%. I supposed I should cut them some slack because they have 140+ games, but there were a few games that had some major problems... the Funhouse, which according to the sign had new more powerful flippers, actually had really weak flippers. I should have expected it, but Tim & Co love their crude and terrible puns (the sign describing Roger Sharpe's Sharpshooter labels it "Sharpe's Hooters"). And I did see The Hippie and I spoke briefly with Tim Arnold... I asked him how the search for the new building was coming along and we chatted about that. Overall, I had a good time and wished I could have stayed longer. I spent the night in a Motel 6 on Fremont Street and lost a few hours and about $35 gambling. I got up early the next morning, stocked up on Monster Energy Drinks and drove across the desert in a mad dash to get to San Diego Airport before 2 PM to avoid getting charged for a second day on the rental car. Here's the tragedy: I had my iPod, the car had an auxiliary jack, I had the cable to connect the two, BUT I obviously haven't ripped my copy of Wall of Voodoo's Call of the West album and didn't have the song "On Interstate 15", which I had been hoping to play while driving on Interstate 15. Bad luck there. I did pass by Calico Ghost Town, which my family would go to every few years on vacation when I was a kid. I had lunch at an In-n-Out Burger, for which I'd been feeling the In-n-Out Urge for my last several trips to California but had not had the opportunity to act on. And on the way to SD, I stopped in at:Stop 4: Round Table Pizza, Rancho Bernardo, CA - I got this place out the the Visual Pinball forum pinball listings. It was right off the 15, and though they didn't have T2 and ST:TNG, they did have an Addams Family in dirty but playable condition.
Stop 5: Poway Fun Bowl, Poway, CA - This was kind of a gamble, because it was a few miles from the 15 and my rental car was going to turn into a pumpkin soon. Contrary to the VP Forums, they did not have a Champion Pub or Theater of Magic, but they did have a Family Guy and Attack from Mars, and the game room had black lights in it which made the AFM all glowy and cool. I didn't play FG, since I had just played Shrek at the PHoF. I finished my inauspicious game, gassed up nearby, and pelted down the freeway to San Diego proper.
Super Incredible Surpise Stop 6: Loew's Coronado Bay Resort, San Diego, CA - This was my destination, where my company was having its user conference. I tried to check in but my room wouldn't be ready for another two hours. So I was wandering around the hotel in my grubby traveling clothes hoping that no clients would see me and I saw a sign that said "Game Room". And danged if they didn't have a World Cup Soccer, The Shadow, and Dracula, all in playable condition! They also had some driving/fighting/shooting games, but I was stunned at the 90's Williams goodness staring me in the face. Of course, I spent most of my conference downtime in the 
game room, and even coerced my coworker roommate to play a few games. We ended up playing a lot of The Shadow, because of the three it ended up being the funnest. After the fancy dress up party on the last night, I snuck in and spanked World Cup, posting the high score... mainly because a ball was stuck and the various quirks of the rule changes made the game ridiculously easy. By the time I finished I hated the game with a passion.Stop 7: My House, Derwood, MD - Of course, I have to count the fact that I played Doctor Who a few times. I had gotten a little annoyed the the H switch was in the non-working column, but the game apparently finally figured out the problem and modified the rules. Now when you get the W, the O starts flashing and it hitting it scores the full W-H-O value, including I am happy to say, the extra ball.
Final Stop: Pinball Wizards Convention, Allentown, PA - I'll write more in a later post on this... there was triumphantness, and there was harsh bogosity.
So, the Pinball World Tour was 8 stops, 5 states, and over a hundred games. My fingers are calloused, my wrists bleed, yet still I want more.
And finally, I had to post this most awesome eBay auction description. It reads like the opening salvo from Free Verse Arcade Poetry Slam Night. I have reduced the font size, but the shouting and singular lack of punctuation is 100% authentic. It did sell for about $600. The description is a thing of beauty.
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