Madison Coin Club - "What a Day!"

by RuthAnn Phillips LM #98

On August 20th, at 8:00 a.m., eleven members of the Madison Coin Club boarded a stretchy limo and headed to Chicago for the ANA convention. It was raining heavily, coming down non-stop. We entered the limo wet and cold, just to find out that the air conditioner was blowing cold air at full capacity. (Cold and wet doesn’t work well together). The rain kept coming down and was joined by an awesome lightening show all the way to Chicago.

We arrived at the show around 11:00 a.m. and after we agreed to meet at 5:00 p.m., everyone took off in different directions. I loved the exhibits, which were really outstanding. I saw friends I haven’t seen in years and was enjoying myself visiting with them, walking and talking which was quite a chore when your feet were hurting.

Although we had agreed to meet at 5:00 p.m., we were all happy to see each other at 4:00 p.m.... pleased, but tired. We called our driver and left the show at 4:32 p.m.

Heading back, we had planned to stop at the Belvedere Oasis, but before arriving at the Oasis, we heard a “thump” and thought we had run over something. We checked the damage when we arrived at the Oasis and discovered that we lost rubber on one of the back tires and that the impact also broke one of the tail lights. While the driver was calling his boss to figure out what to do, we grabbed a bite to eat, which was a good thing.

The remedy for our current woe was to travel the back roads to our home base in Milton. We stopped for beer, and on the way back almost hit a deer. When we finally arrived at Milton, we decided to take the bus home... but guess what? The battery was dead. We boarded the limo just to find out the air conditioner wasn’t working so we exited the limo and waited for another limo to come. The limo that came was from a wedding and it was a mess.

We finally arrived in Madison about 8:15 p.m. Everyone was tired, but ready to go again!