Suhail, Yucif, and I drove down to Richmond for the regional North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN) conference in June. One of the trends we’re seeing lately is weekend events. This conference was held on a Saturday and the last plant tour I took was also on an off day. Probably has something to do with the economy.
Speaking of the economy, penny press prices are raising.
The machine at the Children’s Museum of Richmond costs 75c per coin. This machine at the Science Museum of Virginia, located inside the museum but within steps of the gift shop entrance, takes only dollar bills.
There were much debate over the raising cost of the hobby. Personally, I don’t mind it much. If all machines cost $1, that means my existing collection is also worth more. The part which I don’t care for is the preloaded pennies. It’s probably good business practice to load the machines with “bright new pennies”, as indicated, but I want my ECs pressed on copper. It takes a lot of effort to explain to other collectors that a certain design is “zinc only.”
I’m lucky to be traveling with friends who understand the craziness of this hobby. In addition to the museums, we also visited the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (machine found to be in the back room and broken) and Maymont Park (drove around for half an hour and couldn’t find the entrance to the Visitor Center). We even stopped at the Bass Pro Shops in Ashland on the way back.
New ECs from Bass Pro Shops Ashland, VA
My work schedule allowed me to take the Friday before Memorial weekend off, combined with Memorial Day was a pretty rare stretch of hours that could have been spent away from the office. Unfortunately, I had to work Friday and Monday anyway… so I thought about sticking around town, maybe visiting my sister on Saturday or Sunday.
In great contrast, my friend and colleague, Suhail planned to take full advantage of the holiday. Speaking to him on Thursday, he was going to Kings Dominion, Six Flags, Ocean City, and Long Island, all in the same weekend. I excitedly handed him a list of penny locations at Six Flags Great Adventure, along with a box of clean copper pennies and $30. He came back with 3 coins out of the 20 or so 3-die machines at the park… Oh well, boys will be boys.
New ECs from Six Flags Great American Jackson, NJ (thanks Suhail!)
Suhail invited me and a few friends to Ocean City.
I’m not a beachcomber. I wither when temperature is above 73F, hate sea water in my hair, and require two types of sunblock just to step outdoors (100+ SPF on my face and neck and 5 SPF everywhere else). But those two days were so much fun.
May 30th was the Ocean City Power Boat Race. We strolled along the boardwalk until the water was cleared, then took turns dipping and tanning at the beach. Seafood was a must for every meal; I ate enough lobster to last me through the century. Suhail then suggested parasailing for the next morning.
That was the highlight of the trip. We went up to 800ft (for $60 per person, which was a steal.) The view was incredible, it felt like we were in a whole other atmosphere. Of course, right after a certain height, I started wondering why I didn’t bother testing the harness or asking our guides for certification and years of experience. That feeling was mutually shared by all our shipmates once they were airborne.
We got around to a few machines, but I’ll definitely have to come back for a complete set. One of the barista mentioned a machine in the arcade that wasn’t listed in PennyCollector. However, we were illegally parked by a hotel and I couldn’t stay long enough to hunt for the alleged penny.
New EC from Sportland Arcade Ocean City, MD
(Remaining scans to come…)
A few trades to be tagged along in this post:
New EC from Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, TX (traded with Robert)
New ECs from Mazama Campground Store Crater Lake, OR (traded with Mia)
I was offered an opportunity to tour Three Mile Island Unit 2 after working in the nuclear industry for close to 10 years. It’s one of those things which I can speak intelligently about it (”yeah, a PORV stuck open”) but I never thought I would be able to visit the site in person.
From left to right: me, Gail, and Dana, at the TMI-2 Control Room
Although the site is located near Middletown, PA, it was close enough to Harrisburg for me to collect all the local ECs.
New ECs from Bass Pro Shops Harrisburg, PA
New ECs from PA Turnpike - Highspire Service Plaza Harrisburg, PA
New ECs from Whitaker Center of Science and the Arts Harrisburg, PA
The last of my coins from the Savannah trip was scanned and cataloged today. I wonder why, with four or five machine locations on River Street, I only visited two shops.
Here’s a picture of the Waving Girl statue:
And the coin that accompanies the scene. Perfect depiction:
New ECs from Basket Bears & T’s Oh My Savannah, GA
Wow, has it really been so long since my last post? Shortly after the October post, I fell into deep depression over the state of my apartment. Note to all serious collectors: Do not move into a basement apartment with slow Internet connection, it’s detrimental to your hobby, among other things.
I just moved out and had my first house warming party, so I figure I should celebrate on getting a grip on the mess I left behind.
Special thanks to all those who visited my site during my long absence. Special special thanks to Jennifer and Adam, who’ve been sending me coins continuously.
What Happened in Savannah
I did end up going to Savannah, but didn’t exactly return with 32 pennies. Some of the designs were not working, plus I don’t remember where I packed all my coins. They’ll turn up eventually.
New ECs from Dockside Seafood Restaurant Savannah, GA
I’ve been pinning to go for over a year now. One of our company’s clients is close to Savannah and that was said to be a worthy trip, with good food and night life to look forward to after work. I also really wanted to go after reading “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” It’s such a romantic book and I definitely want to see Mercer House when I finally go.
I’m flying out of DC on Sunday morning, spending the day in the city, attend a meeting on Monday, then turn around and hop back on the plane again. For the day I’m in Savannah, I’m hoping to visit a few places:
Dockside Seafood Restaurant 201 W River St
River Street Sweets 13 E River St
True Grits Gift & Cards 107 E River St
Basket Bears & T’s Oh My 305 E River St
Bass Pro Shop 14045 Abercorn St
Aside from the Bass Pro Shop, everything is within half a mile.
The meeting on Monday will also take me close to Pooler, GA, where I hope to visit the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. Finally, I’m driving to Albany, GA on Monday night. I might have a minute to go to the Flint RiverQuarium before driving again to the final destination in Dothan, AL.
It’ll be a long trip. But if all goes well, I’ll be looking at 32 new coins when I get back 
Over Labor Day weekend, Andy and I visited the local Potawatomi Zoo. A few years ago, the old machine was replaced with brand new penny designs. Being so close from home, I never planned to visit to get the new coins. It was because there was a few minutes of spare time, and the Asian grocery store I shop was near by, that we went to crank out the new pennies this time.
But the Potawatomi Zoo is worth visiting if you were in the area. I can’t say it’s very different from all the other zoos across the country, but it has its own charm. Ride the Zoo Train, it’s my favorite.
New ECs from Potawatomi Zoo South Bend, IN
Jennifer sent me an email one weekend, saying that she was at Ithaca with Adam. At first I thought Adam was socializing with the good peers at Cornell, after all Ph.D. students meet and toss around dissertation ideas, right? But she explained that, instead of visiting the Hampton, like the rest of the Manhattan crowds, the two of them opted to go hiking around Ithaca’s gorges instead.
The last time I was in the area was 1998. I was accepted to Cornell’s summer college program, made some friends in similar predicament, and a group of us walked by a local waterfall to satisfy the urging of our eager parents, all of whom spent thousands of dollars for us to attend the program and wanted to live vicariously through every dollar.
There’s me! A decade younger and not at all enjoying the beautiful surroundings.
Jennifer and Adam seemed to have a good time. Both of them are much more athletic than I was and they did drive 5 hours for the view. They visited Taughannock Falls, which is slightly higher than the American side of the Niagara Falls. From the pictures they took, it was a good trip.
What I can’t figure out is, how did they end up in Watkins Glen?
Almost an hour drive, directly west of Ithaca, is Watkins Glen. The town is supposed to be scenic, being at the tip of Fingers Lake. But Watkins Glen is most well known for auto racing, something that neither my family nor Adam’s (as far as I can tell) is interested in.
As it turned out, the shop where they rolled the pennies was in Schuyler, directly outside of the park’s entrance. Penny designs can be deceiving.
New ECs from Watkins Glen Schuyler, NY
During my week long business trip, I drove down to Panama City Beach to press some pennies. Two hours each way, which made this quite a detour.
Most of these locations are tourist traps, with the exception of Angelo’s Steak Pit, which looked like a nice restaurant. But if you look closely, most of their coins have a misspell “PAMAMA” instead of “PANAMA”.
New ECs from Alvin’s Island Panama City Beach, FL
New ECs from Angelo’s Steak Pit Panama City Beach, FL
New ECs from Shell Port Panama City Beach, FL
New ECs from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Panama City Beach, FL
New EC from Zoo World Panama City Beach, FL
Jason accompanied me to the Human-Computer Interaction International 2009 conference in San Diego. We were able to visit many San Diego locations during conference breaks and pressed a total of 59 coins! Some are redundant though, since it’s difficult to keep track of which San Diego Zoo coins I possess already.
Made some changes to the Old Town store names and added new coins to the trade list.
Moved location at Inka’s Art San Diego, CA
New ECs from Old Town Alley Shop San Diego, CA
New EC from Cafe Coyote San Diego, CA
New ECs from Old Town Market San Diego, CA
Remaining San Diego Zoo coins to come…
