Epic Space Duel Roadtrip: Boston to Myrtle Beach & Back

Waterborn

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Epic Space Duel Roadtrip: Boston to Myrtle Beach & Back

Part I (since my initial post was too long)
Earlier this month, doctorquest, a fellow NEACF member, posted in our Trading Forums that he was looking to trade his Space Duel Upright for a cocktail version of the game. Having always been a huge fan of the game, I followed the thread with interest even though I had no access to a cocktail version.

A few days later, Wickedbass copied a Craigslist post for a Space Duel cocktail in Myrtle Beach (http://myrtlebeach.craigslist.org/for/3488559993.html). Having a brother who lives in Myrtle Beach, I replied to let doctorquest know that I had someone on the other end who could check out the game first hand, verify if there were any issues not listed in the CL post and hold the game for him while he figured out shipping if necessary.

A few days later, I received some bad news on the family front, my great uncle (RIP Janis) died at the age of 99. The fact that Janis lived to be 99 is amazing in itself. However, the really odd/cool/serendipitous thing was that he was born and died on the same date (Jan 14th, 1914 - 2013). Some members of my family were gathering in NC to for a memorial to Janis. I unfortunately had to work on the day of the memorial (Friday, January 18th). However, I did have Sat - Tues off from work due to the holiday and my schedule later the following week.

Since my own father is 82, I began to think about heading down to South Carolina to see my parents and reconnect with my brother, niece & nephew, who live in Myrtle Beach. Knowing that doctorquest was still thinking about the SD cocktail, I let him know of my plans and offered to pick up the game and bring it back to New England for him. doctorquest contacted the seller, agreed on a price & made arrangements for me to meet up with him to pick up the game on Sunday. Money was sent to me via paypal to pay for the game and I began preparing for the epic 18 hour drive from Woburn, MA (just north of Boston) to Myrtle Beach, SC.

I loaded up my Subi Baja, strapped my GoPro camera to the dash and set out for Myrtle Beach before sunrise.

http://youtu.be/sqMEaQTzUsw

Since it was a Saturday, traffic was pretty light for most of the trip and tried to stay on point, only stopping to gas up and get coffee or snacks along the way.

http://youtu.be/6qZXiFSvLn4

You never know what you will see on the road. As I was driving through CT I came across this trailer, painted with what appeared to be a troll face. There was no other markings on the side of the trailer, so I have no idea what was inside, and I am not sure that I want to know.

StrangeTruck.jpg

Scary Truck

http://youtu.be/k-42Hmn3O7g

If you have ever driven on the New Jersey turnpike, you know that state law there requires gas stations (at least on the turnpike) to have attendants pump your gas for you. You are not allowed to pump your own fuel. This will become VERY important during the second half of my ride south, as you will soon see. After passing through NYC and across the GWB Bridge, I stopped at the first rest stop on the turnpike in NJ to fuel up and grab some coffee. As the gas attendant handed me my receipt and credit card, he tore a small piece of paper from the bottom of the credit receipt. Though this action caught my eye, I checked the total on the receipt ($45) and thought nothing more of it. Back onto the road I went.

At one point, I believe in Delaware, I pulled into a rest stop to grab some caffeine and noticed that they had an "arcade", so I quickly slipped past the Starbucks stand to check out what games they might have. Sad to say, this "arcade" was a pathetic shadow of what I would have seen at any hotel, rest stop or mall back in the 80's when I was a kid. It had a crane machine, a gun game and a driver and that was pretty much it. No classics, no pins, not even a Ms Pac/Galaga Anniversary combo.

RestStoparcade.jpg

Sad Rest Stop "Arcade"

I get into Virginia and through DC and find it's time for another stop to gas & caffeine up. I pull up to the pump and swipe my card - REJECTED. Odd, as I have used this card twice so far since the start of the trip to gas up again. I try to re-swipe the card and get the same result. I called up the auto-account phone number on the card to check the balance (which was fully paid off in advance of this trip) and the electronic voice on the other end of the line says that I have exceeded my balance AND my card has been flagged. The flagging part I have run into before when traveling long distance (the credit card company places a hold on the card to ensure it was not stolen when excessive or odd charges pop up) however, the over limit issue is simply not right. So I call the fraud hotline and get to speak with a real human. The lady on the line informs me that my card was charged $450 at the rest stop in NJ (NOT the $45 as indicated on the credit receipt that was handed to me). I explain to the person on the phone that I am traveling and that I did not put a $450 charge on my card. She tells me that they will freeze the card (lot of good that did me, card was maxed out AND I couldn't use it on this trip), but that I will not be able to rectify the situation until Tuesday due to the fact that it is a holiday weekend & the fraud department won't be back until after MLK Day.

Lucky for me, I had withdrawn some road cash the night before and was able to gas up with that. I figured that I could get more money when I got to Myrtle Beach, resigned myself to not having my credit card for the rest of the trip and headed back onto the road, still having close to 8 hours of driving in front of me.

I arrive in Myrtle Beach around midnight, and proceed to get lost trying to take a new connector road which had been built since my last visit to the area. After placing a few calls to my brother's house and making a few wrong turns, I pull up to his residence, exhausted and ready to get the hell out of my car. My nephew and niece were still up, so I spent the next 45 minutes or so doing the "cool uncle" thing, hanging out with them, playing video games on their Wii. By the time I crashed, it was nearly 1am.
 
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Part II
The next morning (Sunday) I had made plans to pick up the cocktail game from the seller at his shop located in a flea market in North Myrtle Beach, about 20 miles from where my brother lived. I placed a call to the seller to confirm and left a message on his voicemail for him to give me a call, then headed out to Starbucks to snag some coffee and meet up with an old friend of mine (Robbie) who has lived in Myrtle Beach his whole life. I had not seen Robbie for close to eight years, so we had a ton of catching up to do. After chatting with him for nearly two hours, I realized I had yet to hear from the seller. My Craigslist Warning System started to go off and I figured the seller was going to flake out on the deal, so I call him again and left a second message, letting him know that I had family commitments later in the day and that I needed to get the exchange done before noon. I decided to head north as I had a fairly good idea where this flea market was and would hope for the best. I placed a call to doctorquest to let him know what was up.

About halfway to the flea market, I received a call from the seller. He said he decided not to go into his shop today and asked if I could meet him at his home. More alarms went off. Living in the land of the Craigslist Killer (near Boston) I tend to be rather cautious when people that I am meeting from Craigslist change up the plans at the last minute. So I had the seller text me his address (which turned out to be at the dead end of a long dirt road - more red flags) and I sent this address to my wife, brother, doctorquest and my boy Robbie, each with instructions to call the police if they did not hear from me within a prescribed amount of time. Overkill? Perhaps, but I wasn't taking any chances.

Here is a video of my arrival at the seller's home taken with the GoPro on the dash of my car. I figured, if nothing else, perhaps the police would be able to identify my killer by the video, if it was ever found. If you listen closely, you can hear the conversation that I have with my wife about where I was headed and what to do if she did not hear back from me within the hour.

http://youtu.be/pVsYACBlngY

As it turned out, the seller was legit and a very nice guy to boot. He showed me the cocktail Space Duel game and let me test it out.

SpaceDuelinsitu.jpg

Space Duel Cocktail Acquired

The game appeared to be in good working order, so I called up doctorquest, confirmed that he was good with the deal and paid the seller the money that doc had sent me. The seller helped me load the game up and showed me some of the sweet vintage trucks that he collected and restored. He also had a rather cute stray dog that he tried to get me to take home. I almost did, but decided against it as my wife and I have talked frequently about getting a second dog, but have agreed to wait. Bringing home a game AND a new puppy would be too much for her.

gamepup.jpg

Here is the pooch that wanted to go with the Space Duel. Must be an arcade fan.

With the game loaded up, I headed back south to meet up with my family for lunch. My parents were traveling up from Hilton head to spend the next two days with us before I had to head back to Boston. Breakfast was going wonderfully, I was catching up with my family and joking with the kids, when I got a text from my wife "call me ASAP". I got up from the table and went outside to call her back. When I got her on the line, she told me that our dog Jackson was exhibiting signs of internal bleeding and that she thought it might due to some dog food (Natural Balance Lamb & Rice for Large Breeds) that we had purchased earlier in the week. The food did not look like it usually does, so she had taken it back to the store (Petco) where we got it to ask if there were any known issues with the food. They told her not to worry and come back the following Friday to speak with the NB rep. This was late on the previous Friday, so the dog had eaten the food 4 or 5 times. I told my wife to take the dog to the emergency vet (It was once again Sunday, our normal vet was not open) and that I would contact both Petco and Natural Balance about the food. So as she took the dog to the vet, I posted several messages to both companies via Twitter about the situation and requested an immediate reply. Within 15 minutes, a rep from Petco had contacted me back and asked for my direct contact information. After explaining the situation with the Petco rep, I was told that someone from NB would call me about the potentially contaminated food and that I should call them back as soon as we got an update about Jackson. A few hours later, my wife called back with some good news. Jackson was on medication and would be ok according to the vet. He sent her home with some medicine for Jackson and instructions to feed him boiled chicken & rice for the next five days. Crisis averted.

Later in the week, the folks from our local Petco store called me and said that they would refund the cost of the food and pay for our vet bills. I was asked to send out a sample of the food to Natural Balance for analysis, which I did. I was impressed with the responsiveness of both companies, though we may put Jackson on a homemade dogfood diet from now on to be safe. We have no children, so he is like our kid. He means the world to us both.
 
Part III
Back to the video game roadtrip - After spending two great days hanging out with my family, it was time for me to load up the Space Duel and get on the road for the 18 hour trip home. So I hopped back into the Baja and headed out once again before the crack of dawn. I knew that I wanted to check out South of the Border on the way home, so I took a different route that would take me right by this iconic landmark.

swamp.jpg

Roadside Swamp

On my way to the SC/NC border, I came across this roadside swamp and just had to stop. The swamp was created by an old mill that used to drive a wheel to grind grain. There was a historical plaque with some info about the spot and its history. I love stumbling on cultural landmarks like this while on roadtrips. It helps to break up the monotony of the road. So I snapped the picture above and then jumped back into the car. Next Stop: South of the Border.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24w1R4zkm3U&feature=share&list=UUneRJHxfEDHrO2WbKX8w1sQ

Now if you have never been to South of the Border (which in actuality is just north of the NC/SC border, go figure) it is a Mexican themed rest stop from hell, complete with Sombrero water tower, multiple motels and restaurants that cater to trapped tourists and of course fireworks and gift stores by the dozens. They also have Pedro's Arcade.

PedrosArcade.jpg

Exterior of Pedro's Arcade

Sadly, Pedro's arcade, which was closed when I drove up at 8am, is much like any other modern "arcade", filled with ticket redemption games, cranes and not much else. I did see a Galaga/Ms Pac-man Anniversary game in one dark corner, but not much else of interest to those of us with a fondness for the classics.

Pedrosgames.jpg

Inside Pedro's Arcade

During my drive back to Boston, I did take one more short break at a rest stop in Delaware to meet up with my good friend Dave. I have known Dave, who was one of my groomsmen at our wedding, for over ten years and it's always good to see the guy. He currently works in the shipping industry in Baltimore, so I had call ahead to see if he was available for a quick dinner as I passed through.

DaveTAco.jpg

Taco Dave

After a quick meal of Tacos from the Baja Fresh at the rest stop (My advice, order your tacos WITHOUT SALSA. You will thank me) I got back into the Baja and drove clear until almost midnight once again before finally arriving at my home, having traveled just over 2,000 miles in just four days (really two days, but who's counting?).

mileage.jpg

2,036 Miles Later - HOME

Since Brian aka doctorquest was himself traveling, the Space Duel had to stay in our living room for a few days until his return. Above is a picture of our Rottie Jackson recovering from his ordeal and wondering just what this new "table" was doing where his food dish usually resided.

JacksonGameon.jpg

Jackson checks out the new Space Duel cocktail game
 
Part IV
Doctorquest came by earlier today to pick up his game (and drop off his upright Space Duel for me!). Since no keys came with the game, I helped doc drill out the locks and we got our first look inside the cocktail, which appeared to be as nice on the interior as it did on the outside.

insidespaceduel.jpg

Inside Space Duel

Before we could load up doc's new game, we had to get my new upright into the basement, which is always a challenge as I have no bulkhead and have to hump everything down a flight of stairs. Despite one trip and the need to catch the game on top of my chest, Space Duel safely made it's way into Waterborn's Arcade and is officially my very first vector game owned.

IntheArcade.jpg

Space Duel Upright in Waterborn's Arcade

After we got the upright into the basement, we loaded doc's game into his van - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

ByeBye.jpg

Cocktail game is loaded up in doctorquest's van

Of all the arcade related road trips that I have been on, this had to be the most epic I have personally been on. With over 2,000 miles traveled, all the ancillary drama with my family and dog and the questionable validity of the seller on the morning of the pick-up, this was definitely one for the books.

TheBeach.jpg

Sunrise, Surfside Pier, SC
 
God what a great arcade Surfside Pier used to have, plus the little arcade towards the street where I think a realtor office is now. Used to eat breakfast at Nibil's and go across to the arcade, what good days those were.
 
Sounds like a great trip, other than the scare of your dogs health. Road trips are usually fantastic in this hobby and you got to combine it with family!
 
So what happened with your credit card ?

This sounds like a scam I've never heard of before....

---

Just curious...


Steph
 
Dane, as I said at NEACF, YOU ARE SO AWESOME for doing this for another collector! YOU ROCK! Just so much awesome here.
 
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