ERIE TOUR

So we left for Erie, PA at 8:00 AM. We rolled into town at about 11:00. We visited The Erie Book Store at 137 E. 13th Street in Erie. This store was great. The staff were very friendly and gave us a short, interesting tour of the store which included a background of the building. We also were happy to see that the store was being watched over by a fat, happy cat. (We never caught his name, but he was more than happy to let us pet him awhile.) If you get a chance to visit this book store, do so. It's a must.

Anyway, from there we drove over to visit Pheonix Games which used to be called Ground Zero Games. They are listed on the Privateer Press website, and I figured I would scout out the store to see if they had any Pressganger support or not. I figured if they already had regular events, it would be cool to link up with them and get involved. If not, I'd offer to run a demo or a tournament. Either way, I wanted to take some pictures of the store and talk to the staff so I could promote the store on the forums. But when I got there ... all I found was AN EMPTY STORE!

Megan and I went next door to the diner, and ate lunch. I asked about Pheonix Games and they said that the store shut down about 4 weeks ago. They said that the police had been in a few times asking questions about the store too. Sounds fishy to me. 'Nuff said.

Next we visited Hobby Universe located at 4427 West 26th Street in Erie. Megan and I checked the place out. The store was rather large, but seemed to be low on stock. Megan was impressed by the cool kites. She said they reminded her of the Kite Loft in Ocean City, MD. I picked up a pack of Field Grass from Sweetwater Scenery Products (on sale!) I talked to the gentleman at the register for a short time, and he told me that he's heard of WARMACHINE and had been thinking about ordering some of the miniatures for the store. I gave him some information about how to get into contact with Privateer Press (as well as me) and told him that I'd ask Privateer Press Staff to contact him. Maybe we'l have another store in the Erie area carrying WARMACHINE soon!

Then we went to Gateway Games. I talked for awhile with the owner, Tim Davis. He seems like he's a great guy and he's interested in supporting the WARMACHINE hobby. I told him that I'd start promoting for the store, and see what I can do about getting him Press Gang support. I told him if nothing else, I'd come out and do some demos and a tournament in the future.

Afterwards, we went to Presque Isle State Park. We wandered around for awhile and enjoyed being back by the water. When we had enough sand in our shoes, we headed out to the Millcreek Mall.

We visited A.C. Moore and Michaels Craft Store.

Afterwards, we ate at Outback Steakhouse.

All in all, we had a pretty good trip.