Tomorrow I fly out to San Jose, CA for my first work-related travel. Of course I’ve allocated some time for personal adventuring in the Valley of Silicon. CHM will be my first destination, but there were surely be many other sights to see and photos to upload. Stay tuned…

This probably won’t be the last time I use that headline. I got me one of these over the weekend. Unfortunately no power supply, and I’ll probably never seen one. They used the same dumb system the Atari 5200 did years afterwards, with the power integrated into the video cable. I did find a page with schematics to build your own, though.

I also got a boxed Mountain King for the 5200 at the same store. I used to play that on the C64 all the time.

Gas stop, Lebanon, IN. When I saw this sign I realized this is the same place I stopped last year. There’s a phone under the sign where you can call the Bondsman and he’ll arrive in 15 minutes.

…or maybe not, but I'm heading home. Got a headache that won't quit and I think I found all I'm going to find in southwestern Ohio. Indianapolis radio is calling me Westward. DuPage county hamfest in a few weeks will pick up the slack. And there's always Maxwell Street market tomorrow morning.

Sunburn, hunger, not all that much good stuff at the ‘fest. I may just head home in the morning. But as of right now, Stargate is on.

Back at the hotel now, a little sunburned and some swollen feet, but holding up. Drove around looking for lunch but found nothing that struck me, so my hunger and desire to nap are locked in battle. I think the sleep will win out right now. If I don’t sleep too long I’ll wake up rested and hungry.

The ‘fest is a little disappointing, as last year. No incredible “find” yet to make it worth the travel and expense (which is supposed to be an end unto itself, I know.) Today brought a couple CoCo accessories (a modem and an expander cart,) a Western Electric 556a KSU (controller for old office phone system,) a pair of HP 94 industrial computers with no power supplies and a very old HP 8″ floppy drive (“Flexible Disk.”) The model # isn’t handy as it’s still out in the car, but it’s safe to assume I will never attach it to anything. But when has that stopped me from buying 31 year old hardware?

This C64 is for Unclassified data processing only.

We can see here an Imasi 8080, a Bell and Howell “Black Apple” //, a Heathkit H-8 and a Hero Jr. robot, all for way too much $.

This is what happens when you leave them in a room unattended.