January 1991: Comic Quest

THE GREAT COMIC BOOK QUEST

This is a trip report with a difference in that it recounts a trip by Dorothy and Toby to the U.S. based on their adventures as described to me upon their return. Note, I have interspersed their story with a few tales of my own of events in Alice Springs during their absence.

After an uneventful flight (first class) from Alice Springs to Sydney, and a 45-minute wait for the courtesy bus, Dorothy and Toby arrived at the hotel where they would spend the night. (If you can't make connections the same day, the airline pays for your overnight accommodation.) They were very impressed by the hotel - a first class resort hotel with two swimming pools (one heated, one inside), water slide in one, spa, sauna, gym, tennis court, and elaborately decorated restaurants (one which looked like a ship). The room was impressive as it consisted of three sections, and was equipped with two TV's, three phones, including one in the bathroom, and a veranda. As soon as they checked in, they caught a bus downtown to try and get to a comic shop before it closed. Thanks to the bus stopping at literally every stop (except the one at which they should have gotten off) the shop was closed. But, Toby found a couple of other places to buy comics (the purpose of -this entire trip was to purchase comics). After eating at McDonalds, they looked for the bus to return to the hotel only to find that particular bus was no longer running. They had to resort to another bus followed by a cab ride back to the hotel.

The next morning (Friday) Toby enjoyed the facilities at the hotel. Dorothy wondered how many "executives" worked out in the morning on the variety of treadmills so they could indulge themselves in the evening. Toby did find places in the area to purchase a few more comics and then risked life and limb crossing the street to please his mother who wanted some photos of the beach (the hotel was at a place called Brighton Beach, located on the famous Botany Bay (where Europeans first landed in Australia). Toby managed to re-cross the street in time to catch the bus to the airport. On the way across the Pacific, the plane flew over New Caledonia (it's not often you see land when flying over the Pacific).

After a flight of 12 1/2 hours, the plane landed in L.A. (It took an additional 11 hours for them to finally reach my friend Roy’s house in San Francisco due to problems which will be recounted.) The itinerary the travel agent had provided was wrong and Dorothy called me from Sydney to give me the correct flight number and arrival time in S.F. I called my friend and left a message which he got.
So far, so good, however, that flight was canceled due to bad weather on the east coast throwing arrival times out of wack on the west coast causing planes to stack up over S.F. Dorothy and Toby only found out after walking all the way from the United International terminal to the United Domestic terminal, where they were told they were now on an American flight, the terminal being back by the International one. After they finally got on the plane and taxied out, the plane turned around and went to a hangar where it sat for an hour before finally taking off.

Meanwhile, my friend, Roy, headed for the airport only to find the flight had been canceled. Since the airlines won't give out information on individuals, Roy had no idea when they would arrive so went back to work. Unfortunately, Dorothy didn't have his correct work number so had to call his house and leave a message on his answering machine. This resulted in a tape on Roy's answering machine as summarized below:

Message 1: Roy, This is Dorothy. I'm at the airport. What's happening?

Message 2: Roy, This is Jack checking to see if the gang arrived. I have to go out - will call back.

Message 3: Roy, This is Dwight checking to see if the others arrived and details for tomorrow (Roy was to also pick up Dwight the following day).

Message 4: Roy, This is Dorothy with Message #2. I'm still at the airport.

Message 5: Roy, This is Dorothy with Message #3. I'm still at the airport.

It took Roy four hours to get the messages and go back to the airport. Meanwhile, Dorothy remained calm and read a book, while Toby found some comics to read and arcade games to play. (This was the first instance in which Toby was glad I was not along since I would probably have been having a heart attack.) Roy was in the process of listening to the rest of the tape detailed above when I called the second time and he was laughing about having most of the Grimm family on his answering machine.
Saturday, Roy kindly dropped Dorothy and Toby off at a comic shop and said he'd return. Toby purchased a few comics and then they ate Bologna sandwiches, Hostess cupcakes and A&W root beer (all "luxuries" we don't have in Australia) on a street corner. Roy picked them up (a bit late which according to Toby would have been my second heart attack) and back to the airport to pick up Dwight. His flight was an hour late so Toby and Roy killed the time playing video games. Dwight came swaggering off the plane in cowboy boots! After all the years of harassing Toby who never wore anything but cowboy boots until the last year, Dwight gave in to current fashion (or is it to make him taller?).

That night Roy had a house full with Dwight and his roommate Tom (the dorms didn't open until the next day), Dorothy and Toby sleeping all over his house. He had to borrow blankets from friends.

Sunday - no plans - eventually dropped boys at dorm and visited a flea market where Toby bought comics. Toby slept at the dorm.

Monday - Roy dropped Dorothy at Stanford, only after starting once, returning to his house to pick something up he forgot and then stopping to give his car a quick wash. Toby, Dorothy and Dwight spent the day together. They caught a bus to and from the Stanford Mall (where Dorothy bought Dwight some Christmas presents other than the lawn sale purchases we had previously sent to him). They had supper with Roy, who then took them to the airport for the night flight to the east coast.

Dorothy and Toby arrived at J.F.K. airport Tuesday morning and since the temperature was 20 degrees F., and they didn't have heavy clothes they were freezing. The bus into the city was slow arriving and altogether it took about three hours to reach Dorothy's mother's apartment in New Jersey. Toby went to a comic shop that had actually put coupons in a local publication, and of course they all stopped at a few grocery stores (where no doubt, Dorothy collected some refund offers).

Wednesday the weather was terrible - snow, ice, rain. But our intrepid travelers managed to get to a mall, a Neiman Marcus Discount store and of course some comic shops.

Thursday Toby read comics.

The gang awoke to snow on Friday morning and had to go find boots before their trip to New York City for their principal reason for the entire trip - a huge Comic Book Convention. They arrived in the city early, ate at Kentucky Fried Chicken and attended the convention (in the Penn hotel) from 1 until 8 o'clock when they finally caught a bus back to near the apartment. They walked up a hill in the snow with Toby carrying (in his estimation) 20 pounds of comics.

Saturday - back to the convention arriving after it opened, and staying from 11:30 until 6, shopping and listening to lectures. Sunday - more shopping centers, bought a few comics, ate in A&W restaurant.

INTERLUDE
Meanwhile - back on the home front I was using this unsupervised time to thoroughly clean house from top to bottom. I won't discuss the details of this operation since other people in my family will be reading this - if you have ever been in our house at home - use your imagination.

Monday - went into New York City and caught the train to Washington. Arrived at 2 p.m. and were picked up by Mr. McArtor -the father of the wife of Dorothy's brother and whom we met when we rented a house from the McArtors when we were first married. The McArtors kindly offered to put Dorothy and Toby up after our good friend Mrs. McDonald had a heart attack prior to their arrival.

After arriving, Mr. McArtor drove Dorothy up to our house to pick up our car (the same Buick which has been parked there since 1986). It failed inspection and had to be left to get new brakes. No comics that day. Tuesday - picked up car - no comics.

Wednesday - War broke out in the Gulf. Visited friends (one of whom, a doctor, was glued to CNN coverage and said he would always remember Dorothy was there when they heard the news). Visited five comic book shops, with Toby purchasing a large number of comics.

INTERLUDE
Meanwhile we were getting rare weather in Alice Springs -cloudy, drizzle, rain, humid etc. This meant that the grass was going crazy turning green, growing and even filling in some of the bare spaces. I was glad because I figured it would take Dorothy's mind off the changes to the interior of the house. However, I was mowing every 3 days or so. In addition at 2 a.m. one morning the cat was fussing because the little wooden flap that I have for her to go in and out of the house had swollen up and wouldn't open. I had to get up, toss her out and then go out to the shed in the rain to find some type of tool to shave the edge of the flap so she wouldn't wake me up because she couldn't get bade in.

Thursday - caught train to North Carolina to visit Dorothy's brother. There were no seats for the first 25 miles, so they sat on their suitcases in the aisle. (Another instance in which Toby was sure I would not have been amused.) They were an hour late arriving in Raleigh where Dwight (Dorothy's brother) picked them up. It took an hour to drive to Dwight's home in Hillsborough.

Friday, Dwight took the day off work and took the gang to Chapel Hill where Toby only found one shop selling comics. Dorothy, however, found a thrift shop and purchased a few items. That afternoon and evening Toby and Dwight had a good time pulling out all of Dwight's electric trains and setting them up in the hallway, along with a large collection of toys to create a village.

Saturday morning some of the party watched cartoons (interrupted by war news). Everyone was moving by lunch time and Dwight, Toby and Dorothy went to visit comic shops in Durham and purchases some much sought after items. Sunday, Dorothy and Toby caught the train (an hour late) back to Alexandria - they had seats the whole way this time. That evening they visited some friends (the son was a classmate of Toby's). No comics.

INTERLUDE
Why do people own pets? The night after the one I had to get up to let the cat out because of the rain, she woke me up again (2 a.m.). I heard her and thought maybe she was having more trouble with the flap. I checked and the flap was fine - back to bed. All of a sudden there is a commotion - she's running all over the bedroom. I immediately figured out she was chasing something, but didn't think I wanted to know what. She finally jumped on something in my bathroom, but at night and without putting the light and my glasses on I didn't know what. The next morning I found a dead mouse on my bathroom floor - obviously the cat didn't want to play with it in the wet grass and brought it inside to play with.

Monday was Martin Luther King's birthday, which should have made it easy to find people at home, but Dorothy rang a number with no success. They ate lunch at Chuck E. Cheeses, visited the McDonalds, and did some shopping, but no comics. Tuesday they went shopping at Crystal City, a shopping area along one of the subway lines. Found a comic shop there! Wednesday - visited friends, got our poor old car a wash, and went to the bank (no doubt Dorothy needed more money for additional comics as Toby bought just a few more "rare" ones in Arlington - editor's note).

Thursday - took train back to New York. Toby complained about carrying luggage the 8 blocks from the train station to the bus station so they took the subway. (He doesn't remember me carrying him and luggage in Europe in 1981.) Toby's shopping that day included both comic shops and sporting goods store where he picked up the new, heavier, bowling ball purchased earlier in the trip.

Friday - comic shops, Dorothy to NYC to visit a long-time friend. Saturday - Mailed 10 boxes home, Dorothy, Toby and Dorothy's mother all to NYC. Went to the Trump Tower, Rockerfeller Center ate in the underground McDonalds near Radio City, went to Washington Square and two more comic shops.

Sunday - took bus to JFK Airport at 8:30, plane left at noon for L.A. where they had to endure a layover of almost 7 hours. Dorothy wanted to go out and walk around. Toby wanted to sit in the bar and watch the Super Bowl. The plane finally left at 9:45 p.m. tot Sydney. They had another layover there (about 4 hours) before flying on to Alice Springs, via Melbourne. They were fortunate to get out of Sydney. Later that day, the refuelers went on strike grounding most aircraft on the east coast.
So, after visiting 14 comic shops (not counting the Convention and numerous non-comic shops which carried comics) in two countries and five states on 18 of the 24 days of the trip, Toby mailed home an undisclosed number of comics (in addition to those he carried with him to read on the plane). Fortunately, he does have storage space -about the only thing his parents gave him for Christmas was a well used 4-drawer filing cabinet which someone gave me. It was a battleship gray except for the rust spots and I attached a bow and a sign that said "It's the thought that counts." After sanding and painting it looks very good and the drawers are in good shape. Toby was pleased with it. I don't think his recent purchases will fill it up (I hope), but I'm sure he will keep working to fill it. Since there is a good possibility that Toby and I will be visiting the U.S. this summer, I'd imagine we may visit a few comic shops then. I hope they will have replenished their stock by then, or do I?