Day 12 – Green Bay

Another day in Green Bay today and I was up early to get ready for the Packer Chapter annual “Packnic" collectors meeting. The meeting is held at the Titletown Brewing Company’s building in their covered outdoor area alongside the railway tracks. When I arrived just after 9.00am there were already about 10 collectors setting up their items for trade or sale. During the morning a lot more people turned up and in total 33 members came to the meeting.

I was introduced to some of the members but there were quite a few I had met at previous Canvention’s and also some that I knew from the club message board that I write on. It was good to put faces to the names I knew from there. Below I am with Brian from the Rusty Bunch messageboard.

The morning went very quickly as I talked with all the others about beer cans and a lot of them asked me about different things in Australia. A lot of people I meet everywhere say that they would love to come to Australia for holidays, though they cannot believe that it is a 13 hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney.

During the morning a goods train went past on the tracks next to where we were, it was over 100 cars long.

Soon enough it was time for lunch and that meant we were all going to have Pete Vann’s “booyah”. Pete had set it up in the car park in a 44 gallon drum heating it over a stove plate where he had spent half the morning stirring the drum. We were given a bowl and ladled the chicken broth into it. It was very hot but it was a very nice meal once it cooled down a bit. We were all given a free drink ticket so I got a glass of the root beer to have with my lunch.

After lunch there was a quick formal meeting during which I was presented with a gift for attending the meeting from the furthest distance. They had done their homework as the present was a small Guinness mirror. It was one I did not have and is small enough for me to carry in my luggage.

Following the meeting there was a raffle conducted that I won one of the prizes. I picked the smallest item which was a Jacob Best Light Beer belt buckle. There were some nice larger items available but I had no way of getting them home.

As the people started leaving for the day I said goodbye to a lot of them but some of them I will see again in two weeks at the Canvention. The few people remaining went into the brewery bar and watched the Milwaukee Brewers play another game against the New York Mets. The Brewers ended up winning 6 to 2.

After the game finished those that were left all sat down and had an early dinner together. After this I said goodbye to all of them and especially to Ken and Barbara who had been very good to me with all the help arranging my visit and for the hospitality they showed me both at their home and by taking me around to look at other peoples collections.

I left then and went back to the hotel to freshen up before heading out to the casino that is in Green Bay. It is out near the airport and I stayed awhile as I had a good run to start at the Let It Ride Poker table. Unfortunately the cards turned against me and I left about an hour later after losing some money.

Back at the hotel, I rang home again to speak to my sister who is leaving Sydney today to travel home to Cairns. I wanted to thank her for looking after Mum and helping out while she was in Sydney. She will be coming down to Sydney again in a month’s time to be with Mum when she comes home from the respite care. Janice said that Mum has enjoyed the home so far and that she is making friends with some of the other people and that the staff are really caring and are very helpful to all the residents.