Sunday we start to plan for the possibility of running out of photo paper, no need to worry, because it seems that most people brought their own cameras and we had just enough paper to get through the day. Lots of fans, including a female Marty McFly! Another visit with Alan and our friends Tom and Amy came by to say hi. Tom is a wonderkid when it comes to Back to the Future and the Delorean Time Machine. It was fun to hear him answer the publics questions! The show wound down really fast, it was 4pm and then we were packing up because it was 5 pm. With the car we like to be out of the convention halls as quickly as possible, to avoid fork lifts with boxes, carpet rolls and vans blocking the drives. So with a quick hug goodbye to Alan we were out and on our way to 95 and home to our puppies. We took a new route, 95 was backed up so we took 40, it was slow going at times, but we made it past Baltimore and stopped for the night at the Brown Motel, with 15 international rooms. We got the last room, China! When traveling in a time machine you never know when, or where you might end up!

Saturday starts off with a rush that doesn’t slow until about 6:30. A great day for fundraising. We start to worry that we might run out of photo paper, so Alan starts calling around to see if there is any in the Philly area. No luck there, but we make it through the day. Now we are about to run out of hand-outs. Our friend and sponsor, Stephen Clark has been kind enough to supply items for these outings. I hope that we are able to attract some business for his web store at BTTF.net. The Fire Marshall stops ticket sales at the front. The convention center has reached maximum capacity, so -the organizers extend the show one hour. Long day, with lot’s of happy people who got to sit in a DeLorean Time Machine.

Friday: First day of the convention begins at 12, at least that’s when the doors open. Folks were still setting up when we arrived at the hall. Lots of comic book vendors and artists, I guess that’s expected. Some toy and collectable vendors, a lot of comic book stalls and a number of celebrities. After a quick walk about, (I bought a leather pouch), we readied the car and the doors opened to a nice sized crowd. People made their way to us and we took a good number of photos. I enjoyed the visit from warriors from '300.'

Alan Erush, a friend that lives in Philly, came to help out. A very nice day, easy pace, fun pictures and then dinner with Alan and his wife Sarah at Appleby’s. We had such fun just talking and laughing. Then back to the hotel for some rest.

Load In

Thursday is load-in day. We search for a car wash and give the D a really good scrubbing. She is bright and shiny. With a few loops around the block we find our way into the convention center loading dock. After a short wait, as the staff inspects the car, checks the gas level, and finds out where we belong, they direct us to our space #753. We have 4) 10 x 10 booths that land on an end aisle. The show has had a ticket sale surge and the organizers are hoping for a great show. So are we! We arrange for electricity and pipe and drape. Sign papers for all the union stuffs, and prepare the car for a work out. There are a few early donations from volunteers and staff, which bodes well for the show already!

To Philadelphia

Philly comic Con
Wednesday, June 9^th, 2010

Traveled from Myrtle to Joppa PA, with a pit stop at King’s Dominion for a couple of thrills! Sometimes you just need to scream and yell and roller coasters encourage such behavior. In Joppa, we're starving and find a Chinese buffet serving frog legs. A snack you don't see every day. We then crash for the night, worn out by rides and marathon eating.

Quilts, and going back to 1980.

Recently I had the enjoyable opportunity to do a different kind of time traveling.
My friend from way back in Junior High School, Robin Ballew Culbertson, contacted me through Facebook earlier in the year.
First, let me tell you a little about Robin. As kids, we had several classes together, and many of the same friends. Robin was extremely academically gifted and we tended to travel in the same creative circles. While I was often anxious and tended to use 'broad strokes', her artistic skills exhibited a mature patience and meticulous attention to detail. I've never told her this, but I would often take my cues from her, watching to see how high she would 'set the bar', when it came to class projects. One of my favorite memories about Robin was when the two of us collaborated on a marionette production of 'Pinocchio' together. Her craftsmanship just blew me away, and she challenged me (without even knowing it.)
Another memory is when we did a rock and roll puppet show with several of our other partners in crime, -and unwittingly filled the classroom with noxious green and red fumes from smoke bombs.
The less said about that, the better. (But boy, Mrs. Tate was MAD!)
Fast forward to February of 2010.
She wrote: "I am planning on doing a customer quilt show in the spring, and one of the ideas I had was to perhaps tie it in with your DeLorean time machine and your [Team Fox] efforts. I want to do the quilt show as a fundraiser for charity, but haven't settled on which one."

Well. I don't know anything about quilts, and at first, the idea seemed like a stretch, even for a time traveler. But Robin had sincere interest, and, like back in our school days, I knew anything she's involved with would have outstanding results. And those results could help us in our mission to find a cure for Parkinson's.
We corresponded back and forth and came up with a date and time. And as predicted, the event was wonderful. She took out display ads and alerted the media. She lined up sponsors to reward winning entries with prizes, including a Baby Lock Grace Computerized Sewing Machine.
(I think the word 'Grace' is so appropriate.)
And even though she felt a little nervous about it, Robin even appeared on a local television show to promote the event.
The quilt entries were amazing, and I've now been properly introduced to this art form. The folks who came out for the 'kick off' were so kind and generous and encouraging. Several people came out to the Asheville Cotton Company for the first time to see what the DeLorean was doing there. And one guy even came dressed as Marty McFly! After talking 'horsepower' and 'MPG' with some fellas, I even convinced them to step inside and check out the quilts! Another long time friend, Conrad Shirk, came by with his family to say 'Hi.'
Afterwards, Robin and I enjoyed a BBQ lunch together and caught up on 'old times.'
Now that all is said and done, I'm thrilled to share that Robin and her hard work resulted in a donation of $2331.57 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research!
Check out her website that describes the event and even displays photos of the winning quilts! -And if you're ever in Asheville, North Carolina, be sure and stop in at the Asheville Cotton Co. and say 'Hi' to Robin.
Even if you don't sew, you'll consider yourself lucky after meeting such an exceptional, fun and generous person.
-Oliver
(7th grade.)

Fund Raising in the Smokies!

AdventureCon, Tennessee's largest collectors show, will host the DeLorean Time Machine in Pigeon Forge May 28, 29, and 30.
Take pictures with the car for free, or sit inside for a donation to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, through TEAMFOX.
Also: Limited edition lithograph celebrating the 25th Anniversary of “Back to the Future" will be available, signed and numbered by the artist.
Hours are:
Friday 12pm - 7pm
Saturday 10am-6pm
Sunday 11-am-5pm
Pigeon Forge Convention Center,
Parkway, Pigeon Forge, TN. 37863

The Daily Buzz video, part 2

The Daily Buzz video, part 1

Quilt Show Fundraiser Press Release!

Asheville Cotton Co. will host a Customer Quilt Show and fundraiser on Saturday May 8th, 11am to 1pm, in the Parkway Center (Harris Teeter Shopping Center) at 1378 Hendersonville Rd. in Asheville, NC.
All winners will be chosen by Viewer's Choice, so everyone has a chance to win, regardless of skill level!
All proceeds will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
As part of the festivities, our Quilt Show will get started on Saturday, May 8, 10a-1p
with a special appearance by the DeLorean Time Machine as made famous in the popular "Back to the Future" movie trilogy! Make plans to come to see the car (bring all the kids and husbands) and come see the quilt show. A special 25th Anniversary Back to the Future poster signed by the artist will be for sale, and you are encouraged to bring your camera to take pictures of the car. You may take pictures at no charge, but we will ask for a donation if you wish to sit in the car to have the photo made.
http://www.ashevillecottonco.com/Pages/Customer%20Quilt%20Show%202010/Quilt%20Show%20Press%20Release.htm

Vulcan Con Day 3

Saturday, May 1^st
After a quick set up, we start taking pictures right away. Great people, today is the costume contest so the group is quite colorful! Sally Kellerman and Catherine Hicks both pose with the car. Very sweet. Chris Lloyd did a Team Fox promo for us,
which was taped for us by Hatch; I’m so excited to see it. We were able to catch Chris’s talk, which was very good.

The audience’s questions ranged from Addams Family to, of course, his Klingon appearance in Star Trek. He was asked how he got the roll of a bad guy and his response was he wasn‘t sure, but it might have been that no one else wanted to endure 4 hours of make up! He also spoke of Roger Rabbit, and enjoying the opportunity to play a bad guy -and there’s talk of a sequel! When asked if he ever took any souvenirs home from the set of Back to the Future, an audience member shouted: ‘Mary Steenburgen!’

Our friend James was kind enough to make a lunch run to McDonalds for us, gourmet Big Macs! And for dinner we all ate at a nearby Italian restaurant. We enjoyed the conversation and the meal. James owns a DeLorean and has a fun job where he makes and maintains a variety of movie props. Boy did he and Oli have fun stories to share.

On the final day, Sunday, things slowly came to an end. Everything was packed up, we said our thank you's to our wonderful hosts, and pushed the time machine back the way it came. (Though Mr. yellow shirt was not seen, we hesitated to start the engine while inside.)

It was a good fund raiser, and a nice chance to see Christopher Lloyd again.

Vulcan Con Day 2!

Friday, April 30, 2010 With a quick walk around the corner we enjoy breakfast at Waffle House. After our breakfast we stroll over to the West Shore mall, Sears is the anchor store, with some restaurants and well that’s all we see, because we have just received a message from Mitch of the Daily Buzz and he needs us to reach him ASAP!Oli has been trying to contact Mitch for a possible story on our return trip home and Mitch is excited to host us at 6am Monday morning. The Daily Buzz has been a favorite morning show of ours for years!

The Vulcan registration won’t open until 5pm, but the hotel is loaded with guests, most of them firefighters here for an Olympic type competition, but when I asked one hung-over-looking fellow how it was going he said ‘not so good, it’s more of an Olympic drinking type competition!’

We do take some pictures of non-Vulcan guests. And some Vulcan guests. We have a DVD playing on the cars TV but it’s skipping so Oli starts work on a back up while I make a call to my Tampa connection. Mike Womack, a friend of ours for years now, (he’s only 15) lives in the area and came to our rescue and picked up some blank DVDs for us. We visited with him and his aunt. Both were kind enough to sit in the car for a photo, which led to a rush of other guests wanting their picture taken too. Thank Mike and Aunt Karen for being our demonstrators!

The evening for us ended around 8:30 when the lobby became so crowded and loud you couldn’t hear yourself think. We packed up our gear and said our goodbyes and headed out to Charley’s Steak House next to the hotel. They’re famous for their aged steaks and rightly so. Dinner was great and now it’s time to rest up for day 2. Over 800 guests expected with about 100 registering today. That means we’ll hopefully be taking a lot of pictures and raising record awareness and funds for Team Fox!

Vulcan Con!

Thursday April 29^th, depart for Tampa, 5:30 am. Driving under a full moon, bright in the early morning sky. Roads are clear except for some patches of fog. I’d like to say the sunrise was beautiful, but I can’t because this trip found me nodding off a lot! Oli drove like the mad man he is and I slept. He even took a picture of me catching flies! Well, I took one of him after our first gas stop enjoying a banana; re-fuel, as he would say.

Our regular path is 95 south to 4 to Orlando. This time we veered west at Jacksonville to 10 – 301 – 75 and we were in steamy hot Tampa. After a bit of hunting we found a self serve car wash and gave little D a bath. Then on to the hotel, where the crew at the Double Tree were waiting and ready to load the car into the hotel lobby via the rear entrance, (through two banquet halls and one heck of a 180 degree corner into the lobby. Oli drove most of the way, until ‘yellow shirt man’ let it be known that you cannot run an automobile in a hotel in Florida. So we pushed it the rest of the way, yes pushed it around the tight turn. After some clever maneuvering and the moving of the lobby furniture, she was in place. A quick plug-in and clean up and we were ready for guests.

Javier and Fernando were happy to see the car in place as they arrived, unloading their gear. The hotel staff has been great and we really look forward to meeting all the Star Trek people, Klingon, Vulcan and more!

After a dinner of Papa John’s pizza we relax to some TV and well-deserved sleep!

Parkinson's Unity Walk Video!

Central Park Unity Walk!

We're off to New York City for the 16th Parkinson's Unity Walk.
It is the largest grassroots event raising Parkinson's awareness and funds to find a cure, and Terry and I have registered! We're more used to slipping into a time machine than a pair of walking shoes, but we're going to give it a try! Terry is excited about meeting some folks she's met online, and aside from the MJFF Round Table Discussions we've attended, this will be the first large gathering of Parkinson's interests that we've been to. Every time leap is different, and this one is no exception. There will be stories to blog about, I'm sure. -But that will come, -in the future! :)

Vulcan Events

We have been invited to attend this event in Tampa, Florida! Christopher Lloyd will be the featured guest, and it will be great to see him again. The BTTF.com DeLorean Time Machine will be on display and we will be raising awareness and funding for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Come have your photo taken in the drivers seat! The limited edition 'Back to the Future 25th Anniversary' posters will be available for autographs too!

Celebration Exotic Car Festival

We're excited about attending this upcoming festival. This year it is benefiting the Special Olympics and there will be several new movie cars including the Michael Keaton Batmobile!
The car show part of the festival is free, so come and enjoy!

The British are coming!

x

I received an email last year from a fellow named AJ who had plans of coming to America with his friend and driving across the country to all 50 states! (I can relate!)
He wrote that he would very much like to see the time machine when they pass through the south, and I politely responded that if we were in town, we'd be happy to meet him -whenever the time came.
Well, Wednesday AJ and his friend Shaun actually showed up! They have been through 15 states so far, and he said seeing the time machine was the best thing yet!
Terry and I had a dinner date, so after some quality time answering questions, posing and taking photos, we wrapped the international encounter up!
They both kindly made donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and we parted ways having made new friends! Safe travels!

Florence Alabama Newspaper!

MegaCon

We arrive at Megacon at the Orange County Convention Center, ready to adapt to what ever might happen. As we pull up to the entrance, the time machine is greeted with oohs and aahhs.
As expected, there’s no room on the floor for the DeLorean, but we join Claudia Wells, (‘Jennifer Parker’ in BTTF) who is such a smiling, welcoming soul! We join her celebrity autographing table and the fund raising begins. The people-watching begins too! We saw our first female 'Doc and Marty!' They were both so fun and made a great team! Our DeLorean is remembered and missed by fans, but the poster is received very well, Oli and Claudia signing, with me in the middle making sure everyone is happy.

During the day, we have the good luck to bump into a wonderful friend who offers to garage the DeLorean for us, and trade vehicles for the weekend! He has a nice luxury garage, and a Lotus Elise that Oli and I really, really, really, like! So our storage and transportation issues are solved, with the added bonus of having our second choice (next best thing to a DeLorean Time Machine) to drive around in! This alone makes the long trip worthwhile!

After the show we have dinner with a creative artistic friend Nate Pratt, and our day ends with great conversation and a good nights sleep. We thank friend and fellow DeLorean owner, Dan and the ‘Dr. Who’ Table for their generous offer of a spare room.

Saturday starts with an early trip to Walmart and then on to the convention center. It’s a mad house, and parking is almost impossible. Finally we are directed to a spot and we make a dash for the hall. Which is packed with attendees in full costume. A war call rings out from the crowd as the doors are open. It’s a crowded busy day. I take a minute to say good morning to Lea Thompson, ‘Lorraine’ in BTTF, and wish her a good show. She says she’s been seeing (and autographing) many of Oli’s anniversary posters.

Back at the Claudia’s table we are swamped. A good steady crowd thru the day. We are visited by friends, Michael, Daniel, Nate and Leonard. How cool to be able to see them all. The show is over and it’s off to dinner with Claudia, Lea, Lea’s sister Coleen and our friends from the Celebration Exotic Car Festival. We talk about the event coming up quickly in April and how much we look forward to it.

It was a pleasure to sit and relax and chat with friends after such a full day, and it was particularly a new thrill to spend time with Lea. She is fun and the dinner conversation was like old friends sharing a meal. Who could imagine that life would have brought us here to enjoy such pleasant company?

Sunday March 14, 2010

Slept until 8am, what a treat. Back to Megacon! An easier day, fewer folks, but that just means we could have more time with them! One fellow donated for a poster, and then, seeing one last dollar remaining in his wallet. He said, “Here, get this to Michael.”

Sometimes there are no words to properly convey the kindness we’re privileged to witness.

Finally home. -But not for long.

We leave Arkansas behind and figure we’ll be able to get most of the way home. It’s an 18+ hour drive, -but we gain an hour! At about 11 am we get a call from our friend Dan who asks if we are coming to Florida for MegaCon, as we did last year. We had shelved the idea of attending because event organizers had not planned enough space for the Time Machine this year, and all of the artist spaces had sold out.

Dan insists that we reconsider, and in a moment of excitement (or delirium) we say 'Okay let’s try!' Oli drives thru the night and by dawn we are home. Puppies are very happy, and we start to work on the repack. We’ve made a list of what we might need, yet still no final word from anyone about what to expect when we get there. It’s necessary to sleep, so we take a nap and then throw caution to the wind and take to the highway. 95 south, Florida here we come. Crazy but Oli did it.

Arkansas Monday March 8^th

We arrive in Arkansas to visit my Mom. She was having lunch and we joined her. and spent the day with her. Then off to the farm to see sister Mary and her husband Eddy. Eddy suggest we fund raise at the fraternity he is chef at on Tuesday. It’s all set and we meet him at 12 in Fayetteville . The car is greeted with collegiate smiles and cell phones. While the car poses for pictures, we enjoy lasagna in the chef's kitchen. Yummy!

The fraternity's house mother, who is also a photographer, introduces herself and suggests we drive the car to a nearby cemetery for a photo shoot. Sounds like a lot of fun! We finish our gourmet meal and provide compliments to the chef and his assistant, Sally, and then drive off to the Creepy location. We leave her our card with hopes she'll share the results with us. (She still shoots with film.) Can’t wait to see the pics.

Another quick visit with Mom and then we meet up with the gang for a viewing of Alice in Wonderland. I liked it! Oliver not so much.

Wednesday finds us packing our bags, bidding good bye to family and barn. Everyone should be so lucky to have a red barn to call their own. To home we go. This has been a long stretch of time traveling!

Final day at Film Festival

3.6.10 Saturday

Saturday morning and we are up and ready to do more film festival events. We pick up our new pal Cian who is from Ireland, for a 3-in-a-2-seater car ride! We decided we're going to call this a 'Jeffrey Sqweezman', in honor of our friend who first helped us prove that three people COULD fit in a DeLorean. It was Cian’s birthday, and he kept repeating ‘Best Birthday Ever!’ Nice crowd waiting to see Claudia and James. We sent several more fans away with the Anniversary poster, then we were off for our appearance at the Zodiac. More nice people; a young blind man who was fascinated by the car. Oli directed his hands to the buttons inside the time machine that cause sound effects to activate. Lunch at Rosie’s was a welcome pause for calm and peace. A Margarita assisted in this state.

A nap and then off to the awards ceremony. Another car photo opportunity with the Flogo guys doing their magic soap bubbles. The awards ceremony was very nice, we have been so lucky to be part of such a wonderful celebration of film. The after party at Cypress Moon studios was jamming, with live music in the sound studio portion. It was also very crowded, and quite the ‘place to be’ that night! and then back to the hotel where our little D has her own photo shoot with Tom. Some really amazing images came from that, and Tom made the car look prettier than ever!

Day Two, George Lindsey UNA Film Festival

3.5.10 Friday

Friday morning, getting ready for films and talks. Our next appearance is at the Shoals Theater tonight.

We met Stephen at the Shoals to help set up his BTTF merchandise store for the evenings event. We had the car parked on the street about a ½ block away. There was a lot of setting up going on because ‘First Fridays’, a downtown street festival was happening. Crafts, music, and street fun happening that night. The Shoal’s theater is a classic 1950’s movie house. It played all the big hits in the day, closed for a period of time when the movie multiplex opened across town and now it’s a very active playhouse. Wonderfully restored with a mauve and teal color scheme. The staff there was very helpful with tables and extension cords, etc. Oli got to climb on top of the marquee to drop down power for the DeLorean’s display charging system!

There was a separate box office at the base of a back staircase leading to the balcony. This is a now rarely seen architectural feature that existed as an old reminder of segregation. Ironically, a few of the locals noted that the balcony had some of the best seats in the house!

At 10 am we were off for Bernd Kruyt’s documentary on the flying taxi from BTTF part 2 and Michael Sheffee’s talk about that build and his career as an artist in film. Both were fascinating. Oli and I were lucky enough to see the Taxi up close and in person at the 2002 FX toy show. We had an immediate appreciation for the Citron DS that the taxi is built on.

And now to be able to say we know the man who made it happen is great.

After that talk we went to lunch, the gang is growing. George Lindsey, the namesake of the festival, (as well as ‘Goober’ from the Andy Griffith Show!) joined us for the meal and we all had a great time. Tonya Holly and daughter Lily of the Cypress Moon Studios (a local film and recording studio) also joined us. Oliver and I became bookends of the long table, and took turns making faces at each other from across the room. Then it was off to Bob Gale’s talk on writing. We were driven over by campus security and escorted up the back way to be able to sneak in a side entrance. Bob was very good with his analysis of how he works, how he works with others, such as Bob Z and how it’s important to study. -We are at a University, you know.

Then back to the Shoal’s where Oli and I prep a poster station and then take the car to the President’s reception. Now this is a big deal, because there are a lot of State House politicians present. We make a fine impression and hope the University receives the much deserved funding it is seeking. They arrived in a special transport vehicle and took turns posing with the car. I kept the engine running to provide power for all the lights, as there was no electrical outlet on the front lawn of the beautiful grand multi-columned building. Suddenly, there was a pop and smoky coolant came shooting out of the overflow tube, to the delight of onlookers. 'How does it do that?' they clapped excitedly. 'Movie magic!,' Oli lied, with a nervous smile. He turned on the heater and cooled off the engine. No damage, but the car did not like idling for such a long time. Oliver would like to take this moment to apologize to the lawns keeper of the university, for the little dead spot of former grass he unintentionally killed with boiling coolant.

Campus police saw the situation and radioed for some antifreeze. Just a minute passed, and I was filling up the tank again, and everything was perfect! Just in time!

George Lindsey arrived as we were parking and Oli took him for a spin, which turned out to be a personal tour of George’s school. Mr. Lindsey is a great patron to his school.

He has given the school his script library, from his episodes on the Andy Griffith show to Twilight Zone, and helped develop and loan his name to the film festival.

Now dashing back to the Shoal’s for the Q&A with the BTTF cast. Hosted by alum Danny Wilson who has a fine body of work and was recently seen in the movie ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.’ It was a fine session with Bob Gale, Claudia Wells, James Tolkan and Michael Sheffe. Lea Thompson wasn’t able to attend but taped a greeting and some answers to the panel questions. It was entertaining and we learned some new facts!

I’ve waited to the end of this portion of the blog to write for our little D. She was quite the star. Sparkled and shined. She enjoyed the cobble stone runway up to the theater, and the photos taken have brought countless smiles. Being outside of the Shoal’s under the marquee was a wonderful position to bring attention to the event. Folks that saw her in the daytime were quite impressed when the sun set and she lit up like the star car she is. All through the night I was helping kind and generous donation makers in and out of the car. It was a funny frenzy! No line, just ‘who’s next?’ from me, and the crowd jumping for their turn. That was fun, but what was amazing was watching Oli sign his posters. Michael Scheffe gave Oli a kind compliment when he equated the poster to Drew Struzan’s style. Oli was floating on air after that. Me too! The evening ended with a good night from Mr. Lindsey and dinner with the gang at the local Italian restaurant. And then a late night screening of “Lightning Salad Moving Picture” at the Zodiac. The movie included Bob Zemeckis requesting two unlikely candidate film students to start working on Back to the Future Part IV”. Funny, interesting, and glad we got to see it.