Jigsaw: A Sunday Preemptive Birthday Outing

 

George of G.I. Jigsaw and I had planned an outing for today to Winchester, and while this wasn't planned to be anything birthday related, I did get a nice lunch from George in celebration of it.

Our day started at 11:30 AM, when he swung by and picked me up. With 80's tunes in one hand, and a mug of coffee in the other, I was ready for the open road.

One of the things that I've taken to enjoying is challenging George's 80's street cred. Typically, this is through his knowledge of 80's music, both mainstream and obscure. Today's trip involved both. We started down the road, firing up a handmade album I called, "Forgotten Hits Of The 80's: Volume II (our last car ride involved volume one). Of the 18 tracks, he scored two point of of 36. Meaning I did my job well in finding some really unique songs, which included the likes of The Rock Steady Crew, Captain Sensible, Jellybean, Kano, and more.

Our first visit was to Back To The Media to check out vintage games and records. Though I scanned the NES games, and thumbed through the comics, I ultimately didn't find anything I wanted. George seemed focused on the vinyl and Atari games, but he too left empty handed.

A couple doors down was Time Travelers Toys, the shop I wanted to go to on my last visit to Winchester, but was closed at the time. This time, however, the neon "open" sign beckoned us to come inside.

How to politely put this...Time Travelers Toys has a little bit of everything, but a whole lot of nothing at the same time. Usually, when I walk through a toy shop, I can find something that may not be high priority, but that I'll still pick up so as to not leave empty handed. This trip did not yield any such thing. Even George left empty handed.

Still, it was a decent shop to wander around for a bit.

Every time I see He-Man Origins in the wild, I fire off a text to Jerry of Action Figure Barbecue to see if he's on the hunt for any. For the record, he was not.

I would have bought that Slave I and / or Dagobah playset if they were complete, but alas, they were not. Which was really my biggest problem with this whole place. Too many incomplete items priced way higher than they should be.

I really wanted to find a diamond in the rough among these comics, but the sorting on it was abysmal. Unlabeled box stuffed under a counter in a nook that's too small to move around in is not an ideal way to get people to search through your stock of books.

Hey, look! G.I. Joe Classified. It was interesting to note that both Cobra Commander and Profit Director Destro were priced at retail. I almost picked up the Destro as a giveaway item for a future Toy Box contest, but didn't feel like swiping my card just for that. Sorry, readers.

I considered for a moment getting a lunchbox, but thought better against that slippery slope. That's a box I just don't need to open. No pun intended.

I was hoping to find some 80's cartoons among the DVD's, and while the shopkeeper was friendly and helpful, even digging through them himself, none turned up.

Overall, it was good times to search around the place, but I don't think there's anything here to be excited about. I dare say the good stuff has been picked through a hundred times over, and the rest of this is quarter bin garage sale fodder.

For lunch, we went to Antojitos Mexicanos. the same place I went the last time I was in town. It didn't take a lot of convincing to get George interested in the place.

I was all for getting that torta sandwich again, and it was just as good as last time. Too bad this place isn't in my neck of the woods.

Though we were going to wrap up our day with a trip to Ear Food, the used record / CD shop, they were actually closed. It drives me nuts how you can't plan the "perfect" day to Winchester because something is always randomly closed. So, from there, we called it a day.

On the way home, we hit up Nalls Farm Market, a little shop and go off the main road. While it's not as big as most country stores, nor does it have the volume of unique selection that you'll typically find, they make up for this with their fresh farmed produce and bakery.

Seriously, the bakery is really all they need.

You can get all sorts of pies, cookies, breads and other sweet treats from here, and they're baked fresh throughout the entire day, because that's how quickly they sell.

I may have gone overboard getting a caramel apple nut pie, peach berry pie, and macadamia nut cookies, but I mean, come on. Look at this slice of pie. Tell me you don't want that.

Though toys, games and music weren't as lucrative as the sugar laden desserts, it was still a good outing full of fun, music and good eating. Thank again for driving and lunch, George!

If you're just now tuning in to The Toy Box for the day, make sure to check out the prior posts from today. There's also more to come, so check back later.

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