An Inside View Of Lotovention 19 - Part 1

By Steve Gilbert & Bill Pasquino

Thursday

Even though the 19th Annual Lotovention did not officially begin until Saturday, some collectors got together as early as Thursday. Bill Pasquino and his wife Patty drove in with their children and grandchildren and had a fun packed day at Sesame Place. After spending an exhausting day at the amusement park, they met up with Bob Heskett at the Marriott Hotel. Steve Gilbert and his wife Linda joined them and they all went to dinner at the Outback restaurant across the street from the hotel. All agreed they had a wonderful dinner.

Bill's children and grandchildren then returned to Lancaster. The rest of the group, Bill, Patty, Bob, Steve, and Linda returned to the hotel for a few hours of conversation. By 9:00P.M., the group broke up for the night and decided to meet again for breakfast on Friday morning at 9:00A.M.

Friday

Friday morning came and Steve and Linda arrived at the hotel to meet up with Bill, Patty and Bob for breakfast. Before that, Steve had to pack up his wife's SUV and his own car with all the convention goodies. Both were full from front to back and top to bottom. About two weeks before this , Steve and Linda drove out to Bill and Patty's home for dinner and to pick up the goodies Bill had for the convention. Everything was stored in Steve's garage.

Once breakfast was complete, Bill and Steve unpacked all their cars and stored the convention items in the hotel office. While this was happening, Linda and Patty left the hotel to drive down to the Italian Market in Philadelphia to do some shopping, site seeing, and to pick up some world famous Philly steaks at Geno's and Pat's Steaks in South Philly. There was going to be a taste testing contest later in the day at the hotel.

Once the shopping was done, Patty and Linda headed south to pick up Ron Moermond at the airport. He had asked for a ride and they were only too glad to oblige.

In the meantime, Steve, Bill and Bob were hanging out at the hotel. Before long John and Twila Flara arrived. About a half hour later , Linda, Patty and Ron came walking in with the Philly steaks. Linda and Patty quickly set up everything and everyone had a chance to taste test the two kinds of steak sandwiches. Opinion was divided, but we think Geno's won over Pat's by a slight margin.

Shortly afterwards the hotel informed us the meeting room would be available soon. The excitement grew as everyone who was hanging out in the lobby could hardly wait to start moving their lottery stuff into the meeting room.

At first Bill and Steve thought people would just move their things into the room and leave as the convention did not officially start until 8:00A.M. tomorrow. That was not to be the case. As people unpacked and the freebie tables grew higher and higher no one wanted to leave. Everyone was actively searching for new tickets. Unofficially the convention had begun !!!

Finally we closed the room for dinner and everyone had to leave. Some went to The Old Country Buffet, while another group walked over to Applebee's.

The meeting room was opened again by about 7:30P.M. and the search for tickets resumed. Finally, by 11:00P.M, after a long and tiring day, Bill and Steve , after some protests, closed the room for the night.