The end of the work week was greatly anticipated. Planned was what turned out to the BEST vacation of my life. The plan was for me to meet Rob Lloyd and Tim Gash in Columbia City for the insulator show May 15-16. We would "do the show", then go to Canada on Sunday for a week of "CD 143 picking" and "threadless flogging."

I arrived at Columbia City about 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning and met Tim and Rob. The show was decent and I was able to acquire a couple of threadless and other pieces for my collection. Saturday we left the show and went to a nearby line. Tim, Rob, Bob Harding and I got in Harding's Chrysler and proceeded to drive on the track ballast. We managed to pick a lot of CD 145's and CD 151's including several "M Mold" blue CD 145 H.G.CO. Petticoats. Sunday we finished the show and headed on to Ontario. We arrived at Rob's house about 10:00 p.m. and viewed Rob's awesome collection of "early glass. "

The following day our plan was to drive to Toronto, spend the night at the house of Rob's sister and "collect" our way back to Windsor. It seems that Rob knew where there were some CD 143 amethyst whittle molds still in the air in that area. 

We got on the road. We decided to check out a threadless line on the way. The farmers had just plowed, so it seemed promising. After walking just a little way, Rob dashes forward and holds up a CD 742 M.T.CO. in nice condition that was just laying on top of the freshly plowed ground! About twenty minutes later, Tim got a CD 740.7 in aqua with two large chunks missing out of the skirt. We dug around and found the missing pieces! It re-glued nicely and is a great looking piece.

The field quickly turned to bush. We "bush whacked" for a couple of miles and came up with many CD 742 and CD 743 pieces. Darkness was coming so, we hiked back to the truck and found a cheap motel. 

Day 2 found us on another section of the line. After about an hour of driving we found a promising spot and started hiking. Rob spotted glass across a creek bank. He jumped the bank, got on his knees and quietly stared at a CD 718 in bubbly jade just laying there. After several pictures, the CD 718 was carefully stowed in his pack. Several more pieces were found but nothing whole.

It was decided that Toronto would have to wait for another trip since walking in the Ontario outdoors was good and the glass was great. The next day we literally covered miles of the line. We found nothing whole but did get big pieces of Fosters, Duponts, CD 718's, 743's, and 742's. 

The last day we headed south for some good old fashioned "picking." We picked many CD 143 varieties and CD 145 Americans and GNW's. When we got back to Rob's home on Thursday evening, I was exhausted. 

There is no description equal to getting out and hunting old glass with great friends in the open spaces of Ontario. Since I was the only one that did not find a whole threadless, Rob gave me the CD 742 M.T.CO.!! 

Leaving Ontario is always hard for me, since there is no place I would rather be hunting insulators and walking the lines.