Category Travel

As part of my ongoing quest to build display and storage for my sports card collection, I purchased a vintage card catalog from the library at Iowa Wesleyan University. It turned out to be a fun day trip to drive to Mount Pleasant, with stops in Dubuque, Iowa City, and Cedar Rapids to check out bars, restaurants, and local card shops.

Once I got there, I thankfully had help to load the extremely heavy card catalog into the trailer, but also to load all of the individual drawers separately.

Once I made it back to Wisconsin, I unloaded the card catalog and moved it into the guest house. I had to remove the metal legs to reduce the height, and then I added a new wood veneer on the sides to cover over some scratches and other damage that it had taken over the years. It fits the space really well, and the drawers are the perfect size for sports cards!

Here are a few more photos of my overall card storage and display areas, split between the card catalog plus other shelves in the guest house, and part of the library:

In my search for a new bar, I came to the realization that finding a pre-built, good looking bar with the right wood and other features was harder than I anticipated. I finally found one that I liked, but when I went to order it, I found that the company that made it, American Heritage Billiards, was not accepting orders and appeared to be out of business. Thankfully, I was able to locate one of the bars on eBay.

I purchased it from a seller in Indianapolis, and was faced with the choice of shipping it, or going to pick it up. Partially out of boredom during the pandemic, and partially to save money, I decided to go pick it up. I rented a trailer for the truck, booked a hotel room at the Omni in downtown Indianapolis, and set off. The new truck made the trip pleasant and easy, and I was able to pick up the bar and load it into the trailer from the seller’s warehouse in suburban Indianapolis.

After picking up the bar, I had a fun time exploring some of the bars in downtown Indy along with a little bit of sightseeing, and a fantastic dinner at St Elmo that included an awesome bottle of Opus One!

The next day, I decided to take a more scenic route back to Madison, that took me through a few nice Indiana towns where I was able to do some antique book shopping, and then through Illinois (including Urbana-Champagne) before turning north and heading towards Wisconsin.

Once I got back home, I unloaded and unpacked the bar, and found it to be in great condition.

Now that I knew the bar I bought was going to work, I also purchased cabinets from New Age Cabinetry in California, that would be a more bar-specific look than the bookcases I’d had before.