High Score: Red Flag - Portland, OR

Only HOURS after my high score on WHO Dunnit, I got to enter my initials into another pinball machine in Portland, Oregon.  We had just eaten dinner, and we decided to play "connect the dots" using the pinball map app, trying to hit as many pinball machines as possible en route from the restaurant back to Greg's apartment.

After a few stops, we ended up at a bar called Red Flag which had a Creature From the Black Lagoon, the original Simpson's Pinball (Greg's favorite), Medieval Madness and an Attack From Mars.  I warmed up with a game of Medieval Madness.  I own this game, and mine is pretty much in perfect condition, so it's always a little painful to play a Medieval Madness on location, but in some ways it is a good way to get me honed in because I can't rely on my "home" timing and shot making.

After my warm up game (and really, I had been playing pinball ALL DAY, so I was pretty warmed up!) I moved over to the Attack From Mars.  I've seen this game played dozens of times by the world's best players in the PAPA videos, and the layout is very similar to Medieval Madness, so I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do on this machine.  Once again the pinball-reality wormhole opened and I played for what felt like forever.  I remember clearing all of the cities which was pretty cool and having some pretty successful multiballs, where I actually trapped and controlled the balls, which is new for me.  When all was said and done, I ended up with 14 billion which was the #2 score.

I had been playing for a LONG time, and when the last ball finally drained I realized that there was a guy with a beer who had been watching me for a while.  "DUDE!" he said, "that was an AMAZING game of pinball!"  I thanked him for the compliment as I wiped my sweaty brow and then plugged in my initials.  Two high scores in one day!  Two-fifths of a "cycle."  Definitely my best day of pinball ever... so far!