*MY* convention writeup (part 3)

[KIERAN A. LAVIN]

Sunday morning was full of stories from the night before.  After most
overcame their hangovers, we headed to the picnic.  By the way, I did not
have a hangover.  I had a sore throat from all the shouting but that was
it.  Joe and I went over the picnic and started to wander the picnic area
and car show.  There was plenty of time to relax, hang out, and enjoy the
company of the others around us.  Later in the afternoon, they had the car
show awards and the raffle.  Toward the end of the raffle (or so it
seemed... at least to me) I decided to head back to the hotel because I
needed to use the bathroom and the toilets in the park did not have doors
on the stalls (if you know what I mean).  Upon returning, most people had
cleared out of the park.  We still had some time and Joe had mentioned
trying to get to do some sightseeing in the afternoon.  We got back to the
hotel but wound up hanging out talking in the parking lot.

There were very few people left for dinner on Sunday night.  We had a
group of about 20 (when did you think you'd hear that?  A small group of
20?) went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner.  After dinner, we hung
out in the parking lot bullshitting for a while.  Ray and Joe had
convinced me during the afternoon that we should take an extra day and go
to the Grand Canyon.  Ray had called and checked on flight availability
and there was a flight going out Monday evening at 11:55PM as opposed to
our original flight at 8AM.  I think I finally left the group in the
parking lot still talking around 1AM.  Ray came in later around 2 or 2:30.

When we got up in the morning, someone had tried to break into the trunk
of our rental Maxima!  The only things back there were my video camera,
regular camera, and helmet.  Cocksuckers!  So we called the police to get
a report for the rental company (even though I took out the extra
insurance).  We wound up with a late start to the day but only about an
hour late.  As we drove north toward the Grand Canyon we monitored the
fuel in each car.  Joe was driving our Maxima with Ray, Larry Weeks, and
myself and Matt Ostlund with his wife were following.  Matt's car was
showing 30 miles till the tank was empty.  Joe missed the exit we were
going to take but we figured we'd be ok since it was only another 10 miles
or so.  Well, Matt's car ran out of gas!  We went ahead and got him some
gas.  We only wound up losing about 20 minutes or so in our trip.

We finally got to the Grand Canyon about 12:15 in the afternoon.  We went
to the tourist center and found information on flights and helicopter
rides over the Grand Canyon.  We booked a flight for $60.  The flight was
*AWESOME*  I've flown over the Grand Canyon on flights to California but
this was amazing!  After getting off the plane, we drove to get a closer
look.  We stopped in a few parking lots, got some pictures, and got some
souvenir rocks.

We drove through the afternoon to get back to Phoenix.  We were going to
try to meet up with Kyle Davis and Ben Rockwell for dinner.  As we were
approaching Phoenix, Ben called me to see where we were.  He had woken me
up and I asked Ray where we were.  There was a miscommunication and Ben
gave us somewhat bad directions.  They were ok but not for where we were
coming from.  Anyhow we met up with them for dinner.  After dinner, we had
to head back to the airport  :(

It was a great convention and, of course, better than last
year's.  Hopefully next year's convention in Kansas City is even better
yet!  I'm looking forward to actually driving a long(ish) distance to a
convention this time!  I know I spoke with many of you west coasters over
the weekend but, if any of you are visiting the New York City area, let me
know!  I'll show you around and let you stay at my place.  I'm a 10 minute
walk and a 10 minute train ride away from Manhattan.  My place is open to
you guys!

kieran
kieranlavin.com