Monday, September 25, 2006

Bash Report Bullets

Well it wouldn’t be a BadBlood trip report without some kind of travel-based snafu, now would it?  Note to self:  Do not schedule a return trip from the Bash at the Boathouse at 8:40AM the following day.

I awoke at 6:30AM (feeling, shall we say, less-than-fresh) and got out of the hotel with all my stuff before 7:00AM.  It was roughly a 45-minute drive to the airport and I was pretty confident that I had enough time to get there, check-in, go through security and catch my flight.

One thing I didn’t consider was my compromised brain capacity on 4 hours of sleep/passed-outed-ness (now an official word).  I had printed directions from the airport to Malvern and for the return trip, simply had to reverse them.  Same highways, different directions.  Pretty easy, huh?

Things started off well.  I navigated Routes 29, 202 and 76 successfully.  For whatever reason, when the time came to trackback onto highway 476, I followed my printed directions to the letter, gleefully driving the wrong direction away from the Philadelphia airport.  Fifteen minutes later, something in my subconscious must have noticed something was wrong.  In my best impression of Derek Smalls, I asked myself a most practical question:  “What fucking direction am I driving right now?” (“No we’re not going to fucking do Stonehenge”)

I should have realized something was amiss when I had to pick up a ticket from a toll booth, something not required on my journey there two days previous.  Making matters worse, this section of highway had a concrete barrier separating the north and southbound lanes.  There was no chance to make an illegal u-turn.  I had to immediately find the next exit and change directions.  Of course, the next exit was miles away.  I got my rented PT Cruiser past 90mph and gave it my best shot.

It was 8:25 when I tried to e-check myself in.  No go.  The lady at the ticket counter refused to print me boarding passes for my originally scheduled flight and I had to rebook.  This time, I looked at my final destination just to make sure it wasn’t Greensboro, NC.  Luckily it was correct and after delays upon delays, finally made it home at 5pm.  For those of you mathematically inclined, that’s 10.5 hours travel time.  I could have driven home in less.

****

As usual, I had an excellent time.  I’ll try to remember some details, but here are some highlights:

  • Meeting some bloggers for the first time – Veneno, Kat, Jordan, Pokerwolf, Slb, brdweb, and more that I have probably already forgot.

  • Live blogging the charity tourney was a blast

  • Playing Gavin Smith headsup for $100.  I didn’t just win, I dominated.  Granted, he was probably at 25% capacity, but so?

  • Playing the beer pong tourney with Brandon Schaefer.  We dominated early, but lost in the finals.  I choked by going 0-fer in the last game.  I hung my head in shame.

  • Seeing all the cool peeps again. You know who you are.

  • Watching Bobby Fucking Bracelet roll.  The guy is a legend.

  • Sharing a king size bed with Drizz.  Who said that?

  • Word to the wise, do not let Eva make your drinks.  Eva+drinks=memory loss.

  • StB

  • Heather, who grabbed the gunz the most.  I was going to retaliate, but wised up. (

  • Getting to shoot the shit with Maudie for a while.  We’ve officially retired steel chair jokes.

  • Having Carter use my Full Tilt card-protector and taking it to 2nd place on Friday.

  • Having a chance to hang a bit with the McGrupp brothers.

  • Being CJ’s beer-bitch during the charity tournament and having him suck out with the hammer and then winning the whole thing.  Good cards late, I kept repeating to him.  Good cards late.

  • And of course – TheAlCantHang Experience.  The person, not the band.

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