Just starting a thread for people to chip in on. I'm not in much shape to write, having just finished 15 hours of driving with a 4 hour sleep break in the middle. I will mention that the return trip included whacking a Bambi at 65mph at 2 in the morning on Monday somewhere outside Washington PA (while listening to a CD of some Russian pop group bizarre enough to keep us awake). The good news is that Bambi was already dead and horizontal when we hit him, so there was no bodywork damage and no accident. The bad news is that Bambi exploded upon impact and covered the entire undercarriage in decaying Bambi bits, a sort of green proto-jerky, a substance some mechanic will no doubt have some choice words about while he is repairing the damaged exhaust system of my minion's Impala SS. We did find a self-serve car wash to get off what we could while it was fresh (relatively speaking), but the car still smelled a bit ripe this morning when we drove it to get repaired.

Do any of our other long-distance attendees have a tale of terror to report?

Greg
BTRC

Dude, that's f'd up. (But not unexpected in the area.)

Was it north or south of Washington? My sister and one of my grandmas lives in Washington (the rest of my immediate familiy is in my hometown, Canonsburg).

CU

Only terror tales that I have to report were our lodgings (next year we're forking over the extra dough to get a decent place to sleep) <shudder> and the Ram microbrewery not having pint glasses for the entire weekend OR silverware (???) at 1AM on Sat. night.
Thanks to all the Forge folks for organizing and running the booth.  It was nice to chat with the staff members and, of course, be able to pick up a few games.  Kudos to all of you.

Andrew

I believe Bambi detonated under our car north of Washington PA, and we didn't find a car wash until a bit south of Washington (within 15 minutes or so of the hit & run). As an additional macabre note, I thought for sure we'd holed the radiator when we stopped, what with the steam coming out from under the hood. But no, the steam was from some other source of moisture boiling off...

Greg
BTRC

Post Gen Con stuff coming, we're still recovering from our 13 hour drive.

Can relate to the Bambi thing though.  a few years back east of center county PA we did the same thing in a Saturn.  Our Pre-struck Bambi lay across the passing lane. As we tried to pass an 18 wheeler I noticed it way up a head.  So I say "dear."  Mike thinks I'm talking to him and says "Yes honey?" I'm now Pointing to the road but all My brain will let out is "DEAR! DEAR!" By the time Mike processed it, there's nothing we can do but run over it.  Ours didn't explode though. (I wonder if you get extra points for that)  we did cook a sizeable roast of it by the time we got to Pen State where we could wash the car.  Grim.

Our trip back through PA was rather smooth. Road construction didn't impede us till Easton.  We Extended our drive by an hour an a half to drop off the boxes so they are safe an sound at Brennen's.

-kat

Ewwwwwww!

If anyone else shares this sentiment, let's have this post speak for all of us, i.e. no need to duplicate.

More horror stories about GenCon travel, present and past? Sure! Let's hear'em!

Best, Ron

btrc wrote:
I believe Bambi detonated under our car north of Washington PA, and we didn't find a car wash until a bit south of Washington (within 15 minutes or so of the hit & run). As an additional macabre note, I thought for sure we'd holed the radiator when we stopped, what with the steam coming out from under the hood. But no, the steam was from some other source of moisture boiling off...

No real horror stories to share, the Chicago tolls are a bit tore up, but were much more manageable on the return trip than the one going to Indy...

I had a great time at the convention this year, played some fun demos and got to meet a lot of folks that I had only known from forums/livejournal etc. There was a lot of great energy at the Forge booth this year, but I did find it difficult to leanr much about even half of the new games. There just wasn't enough time or space to check them all out...

Thanks for a good time and keep up the good work with great games!

Regards,

Matt

It took me the better part of a tedious day to get home via air, but no entrails were involved.  I'll call that a win.

GenCon was, as always, fabulous. And as always, there wasn't much else going on besides the Forge. Sure, I blew a chunk of change on some more foamfighting gear, and would have spent a bunch on HeroScape stuff if Hasbro had pulled its head out of its collective rear this year. And I bought some DVDs because, well, they were there.

But as for stuff *going on* at the con, it was all about the Forge.

The only disaster I have to report is the 70 something dollars I paid for parking at the hotel, and the fact that I can't find my Jungle Speed anywhere... so if anybody picked up a stray yellow JS bag at the Embassy, please let me know. I was so hoping to introduce it at game night this saturday... *sniffle*

More later as I parse my thoughts out in between getting back into the swing of regular life... *sigh*

GenCon kicked ass! My journey home was without problems.

You can download or watch my GenCon 2006 QuickTime slideshow (or, as Dro put it, the "video with way to much goths") here:
http://electronicbodyconfusion.com/MadMoses/GenCon2006/GenCon2006.mov