h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This meet coincides completely with the *only* time that ~jwf~ is coming the thousand miles west from Nova Scotia to Quebec.



I want to do BOTH!



The problem is that he lives so far east it is practically Europe, but will be a spit and a doddle north of NYC between July 29 to Aug 3rd.



Now as I see it we do one of three things

Come to Gilroy and ignore ~jwf~, which I don't want to do - he is one of the three researchers I named in the very first IM conversation with GTB about coming out here. In other words, there were three reasons for me coming out to North America, and ~jwf~ was one of them.

Or GTB and I couls see ~jwf~ late July/Early August and then work our way round in August so that we amble down the West Coast, seeing each of you separately, or in pairs, or whatever. The Gilroy meet goes ahead, and we miss it. This is less exciting for us than a full-on festival meet, but it *does* mean we get to see everyone, even if we don't see you all at once. It also takes some pressure off our trip round, because we don't have a fixed and immovable deadline ahead of us for 3/4ths of the trip. The time-pressure is already making us a little nervous.

See ~jwf~ and meet y'all at a SECOND festival! (Why have one summer meet, when you can have two?) ~jwf~ has suggested (with a considerable touch of envy) the Burning Man festival between August 25 and September 1. http://www.burning-man.com This is a much much bigger event, which he described as 'like h2g2 in real life - which is as tempting as all-getout! In fact GTB and I could probably make it anyway. Hell, why not! We'll need a reward for missing the Gilroy Meet, and the Canadian Grand Prix and the Burning Man would be two rewards, not one.



So....

Fellow Hootooers...

How committed are each of you to the Gilroy festival?

Putting it bluntly, if only four or so of you are going to be there, and you four are four we could *meet anyway* individually, then (for me) it is a no-brainer, and I will want to meet ~jwf~ in Quebec.

GTB may feel very differently about this, in which case we will take each other off-site and settle our differences on IM and come back as of one mind. Though ~jwf~ is luring us with the Canadian Grand Prix -
(This is part of what the rest of the world do for motor-racing. Kinda like the Indie 500 but with testosterone instead of gas.)

Y'all can still go to the festival, while we go to the Grand Prix, and then we can catch up with you later.

I must admit, as I am typing this, the roar of engines and the smell of petrol fumes are drowinging out the aroma of garlic. We would raise a toast to the garlic-munchers, and catch up with each of you in August.

GTB and I need to confer, and it would help tremendously if we knew how many of you were likely to acctually attend the Gilroy meet, and how many of you are just keeping an electronic eye from a distance.

Ben

Since I have no idea if anyone but me is subsribed to the page, and I was going to do a survey anyway, I'll go around and ask people when I've time. I know that if I can, I'm going, and I know Fadookie said he was going to go to the festival before he ever knew of the meet, but I'm not sure about everyone else.

But I think, if jwf was a large reason for you, Ben, to come over in the first place, that you should see him Heck, there's enough time to arrange a regular meet, whether or not it's at Burning Man! I'll stop nagging you about coming But you're both still coming to Sacramento at some point!

I'm subscribed to the page, but looks like it'll be highly unlikely I can attend thanks to my half a dogsbody income. Looks like I'll be doing the attending on paper this time, and doing the real life attending once I make my first million. *pipe dream*

Well we will still be meeting people, either in ones and twos or mores. And the paperbaby will be good and visible by then. I would much rather hold a child than stroke a tummy!

GTB is off-line today, and I am off galivanting this weekend, but it would be good to get some gen.

Croz - where are you? Can we drop by and blow some smoke to encourage those pipe dreams?

Ben

Why do I hit post before I engage brain? We met at the London meet! How could I forget?

*must remember not to drink at meets*
*must remember not to drink at meets*
*must remember not to drink at meets*
*must remember not to drink at meets*

B

I'm in Manchester Ben, and I am quite forgettable

... well I did remember about 30 seconds later!

Maybe this time I'll actually get around to doing your portrait, Croz And If I can't make it in the flesh myself, I'm sure there'll be someone willing to print us out...

I am tentativly plannig on going to the meet. The only question mark for me is if I will have a job by then. My company is laying off people all the time. Assuming I have gainfull employment I will be there.

I've started updating with the people I'm certain of, and I'll go around this weekend and start asking people. Of course, if someone wanted to, they could ask some folks and let me know, too...

I just went around and asked everyone, so we'll just have to wait and see

I'm tentatively planning to go. I will honestly say that it depends on whether I feel like it when it rolls around. It's a 4-5 hour drive for me, so I have to get up the motivation to do it.

Well, , I guess I'll have to go into that category of people who really wanna go but can't

Nuts.


In other news, Hi everybody!!

Xilagedhajjarah Nut

It's about the same length of time for Tom and I, too (which is why, if I've not delivered yet, I ain't goin') but I'll put you in 'Maybe' list, Wampus...

Would've been great to meet you, Thog

Yeah... Sorry... haven't made it to even ONE of these things yet

Well, if anybody ever gets up into the Durango area, let me know...

You could go hint at the Rolling meet up page...

Hey, you know, that's not a bad idea



Xilagedhajjarah Nut

I do have my moments, even with preggie-brain-rot

Durango, Colorado?

Ben said, in post 1: "GTB may feel very differently about this, in which case we will take each other off-site and settle our differences on IM and come back as of one mind."

We are now of one mind, and it looks like our plans have changed yet again. I'm glad we started early, so this sort of thing can happen with many moons to spare. Much less stress that way.

We'll be leaving Dallas near the beginning of July, and reaching French Canada by the end of July. After that, we cross over, as far as Vancouver and Seattle, and then cut down diagonally across Oregon and into northern Nevada, for Burning Man right at the end of August. After that, we'll head west, passing through Sacramento on our way to the Bay, and then down to So Cal, and back through the southwest desert, arriving in Dallas sometime in September.

This takes off the time-pressure, which was making us worry how we would get 2/3 of the way around the continent in time for Gilroy. We'll now be operating at a much more leisurely pace, so we can really spend our time seeing the places and people that we're travelling so far to see. I'm sorry we will miss the Garlic Festival Meet - it'll be quite an event, and we'll insist on seeing pictures and tasting some kind of leftovers!


Our west coast Itinerary now looks something like this (I'll be updating the page this evening, too):

Vancouver around August 20, for a couple of days

Seattle just after that, staying for a day or so

one night in Oregon, en route

Burning Man, Black Rock Desert Nevada, August 26-September 1, at least I think those are the dates. Maybe we won't do the whole week, who knows?

Sacramento

San Francisco

Los Angeles

San Diego

Grand Canyon

Durango or Pagosa Springs

Santa Fe

Dallas