Underway

Update: while I did write this last night, we never got to a point where I could easily post it.  Pretend you’re reading this yesterday.  kthx.

I’m writing this update at 70MPH.  We’re about 25 miles outside of Bloomington, IL, and starting to settle into what will be three days of pretty continuous nerdgasm.

Today started just about as inauspiciously as you could hope.  I was heading for my last preparation stop (Kroger) with all the food I’d just bought for the RV.  It was a near-90 day and I had some perishable and even frozen foods with me, so I was really hoping to be able to finish my prep work and get to the RV quickly.  About five minutes from Kroger, I nearly wrecked into the car in front of me – a FedEx truck heading toward me had pulled into oncoming traffic (my lane) in order to make a reverse into a driveway.  This was on a pretty busy road with plenty of traffic, so I don’t know what he was thinking.  Anyway as the traffic ahead of me stopped, I slammed my brakes and stopped probably six inches from the car in front of me.  Then I got creamed from behind by a guy in a van.  Long story short, Brian thinks my car is totaled, and I can’t even start trying to deal with it for a week and a half.  Happy days.

Since I was the prep guy, this had a fairly severe r2p impact. I lost about an hour to the accident report – police were called and came out, followed by paramedics and firefighters who were there to help the lady in front of me, who was feeling very shaky and stiff after the wreck.  By the time Brian got to Bloomington to pick me up (I didn’t trust my car to make it to him), we were losing time fast and decided to head straight for the RV to secure what food we had and make sure we got on the road in time.  We still don’t have any drinks, and all the rest of our preparations were rushed.  If we don’t find at least a few major things we flubbed or forgot, I’ll be shocked.

I’ve decided to look at the car thing as paying it forward.  If you’ve been reading our blog since PAX East, you’ll know that we hit a major snag early on that trip.  I’d say the destruction of my vehicle qualifies as a “major snag” since I was working on r2p stuff at the time.  Hopefully we’ve paid our karmic dues and can make it through the next 4500 miles without any further major problems.

In the grand scheme of things, if you have to have something awful happen to you, it probably helps to have it happen just before the best part of your year.  It might blight the feeling for a little while, but surrounded by all our nerd glory, it’s just impossible to be depressed.

I’m writing this on the navigation TV, the one up front.  Next to me, Brandon and Rufo are playing through the co-op campaign in Halo: ODST (heroic, bitches).  Brian is driving, and Robert is at the back of the RV putting some time on the (goddamn awesome) bunk bed teevee, playing Shadow Complex.  We’re down to a quarter tank of gas, but should be able to make it to our evening’s destination (Rockford, IL) without putting too much of a dent in the next one.  I’ll get a chance to visit briefly with my family, and then we’ll be off to Fargo and the CCST.

I don’t really have the ability to put pictures up from here but I’ll try to keep snapping some and maybe I can just throw up a gallery-only post next time we stop somewhere with good 3G.

Until then, if you’re going to PAX: may your journey be even smoother than ours.  If not, enjoy living vicariously, and find a way to join us out in Boston in six months.

Road2PAX, out