Okay, things are still flexible, but I have a few concrete dates set for my whirlwind tour of the USA, visiting all kinds of freaks and geeks from the alt.horror newsgroup and the stripcreator.com forums. Here we go...

I will be flying in to New York at 5:35pm on the 14th September. I'll be taking trains everywhere within the US - getting a month-long Amtrak pass.

From New York things are flexible, but I am thinking of heading down south, first to New Jersey to visit friends there, and then on to Washington D.C. to visit boorite, wirthling, kaufman, evil_d, and all the other DC/Maryland folks, especially those who won't be able to make Put In Bay, Ohio, on the first weekend of October.

After DC, things are even more flexible. a_chicka is in St Louis, and has said that this is a good central hub for a bit of an SC.com get-together. Does anyone else agree with her? I also have some friends in Chicago and rural Illinois who I would like to drop in on, and my time is limited, so I may have to choose between one or the other. Alternatively, any SC.com thing in St Louis could be limited to a one- or two-night event, leaving me time to move on to my many other ports of call.

Most likely, though, I'll be going D.C. to Chicago (maybe with a Cleveland stop-over for a day or two to say a quick hello to pita), spending a few days there (heya crabby!), then heading down to Omaha to spend the last few days of September with ladyjdotnet and her new bloke.

Around the first day of October I will leave Omaha and head back over to Ohio. I will be spending the weekend of 3rd-5th October with a whole bunch of SC.com people up at Put In Bay, including pita and bunnerabb.

I'll spend a day or two hanging around in Ohio, and then head WAAAYYY over west to Portland, Oregon, for my movie premiere. This may also include a stop in Seattle. The film fest ends on the 12th, after which I hope to stop off to visit DragonXero in northern California on my way down to San Francisco, from where I will fly out. Currently I am due to fly out of SF on the 13th, but that's kinda hard, so I'm going to talk to the travel agent and see if I get that bumped back to the 15th or so.

So, there we go. I ask again: who wants a visit from a big hairy Australian? I may need to stay overnight in NY that first night, and off the top of my head I can't think of any New Yorkers who could put me up for the night.

Woo-Hoo!!!

House is being remodled. Would you have objections to me putting you in a hotel for your stay, if you come to St. Louis rather than Chicago?

I am trying to avoid paying for any hotels, since my budget will be very tight. I think Scyess is also in St Louis, so I might be able to crash with him for a night or two. Hmmmm...

I probably won't be able to make Seattle after all, by the way, since my flight is leaving in the opposite direction from Portland - SanFran. I will, however, be in Portland for the better part of a week, so it would be a decent place for a little north-west get-together, especially if you want to see my movie. :)

Forget all the others, come for a
whirlwind tour of my house and yard!

Faaaahkinell...

114.5 hours in a train (including a little hop in a bus), or 121.5 hours if I go via St Louis. Still, that's only about five days total in transit, and two days of that is Cleveland to Portland.

Places I will be staying for a day or more
Optional St Louis leg

Arrive in New York City 14th September, 5:35pm

New York City
=> 1 hour =>
Trenton
=> 2 hours =>
Washington DC
=> 11 hours =>
Cleveland
=> 6.5 hours =>
Chicago
=> 8.5 hours => [5.5 hours]
-=- [St Louis]
-=- [=> 6 hours =>]
-=- [Kansas City]
-=- [4 hours (coach)]
Omaha
=> 10 hours =>
Chicago
=> 5.5 hours
Cleveland
=> 6.5 hours =>
Chicago
=> 44 hours (fucking OUCH!) =>
Portland
=> 13.5 hours =>
Chico
=> 6 hours =>
San Francisco (well, San Jose)

Fly out of San Jose 15th October, 12:20pm

So, my thirty-two days in the country will include five days of train travel, leaving me with about twenty-seven days for socialising. I am really looking forward to this trip. :)

Looks like Chicago might have fallen through, which means longer visits from me for everyone else!

[cue: cheers of adulation]

Wow, you guys sound exactly like crickets when you cheer! What a weird coincidence!

Anyway, this means that St Louis is now pretty much a certainty. Here are some very tentative and subject-to-change dates for you all...

New Jersey 14th -> 16th September
Washington D.C. 16th -> 18th
[19th in transit]
St Louis 20th -> 22nd
Omaha 23rd -> 28th
[29th in transit]
Ohio 30th September -> 6th October
[7th-8th in transit]
Portland 9th -> 13th
Chico 14th-15th

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Looks like Chicago might have fallen through,

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Portland 9th -> 13th

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Seattle is unlikely, but not impossible. The problem is that the second half of my trip is really full. I'm in Portland until the 12th, and fly out of San Jose at lunchtime on the 15th, so I won't have a lot of time to spare. Basically, I could pop up to Seattle for maybe one or two nights, but that would mean having to skip Chico and DragonXero. Then again, DX has said he may be too busy to be much of a host, so I dunno...

I wanna go see that fish market where they throw the fish around...

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I wanna go see that fish market where they throw the fish around...

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Wow, you guys sound exactly like crickets when you cheer!

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I have made a quick and ugly webpage of my rough itinerary as it now stands: http://members.optusnet.com.au/mcdexx/US-itinerary.html

Please, please, tell all the current and ex-SC.com people you know who may be interested in meeting a former SC.com addict. I would love to meet as many of you as possible.

St Louis is still tentative, since I haven't heard much word from people who will be going to this planned SC.com get-together there. If it turns out that hardly anyone will be able to make it, I will skip St Louis and just spend more time in DC, Omaha, or Ohio.

I have volunteered to DexX to be his US base of operations in case of emergency when he gets here. If you're one of the people that DexX will be visiting and/or staying with while he's here in America, please give DexX the go-ahead to release your contact info to me. He will also have the go-ahead to release my phone number to all of the people on his list of hosts in case any of you have last-minute emergency changes to report.

I volunteered to do this because I seem to only be happy when I have someone or something to fret about, and because I love DexX dearly and want to make sure that he has one fewer thing to fret over himself while he's here.

Also, if any of you folks have made non-committal noises about meeting up with DexX while he's here, please start making committal noises. Planning a trip can be stressful, and even more so when it's overseas. Making last-minute alterations to an itinerary is more stress than anyone needs. I can only imagine that DexX is starting to get all kinds of tense about the whole trip.

LadyJ has taken charge.

Everything shall now be fiiiine. :)

See? No more tense!

...though a massage would also help.

You'll get at least one between the 24th and 29th of September. :)

When are you going to draw my forum user character?

*smirk*
:>

Welcome to the USA.

Am I passing near you? If so, I'll be glad to draw one from life for ya. :)

Please tell me when your motorcade is slowly passing through my area

I'm in CT: If I had my own life + car I'd go to New York to say hi, but as it is you'll be too far away anyway.
Anyway I was just kidding.

If I were you I'd rather visit chicka than crabby any day [[[:D

When did you plan to come to st. louis, if at all? If I know the specific dates, I may or may not be able to commit. Im between two places right now, and Im going pretty insane right now.

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When did you plan to come to st. louis, if at all?

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OOops. Must have missed it. As far as the 23 and 24 go, Im moving the 19th through the 25th. I guess that knocks STL off your list, unless scyess has spoken up and I didnt know.

Hmmmm... well, I still have a week and a half to decide... I'll wait and see if anyone else wants to meet up in StL. If not... :P

Im sorry DexX. Its just been a rough few weeks with my fiance graduating and stuff. Everyone on IRC was in on what my schedule was like, but unfortunately, no one else was. If it had been a month earlier or a month later, Id be more stable.

That's cool - turns out some people in Chicago have finally understood that I'll be passing through in just two weeks, and are organising a get-together up there. So, no matter what happens, my schedule will remain packed. :)

Wonderful! Enjoy the states!

Lookie!!!

Getting awfully real...

Too late to back out now!

There is now a mailing list for those who I am visiting, to make communication easier. Feel free to join if we'll be meeting up.

Doing as ordered sire! I could catch you downtown Seattle in the day (lunch?) any of Oct 9 10 or 13. Can you make it? I don't have much to offer as host but to buy the lunch. Contact me at spankling@hotmail.com closer to the event and we can work it out. Thistown has good asian food and seafood. What do you like?

Can I claim some floor? In order to visit Seattle I'll need to stay a night or two, as detailed here. Is this cool? *puppydog eyes*

Join the mailing list! There's peoples on it!

Where'd you get that picture of that cockhead holding up a plane ticket?

But cirrusly fokes.... anyone know a decent place to eat on the I-95 b/w corridor, off 32 or 198 or something?

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Where'd you get that picture of that cockhead holding up a plane ticket?

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I just ran through schedules with my wife. She has me chained up with family. Mine. The ones that raised me - or what is left of them.

Trust me. I'm doing you a favor by turning you down as a house guest in mid-October. Not that my wife looked thrilled at the idea of me bringing home people I met on the net. She's a computer-phobe and thinks all the people who hang out here are psychos and perverts. I don't know where she gets this stuff.

Has Lara7 surfaced lately? She would be more hip anyway. If you do manage to get in town let me know if I rate buying you a lunch.

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She's a computer-phobe and thinks all the people who hang out here are psychos and perverts. I don't know where she gets this stuff.

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She's a computer-phobe and thinks all the people who hang out here are psychos and perverts. I don't know where she gets this stuff.

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She's a computer-phobe and thinks all the people who hang out here are psychos and perverts. I don't know where she gets this stuff.

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DexX, Spankling told us some time back that his house was "infested" (his word) with a nasty creature called the Hobo Spider. No lie. Google it. It's frightening. Big as a monkey's hand, and venomous. They like to hide in shoes.

You've been drinking glue again, haven't you?

You would hope so, wouldn't you? Sadly, the Hobo Spider is very real.

How do you like them mandibles?

Jesus. That thing makes wolf spiders look like little bitches.

You can come stay with me Spankling. The only thing my house is infested with is love.

Love and pie.

Love, pie, and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope.

i'll thank you to NOT post pictures of my penis

i can't believe i trusted you

You WISH your penis were as big as a hobo spider.

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Love, pie, and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope.

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