WarGamesCon: Duke’s Excellent Roadtip
If you haven’t made a road trip with your wargaming buddies it’s one of those things you must do at least once. Read on to see how our road trip to Wargamescon went.
Wargamescon or Bust!
22:00 – Boulder, CO. Eta: 16 hrs 52 min
It’s 900 miles to Austin we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a box of five hour energy, it’s dark, and were wearing sunglasses. Hit it!
Well we are all packed in and on the road. We learned a lot last year about what ‘to do,’ and ‘not to do,’ on a wargaming road trip. Item number one: REMEMBER YOUR ARMY! All said there are 5 of us in the car right now, though there are a few more following us in the Colorado-Caravan-of-Caranage (also known as the “Triple C,” for short). As part of our road trip traditions we started off with “Danger Zone,” and began trying to stump each other on random rules questions. Things will soon degrade into a cacophony of bad presidential impersonations and adding “that’s what she said,” to every sentence.
Quote of the hour: “zombies are the hobos natural enemy.”
24:00 – Colorado Springs, CO. Eta 14 hrs 40 min
We’re finally at the point in this trip where you realize your surroundings don’t feel like home. Half the car is starting to fall asleep, the music is down, it’s quiet introspection time. Usually around this hour my buddy Cruor Vault and I solve the worlds problems. Tonights topic: HDMI cable pricing. I am on-deck for driving so I need to start pounding five hour energy.
Quote of the hour: “it’s ham… And I’m going to eat it.”
03:43 Clayton, NM Eta 11 hrs 30min
Finished with my turn behind the wheel. Sadly, I find it completely impossible to find any amount of sleep without curling up into the thumb-sucking-fetal-position. So, for sake of my pride I’m staying awake. The crazy-looking gas station we just stopped at had both of the bathrooms blown up to holy-hell, so we were forced to continue on and find a pretty looking bush to feed instead.
Quote of the hour: “Holy crap I woke up in the wrong part of that conversation… And I drooled on myself.”
05:34 west of Lake Meredith, TX Eta. 9 hrs 15 min
Thank god for Dropkick Murphy’s and Flogging Molly without it we would probably be in some ditch on the side of the road passed out. As it stands the sun just came up, I still have gotten no sleep at all (I am told by BigRed that I will get re-rolls at the con based on how many straight hours I stay awake). My fellow Dukes Inferno writer, Immortal, is driving and is doing everything humanly possible to remain awake he is currently performing what looks like a sitting river dance… Either that or he has to pee.
Quote of the hour: “why is he still talking to her?”
09:23 Snyder, TX eta 5 hrs 13 min
Wow, I actually got a little bit of sleep. I have to mention, though, that 8 periods of 15 minute sleep cycles does not equal 2 hours of sleep :(. We’re all awake and running now, albeit a little slower than normal. We are now going over the different armies and how they can hurt our lists, this provides hours of good theory hammer for all involved, especially when we start guessing what chances we have of seeing those armies at the con. We should be arriving just in time to check in at the hotel.
Quote of the hour: “sorry guys, that burrito did me wrong,”
12:39 Brownwood, TX eta 2 hrs 11 min
We can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, excitement about the pending con is felt in everyone’s discussion. In a serious mistake of judgement we stopped at McDonalds, which is raking my stomach over the coals, I can’t wait for some real food! Perhaps we will go get some good ol’ Texas BBQ with the rest of the BoLS guys tonight, who knows. At this point I would be happy to have any excuse to stretch my legs.
Quote of the hour: “when I want to learn about being wrong, I’ll let you talk.”
15:15 Austin, TX eta 0 hrs 0min
Finally here! All said, the road trip was epic. Time to take a nap before all the revelry tonight and this weekend. If your here this weekend come say “hey,” I’ll likely be wearing a shirt that says “Duke,” and acting stupid. If your not here then all I can say is that you re seriously missing out.
What are some of your road trip experiences to cons? Did anyone else make the drive to Austin?
Duke
