Estrella/Vegas 2010 - Part 6, Heart Attacks and Brain Farts

Monday we went to Basspro to get some last-minute camping equipment. The stuff I bought ultimately stayed in Phoenix after the event, making the core of a supply of stuff for future events in the region.

Afterwards, we all decided to grab some lunch and then go to site. Lunch was at the Heart Attack Grill, which was difficult to find as they had recently moved. We did find them though it led to some disappointment and exasperation among the locals.

We had been given directions from their original location to their new location, but it was a cross street. There were strip malls at all four corners so we opted to simply park at the easiest corner and scout around on foot (we would need the exercise). Two fellows came out of a healthy-choices style restaurant to ask us how we we're doing.

"We're trying to find the Heart Attack Grill - do you know if it's around here?"
"Seriously? That's what you want to know?"
"Yeah, we're not from Phoenix, we wanted to try it out."
"Do you see that ambulance across the street? That's it there."

Turns out they owned the franchise.

Anyway, we went across the street and entered the domain. It was your basic burger diner with the addition of a skanky medical theme. The burgers were, as advertised, not in any way good for us. They were delicious though.

There was one major thing missing though - no bacon. How could you claim to be as unhealthy as possible without bacon on the hamburgers? According to Dr. Jon, the owner, this complicates the process.

Uncomplicated is their method of making margaritas. They're half mixer/half tequila. This led to several members of our party having to swap car keys as they realized they were not fit to drive. On one drink.

Afterwards we went back to the car, the two guys from Sandella's intercepted us.

"Did you like it?"
"We did."
"But would you go there again? Repeatedly?"
"We wouldn't make a habit of it, but I could see doing it again in a year, provided we had someone new to show it to."
"But you wouldn't be a regular?"
"oh no, it's not that good, it's only the novelty that would make you go there."
(relieved) "That's what we thought. A restaurant has to be good to keep people coming back."

The whole conversation had an air of desperation to it. Maybe I'll try them out the next time I'm in Phoenix - they seem like nice sorts. Of course, their servers don't dress up in skimpy latex nurse's outfits so who knows.

We went off to the event and set up our tents and made a run into Coolidge for supplies. By nightfall we were all settled in. It was only until much later that I discovered I had completely forgot to fetch the tent I had bought off of Panther Primitives. D'oh.

Estrella/Vegas 2010 - Part 7, Slack Tuesday

Not much to report. Tuesday was the day we checked out the merchants. For me there wasn't much else to do. No classes interested me. I couldn't fight and archery wouldn't open for another day.

We did hang out with the Artemesians though. Their current Crown Prince and Princess are a hoot!

Damn, what a short entry that was. This is what happens when you write this stuff a week later.

Estrella/Vegas 2010 - Part 8, The Fun Archery

Wednesday was when they opened up the archery range. The local marshals did make the range safe, despite my fears that it would be stupidly unsafe (i.e. shooting with parked RVs down range).

What they did was close the road that was along one edge of the archery range to all traffic and parking. I never saw anyone or anything down range that was in danger of being shot. It did make it hard to retrieve a handful of misfired arrows though (they were behind a chain-link fence), but the one arrow I did shoot back there turned up in the lost and found arrow pile the next day.

The first day's shooting did not have a formal tournament. Instead there was a charity tournament for cancer research. $5 got you into the tournament and it was all divided into two teams. The tournament was basically an extended speed round, which is something we practice a lot in Montengarde, so we had the potential to really dominate. Of course, the luck of the draw put garething, thekillerb69 and othelianna on one team and me on the other. My team lost, but it would have been much more one-sided if I hadn't been on that team - I was in the zone and shooting like a demon. Of course, so were the others, so it kind of evened out.

Still it was a huge amount of fun and I look forward to us completely ripping off the format at Quad War!

All the participants got a shiny gold coin (a freshly minted Sacagawea dollar)!

Writer's Block: Money to burn

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Food and medical treatment for as many people as possible. Oh and a paid vacation for all my friends to somewhere nice and warm.