Are You Who I Think She Is?

…so confused right now

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Life On The Magic Bus

Chapter 9, Part 2: Across America At Random

Rules rule
The trip is discussed

8/9/2014

In the past slightly more than 15.5 weeks, there had been changes and refinements to the “Great Random Con Trip”, as it was now being called. That’s the sort of thing that happens when you get thousands of people on social media arguing about rules.

The arguing had ended 2 weeks ago, so the rules were now set in stone. The most important ones were…

1: All cars would leave from Fort Bragg, California, at sunup 8 days before the unofficial start of the con on Wednesday, August 19^th.

2: All daily routes had been plotted for an average speed of 65 miles per hour and a drive time of no less than 8 hours, not counting 2 hours of stops.

3: All stops would be posted online, if internet connection is available, when they happen. Pictures of start, stop and souvenir purchases are mandatory.

4: Drivers would get their daily routes at midnight, Pacific Time.

5: Regular post on social media were mandatory.

6: SAFETY FIRST!

7: Unless there was an emergency, all drivers should arrive at the rendezvous site outside Baltimore no later than 5 pm on Tuesday, August 18^th, for the big barbecue bash.

And that was that, so far as rules went.

But just now, with less than 48 hours to go before the trip starts, Doc was busy making last minute tweaks to everything from food to mapping software. He was aided in some of this by his friend, Spike Smith.

The Smith’s being here for the ride across the country was strange, since they lived in Baltimore a mere 7 miles from the convention center. The decision to make the trip had come from Spike’s wife, Mary, who had pointed out that she and Spike had not taken a really long auto trip to Gen Con in years, since the con had been in Baltimore for 3 years now and had just been in Pittsburgh the 3 years before that. Mary was apparently ready for some adventure.

“So how many cars are going on this trip?”, asked Spike as he handed Doc a case of assorted potato chips.

“Last I heard, 12, but that was 3 days ago. Kinda makes you wonder how the folks on the “Great Gen Con Road Trip” Facebook page have found different routes for all of us.”

“Well, there are a lot of roads out there and we do know that several of them will be using southern and northern routes.”

“True enough”, Doc said as he put another case of soda onto the Bus for the SmartBots to put away. “I pity the cars that will have to drive through the hot ass desert or across too much of the flat mid-western cornfields. Man, those fields are boring.”

They finished up loading on the groceries and went inside the house the house to clean up before they would all go out for pizza. Inside, Grace, Mary, and the Critters were relaxing in the living room.

“We have news about the trip”, Grace said after Doc and Spike had finished washing up. “Three new cars are signed on for a total of fifteen. That caps it off. Oh, and one of those cars will have the Drago sisters in it.”

Doc shook his head in disbelief. The Drago sisters were popular fantasy artists who lived and worked in Key West, Florida. They were the third or fourth car from the far eastern side of the continent, although not nearly as far east as those four crazies from Newfoundland.

“Well, I guess folks are doing this partly because it’s crazy and partly because Gen Con moves back to Milwaukee for good next year.”

Mary nodded, then said, “Well, there can still be another crazy random road trip next year, especially since Milwaukee puts the con farther away from the East Coast.”

“Let’s wait and see how much of a calamity this one turns out to be.”, Grace said with a slight grin. “Now let’s go get some pizza. I’m starving.”