I've never been to an Otakon before. Hard to believe for the World's Greatest Otaku, but it's true. I simply HAD to go this year, it was far too important to miss the biggest anime convention on the east coast (damn you Anime Expo for being on the other side of the country!). I didn't quite know what to anticipate, and actually getting to Otakon both disappointed and surpassed my expectations of what was to occur. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me go through the entire adventure as it happened.

I awoke in my bed Wednesday, courtesy of my friend, Mike, not expecting to see him until Thursday.

"We're leaving for Otakon today."

"Today!" I exclaimed, "I thought you said we were leaving tomorrow?!" I hadn't a single thing packed and I still needed a shower and shave and all the routines you must go through before engaging on any long trip. I immediately got out of bed and checked my computer to see if my downloads from the night before had finished (hey, a man has priorities y'know). After that, I cleaned up, got dressed, packed all my things I needed. We were on the road within the hour (that's good military training for you).

We headed up to New Hampshire and Daniel Webster College where the rest of our group waited to embark for Otakon with us. At DWC we gained another five travelers. We left Mike's car (BMW 3 series!) at college and transferred all our gear into one of two vans (Josh, Brian and Tyson in one and me, Mike, Randy and John in the other). Once everything was together and ready we all left for Pennsylvania for the last two individuals who would be coming with us. Here, things become interesting.

A few hours of driving and the other van lost more than once (but regained!), everything seemed to be going OK. We had radios to keep in touch, but for some reason we lost contact. When I looked back smoke poured out of Josh's van! Mike must have seen it as well because we both yelled, "Pull over! Pull over!" I thought the rear van was on fire. At the side of the road everyone evacuated the vans and examined the smoking engine.

"The van won't go to the top gear," Josh said. It keeps downshifting." So that's why they couldn't keep up. Also, their radio received all our signals, but they couldn't return a single one.

Apparently a busted windshield washer fluid hose caused our grief. We couldn't do much for it and some of us had to use the bathroom. Fortunately there was a forest behind us; unfortunately it first required climbing a 60° slate hill. Brian, Tyson and I were the first wave, literally hanging on to hand and foot holds. The rock was very chipped and jagged, sharp edges everywhere and little flat chucks of rock spread out. Falling down was a bad idea. We successfully made it to the top (some 20-25 feet off the ground) and walked did our business in the woods. As though getting up was easy, getting down was the hard part. Since I had some mountaineering experience I know how to correctly slide down a mountain without killing myself. Tyson and Brian seemed to know what they were doing already so I just slid down the hill trying not to cut myself on the rocks.