Minnesota Fringe Festival: Must see

Another theatrical production of a Cthulhu Mythos story is playing at the Minnesota Fringe Festival this year, "The Curse of Yig" and it looks pretty cool. It's being performed by Tim Uren who did "The Rats in the Walls" a few years ago, and if this is anything like that, it will be awesome. So, I'm definitely going to go, and I'd recommended others see it too. Here's the info;

http://fringefestival.org/2009/show/?id=973

And a summary; In 1929, a young academic visits the Guthrie Asylum in Oklahoma to explore the native tribal belief in the snake god, Yig. There she is confronted by a bizarre creature, the sole living survivor of the nightmarish Halloween of 1889. As she learns the tragic tale of Walker and Audrey Davis- early residents of the Oklahoma Territory- she too begins to fall under the spell of an unrelenting fear that time cannot diminish.

Roadtrip Specifics

I think that the weekend of July 17 to July 20 would work best for this trip;

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Mound,+MN&daddr=Mankato,+MN+to:Blue+Earth,+MN+to:Austin,+MN+to:Harmony,+MN+to:La+Crosse,+WI+to:Spring+Green,+WI+to:Baraboo,+WI+to:Hayward,+WI+to:Duluth,+MN+to:Brainerd,+MN+to:Alexandria,+MN+to:Mound,+MN&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=44.55106,-93.803355&sspn=0.867058,2.447205&ie=UTF8&z=6

Here is the Google maps trip itinerary; it is around 1,095 miles round trip. Feel free to make suggestions, etc.

May 1st- Party Down in Mankato

Hey, everyone, I'm almost done with my semester down here in Mankato, and I think a good way to celebrate would be to invite some people down here for some fun stuff. There are a couple of disc golf courses we could try in the Mankato area (weather permitting) and perhaps we could play my or David's recently published adventures, or just some Apples to Apples and board games. Anyway, expect food, drink, and entertainment. Well, I hope to see some people down on May 1st, then (sadly, I only have room for about seven- any more than that could get a bit cramped). See ya!

Harris

http://www.inkato.com/page/kato_frolf.html

Corn Maize! MAIZE! Get It?!?

'Cause it's a play on words, you know. Anyhoo ...

Always on the lookout for something different to do, I'm curious to see who would be up for a trip to a Corn MaIze. There are a few in Minnesota, including one in Delano, but a better one seems to be in Hastings. http://www.aftonapple.com/corn_mazes.htm.

It's about an hour's drive from my house in Mound. Here's a link to the mapquest directions: http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Mound&1s=MN&1a=2401+Chateau+Ln&2c=Hastings&2s=MN&2a=14421+So.+90th+St.

It's $9, or $8 with a $1 off coupon on the website. They're open until October 31st, Friday & Saturday till 10:00 pm and Sunday till 6:00 pm. Who's up for a trip to a Corn MaIze!?! C'mon people, it'd be fun!

GenCon 2008 w00t!

Allright, so I accept the fact that there probably won't be a trip to California this year, and that truly bums me out. However, that leaves room in my schedule and budget for GenCon 2008. GenCon is August 14-17 in Indianapolis, IN. Let's look at some numbers shall we?

4 day badge: $65 pre-reg, $75 on-site
Lowest of the low hotel room: $50/night, $200 total for four nights (arrive Wed, leave Sun)
Gas: It's roughly 600 miles to Indianapolis. Figure at least another 50 miles puttering around and 600 to get back puts it at 1250 miles. In my truck highway gas mileage is 18 miles/gallon. That's roughly 70 gallons of gas. At (perhaps conservatively) $4.50/gallon cost that's $315 for gas for the trip.
A four hour event at GenCon: $4.00.
Misc. food and merchandise expenses.

So for me to go it would cost $515 for hotel and gas. That sucks. But if someone else went with me, it would be $260 each. Much nicer. And if a third person goes with it drops to about $175 each. Totally do-able. More than three people I think and another hotel would be required. And the hotel and badge registration is done up front, so the only expenditure at the time of departure would be gas and misc. food and merchandise expenses.

So ... who's up for GenCon 2008? Details can be found at http://www.gencon.com/.

Vacation Road Trip 2008!

So in 2006 it was Seattle. In 2007 it was Boston. Now, we come to 2008, and I'd like to get a road trip rocking to the west coast. Specifically, to San Francisco. But not just San Francisco! Hitting the bay area and then driving north along California's coast to Portland for a short time. And then returning home from Portland.

Here's some numbers to munch on.

Mound to San Francisco: 1,950 miles, 30 hours.
San Francisco to Portland: 650 miles, 10 hours.
Portland to Mound:1,725 miles, 25 hours.

That's a total of 4,325 miles for just the big legs. Taking a vehicle that gets around 17 miles to the gallon, that's a total of 254 gallons. Estimating gas to be about $4/gallon that comes out to around $1,000 TOTAL in gas. Split that four ways and it's $250 per person.

If there's enough people (and I would want three or four) to get this going, I'd like to go for around 2 weeks if possible and leave sometime in August. September would work as well.

So ... who's up for a road trip to the west coast?