So, Geocoinfest in Salt Lake City, Utah was this past October 10th. I’ve never vendored before and was previously at the Pittsburgh event the year before just to see what it was like.

What a very interesting experience. If any of you have read the Groundspeak forums, you’ve pretty much got a good idea of my experience from beginning to end. I suppose this will just be a bit more detailed and some thoughts that I didn’t feel necessary to post on the forums.

Winter struck early in Montana, a blizzard the night before I left and icy, snowpacked roads my entire ride through my beloved state. I pretty much used 4WD the entire ride until I got to Idaho where I saw green grass and leaves still on trees. How unfair is that? I did manage to time part of my drive just perfectly as I was headed over and down Boulder pass which was a sheet of ice, I was right behind a snow plow and he was also laying gravel down. It’s just sad when that’s the highlight of your drive, haha.

Idaho was easy driving and so was Utah for the most part. I didn’t do any caching on my way down because I knew I was going to be arriving just at the Meet and Greet was starting. Before I left, Georgia (the head cheese for the event) sent me directions on what exits to take as I was headed southbound on I-15. In my rush to leave the house, I couldn’t find my atlas and I didn’t bother downloading any coords. to the event. I figured how hard can a hotel right off of I-15 be to find?

First mistake, never mistake yourself as having a photographic memory if you really don’t have one. Second, probably best to load the coords. just in case. Once I started getting close to SLC which was probably about 30 miles north, the traffic started getting heavy. In Montana, we have a 4 lane Interstate, 2 lanes each way. There’s never a problem with hoards of traffic. The Interstate turned into 6 lanes going southbound only and there were alot of cars going the same direction. I looked at my clock and I was hitting Friday rush hour traffic. Oh great! The closer I got to SLC, it became bumper to bumper and stop, go, stop, go. They also had road construction and I started getting confused as to what lane I should be in just in case the exit I was looking for should suddenly appear.

After an hour of fighting traffic, I made it to SLC in jammed packed lanes. I knew my exit had to be coming up, I could see all these really tall building off to my left and I remember thinking; “I wonder if it’s in the middle of the city?” and getting kinda freaked out. BUT, I had Georgia’s good directions, so I knew I’d be ok.

Let’s see, an hour and a half later and no such exit and I started to get the feeling something was wrong. Not having a map, I had no clue if I was no longer in SLC or in the next big city as it all seemed to be packed with homes and businesses. Here in Montana, we don’t really have close towns. YOu know exactly when you have left a town because there just isn’t anything around. I keep driving until I see American Fork and some other names I recognize to be in Utah but knowing they aren’t close to SLC. I decide to stop and try and find out where I am exactly, haha.

I had calle The Mopp Along to try and get better directions but he was pretty much worthless in that department. He said he followed his GPS coords., well I wasn’t smart enough to do that now, was I?

As I’m exiting the Interstate to try and have someone tell me where I am, I get a phone call. It’s bluemotmot who is going to help me vendor. I’m so riled up and upset by now, she thought she’d dialed the wrong person. I know I was totally rambling and was probably incoherent, lol. What I do remember from that conversation was asking here to text me the telephone number to the hotel so I could call and get new directions. Oh no, I didn’t bother printing the hotel information either. Why would I need to call them? They knew I was coming. I received her text about 5 minutes later and I called the hotel.

The gentleman I spoke with was very polite and kindly stated that the directions I was given were for people headed northbound on the Interstate and there is no such exit from my direction and I would have had trouble finding it without the proper directions. Well on one hand I felt better and on the other, I was still mad. I headed northbound this time and it took me about a half hour to get back to SLC. The traffic was a little less congested since I managed to hit it all when I was passing through the first time. I think it took me almost 2 hours to get from one end of SLC to the other. A little tricia there for ya.

Now, I knew when I found the hotel that I could take a authorized u-turn to get to the parking garage. Well, as I am passing the hotel, I can’t find that “authorized” u-turn. Now I’m mad again. I can see the parking garage but I have no clue how to get to it. As I’m making  way around the back side of the hotel, I see Marky and rivercity walking down the side walk. I roll down my window and yell. I asked how to get to the parking garage and they yell, it’s on the other side. WEll ya, I already know that but I didn’t have time to converse while driving down a one-way. I yelled back; “I hate this city” and rolled up my window while I saw them both laughing.

I managed to make it back to the street that goes by the front of the hotel and at this point, was like screw-it. I’m turning here and I don’t care. I swung a u-turn (probably in the wrong spot) and made my way to the parking garage.

I made it! The relief was overwhelming and I was 2 hours late to the event. But better late than never huh?

Part 2 coming up later