So after I arrive at the hotel, I go to get check-in. This is when I learned I was on the 12th floor. I asked the guy working the front desk how many floors there were at which time he told me; “12″. Knowing I drove down with a truck full of boxes and GCF gear, I was not happy. I had contemplated asking for a lower floor but decided I would just suck it up.  He gave me my hotel key card and told me my room. I headed to the elevator with my personal bags and got inside.

There was a bell boy standing at the elevator when I was getting ready to get in and he let me have the evelvator first as he had a huge load he was moving for someone else. I got in and pushed #12. The elevator didn’t move, I pushed #12 again a couple times and nothing. The elevator doors opened and I smiled at the bell hop. The door shut again and I pushed button 12 again and it didn’t light up (again). I honestly thought the elevator was broke and was a bit worried I might get trapped inside. The elevator doors opened again and the same bell hop was there waiting for an open elevator. I smiled again and said I think the elevator is broke, room 12 won’t light up when I push it. He smiled and told me that I needed to use the key card to get to my room. He took the key, stuck it in the slot and pushed the 12 button and off I went

I got to the 12th floor and started looking for my room. I had #1204 and wouldn’t you know it, mine was the very last room. YOu have got to be kidding me, I”m never going to make the Meet and Greet before I get my stuff to the room. I elected to just go back down the to event and worry about unloading the truck later. So off to the meet and greet I went. I got down there and it was pretty well attended. I saw people I knew and met lots of people I had only seen on the Groundspeak forums. I got a chance to sit down and chat woith a couple people and that was nice.

I was also fortunate enough to get some help from some special cachers (about 9 of them) who helped me lug all my junk up to my room! Thanks so much my little helpers!

I also got a chance to set up my banner display a bit early. I built mine and Yime’s banner stands so we could hang our banners. Pabloturtle made it his priority to oversee my setup skills and give me a hard time. Redwing Dave and Yime helped me haul the wood stands in and it gave me a change to see these two in action. I can say they were feeling good, haha. Yime makes a great human parking lot arm.  It’s one of those “you had to be there” moments.  I got a good laugh out of it all.

Some of the things I liked about the Meet and Greet: The set up was nicely done and it was organized. Plenty of room for cachers to mingle and we didn’t have to worry about other groups being around. I wish I would have taken pictures but I honestly was just busy enjoying myself. I thought the setup of the actual event room was pretty decent and easy to navigate.

There was only 1 thing about Friday night that I wasn’t impressed with and that was learning that a couple of vendors/people were selling their coins openly. 2 of them did not vend at the event. I thought that was disrespectful to those of us who paid the full $200 to be a vendor. I know a few other vendors were not happy about this but no one ever wants to rock the boat by saying anything. This is not allowed and according to the rules for the event, they are suppose to be asked to leave.  It was “overlooked” by the event staff because again no one wanted to cause problems. I could talk a bit more about this but what’s done is done and I’m sure I’ll receive a couple nast emails for even opening my mouth about this on my blog. However, I am just calling it like I see it and if you’re going to engage or allow certain behaviors than I suppose you should be open to accepting the heat that comes along with it.

Ok, I’ll sign off for now and post again later.

I hope you all had a nice weekend.

tsun

Tags: geocache, geocoin, geocoinfest, MONTANA GEOCACHING, tsun, tsunrisebey

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 7:07 pm and is filed under GEOCOIN DISCUSSIONS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.