Zombie Con 2009 - The Debriefing

[kyle]

Well, we survived yet another year. Most of us here at ZS HQ are still decompressing though so this will be short. As I get photos and stories from folks I'll get links to them here.

I've also sent instructions to those who've attended this year's festivities to upload photos so you may see some pop-up here soon:
http://zombiehunters.org/gallery/v/Zomb ... iecon2009/

[Bridget]

My tacos bring all the boys to the firepit.

[futacattac]

i was going to write something cool................,but i just sat there in the tub,staring at the shiny stuff.........

[Horatio_Tyllis]

i was going to write something cool................,but i just sat there in the tub,staring at the shiny stuff.........

you have the taste of a hyper magpie in a recycling factory. And after that mountain your probably taste LIKE a hyperactive magpie and a recycling factory.

[Jeriah]

So, this is how it went down for me. Sorry, this is both really long, and incomplete. That's how I roll.

Monday night, I packed as much as I could, then went to sleep. Tuesday morning we got up pretty early, and loaded up the Jeep.

We drove out to the storage unit where we keep the guns, in order to comply with Chicago’s absurdly restrictive gun laws (by not keeping them in Chicago). We selected my Bushmaster XM15E2S, my Maadi MISR (Steph’s favorite), her Kel-Tec SU16A, her Savage .22 bolt action, my Sig-Sauer P226 9mm, and my Mossberg 500 with both long and short barrels. This was intended so we could shoot in the rifle matches, the pistol matches, and the skeet shooting. We inventoried our ammo and made a note of what we needed more of: 5.56mm and 9mm.

We headed south; we stopped at a Mexican place for lunch somewhere on the 55. It was decent and reasonably priced; I had the “Monterey Burrito“ lunch special. When we got to the St. Louis area, we stopped at Cabela’s for some much needed supplies. They had affordable 5.56mm, but were totally out of 9mm except for some expensive defensive +P stuff. We bought 200 rounds of 5.56mm plus a box of #7 ½ Sporting Clays 12 gauge shells, and a box of #9. These latter two were for skeet shooting. I eyeballed Harris bipods, wanting on for my AR15, but am undecided on whether I want to go with a Harris, or a Mako bipod-VFG. Leaning towards the Harris but the Mako has advantages as well. I also checked out some silicone-impregnated “gun socks” but wanted to solicit opinions on the board before buying any.

The employee at Cabela’s who had told us they were out of 9mm very politely directed us to a shop in town, “so-and-so’s reloading,” (I don’t remember the name) where they might have had 9mm in stock. We followed his directions, and after successfully avoiding a very aggressive young woman driving a bright red sports car, we got to the shop. The did indeed have 9mm in stock; Steph and I each bought a box. I also played with the Crimson Trace display. I really want a set for my Sig.

So, ammo taken care of, we set out for our usual destination: Motel 6! We always stay in Motel 6 when we travel because it’s usually the cheapest thing going, and you always know what you’re going to get, except that sometimes you get a bathtub and sometimes you don’t. This time we did! And we could park the car right in front of our room so it was easy to haul all our gear inside. Steph taught me to use her fancy camera and I took some pictures of my guns. I also checked and photographed the gas key staking on my AR; it actually looks pretty good to me, but I do plan on posting pics for evaluation at some point. We watched TV, but there was no Man vs. Wild or Survivorman, so we watched Dark Knight and some other stuff. Oh, and we ordered a Domino’s pizza like we always do when we stay at Motel 6. They were having a special on their Pacific Veggie which has like spinach and feta and shit, so we got one of those (extra large). And a 12 pack of beer, Blue Moon I think, from the liquor store across the street. Steph went to sleep early, I stayed up pretty late, drinking beers and posting on the forums.

Next morning, we showered, and re-packed the car. Drove down the 55 to the next part of our road trip ritual: it’s always Motel 6 and Domino’s at night, and when we can, Waffle House the next morning! I always get a triple order of hash browns, this time I got an Egg McMuffin analog as well. And coffee, of course. We gassed up at Sinclair and, like usual, Steph took my picture by the fiberglass Apatosaurus.

Following the handy map and directions, we made our way to the cabin. The large ZS flag left no doubt that we’d come to the right place. We parked on the lawn, and hung out with the property owner, who was super awesome, gave us a beer, and chatted with us until the shuttle arrived. The shuttle consisted of a super awesome dude possibly named Alex (names have been changed to protect the fact that I can’t remember anybody’s name), who helped us load our obnoxious amounts of shit including all the bags of groceries we’d bought at Wal-Mart with no plan for how to pack them!

So, we were delivered to the gate and unloaded. Jen checked us in and was super awesome as well. We got our packets and began the arduous task of schlepping all our bullshit up the damned rock. We had some help…Crypto? Pistol Pete? Someone awesome. Everybody waved from Manbath. We got our shit to base camp and then scouted out a campsite. Brilliantly, I found a semi-level (less than 45 degrees above the horizontal) spot to pitch our tent, by going pretty close to as far up the damned mountain as we could. In hindsight I wish I’d considered a lower elevation, perhaps laterally, like past the latrine or something. That hill would end up being the bane of my week, and I assume I’m not alone in this.

Anyway, I’d planned on going on the hike with Dimmie, but by the time she was leading the hike, Steph and I were both still busy schlepping, and far too hot and exhausted to even consider a hike. I had to take frequent breaks and drink lots of water to avoid heat exhaustion, which was feeling like a very real risk. We got unpacked, set up the tents, and hit Manbath.

Oh, and I met Michelle and Kyle, who thus became real meatspace people instead of just imaginary Internet people. And Pistol Pete told me he wasn’t really going to make me clean the latrines in penance for starting a thread where everybody ended up talking about explosives, which was nice of him.

So Manbath was awesome, and I met lots of other internet people, like Crypto and Ricky Romero, and a bunch of others who I remember but can’t put face to screen name. And then it was time for the food seminar dealy: “How to Make a Fancy Meal with Wood and Short Shorts - Gourmet Campfire Cooking with Sgt HotPants.” There was awesome chili made with a shelf-stable meat stick…Pepperettes? Something like that? They were delicious. And then there was pizza, and dessert thingies. It was rad. I filled up on chili and didn’t cook the hot dogs I’d brought, with no cooler, planning on cooking them on night 1. Which I did not do.

And then there was some debriefing (which seemed more like a briefing?) and a meet-and-greet. I think they told us how to not die, and how to not get an IRL asshat. And I met people, and greeted them. And then there may have been zombie movies but I don‘t remember them. Wait…um…nope, don‘t remember. We were exhausted and Steph talked me into going to bed early.

Didn’t sleep so great: too hot, too sticky, and the steep incline didn’t help. None of this changed over the week and I didn’t really get used to it. Sleep time was definitely the least fun part of the week, which is the opposite of normal life when it’s the highlight of my day, sometimes.

God, the bugs. There were giant freaking bugs everywhere.

Thursday was Seminar Day for me. After firing up the MSR Pocket Rocket for coffee and oatmeal, we started it off with Dr. Jest’s HAM radio seminar which Steph was SUPER excited about and I enjoyed as well. I do regret having to skip B3’s self-defense seminar, however. But HAM was awesome. Then we headed down to check out the charity seminar. I cooked the day-old hot dogs and ate three of them, with no immediate ill effect. Round about noon we hit ManBath again, which is where I met ManSnake. We later decided ManSnake was a Northern (or Common?) Water Snake, and not a Water Moccasin as originally reported. Still best not to fuck with ManSnake.

At around 1:45 it was time to Make Boom-Boom with Pistol Pete, which was also AWESOME. I hand loaded 10 rounds of 9mm ammunition, under Pete’s instruction. The main take-away from this seminar, other than 10 rounds of 9mm, was that hand loading really is possible for your average noob. I’d need to do some more research before actually giving it a go, but Pete made it clear that it really is a viable option for the average, competent do-it-yourselfer.

Straight after the ammo loading, Dr. Cat led us on an awesome wild plant identification walk. I was the guy who tasted everything she pointed at, including Cow Slobber (aka Spider Wort) which someone wiser than I aptly described as tasting like “green beans and grass.” The Reindeer Lichen tasted like moldy sawdust, while the Wood Sorrel was nice and tart. Apparently it gives you liver cancer or something if you eat a billion tons of it, though. Then we headed over towards the parking area for Wild Ginger, which tasted just like the real thing although not quite as strong, and a Cow’s Eye Daisy (something like that) which tasted like, I dunno, a flower I guess. Oh, and then out to the road for what turned out to be my favorite: Plantain, both the broad- and narrow-leafed varieties tasted exactly, as Cat described, like “spinach salad with blue cheese dressing.” We have these all over the parks and yards in Chicago so this one was very useful to me. I like the flavor and will add it to salads in the future after washing all the weed killer off of it. The seminar ended with an awesome snack break: sassafras tea (oh, wait…maybe THAT’S the one that gives you liver cancer…), candied ginger, some biscuits (I forget what the wild edible was in those but they were good) and two kinds of jam (ginger and mint? Rose? Hell, I forget). They were awesome.

After snacky time we hit ManBath for a couple hours again, I ate two more hot dogs and Steph had seen enough to eat the last one. Then we set out for Isotek’s fire building seminar. This was truly awesome as well. He demonstrated various methods of fire starting. The Swedish Fire Steel, his favorite, was mine as well. Worked great. He also showed how to set steel wool on fire with two AA batteries; I thought it would be a slow process but it was INSTANT. Vaseline-treated cotton balls proved to be a most impressive tinder; the plain variety were functional but less impressive. Steel wool and a “bird’s nest” of cedar bark proved effective as well. He passed around a fire piston and explained how it worked; it was a beautiful object (it smelled good, too) but seemed costly and impractical for fire starting. Isotek also demonstrated flint and steel, and how to build a proper fire. He got a good one going and was going to use it to cook his dinner; Steph and I set out for the Pocket Rocket to do the same.

Well, anyway, a lot of other awesome stuff happened, but I’m tired and so I’m not going to write any more right now.

[kyle]

And then there was some debriefing (which seemed more like a briefing?) and a meet-and-greet.

Yeah, that was a typo. Should be "Briefing" in the program guide.

I noticed you only made it about half way through the week in your report here. Poor guy. That lack of heat exhaustion must be slowing you down.

I'm glad you were able to make it. I'll definitely hit you two up to join us for beers the next time we hit Chicago. You and Steph were a lot of fun to hang out with.

[michelle]

Yay for ZCon! I really enjoyed meeting everyone, and I'm sad that I didn't get to talk to all the new folks as much as I'd like. Hopefully y'all will come back next year.

I want to see more pics. My non-camera-having self has none to reminisce over. =(

[Blasphemous]

I'll post up a brief account of my time there...
Thursday, I left Louisville around 9am or so. I got to the cabin at about 2pm and chatted up with Mark for a bit. His first question was something like, "Where's the deuce?" or "No Deuce this year?". He then gave me a ride down to camp since he was leaving anyway. I was promptly waved in to manbath and began drinking. Sometime early that evening, I ended up passed out on top of my tent that was laid out on the ground. I bounced back quickly and socialized most of the rest of the evening.
Friday was a new day, with some coffee and some canned breakfast I was ready to go. I skipped the range this year. I couldn't really afford much ammo and I didn't have any new toys to try out either. I opted for the 4th edition D&D game which turned out to be really cool. I got to more formally get to know Chris Barnhart, A+ dude. Spent most of the day just hanging out in manbath... a lot!
Saturday I had my eye on the weather. I was hoping things would stay nice for the float trip. All went well and we didn't get rained on and it was warm enough to get into the water. With the river up, I spent about the first half sight seeing with Tim. I had tunnel vision last year because of the rain and hypothermia. Later on, we became privateers for the British Royal Navy (Ashnack and crew). Back and forth raidings of the pirates took place, liven up the second half of the trip!

I spent a good deal of time this year hanging out with Tom and Kristin (sorry if the spelling is off). I got along with Tom so well because we can both be a-holes, haha. The nap on the futon and shower after that were awesome. It really helped out, especially once I hit the road home. I had a long and boring drive. Except for the fact that is seemed like EVERYONE didn't know how to turn off their brights that night.

I'm already looking forward to next year! I don't remember a lot of names, I'm so much better with faces. I was also really wanting to catch Pete's reloading seminar, but I got there just for the tail end of it.

[Idiosyncratic_Pat]

Sorry Jeriah for the lack of 9mm at STL Cabelas, we haven't received a truck since friday (the 19th) the only 9mm we had was Fiocci fmj and Magtech which is unreliable and inconsistent at best.

What was the name of the shop they directed you to?

[nateums]

Next year I'm bringing less. I only used like 10 things... and I can fit all that into a tropical patterned murse... of doom. However, I'm unsure of where to find such things so I'll just use my back pack or the stomach lining of Rosie O'Donnell, which ever is more readily available.

[Horatio_Tyllis]

Still best not to fuck with ManSnake.

Damn right. Mansnake will fuck you up. I once saw mansnake break some dude's jaw with a 2x4 for looking at his PBR rock funny.

[Jeriah]

Sorry Jeriah for the lack of 9mm at STL Cabelas, we haven't received a truck since friday (the 19th) the only 9mm we had was Fiocci fmj and Magtech which is unreliable and inconsistent at best.

Sounds like you work there? It's no problem, the clerk assisting me was super cool. He took the time to very patiently give very detailed and accurate directions to us, even though we're from out of town and had no idea where any roads were. I've always had very positive customer service experiences at Cabela's, and this was no exception.

You guys had some good AR's at decent prices, as well. Looks like they're becoming available at reasonable prices again.

What was the name of the shop they directed you to?

Graf's Reloading. They were super nice and helpful, and had what we needed. I was really looking for American Eagle or some other ass-cheap 9mm, but I guess everybody else is, too. Anyway, they had some mid-range 9mm, I forget the brand but it worked well. (I only fired 10 rounds of it, but they all went bang.)

[Jeriah]

Next year I'm bringing less. I only used like 10 things... and I can fit all that into a tropical patterned murse... of doom. However, I'm unsure of where to find such things so I'll just use my back pack or the stomach lining of Rosie O'Donnell, which ever is more readily available.

Me too, definitely. I used only a small percentage of what I brought. In particular, I brought too many clothes (but those would have been useful if it had gotten cold), and too much food (SPAM and Ramen) that wasn't interesting enough to eat.

On the other hand, the Taste of Thai noodle packs from Wal Mart were delicious, and if removed from the superfluous cardboard cup package, are totally viable as a BOB food supply. They're going to replace both the SPAM and Ramen in my BOB ASAP.

[crypto]

What was the name of the shop they directed you to?

Given the clue of 'so-and-so reloading' I'm willing to bet it was Graf's out in St. Charles on 5th Street.

Those guys are great, BTW.

[Jeriah]

What was the name of the shop they directed you to?

Given the clue of 'so-and-so reloading' I'm willing to bet it was Graf's out in St. Charles on 5th Street.

Those guys are great, BTW.

That is correct, sir. (And yes, they were great.)

[Hawk]

I had a ton of fun. I wasn't too hung over any of the days, I didn't hurt myself too badly...save for the bruise on my ass from the cooler ride I took. I don't have poison ivy or ticks anywhere...I'd say it was a success. I met a lot of interesting new people, and look forward to hanging out again.

[Jeriah]

I JUST pulled a tick off my ass, after finding it while taking a shower.

Yeah, I'll be keeping an eye on that one.

[Doctor Jest]

I made it home okay. Thanks to all the ZSers who made Z-Con so incredibly awesome.

Some of us got there and Tuesday, and were worried when we saw that the creek that feeds Manbath was totally flooded from all the rain we had. It was completely impassable early Tuesday afternoon, but but Wednesday morning it could be crossed, though it took longer rock-hopping than normal.

The ham seminar went really well. Thanks to everyone who made it. We contacted about 2 dozen people on the 20 meter band on Thursday morning and afternoon, all over the USA, and in Canada and Honduras. Bethany did a great job on the air. I'll be making up and sending out some QSL cards for them in the next few days.

The range trip was good, and I was happy to take 2nd place in the pistol shoot, though it was hot as hell's ass. All of us were pissing dark yellow to brown, even if we drank a lot of water, it was so freakin hot during Z-Con. The ticks were incredible, and not in the good way. I pretty much bathed in Deet every day, so I am hoping I'm not going to discover any little friends sucking on my parts in the next few days. Just to be careful, I'll have the wife do a very thorough check.

The float trip was also great. Me and Canadian Chris hoisted the Jolly Roger, and spent about 1/3 of the float trip either (a) in the water because someone (jamoni) knocked us in, (b) in the water trying to get the flag back, (c) in the water because we suck at canoeing, or (d) in the water trying to unstick the canoe from a log.

I'm still trying to get the images of crypto and jeriah in their mankinis out of my brain. Maybe a soldering iron would help.

Thanks so much to will and jen for putting me up Sunday night. I had a great time at the meet Sunday night. Also, I am now proudly sporting my new ZS tatoo -thanks to TRX, Randy (who was a riot and really put me at ease), will (for having such an awesome shop), Pete (for taking pics) and the other ZS folks who stopped by for moral support.

ZS rocks!!

[gOAd]

hawk,

I think your cool jeep helped a lot of people OUT.
Thanks for bring it.

[Doctor Jest]

Pete, was the camera you used to take the pics of me being tattooed a digital camera? I'd like to d'l the pics if possible, otherwise, I'll spring for some hard copies.

[Blasphemous]

Pete, was the camera you used to take the pics of me being tattooed a digital camera? I'd like to d'l the pics if possible, otherwise, I'll spring for some hard copies.

I'd like to see said pictures. I plan on getting a tatoo as well, just waiting until I have the extra cash for it. Hopefully the lead Barnhart gave me for a job at DISA pans out! They (DISA at Scott AFB) has a datacomm intern job open! I applied for it last night.

[Hawk]

Tom- I wish I would've made it in time to see you getting the tattoo done. I worked most of the day Monday, sorry I missed you.

Goad- I had an awesome time seeing how muddy I could get it, it was a blast. I'm glad you and William made it out for a little bit. It was good to see you two.

Aaron- it'd be awesome if you got a job up here!

Here's my only picture from ZCon, since my camera is my blackberry, and I didn't want to destroy it.

[strawberries&spiders]

This was my first Zombie Con and my very first camping trip EVER! When I first arrived I was unsure how well this whole sleeping in the woods thing would go. I am very happy to report I had a BLAST!!!!! The first time I walked down to manbath where everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun, I got really nervous. As I sat on one of the rocks farthest from everyone, I thought, "Oh great, just like high school. All of the cool kids are over there and over here I sit alone. I don't know anyone. This is going to be awful." Then suddenly people started coming over to me introducing themselves and talking to me as casually as if we had known each other for ages! As the days passed, I noticed that everyone was great. Not just that mundane politeness that is mandatory at a job, but really sincere. Perhaps because of my own self-conscience paranoia, I thought for sure there would be people making rude comments about each other, especially with some of the loss of clothing in manbath. Not once did I hear anything mean, rude or condescending. By Saturdays float trip, everyone seemed to be playing, as if we had all been childhood friends reunited for this nautical adventure!! I didn't think I could have a first camping trip as cool as this, THANK YOU to everyone for all of the hard work that went into putting it together and to everyone who showed up and made it too much fun!!
I look forward to next year and hopefully becoming a more active participant in ZS. (especially if the board decides to go ahead with the zombie scouts idea

[Zalovar]

I definitely have to agree, Zcon V was awesome. Everyone was cool and I had a blast hanging out. I gotta say I was struggling a bit with the heat, but Manbath made it all better. Sorry we missed everyone at the float trip...got lost and decided to head home.

Hawk - thanks again for your help...especially for dragging my drunk friend up the hill and taking one for the team by getting puked on.

I'm already counting the days to Zcon 2010!