Archive for roadtrip

Walking in the footsteps of Billy the Kid and other roadtrips I want to take

Posted in Americana, Billy the Kid, pop culture, roadtrip with tags , , , , , , , on August 3, 2012 by Paxton

Billy the Kid Week

Brian has given us a good assignment this week. He wants us to plan the ultimate pop culture roadtrip. I have already gone on several geeky roadtrips in my life thanks to having been a traveling IT consultant for about 8 years.  I’ll start chronicling more of those soon. I already talked about two Star Wars Roadtrips that I’ve taken (Star Wars Celebrations I and II).  But I think Brian’s idea is to plan a road trip that you want to take.

There are several I could do, but one is definitely at the top.  And I’ve discussed it before, both on the Nerd Lunch Podcast and here on the site.  I want to walk the Billy the Kid Trail in New Mexico.

Billy the Kid

I’ve been a huge fan of Billy the Kid since high school.  I’ve read a ton of books about him (and other gunslingers).  Plus, my wife is from New Mexico, so it’s totally doable.  There are several places in New Mexico pertaining to the famous outlaw.  The biggest would probably be the Lincoln State Monument in Lincoln, NM.

Lincoln Lincoln County Courthouse
(Via Jeff Arnold’s West)

The little town of Lincoln has been preserved almost exactly as it was back in Billy’s day. You can still visit the courthouse in which he was imprisoned and then famously shot his way out of, killing two deputies in the process.  There’s also the Wortley Hotel which was once owned by Pat Garrett, the man who shot Billy.  The hotel was also the final dining place of Bob Ollinger, who was one of the deputies Billy killed in his getaway.  Not only would this place be awesome for Billy the Kid buffs, but the town is almost exactly how it was in the Old West.  It would be great to see how things were back then as I’m fascinated with the time period.

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Nerd Lunch Episode 42: Scheduling the ultimate nerd weekend

Posted in podcast, roadtrip with tags , , , , , on June 19, 2012 by Paxton

Nerd Lunch Podcast

Welcome to Episode 42 of the Nerd Lunch podcast. This week the three of us ride with an empty fourth chair.

Gameworks

The topic this week is “Nerd Weekend”. The three of us have a discussion about what we would do if the three of us met up for the weekend.  We talk about places to go, games to play, movies to watch and of course, copious amounts of hossin’ to hoss.  Want to know what a Nerd Lunch Weekend would entail?  Then you’ve come to the right place.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace.

Or, you can listen to the episode right here:

http://player.wizzard.tv/player/o/i/x/134006790026/config/k-28fb6c171299270f/uuid/null/episode/k-7bf3f0de1d843a2a

Star Wars Celebration II: The 10 Year Anniversary

Posted in movies, pop culture, Star Wars with tags , , , , , , , , , on May 3, 2012 by Paxton

Star Wars Roadtrip

This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of Star Wars Celebration II.  The event started on May 3, 2002 and went until May 5, 2002.

SWC2 autographed card

I was there with my friend Jason Collier.  Above is a card advertising the event.  It’s autographed by Daniel Logan, the kid who played Boba Fett, and RA Salvatore who wrote the novelization.

Jason and I also attended Star Wars Celebration I in Denver.  I talked about Celebration I on it’s 10th anniversary in 2009.

So Celebration I was held in Denver. The powers-that-be decided to move it to what they thought was a more “central” location. It was announced that Celebration II would be held at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, IN. Honestly, I was a bit excited about the announcement. I’d never been to Indianapolis and I heard it was a really nice city. So with my wife’s blessings Jason and I planned our second trip to a Star Wars Celebration.

Right away, this convention proved that it was going to be a lot more “formal” than the last convention. There was going to be a proper “Autograph Alley” where fans could get autographs of their favorite stars which Celebration I didn’t have. And there were going to be really big stars putting in appearances like Hayden Christensen, the newly minted Anakin Skywalker, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams and the return of Anthony Daniels as emcee of the festivities. Also, there was going to be a LOT more convention merchandise as well as an exclusive action figure developed to be sold only at Celebration. This Celebration was shaping up to be a “real” convention as opposed to the loose “gathering” of Celebration I.

Jason and I bought three days passes, which had a picture of Hayden as Anakin.

SWC2 3 day passes

Celebration I had Darth Maul on the three day pass.

I took off work on Thursday and Friday and we arrived in Indianapolis on Thursday night and showed up at the convention several hours early on Friday morning.  Here’s the front of the RCA Dome. I was able to catch it when the sign flashed up Star Wars.

SWC2 RCA Dome

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