The West-Coast Supertrip 2006

ctishman

Hotel registration is open, so I guess it's time to start planning this year's Supertrip. Last year's trip was smaller, but overall quite successful, with a minimum of personal drama, and only a few poor souls left behind.

This is our megapost, so I'll be updating this as we get more info.

What Worked in '05

Waypoints at Los Angeles, Sacramento, Eugene and Portland. Captains responsible for the trip on the leg directly north of their waypoint both there and back.

Radios
A little short-range, but overall aided incidental communication and general morale.

Restaurant Stops
Good morale and energy boosters. I am indeed in your base eating your funnel cakes.

What Needs Work

The Issue: Cell phones were more reliable for point-to-point communications than the radio, but the lack of an organized phone list really sucked.
The Fix: We need a cell phone in every car, and a centralized list of all numbers given to all drivers.

Waypoint Facilities
The Issue: No goddamn gas anyplace, particularly Portland. Never have I seen so many closed gas stations in my life. To top it off, the one that was open ran out of gas after my fill-up.
The Fix: Better research. Captains should check out the waypoints in person and see if they are in business.

Also, that town south of Seattle with the phantom IHOP at two consecutive exits is the devil.

What We Have
A Eugene waypoint captain (me, unless someone else wants the job)
Maps
Waypoints
Experience

What We Need/Questions

Captains for everywhere else, drivers.

Supertrip Bus '06. Confirm/Deny?

How well did the waypoints south of Eugene work? I didn't see 'em, so I'd like to know. Any of them you'd change?

ctishman

Edit: All information moved to http://www.westcoastsupertrip.org so I can keep it all updated more easily.

doczero

Hey CT!

GTA is in Seattle now, but I envision the bus driving from the Portland waypoint in 06.

I'll be more inclined to commit after spring cleaning on the bus, in like May.
DocZero
doczero.at.gmail

ctishman

Cool! Sounds like it'll be a bit more driving, though. 4 trips as opposed to 2 (assuming you want to return your riders to where you picked 'em up). Lemme know either way.

Moe Fwacky

Hey, yo! It has been broached and the Cross-Country Supertrip would like to coordinate timing to meet with the West Coast Supertrip in Bellevue before a ceremonial lap around the Meydenbauer Center and dispersal to hotels.

ctishman

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that timing the arrival of two people on long trips, let alone two convoys of vehicles on cross-country trips, is an exercise in frustration. I would suggest instead that we supertrippers (being both of our convoys) do something else together, like a trip to the bars or something.

Dog

When are you guys planning on arriving @ bellvue?

Wednesday? Thursday? Friday (i hope not)?

Moe Fwacky

the CCST is looking for a thursday arrival and (although i may be mistaken) i thought so was the WCST

tmonkey

In case people were interested, we have some video from inside the bus from PAX05 online now:
http://www.gamertransit.com/2006/02/20/34/

Yes, I know it's sideways.

Trillian

I propose a massive gathering of all supertrippers and early arrivals. We shall take over a resteraunt and consume only free bread products and drink refills.

Who'se with me???

Borfase

Trillian wrote:

I propose a massive gathering of all supertrippers and early arrivals. We shall take over a resteraunt and consume only free bread products and drink refills.

Who'se with me???

nah

Weaver

There's going ot be a shitload of construction going on around here when you guys all show up.

ctishman

Same as there was in '04, IIRC.

Borfase

ctishman wrote:

Same as there was in '04, IIRC.

are you going to emuLAN?

i want to go but all i have is my G4 iBook and i'm trying to find someone that has a rig i can borrow

Polago

Trillian wrote:

I propose a massive gathering of all supertrippers and early arrivals. We shall take over a resteraunt and consume only free bread products and drink refills.

Who'se with me???

Does this consist of Olive Gardening? :o

aREALplayer

I am with you trill, and I think borfase is too. he just speeks in terminal sarcasm.

Trillian

Polago wrote:

Trillian wrote:

I propose a massive gathering of all supertrippers and early arrivals. We shall take over a resteraunt and consume only free bread products and drink refills.

Who'se with me???

Does this consist of Olive Gardening? :o

Sounds good to me. Anyone know one nearby?

Failing that, we could always go CPK'ing or to the Aztecka. Free cornchips ftw!!

Polago

Trillian wrote:

Polago wrote:

Trillian wrote:

I propose a massive gathering of all supertrippers and early arrivals. We shall take over a resteraunt and consume only free bread products and drink refills.

Who'se with me???

Does this consist of Olive Gardening? :o

Sounds good to me. Anyone know one nearby?

Failing that, we could always go CPK'ing or to the Aztecka. Free cornchips ftw!!

Mmmm...Corn chips. I'm in!

ctishman

Borfase wrote:

ctishman wrote:

Same as there was in '04, IIRC.

are you going to emuLAN?

i want to go but all i have is my G4 iBook and i'm trying to find someone that has a rig i can borrow

WTF? Emulan?

Oh (looks it up) well lookie there. Our own little pathetic LANfest. I'll probably drop by sometime near midnight to grab some bawls, sample the manly melange of a thousand sweaty gamers, etc., but I'm a Mac user, like you.

Borfase

ctishman wrote:

Borfase wrote:

ctishman wrote:

Same as there was in '04, IIRC.

are you going to emuLAN?

i want to go but all i have is my G4 iBook and i'm trying to find someone that has a rig i can borrow

WTF? Emulan?

Oh (looks it up) well lookie there. Our own little pathetic LANfest. I'll probably drop by sometime near midnight to grab some bawls, sample the manly melange of a thousand sweaty gamers, etc., but I'm a Mac user, like you.

apparently they're going to have some 360 stuff there too, that sounds cool

aREALplayer

borfase, you make me angry, why?

Borfase

aREALplayer wrote:

borfase, you make me angry, why?

uh



what

Relativiox

So this starts in San Diego correct?

Anyone coming from AZ?

ctishman

If you wanna, there's definitely precedent.

jenelle

I'm either doing this or the supertrip, depending on a trip to NY at the end of the summer. Question though, I live basically right on the border of California & Oregon on I-5. I don't really want to drive down to Sacto just to turn around and drive back up, and Eugene is about 3 hours away that I'd be missing with the caravan. Any chance I could get a phone call letting me know when to get on the road?

Moe Fwacky

Okay check this out,
I have a friend who lives in Arizona who is not on the forums yet. He is a member of an IRC channel that we've been with for about 8 years, the rest of us live up in the northeastern states however. We're all going to PAX, 4 or 5 of my dudes up here are joining the CCST, pixeldotz however isn't sure what he wants to do. He's either going to fly up here and take CCST out and either fly back out of Sea-Tac or, if possible, join up with the WCST on the way back, if there was somebody going back to AZ. I noticed an Arizona post on here, so I thought I'd bring it up. He might not fly out here at all, in which case he would try to get in both ways. But my question here would be, have you guys ever had a one way supertrip passenger? Just a subject I thought I'd broach if he does fly up here to ride out with us.

eelektrik

I know of at least one person who didnt ride up with us on the supertrip in 2004 that rode back down to Arizona with the group from there, one of their friends that flew up or some such before hand.

ctishman

jenelle wrote:

Any chance I could get a phone call letting me know when to get on the road?

Where you are is right smack dab in the middle of the "Long Haul", a massive 500-mile stretch driven in the middle of the night between Sacramento and Eugene. I bet you anything people would be more than happy for an excuse to pull over and stretch/relieve themselves/get midnight coffee/pick up another rider. Let us know as soon as you're sure, and we'll see about adding an Ashland waypoint.

eelektrik

ctishman wrote:

jenelle wrote:

Any chance I could get a phone call letting me know when to get on the road?

Where you are is right smack dab in the middle of the "Long Haul", a massive 500-mile stretch driven in the middle of the night between Sacramento and Eugene. I bet you anything people would be more than happy for an excuse to pull over and stretch/relieve themselves/get midnight coffee/pick up another rider. Let us know as soon as you're sure, and we'll see about adding an Ashland waypoint.

Which is what we did during the trip up in 2004, made a pitstop for gas, snacks, and a stretch over the Oregon border in Medford... Im sure there could be some kind of preplanned stop around there to pick up Jenelle, since Im sure thered be a stop around there again anyways.

TimeCruiserMike

i noticed the the wescoastsupertrip.com domain name expired on 02/18/06 just incase you guys were not aware. are there any plans on renewing it?

ctishman

I dunno. Ben was adminning it before. I'll see if he picks it up.

Dog

Yes, in the 2004 WCST I drove up with three people including the driver and drove back with four people. One of my best friends from college flew to PAX from Boston and rode in my car back to Phoenix. He flew out from there back to Boston.
The reason it worked though is I had the space in the car planned out in the beginning. If you can find a person that will keep a spot open on the way up for your friend to use on the way back it should work.
It's not a a good idea though to rely on the chance someone will have space for the ride back. That's how kids get left in Bellevue....
--Head

ctishman

Update 3/2/06

Dropped San Diego waypoint. San Diego drivers (if there are any) should meet the trip at the Los Angeles-Newhall waypoint, or let me know if you really want it officially.

Added Ashland waypoint. Not sure if we'll end up picking up anyone there, but it's good to have a planned place to stop.

Added pics of all of the waypoint areas I have so far, along with clickable links to detailed maps in Google Local. I'm still looking for a new Portland waypoint location, so any Portlandites with ideas, drop me a PM.

Relativiox

Thanks for the input.

But is there anyone from Arizona who is joining up with WCST?

jenelle

I highly suggest changing the Ashland waypoint to a Medford wp. The first Medford exit has a huge parking lot with fast food, grocery store, and a smoke shop and liquor store right next to each other for those of you with vices. 251 E. Barnett Rd, Medford, OR

There's just not much in Ashland as far as food/rec without going deep into town. You can put me down as tentative cap'n there to Eugene with confirmation as soon as I know for sure.

Portland pretty much sucks for convenient places to stop along I-5. I suggest stopping either right before getting into Portland - in Wilsonville at the Frye's (with minigolf adjacent!) - or right across the border in Vancouver somewhere.

ctishman

Well, being the reason we're stopping in the first place, I suppose your say has some pull as regards location. However, I'm not sure stopping at a liquor store at 2:00 A.M. in the middle of a goddamn road trip is the best idea.

Edit: Changed waypoint to Ashland, added Jenelle as Medford WP captain.

Moe Fwacky

*bows humbly before the mighty veterans*

How do waypoint captains work? What are they responsible for, what has and has not worked in the past regarding the captains? Thanks for any advice, the CCST needs all it can get.

ctishman

Well, last year when it came down to it we didn't really need waypoint captains, as everyone who wanted to go already knew they were going worked out rides/drivers for themselves. At most, they should come on in an advisory capacity to let you know where a good stopover spot is, ways into/out of said spot, gas, food, etc.

ctishman

NOTE: The webpage for this year's Supertrip is different! Due to some wankery on the part of GoDaddy, the new WCST webpage will be hosted at

http://www.westcoastsupertrip.org

I've got a barebones blogstump up for the moment, and more will follow over spring break.

Dog

So, I'm jumping into this a little late, as my plans for August suddenly changed for the better! I live in the Sacramento area and am looking to arrange hotel/driving/flying/train plans with anybody that is interested.
This will be my first PAX, so I'm eager to get involved and have some fun!

ctishman

If you live in a city so close to the route, you would be spiritually remiss to miss out on an opportunity like the '06 Supertrip. Since I now have some time, I'll be putting up ride registration in a few days, along with more info on the route, schedules, etc.