Early Caravan Planning

[AgentOJ]

On the way to DC X, I made the 30ish hour drive from the midwest with a couple friends. We drove straight, so that kinda sucked since I was a zombie when I arrived at defcon, and the shambling remains of a man by the time I got back home. Now that I've had a month to recover, I decided I really did enjoy the drive. Is there any interest to form a caravan from the midwest for DC 11? Perhaps meet up in Chicago and head west from there. I know this is incredibly early, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

AgentOJ

[ashman]

Well, I started in Springfield, MO and picked up some friends in Tulsa, from there we drove pretty much straight through... I don't know if I want to make that trip again, it was pretty much similar experience to yours by the sound of it. Although it probably would be considerably easier to get all my *accessories* to the Con via automobile...

[Verruckt]

hey i would be interested... what is your proposed route? 80? im in kc so, 70 is the main drag here... but definitely sounds cool.:D

[AgentOJ]

Route & Motels

First off, we took 80 most of the way across the great plains states. Driving straight through sucked in the sense of burnout I felt, so I figure instead of making a cannonball run again, I'd give myself an extra day, and crash at some motel 8's or whatever at night. If we had enough people we could check out a block of rooms and sardine people into them, saving a bit of cash. It'd also be interesting to have a bit of pre-con chat with other like-minded people on the way out there.

AgentOJ

[AgentOJ]

re: accesories

And yes, well, it is quite a bit easier to bring special "accesories" via car than plane. That, or perhaps taking the amtrak would be kinda cool. Reserve a hax0r traincar. Hell, if we got enough people from the midwest to do the train thing, maybe we could get a group discount ;)

AgentOJ

[converge]

I am working on a New England Caravan. If timing were good, the caravans could actually meet and storm vegas. Thoughts of a contest similar to deathrace for the eastern folk have also been raised.

[Verruckt]

Re: re: accesories

Originally posted by AgentOJ
And yes, well, it is quite a bit easier to bring special "accesories" via car than plane. That, or perhaps taking the amtrak would be kinda cool. Reserve a hax0r traincar. Hell, if we got enough people from the midwest to do the train thing, maybe we could get a group discount ;)

AgentOJ

THAT would be kick ass!!! Can you imagine placing the reservations?

"now, is there going to be a place in my cabin for me to plug a surge protector in ?"

It could be war-tracking all the way to the con... interesting.

Perhaps pick a couple of meeting points for everyone to hook up and just reserve a whole car ??? Ahhh, the possiblilities.:D

[octalpus]

Actually... for you foks from the south and/or midwest... or heck, anwhere along the way... you've got a Texan here that is all for the train thing! I really like the train. It's not the fastest method, but it's scenic, it's (generally) cheaper than flying, there are much fewer security hassles, you can get up and walk around, and having a bunch of friends to bide the time would make it REALLY fun!

[Verruckt]

oh... i think we have the makings of an excellent time... too bad its a year away...

I have never ridden the train, so that alone would be an experience for me... but just not having to worry about driving, thats a plus. wonder how long of a trip it is??? Is anyone an Amtrak vet? Is it like the bus, stopping at every "population 4" shithole? Or is it mainly the larger towns? ah, who cares? will chalk it up as a 'vacation' :D

[Verruckt]

a little research on www.amtrak.com shows that going to either Needles, Ca or Los Angeles, Ca is mandatory...

But prices were in the mid-300's from Kansas City. A bit more than the plane, but I can't see having as much fun from 35,000'...

I wonder if we got enough peeps to meet in a certain location if we actually could rent a car???

<update- looking into it>

[boogah]

whatever form of mass transit you kids end up using let me know. i'd like to be able to offer every caravan that's serious about hauling themselves out to dc next year a subdomain off deathrace2k.org [i.e. location.deathrace2k.org]. it shouldn't be hard for me to slice off a 5-10mb bit of hd for hosting something as simple as that.

[Verruckt]

Hey thanks alot! I would love to volunteer to put in some sweat for the midwest effort.

So does this mean it's official now? :D

[J3di]

Originally posted by boogah
whatever form of mass transit you kids end up using let me know. i'd like to be able to offer every caravan that's serious about hauling themselves out to dc next year a subdomain off deathrace2k.org [i.e. location.deathrace2k.org]. it shouldn't be hard for me to slice off a 5-10mb bit of hd for hosting something as simple as that.

or you could just redirect the subdomains to a different server, if necessary.

[AgentOJ]

Uh oh...

...Looks like I started something here, lol. Well, first, we'd need to know the exact dates we'd all be in vegas for. The amtrak fares (according to a brief visit to their site this morning) vary, and are cheaper if you are a student or have AAA. As Verruckt stated above, there's no direct line into vegas, and we'd need to take a bus from Needles, CA, Los Angeles, or SLC (maybe reno too, didn't check to see if they had a station) into vegas. The bus ride would suck, but...if we do have enough people on the train...it would be a defcon bus ride, which would rock. It looks like the train/bus ride totals about 2 days from chicago (I'm just using that as a general landmark here...), according to the amtrak schedule. Thus, we'd all need to take a little more time off of work or whatever to accomodate the extra travel time (scratch this if you did the midwest drive last year, it'd be about the same length of time). The reasons I would prefer a train to driving/flying are:
1. A lot less security checkpoint bullshit that wastes time
2. Better food than on airplanes, from my experience
3. Smoking cars for those of you who smoke (I finally quit!), since this would be an overnight train.
4. You can walk around and stretch all you want.
5. No times when electronics are prohibited. Again, as mentioned above, war-tracking (esp through the stops) would be a possibility. At least more of one than at 35000 ft.
6. Sleeper cars. A comfortable place (generally) to crash.
7. No driving. Driving 12 hours straight on one leg of my trip out to Defcon this year was not my cup of tea. I was practically hallucinating by the time I pulled into Vegas from lack of (comfortable) sleep. And no traffic jams. Or road construction. Or god damn cops to worry about when I'm going 90 in that 75 stretch w/no traffic.
8. This could be cooler than a 2-3 day caravan because we could all chill out, chat, etc. It'd be like a mini-Defcon on the way to Defcon. Maybe we could play spot the Defcon Train Fed!
9. I dunno, I just think it would be badass to take a train out there. Scenic, and all that jazz.

There would have to be a lot of planning involved in order to pull something like this off, but hell, we've got a year. Looks like there's definately some interest in this, so let's keep spouting off ideas/comments/concerns over a Defcon caravan, railroad style.

AgentOJ

[converge]

Might I suggest those interested in the actual planning of the coordination of caravan(s) be in contact with each other directly... Obviously if the New England caravan is to meet up with yall, there will be an element of additional timing on our part that relies on decided logistics from others further west.

Thanks for the hosting offer boogah. I will throw a lot of the planning stuff up on lostboxen.net (full url available upon actual progress).

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Mass, et al... and any other caravan planners eastward of the con:
Email: c0nv3r9@hushmail.com if you are interested in joining the caravan to dc0x0b. I will start keeping track of people and update as I figure more out.