IZEAFest Day #1 – Howl-o-Scream and Fun on a Bun

So today started off kind of chill. Buck and I killed time in the hotel room and then got breakfast at IHOP. Waitress was really funny. There was another waiter there who said we should drive around the IHOP when we left and give it the finger and yell “F*** IHOP!” and he cracked us up. Back to the hotel room, I got my goodie bags ready for the first day of IZEAFest tomorrow.

Buck called up Drew (from BenSpark.com) and we met him and his wife and a few others (including Dina from Market Leverage) at B.B. King‘s for an outstanding meal. I had gumbo and bacon cheese fries, and a Crown and Diet Coke. Dina and Market Leverage were nice enough to pay for the entire meal, so thanks to them! It was really awesome to meet Drew and his wife and kid Eva. Dina is a babe – I kind of wished I’d entered the contest they had a while back to win a date with her.

A little later gathering for Howl-o-Scream, John Raser bought me a Guinness and we made introductions and ended up sitting together on the bus talking. His dad owns the Limu Corporation and John is a professional golfer. I also finally got to meet Heather in BC, Aaron Brazell (Technosailor), and briefly exchanged pleasantries with Chris Brogan. Murray Newlands – previously interviewed here – he’s a nut but a fun guy to sit around and listen to him talk.

Howl-o-scream was a blast. We got the bus driver for our bus to pull the bus over at a Seven-Eleven food mart for a beer run. Half the people went inside and grabbed booze of various varieties and got back on the bus. A lot of people had been drinking most of the afternoon. We ended up being the “party bus” – which was really fun but mostly just silly.

Howl-o-scream is themed around a vampire family, with a mistress as its head. I’m not sure about the entire story, but the ladies playing vampires and undead sorority girls were FANTASTIC. The horror houses were not all that scary – something about knowing you’re at a theme park and they’re actors who can’t touch you makes it ridiculous. But since the ladies were attractive, I certainly did not mind watching their performances. I got my picture taken with two of the undead sorority girls, I will post most of my photos collectively when I get home.

I had time total to ride two coasters – the Kumba and the Sheikra (spelling?) – both of which were floorless suspended coasters that sent you really high into the air and then gave you a hang, and then a sudden drop and a lot of flinging and fast turns and upside down loops and a few cool tunnels. I would have ridden them over and over again – those are my favorite kinds of coasters.

Through the park I mostly hung out with 3 other “posties” – and I’m sorry I don’t recall all of your names, but I will edit this later when we have name tags on this weekend. We went through the lines at the rides really quickly, and had a good time laughing it up between rides. I talked to one guy about my project management degree, and my blog, and we talked about how in this group we’re all pretty much self-taught – there’s really not a school we could have attended to learn the things that we know. I say hanging out with all these people while they’re drinking is the best way to learn the real secrets of the trade!

A long return bus ride, but still more booze to be had (collected, I didn’t drink any more but I put them in my hotel fridge for later). Finally got back to the hotel, met Buck and then drove back to our room at the Comfort Inn. Now I’m just relaxing and hoping I can fall asleep soon. It’s 2:00am, and from the buzz on Twitter, I’d say a lot of the other “posties” are having the same problem.