At the end of July, I went on vacation. It was much needed, but my return found me buried in work; sorry that I have been so absent.

At any rate, the trip was to Ohio - which put me in the stomping ground of a Red Dragon Inn icon. I was able to finally meet our own Eol Fefalas face to face.

It was an awesome moment for me, and marks only the third time that I've been able to meet an RDI member face to face. I have been meaning to post about this... but, well, see my earlier comments about being absent.


I brought some of my homebrewed beer to our meeting, and Eol brought gifts (which were unexpected and made me feel stupidly flattered).

I was presented with three things:

1. A personalized towel of facelick defense. Oh, yes.
2. A lightsaber hilt that Eol personally crafted. My boys are all jealous of this.

3. Eol's original artwork that he created for both Star Wars: Tides of Fate and Zombies in Chicago. We're talking about a dozen or so pictures, and who knows how many hours.


The above was all too much, and I felt guilty accepting such lavish gifts, but he wouldn't hear of those feelings from me.

We got to chat for far too short of a time, swap handshakes and hugs. It was truly an honor to get to meet one of the real creative forces behind the Inn.

Stop it! If my head gets any bigger I may just fall over.

The honor was all mine, good sir. It was a thrill to meet you and yours in person and, given that you've so generously given me a place on the interwebz in which to unleash my particular brand of lunacy, those 'gifts' were the least I could pass on as a way of saying "Thanks!"

Besides... BEEEEEEER!!! Yummy, yummy, home-brewed, Confederate Dragon deliciousness! (See my entry in Olan's brewing my own beer thread for some notes on my first sampling. Still aging the others a bit but am finding it hard to resist the call whenever I walk by. )

It was certainly a great pleasure to meet you face to face, Olan, and I look forward to a time when we can do so, again... maybe for more than a few minutes or so, eh?

*hugs*

Glad to hear that you both had fun Mmmm, beer.

We chould arrage a central meeting place one year and see how many can come. Let's see, USA, Canada, Finland, Iceland ... that puts us in the middle of the ocean.

Barbados!

That is excellent. That said, I wish someone would post up some of that artwork, specifically for ZiC. Or maybe start ZiC. Or both...

Bother.

We should arrange a yearly meeting for the RDI members to be able to meet face to face. Preferibly somewhere on the cheaper side so that the hubby and I could also attend. I was thinking perhaps somewhere in the states.

Yeah, we have often talked about having an RDIcon "someday". Would be great.

Hey Grugg? I'll post some of the artwork. Might evenpost a post.

...Lake Eerie... Houseboat... Let's do it!!!

New Zealand. High Noon. Chariots. Pistols.

I'll propose Thailand. It's not exactly halfway between the US and Finland for example, but it would be warm and cheap.

But seriously, I'm really envious to you guys. I've only met one Innmate (or ex-member actually) twice, and that was maaaaaany years ago in London. I'd love to meet you all, but unfortunately it's not exactly a short hop from Europe (especially Finland) to US or Canada. And I'd naturally have to take the whole family with me, so it wouldn't be cheap either. But one day... Toronto isn't really that far, is it?

Oh and having seen Eol's fabulous art before, I definitely want to see some Star Wars drawings!

Don't forget England!

Not sure who else is from the UK but I am certainly holding up this part of the world!

Saying that I would love to come to America one day so if a holiday there just so happened to fall on a 'RDIcon' day that would be great!

Sure I'm one of the newer and younger members but a central meeting sounds fun. I live about 30 minutes away from the US border so I could probably make it to the States.

Yes.
Barbados?
Double yes.

How about we just forget about meeting in a specific place, and schedule a cruise? We'll just stop mulitple times to pick up Innmates from around the world, circle the globe a couple times, and then drop everyone off! Sightseeing, swimming in the ocean, copious amounts of good food, a little pillaging here and there...

...and I endorse this message.

I regulary see two other RDInnmates. The three of us live in teh same city so it doesn't really count.