The minutes of the HE2PC, and beyond (as taken directly from my
trip journal):
3/12/01 4:00pm* - The Arizona bunch parks in downtown Portland, and its members make their way to Pioneer Square.
4:30pm - Jeeves points out another tourist looking at a map of Portland, then suddenly realizes "Hey, wait a minute... that's the Nodespotting T-shirt!" We approach him and it turns out to be flamingweasel. Joining the group, chronologically, are Brain, moJoe, sarahh, and then a large group containing P_I, ideath, chinchila, LordOmar, prole, Girlface, and possibly others (sorry).
5:10pm - We arrive at Powell's City of Books after a brief walk through downtown Portland. I'm unable to take in my surroundings fully enough to anything but stare slack-jawedly at the enormosity of the store, until ideath asks me what kind of books I want to look at, and leads me to the Psychology/Linguistics/Religion wing of the building (which is roughly as big as an individual bookstore back in Tucson). After a drawn-out internal struggle (resisting the urge to spend over $60 on books), I settle for buying Psyche and Symbol by Jung and The Owner's Manual to the Brain.
6:10pm - 17 noders make their way to the Church of Elvis, where the most ambitious (myself excluded) go inside to watch some kind of "weird" performance. No one gets married. Also, Ninja-Lad shows up. We then walk across a large bridge and arrive at some cajun restaurant, apparently the only place in town that will accept a group of 18 (which would constitute an unruly mob back in Tucson). Everyone buys expensive but tasty food, after which we leave for ideath's house.
?:??pm - We arrive at the Funhouse, less some of the people who drove. Travel stories are exchanged, followed by a game of eat poop you cat, during which moJoe and a friend of his go on a tequila run. As the results of the game are being read and exchanged later on, the group seperates roughly in to the non- and the drinkers, the latter of whom move outside after 10 or 20 minutes of Jeeves and me banging away on our acoustic instruments. Pseudo_Intellectual joins in the cacophony on kazoo, jawharp, nosewhistle, etc., and earns colossal applause for an amazing performance of the Peter Gunn theme. The drinkers eventually come back in and start playing cards.
1:00am - 'Black Cat, White Cat' is place in the VCR. (you should find a copy and watch it for yourself, preferably not while trying to fight off sleep)
3:00am - People start leaving, and the rest of the desert-dwellers express interest in getting some sleep. We five set up sleeping bags and lie down. When it is clear that I'm not at all tired, ideath invites me to join the small group of conscious, present people in the kitchen, who are planning an excursion. Soon, ideath, (her roommate) Megan, Pseudo_Intellectual, Brain, Girlface and I set out to commit petty vandalism, making sure to produce some highly self-incriminating evidence.
4:00am - Upon returning to the house, P_I goes in to get some Z's, while the rest of us walk to the park to play frisbee. Brain is very good (apparently he played a lot in high school), and ideath somehow knows how to throw the frisbee in such a way that I can catch it (sometimes).
>5:00am - I go to sleep in the living room, while Brain and the three girls go upstairs to play Spin the Bottle (or so I can only assume)
10:00am - I get up, use the WC, and start cleaning my fingernails with my pocketknife. Shortly, ideath comes downstairs and we return to the scene of the crime, with flamingweasel in tow. We stop to buy some OJ, then return to the house for two hours of waiting for lazy people to get up.
12:00(?)pm - We (down to only 10 people now) meander over to LordOmar's house for an exquisite breakfast and several hours of watching episodes of the Muppet Show (damn, but those Portlanders are hospitable!). Finally, the Arizonans summon up the nerve to leave this wonderful oasis and get on with the last leg of our journey.
9:00pm - The Canada-bound Six arrive at an IHOP in Bellingham, WA to meet with a local noder, KesperNorth. Four out of seven simple-minded fools have nothing good to say about the food.
11pm-ish - I wake up in the car just in time to comment on the Canadian speedbumps and watch us arrive at the Canadian border. Here, we are throughly interrogated by five levels of Canadian counter-intelligence (ha, ha). Particularly, Delvan is forced to explain in detail the plot
behind Sailor Moon after a picture of the Sailor Scouts is discovered in his wallet, and Pseudo_Intellectual is asked to demonstrate
that he isn't trying to hide any American apples in his beard. After snidely remarking that one of the customs agents has a snub-nose and funny accent, Jeeves is dragged out into the street and beaten.
12:06pm - We finally enter Canada. P_I points out that the speed limit of 100 is in kilometres/hour.
(return to Jeeves and Srkorn's Excellent Adventure)
* Most times are given in Mountain Standard Time, making them an hour earlier than the times perceived by any accomplices who joined us along the Pacific Coast. But some times might be PST as well.