Great Horror Campout San Diego 2014 (Part Two)

Great Horror Campout San Diego 2014- Behind The Scenes

Welcome back! This is the second part to my review of the Great Horror Campout which was held in San Diego on August 16th, 2014. As I mentioned in the first part of this review, not only did I attend the event as a camper, I was allowed backstage. The people who work at the stellar production company, Ten Thirty One Productions, gave me the opportunity and I ran with it. At the conclusion of the evening I found that I simply had too much information to put in a reasonably sized article. If you haven't read my first review please feel free to follow the link below to catch up, the event itself lived up to every expectation. If you're thinking about attending next year...do it! It was worth every penny.

Great Horror Campout San Diego 2014 (Part One)

Well as many of you know, I started doing these reviews for a multitude of reasons. The primary reasons being that I love to travel, write and in cases like these be spooked until my hair stands on end. Another, and more important reason, is that I want to give my little girls the idea that no matter what stage of life you are in, you can experience something new. Life doesn't end at twenty nine or when you have children. You can be a Super Mom, go to work, go to school, keep the house clean, cook, bake, run the errands, find time for a social life.....and find a way to follow your passion. It's a balancing act, sometimes a tricky balancing act, but it's doable. The reason that's so important to me, is that for a great many years I simply wasn't doing it. Like a lot of moms out there, I could find time for every person  in my life except for myself.

My final reason for being an Adventuress is that my entire life has been an exercise of getting passed a somewhat crippling case of shyness. It's hard for me to talk to strangers....but doing these reviews helps me with that. It forces me out of my hermit shell and frankly I love it....even as it scares the holy heck out of me.

Back to the story at hand, I had just completed my almost nine hour drive and was sitting in my car in

the parking lot telling myself not to be wimp. Before I could let myself dwell too much on the fact that I was a single adventurer this trip, I tend to be far less shy when I have people I know around me, I grabbed my camera bag and headed out across a field towards the production trailer. And promptly realized that I had forgotten all the paperwork that I had printed out so desperately that morning in the front seat. Sigh. Back to the car. Ok, round two. No one saw that....just be cool....well as cool (insert air quotes) as I ever get. I am a nerd and proud of it.

I spotted a group of actors hanging around the front of the production trailer and asked if they could direct me to a person named either Justin or Trisha based on an email that I had received from their marketing coordinator Renee.  They led me to a nice young woman who asked me to wait for a moment why she went to find Melissa Myers the COO. When she came out of the trailer I immediately felt a sense of relief. She struck me as efficient, dedicated, and busy but completely approachable. It's hard to be shy when you're faced with someone who is making it exceedingly easy to do your job. She gave me permission to take pictures inside of the make up trailer, speak to whoever would allow me to talk to them, to seek out special interviews through her and basically said have at it. The only caveat was to try to stay out of their way, especially as it grew near time for the actors to go live. I remember how hard it was to get myself to that point in my old acting days so I agreed readily. The first thing I did was head over to the props, one to get a few stock photos....and two to get myself ready to talk to everyone.

I also found myself chatting with one of their production crew members Jonas who made me feel more at ease by questioning me as much as I was about to question everyone else. He asked me what became the number one question about myself during the course of the night. What is your blog about? Changes by the adventure my friends, changes by the adventure.

Feeling more at ease I walked into the make up trailer and was instantly floored by how hard the make up artists were working. As well as by the actors that were sitting still for so long to have their makeup and masks applied. Speaking from experience, just let me tell you that latex makeup can be very uncomfortable at times. Especially if you are wearing it for long periods of time, as all of these actors would be. It takes dedication to your craft to not only wear it, but for the people who are applying it. Remind me to dig through my old scrapbooks sometime and get out pictures of me in corpse makeup and contact lenses. The result was exactly what we needed for the scene, and I was only in make up for about a half hour at a stretch but I remember wanting to rip the itchy material off my face and burning lenses out of my eyes pretty darn quickly. Skills, these people have amazing skills.

There were a few people just sitting down as I made my entrance, and I quickly introduced myself

and found one of my patented goofy smiles on my face. For all intents and purposes this reminded me so much of a Green room that I felt the residual traces of my unease vanish immediately. One thing I will say about this experience is that it made me miss my acting days, yes I gave it up for a good reason....but it used to be a very big part of my life and it left a mark.

The first person I spoke too, turned out to be the same person I spoke to first at the Sacramento event. The charming and very talented Ram, also known as Tanner. I asked if it was alright if I took pictures and he and his amazing make up artist readily agreed. He impressed me right off the bat with how at ease he was with the whole process, cracking jokes with the artist and including me in the conversation at the same time. I was also surprised to find that once I mentioned the sunflower he remembered who I was. They have no reason to remember me, I mean they see hundreds of people every show, and I blend in. I guess my runaway smart aleck mouth can leave a bit of impression.

As you can see below, the handsome Tanner, progresses slowly but surely into the mutant Ram. I stood in that trailer for about two and a half hours grand total and I never heard a complaint from a single person. These are the people who should be hired by everyone. Dedication like this can't be found in every casting room.

Also in the chair was a young woman who had a real sense of old fashioned beauty about her. I watched as they got her dolled up for her role as one of the hillbillies (she helped me immensely later in the evening) and couldn't help but be impressed by the level of care that was being taken with her makeup. Her visage wasn't anywhere near as complicated as the counselors would have to be, but that didn't stop her artist from making sure that she was perfect.


I also got to watch as they began the process of turning the very energetic phenomena that is Micah into Long Hair the Mutant Counselor. I know, I know that's not really his name but it serves the purpose.

He and his artist promptly began swapping quips that had me giggling and blushing within a few moments of his sitting in the chair. He also kept managing to bump into me and my camera bag which prompted him to introduce himself. I remarked that we had met before but that he wouldn't remember me, which got him to apologize promptly for being a jerk and forgetting me. Which made me feel like a jerk as that was not the way I meant it. We spent the next minute or so apologizing back and forth until I saw a rather mischievous glint in his eye that let me in on the fact that he most likely yanking my chain. I shut up and snapped a couple of pictures before I could find myself apologizing for something silly....again. One thing I can say about Micah is that beside his very obvious comedic talent, he also happens to be a good writer himself. I found his blog after the event and I realized that besides having a smart mouth, he's also be a smarty pants.

About this time I realized that there was about an hour until the gate opened and that I should probably let them finish getting ready without an outsider crowding their space. Before heading back to the car to pick up my supplies, I arranged with Melissa to take pictures at the final SCAG collection and then to come back behind stage after the 4:15 AM wake up call to watch as some of the actors got out of makeup.

As I walked out of the trailer I caught sight of a familiar leather jacket and found my eyes narrowing. Was this my arch nemesis Leather Face? Wait....nope...it didn't take me a moment to realize that the pleasant faced young man before me wasn't the right body shape to be the same actor. Plus he didn't immediately bring out my 'kick you in the knee' instinct. This Leather Face was actually fairly polite and I liked him immensely. Hear that Sacramento Leather Face? Even a kidnapper can have good manners. You should take notes.

I left for the event and although many of the actors throughout the night recognized me from taking pictures, they didn't let that keep them from razzing me just like the other campers. In fact in some cases it seemed to bring out a little extra sass. Sass I know what to do with, I am the Mistress of Sass.

When the final moments of the hunt came to the end I ran back to get my camera and hurried to take pictures of the crowds turning in their loot. How often do you get to see people so excited for having found creepy items like a human ear? Outside world, found human ear equals extreme trauma. Great Horror Campout world, found human ear equals squee. I also arranged with Melissa to meet up with the actor who had given me so much fun through out the night, my buddy Thirst.

I was on hand after most of the campers had made their way back to their tents and Micah and another one of the female counselors, Frances,

began to sort the boxes of SCAG. I couldn't help but be charmed as the lovely mutant became visibly excited about getting to sort out the Mardi Gras beads. I find myself getting that way about organization sometimes. Hey! No judging over there. I'm the mother of a seven and a two year old. Organization is a hard fought battle in my camp.

I will say that I felt like a complete ass standing there watching them work while I stood there taking pictures. If ever I do something like this for the company again they need to put me to work in some capacity. Otherwise I will feel like a heel....capiche?

While I was standing there being a lazy butt, it came out that the group liked to play Cards Against Humanity in their off time. I literally danced around at that. That's one of the games that we play at our Potlucks and last time we played it we discovered that there were quite a few people who are the worst people in the world among our group. Colleen literally laughed until she cried at something that was put before her. We've even gone so far as to add Leather Face and Cruckle to our cards. As well as Fernando (sung in a falsetto)....but that is a tale for another day.

I also had a chance to talk with the amazing Turtle. He's another sweetheart. Funny and sharp as a tack, but a genuine sweetheart. We got to talking about what I was doing there for the review and I mentioned that he had been mentioned in my Sacramento article. He asked to read it and it was then that I realized that I had left my cellphone in the tent. Sigh, seriously in this day and age who doesn't have their phone on them while it's got a charge? Me apparently. It has to be mentioned that even though I knew he had to be tired, he stayed on point with his character the entire time. There are people you meet as you wander through life that you know immediately that they are extremely good at what they do....Turtle is one of those people. This production company has hired some serious talent.

Time flew by and before I was even aware the hour had come upon us, it was almost time for the wake up call. I wanted to be somewhere I could take pictures of the hordes descending upon the tents so I hurried in that direction. Unfortunately...right at that moment my camera decided that it was going to be huge pain in my fanny and have a malfunctioning flash. Arg! I hurried to change out my battery to see if that would get it work the way it needed to, and despite the fact that it did indeed solve the problem, in the time it took to fix it I missed the whole darn thing. That's what I get for my not checking my equipment while everyone else was working.

Shaking my head at my own stupidity I made my way over to the camp fire where it had been arranged that I would meet Thirst. As soon as I walked up he started giggling at the same exact moment I did. I stuck my hand out and introduced myself and he gave me his name as Derick. I complemented his performance of the evening, and then asked him what in the world had caused him to focus his attentions on me through out the night. He shook his head laughing, and said 'You made it very easy for me to keep coming for you. You'd be standing there looking so innocent and oblivious, and then jump a mile when I'd jump out at you. You had the same reaction every single time I snuck up on you.'.

I told him that he had been my hands down favorite part of the evening. Perhaps the character of Thirst is a minor character to the troupe but he made a big impression both times. Good actors in both places.

I followed him back to the makeup tent to watch him get unmasked, and low and behold in the place of the freaky bat was a very handsome young man. Seriously Derick, if you're reading this, you were awesome.

I also got to watch a variety of other actors taking off their faces....both literally and figuratively...and felt a twinge of sympathy as some of them desperately tried to get makeup and contact lenses off and out. Not envious of that part at all. That type of makeup tends to stick to your baby hair and to migrate to places like inside the nose. Shudder.

Walking out of the makeup trailer, I felt the first real stirrings of exhaustion starting to set in. It was a little past five by this time and I was going to need to get on the road again first thing in the morning. However, I had remembered to grab my cell phone out of the tent earlier and I had told Turtle if I found him again I would let him read it. And there he was sitting right outside the trailer. I sat down next to him and handed him my phone. It took him quite awhile to get through it, as I had a lot to say, and somewhere in the middle of his reading it we made a deal that if he enjoyed it he would let me have his real name.

When he finished I looked over at him and said, 'Well? Do I get a real name or do you go down in my review as Turtle?' Brett's a sweetheart.

He's also a gamer just like me and the rest of the adventurers, which led for a very interesting conversation. I love meeting other gaming geeks. We're going to have to teach him Dominion, which has become one of our favorite games at Game Night.

We also discussed me staying to watch he and Micah do the ALS Ice Water Challenge in the morning. They were going to do it in full costume and make up. Good people these mutants.

But first we needed to do closing ceremonies. They had twenty five potential Hell Masters, the most they'd ever had. I got to listen as they plotted out new trivia questions for the potential winners. Apparently they have to do that now because of people like....me. Bloggers. We're such jerks, always giving away the answers.

It also gave me the chance to visit my tent to pack up all the stuff that I didn't use during the night. Like my gore soaked pillow. Actually glad I got to miss out on that experience to be truthful.

I sat over by the big screen and was surprised at how few people actually stayed for closing ceremonies. Other than the people who were up for Hell Master, it seemed like a great many of my fellow campers left early. That surprised me, because in Sacramento it seemed like most people stayed.

Once the final massacre was over....the last questions was a doozy....they crowned ten new Hell Masters. Fairly impressive movie trivia knowledge in this group I have to say. I followed the group of actors back to the production tent and tried not to fall asleep on my feet. It was here that Brett made me pinkie promise not to drive home without taking a nap.

Darn it! How do people always know that I'm susceptible to the binding oath that is a pinkie promise? I made my oath and then followed he and Micah to the back of the trailer so they could dump the icy buckets over their head in the name of charity. They did it right. They donated and dumped the water on themselves.

Micah dumped the bucket on his with a look of bad grace....but it was just him mugging for the camera. Both he and Brett finished the challenge smiling. Truthfully after a night of walking through all that dust and dirt it probably felt good. I know I could have used a shower before driving home.

It was time for me to say my goodbyes and hit the road. I told the actors that they had done an amazing job and promised to see some of them in the upcoming event that Ten Thirty One Productions is going to be putting on in October.

The L.A Haunted Hayride is supposed to be one of the best Halloween attractions in the state, if not the country, and I've already starting making plans to attend mid month. My whole troupe of adventurers is going to make it out for this one. Follow the below link to get tickets of your own!

L.A Haunted Hayride

I want to say a huge thank you to the actors, production crew, make up artist and the marketing coordinator for allowing me to follow everyone around for the evening. I was more than impressed by the level of hard work you all devoted into to putting on a great show.

I drove the 1,057 miles home, after taking my nap of course, and found myself smiling most of the way. I had a fantastic time in the hunt and a great time backstage. I also discovered what exactly my two daughters and my niece will do when they are at home alone with Uncle Dave. Best. Fort. Ever.

On to the next adventure!

Great Horror Campout San Diego 2014 (Part One)

Great Horror Campout San Diego 2014

It's not very often that I choose to revisit an Adventure so soon after completing a review. But after receiving over a thousand emails after posting the first article, one including a challenge I couldn't resist, I simply had to do it. For those of you who haven't read my first review you can find it here.

 Great Horror Campout Sacramento 2014 Review

The Challenge: That because I had already completed one Great Horror Campout, there was no way it could be fun a second time around. I would know the riddles, the challenges, what vans to avoid.....well despite the truth of those assumptions, I believed that the excitement of the event wouldn't be diluted at all. I have to tell you that I have come to the conclusion that some of my favorite Adventures seem to be put on by Ten Thirty One Productions.

I'm including the link to their adventure worthy company because they put in the serious hard work that deserves the praise.

Ten Thirty One Productions

As I said, this review came thanks to a challenge delivered to me by one of my readers, a person who chooses to call themselves the Lords of Darkness. Originally he spoke up in the comments section of my original article....siding with the Sacramento Leather Face....and he quickly followed up with a series of emails where he argued with me about the potential of enjoying something that follows a pattern. One of his arguments are that even video games stop being entertaining after you beat them. I guess he doesn't realize that I played Oblivion for a consistent five years after beating the original storyline. I'm of the opinion that there is always something new to glean from an experience.

Challenges are something I find hard to resist. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I turn into Marty McFly in the face of being challenged....but it's close. It's part of that stubborn streak I inherited from my Grams. Once you get my eyebrows up and my chin out there's pretty much no stopping me.

Originally my fellow adventurers, Colleen Douglas and Jen Darling were scheduled to fly with me to attend the San Bernardino event, which would have concluded the Great Horror Campout 2014 tour. However, due to unforeseen circumstances the production company had to cancel the weekend. I received that email on Thursday night and we immediately thought about changing our plans to attend the San Diego event, which was only two days away. It was not to be. Both girls would be unable to make it due to other standing plans.

I was hit by a wave of both disappointment as well as unease. I would have an unanswered challenge
on my docket and that just made my skin crawl. Then the crazy idea hit me that I could do it alone. Crazy because as a general rule, I tend to be cripplingly shy. The only time in my life it didn't bother me was when I was on stage in my younger years. Hard to be shy why you are absorbed in being someone else.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the reason that I started these reviews was to challenge myself. Before I could think too much on it....I bought the ticket and set it up with my amazing brother David to watch the girls for the weekend. The plan for the original weekend was that we would fly into Ontario and drive to the event, but on such short notice changing the ticket was going to cost too much. So I decided to drive the eight hour forty five minutes and give myself some contemplation time....thank God for my schizophrenic iPod. The soundtrack of my life kept me from driving myself crazy.

Nothing like a mix of Rush, Puccini, Phantom of the Opera, Kamelot, and country music to make you think.

Since I was going, I decided that I needed to address a few things for the new review that had been brought up in the first edition. Many of you asked me about the process of the cast and crew getting ready. You also wanted to get to know the people who play the characters and I am pleased to say that I was able to arrange to get that information. In fact I got so much content on this subject that there is going to be two parts of the review to adequately cover everything that I learned. I also learned a few more of the actual character names so I don't have to rely solely on my nicknames.

Working with Ten Thirty One Productions amazing media consultant, Renee, it was arranged for me to arrive a few hours early and then both photograph and interview the staff and actors. I was floored at how welcome they made me feel. I tried to repay their kindness by not being a nuisance, but we will cover this in the next half of the review. One huge benefit of having this set up is that it ensured that I couldn't chicken out because I don't make plans and break them. I'm exceeding glad that I didn't.

Plans set, I woke up early on Saturday, packed my trusty plaid backpack, Nikon, sleeping bag and pillow and realized that all my packing was in vain because I was out of ink and couldn't print out my ticket. *Facedesk.

Half an hour from the time I needed to be on the road to make it on time, I ran to Walmart to find that they were out of ink.....I will not throw a tantrum I will not throw a tantrum.....and then ran to Target to finally find the blasted cartridge I needed. Running home I printed out the ticket and my waiver, cuddled my girls, hugged my brother, thanked him for helping me and got my fanny on the road. The thing about traveling by yourself for long period of time is that it doesn't take you long to reach a contemplative state, a state brought on even quicker when you listen to a large portion of  your playlist. I have enough music to listen to music for four days solid without ever listening to the same song twice. The memories attached to those songs can take you on journeys you didn't expect. Especially if you're like me and have everything from Ghost Opera to Whiskey Lullaby to pull you in different directions. I think I sang out loud for the entire trip both ways. That may explain why my throat is a little froggy today. But I digress...as usual.

I drove the almost nine hour journey to discover something I didn't expect about San Diego....it's very similar to the area that I've lived in most of my life. I've always though of San Diego in terms of beaches and ocean...but here I found twisted oaks, pine trees and a landscape of browns dotted with green. I actually rather liked it out there.

The event was held at the Bates Nut Farm which is a beautiful historic farm known for it's famous walnuts and candy barrels. It also had a petting zoo which my children would love. It's definitely on my list of places to bring my kids the next time business calls me down San Diego way.

Bates Nut Farm

Even with the late start, I managed to make it to the site about forty five minutes earlier than I expected and no I didn't speed. As I got out of the car, I took a few moments to force my shyness to abate and then grabbed my camera and headed off towards the production trailer and.....and that's my last mention of that until part two. You can't see my face right now but I've wearing the wicked little grin my girls inherited straight from their Mama.

A few hours later I was sitting on my pillow, reading one of my Jim Butcher novels, waiting as the first in line to get inside for the actual campout. It was a little disconcerting to be there without my usual suspects, but I was determined that I wasn't going to let that keep me from having fun. Just as I made that clear to myself, one of the camp counselors made his way out of the gate, a skinny mutant by the name of Tom. He was the counselor I had the least dealings with at the first campout.

As I was the first person in line, he made his way straight towards me and grabbed my camera bag and demanded, 'What the hell is this'. I smiled and said, 'My camera'. He gave me a disgusted look and asked, 'What the hell do you need this for?'. 'Well', I said, 'I used it to take pictures of you earlier'. He gave me an indignant glare an demanded, 'Did I tell you that you could do that?'. I couldn't help but give him a little sass and say, 'Melissa said I could.' He glared at me again for breaking the character wall....yes I know I'm a pain in the butt....and said, 'Now, I don't know who that is'. Looking behind me he pointed to one of the two men waiting in line and said, 'Is this your man?'. The man looked a little horrified, deserved considering he was wearing a wedding ring, and I quickly rescued him by saying, 'Nope. I'm on my own tonight'. That got a wicked chuckle out of him, and before it had completely left his mouth he was running pell-mell down the line. Jumpy fella, Tom.

He managed to open up a line of communication with the guys behind me though. We started discussing comic books and other events, and soon it came out that I had already successfully completed one campout. We decided that we would join forces throughout the hunt and just like that Jeff and Gabe got added to my friends list. Holy crap is it really that easy? Sheesh. The pair are very funny and spent the first few minutes razzing on their co-workers (they are career Navy men) for "wussing" out. After they learned that I was there doing a review they offered to get me a chance to review an adventure going down in a submarine. Which is pretty darn awesome I have to tell you. It also turns out that Gabe had read my earlier review which I am still not used to.

I was the first person through the gates, and on the way to my tent I met my first creature of the

night, The Meat Monster, who just couldn't resist giving me a hug. Which was lovely....until I realized that he was literally soaking with gore which was now covering my arms, face, sleeping bag, and pillow. Yeah slime. It's a good thing I never ended up going to bed huh? Finding my way to the good old Green Section, tent 135 this time, I realized that it was just me in the tent. If this was an actual horror movie, I'd be the first to die. Rules of surviving a horror film, never find yourself alone.

After setting up my sleeping area and making sure I had my flashlight and the familiar "used" condom from my tent in my SCAG bag, I headed off to camper orientation. I was joined a few minutes later by my new pals Jeff and Gabe. Settling close to the stage, we began to talk strategy although it soon devolved into a conversation about making video games. It turns out that Gabe is going to school to make video games just like I did, although he is going for the actual art where I went for the coding aspect. That came to a sudden halt though as our friendly camp counselors walked out in front of the stage. In my last review I had to use nicknames because I didn't actually know their names. In some cases I can add a few names to the known list this time. One of the counselors was the one I called Necklace although now I know him as Turtle. Funny man, Turtle. The other whom I called Long Hair was...well Long Hair....sorry I never could get his character name.

I found myself chuckling as they worked their way through the crowd and teased several of the other campers. They have excellent comedic timing and I was thoroughly glad that I managed to stay out of the line of their fire. They have a knack for bringing out my deepest blushes and getting me to cruckle on command (cruckle = creeped out chuckling).

Soon enough the rest of the counselors joined the scene along with the always dapper Head Master. His presence made me wish Colleen had joined me as she absolutely adores him. After cheerful telling us to 'Shut the fuck up', he welcomed us to his camp and the crowd roared back it's approval. That's one thing that I can say with absolute certainty. The people who attend this event, including myself, are absolutely engaged in the process. He reminded us of the rules, no smoking, no alcohol or illegal substances of any kind, no weapons and most important of all....no touching the actors. They can touch us but there can be no turnabout. I completely get this rule, after all the actors have a set of rules they are supposed to work off of. The rest of us tend to touch people without any actual thought process and that could be a disastrous recipe.

After a few more leers and jeers he released us to the hunt. My new friends and I immediately set off towards the Dumpsters and the Goat Monsters. We had decided that it was the best place to find the smaller SCAG items that could hold other....and more disturbing...pieces later. We also picked up two younger girls who were visiting from Arizona and added them to the mix. I became the groups official walk through and we made our way through the darkness actually looking forward to climbing into the Dumpsters. How many times does a person get to say that in their life?

Small note here, because I traveled so long I wore my favorite comfy clothes and didn't think about what I was going to end up wearing in the field. So I ended up walking through the sand, stickers, prickers and muck in my long, soft, flowing black skirt. I am still picking the debris out of it. Yeah forethought!

Just as we got near the place where the Goat Monsters were happily engaged in Aries like noise making, a familiar sight caught my eyes as it drove past. The evil white van. Happily the van drove past us without stopping and I didn't have to worry about needing to repress the urge to kick anyone in the knee. I'm kidding here. I know for a fact that the kidnapper from Sacramento didn't follow them to San Diego and I didn't have to worry about that particular Leather Face. Seriously Sacramento Leather Face....still waiting on that rematch.

As it turns out it wasn't Leather Face that we had to worry about. It was Long Hair, who as it turned out, had been walking behind us the whole time. Catching up to our group, he told one of the girls who had joined us to kneel and put her arms behind her back.....look guys! I wasn't the victim of the night! Then he cheerfully marched her off towards the cage. It turns out that the guys are gentlemen and Jeff followed immediately to try to help set her free. You know what chivalry equals in the world of the Great Horror Campout? Getting a hood of your own and your wrists tied behind your back. Then Long Hair dropped the keys on the ground and had her direct Jeff with verbal commands to where the keys were so he could kneel down to find them. All while bound and blind. I thought that was actually pretty sweet for a man to do for a perfect stranger.

Once we had freed the fair maiden, we headed over to the dumpsters where the Goat Monsters pointed to the newly freed girl and myself and growled 'IN!'. We complied and instantly had the top closed over us. We were not going to be allowed to get out until we gave the monster two pieces of SCAG a piece. First however, we each found a used band aid, a small white bag with white powder inside of it and a needle chamber. Strange loot but loot non the less. We gave our captor two random pieces that we found inside and then exited as he shouted 'LEAVE' at us. The Goats in Sacramento were nicer.....

From there we headed over to the Labyrinth where Gabe and I were paired up and sent in ahead of the others to play the epic game of red light green light. The maze seemed to be much more complicated this time, but that may just be because I wasn't with the incredibly organized Chadd who knew the best ways to beat the maze right from the get go. As we moved past the Chupacabras who were very determined to catch us moving, we each managed to find a piece of skin webbing before we came to the moving statue. I have to say that this statue was very graceful in her movements, you could tell that she had a dancers background and strange as it is to see a statue move it really worked in this situation. Eventually she allowed us to pass and we found ourselves facing the priests. They had us kneel before them and asked us what we desired. We answered appropriately and had our skulls emblazoned with the word agony. Ah, sweet agony how I missed you. They had us descend down through a hatch, and I had the guys go first as a tactical movement. After all, the last thing anyone wants, is to have to look up my skirt while I crawl through a dark tunnel.

Once we had reached the end of the tunnel the crew member waiting at the front informed us that we

were the first to get the riddle correct all night. Seriously? Read the dossier people. The riddles are inside. That makes about as much sense to me as not reading instructions for a new game. Feeling like we had the most energy we were going to get throughout the night, we decided to try our hand at the Voodoo ritual. We made our way over the fire and followed the instructions of the Mother and the Father, who bade us to give glory to the fire....and to twerk like Miley Cyrus. We also had to get down and wiggle like snakes. Dirt in the skirt...wait that's the wrong story. Turns out that our twerk needs work and we didn't score the level 1 SCAG, a severed head.

The next stop in our strategy was supposed to be the Homestead...but as we made our way across the complex we were waylaid by a pair of Clowns. Both very cheerful and kind, in a homicidal type of way. They had Jeff, Gabe, myself and one of the girls kneel down and then asked each of us girls if we had ever put on lipstick before. I surmised that I had and they handed the pair of us each a lipstick tube. The game, we were told, was to make them happy by painting the boys faces to look like theirs. The person who did the best would get a piece of SCAG....the person who lost was going to have to bear a punishment. Apologizing to Gabe for what I was about to do, I used the lipstick to give him a sort of Jokers smile.....to no avail. The other young lady painted Jeff up to look like a cross between a hippy and a Clown and it was much better than what I had produced. She was given a piece of SCAG....and I was given the choice between walking with one of the Clowns out into the darkness or being given a new hat. Having a feeling that I didn't want to wear anything they had to offer, I let her lead me off into the darkness. Don't look at me like that.....sometimes you have to weigh your options.

As she lead me over to the homestead, she asked "So are you claustrophobic?'. Crap. That's not going to bode well for me. I answered her truthfully, 'Not right now I'm not' and she smiled and said, 'Well that's too bad'. Yup, not well.

She brought me over to one of the broken down cars near the homestead and opened up the trunk. 'Well it looks like your friends abandoned you,' she said cheerfully. 'That's too bad, because you can only get out if someone lets you out'. And in I went. There was quite a bit of stuff in that trunk and I wasn't sure I was going to fit. I guess my diet has been working after all because although I was worried, I had plenty of room. I was just starting to wonder how I was going to convince someone to let me out when Gabe opened the trunk and offered me a hand. See? Gentleman.

Glad to be out of the trunk, we turned and realized that the Clowns had grabbed up the rest of our

group and a few other passersbys as well, and were having them play another one of their games.  They handed one of the ladies of our group a series of toys, and said that they wanted her to juggle them. If she dropped something then based on what she dropped they would punish her. If she dropped multiple things then they would punish multiple people. She threw them up into the air....and promptly dropped two of the items on the ground. They pointed to one of the men they had caught up in the game and decreed that he was going to have to wear a new hat. She pulled out a pair of stained men's underwear that looked like the casualty of a bad Mexican restaurant. That pair of horrific undies was pulled over his head with the stain going down his nose. I KNEW I didn't want anything they wanted me to wear. Then they lead the girl over to the trunk I had just escaped and put her in. We waited a moment and then let her right out. No need to draw out any one's punishment after all.

Heading over to another broken down car that serves as the entrance to the Homestead, I began to creep through the opening until a large bald man with a hook jumped down into my face and demanded to know what I was doing going into his car. I told him I wanted to go into the Homestead and he gave me an expectant look. Instead of a fancy aria this time, I choose Charlie Chaplin's 'Smile'. That's one of my all time favorite pieces of music. He smiled and let me crawl through the car...where I promptly bumped my head on the top of the car. Grumple. I made my way through the maze and waited over near an obstacle that hadn't existed in the Sacramento event. It was a series of gigantic tires that we would have to crawl through to get near the entrance of the Stinky RV. Again, here is where I made a serious tactical error with the skirt. Waving the boys ahead of me I struggled to crawl through the obstacles while simultaneously holding on to my skirt and my dignity. Well at least I managed to keep my skirt from coming off or up. Not a complete loss.

Walking into the RV I found that the horrific smell that I remembered was absent. Thank the Gods for small favors. I'm rather fond of my nose and wouldn't want to have to remove it. Right in front of us sat a bucket full of what is supposed to be vomit, but is really more like stinky awful greenish brownish slime. We each pulled out our bags and prepared to dip our hands in the ungodly mess, when once again Gabe proved himself to be chivalrous and took each of our bags and filled them for us. Then we headed our way out the back of the RV and headed into a truck trailer littered with broken toys.....and of course Bloody Mary.

This time around I remembered to give her the correct phrase and moved on through towards the Meth Lab. It was there that we found the babies floating around in embalming fluid. We each took a sample and prepared to embark on the last bit of the journey, through the horse trailer with the rather unkind woman with an aluminum bat. As she called us in, she greeted each of us with a snarky saying that had I been anywhere else would have seemed rude. Here it's just par for the course and you get used to having someone remark that you smell like a cheap can of tuna. That being said she bade us get down on our knees and show her what SCAG we had. Just as it looked like we were going to have to pay a toll to exit, she noticed that one of the young men who had come in with us had taken a whole cup full of vomit and not just a bag full. Instantly she demanded that he rub the slime all over his girlfriends neck and hair. Not to be deemed unfair she then commanded the girl to dump the cup down the front of his pants and rub it in. Once she had seen to that she kicked us all out. I counted myself lucky to have been ignored in that scenario.

As we exited the Homestead, the Headmaster came over the air to announce the first of the evenings speed bump challenges. It was time for check in at our tents. Our group made its way back to our tents and it is here that I met a both familiar and new friend. Familiar because it was Thirst, and new because it was an entirely new actor inside the mask. It's funny but he responded to me pretty much the way Thirst the First did, and my evening was filled with encounters with the batty character. He introduced himself with his best manners by snuffling my neck and shrieking in my face. Such a doll.

Once each of our bags had been checked to satisfaction...no cheaters for our group.....we headed back out but not before meeting another familiar creature. It was none other than the half rotting dancing girl. She motioned me over to her and started dancing and motioning for me to get out my condom. Just as before she made some movements that one doesn't normally see out and about and proceeded to fill it up with green gloop. The boys thought that was fantastic and laughed joyously. I was just happy to get the slimy thing tied up and thrown in my bag.

From there we headed into big creature territory, which was up a fairly steep hill and seated in the middle of an orchard. Right off the bat we found a tooth and a pentacle....not may I add that they changed the name from Devil's coin. Once we had obtained our dubious booty, we made our way to the top of the hill to meet our next creatures, Mothmen! Where is Jen when I need her? Without her adorably portable self to distract them I got locked up in their wings more than a few times. Sigh. Well I suppose there are worse things in life than being held against a strange man. Granted I don't enjoy it the way other woman seem to but at least I'm aware of the sentiment.

Just as we were about to make our way into the orchard, our Headmaster again came over the airway to let us know that we needed to head over to blood tag. Crud! I had forgotten my tee-shirt in the tent. So why the gentlemen headed towards the gaming grounds I sped my way back toward the tent. I was leaning in to grab my gear when Thirst jumped at me and gave his customary shriek. I almost fell in first from surprise and then from the force of my giggles. Seriously, I must

have sort of beacon of me that calls out to the Thirst character in general. I spent a few moments trying to lose him by running around a far too skinny tree and then chatting with one of the counselors, Ram...who I called Sunflower in my last report. He's a sweetheart in real life but as Ram he still gets a good cruckle out of me. He and Turtle are my favorites.

Realizing that I had spent a lot of time retrieving that shirt instead of heading toward the mandatory event, I walked as quickly as I could without actually running over to the game. I donned the prerequisite tee-shirt and a pair of protective goggles and then headed inside. The goal as you may remember, is to come out of the first level with a blood filled gun or to have a clean shirt. As per usual, I ended up with neither. I did however get picked to be a body shield for another player, who incidentally was WAY taller than I am. He dragged me around and used me ruthlessly to defend himself from the Big Boss. Would have worked if we didn't walk backwards, which caused me to trip over another player. I went down in a tangle of black blood soaked limbs and my partner got soaked with gore. Needless to say that we didn't score the heart.

Once we exited the gaming area, I quickly divested myself of the tee-shirt and stuffed it in my SCAG bag. I hadn't won the game but I had scored the black blood. Then our little party headed back up the hill to the orchard to meet up with the various creatures waiting in the woods for us. I have to say, that although walking through a field of stalks is scary, there is something that is just intrinsically creepy about wandering through the woods in the dark. Right off the bat I commanded the attention of a werewolf, a bigfoot, and a vine monster. That's a lot of jumping in the space of only a couple of minutes. I also managed to find a nose, a skeleton face and a tongue. As I made my way toward the exit of the woods another creature jumped out from behind a tree and caught me in his net. Stupid net....I was specifically looking for this guy so I didn't end up in it. Turns out that my 'nice creature, good creature' spiel works at least a little bit because he handed me an ear and released me. My little trio met up again and we quickly talked over what we had. If were going to score any more level 1 SCAG it looked like we were going to need to split up. Jeff headed toward the Voodoo ritual, Gabe headed off to the witches ceremony and I made my way over to pool in search of a leech.

 

On my way I encountered one of the female counselors who I had chatted with several times already through the course of the evening. Lovely people, these hillbillies. Creepy, sometimes a little on the perverse side but lovely none the less. She remarked that I looked like I was too clean after spending so many hours in the hunt. I looked down and thought that I looked rather dusty but my eyes are admittedly not the best. She told me to kneel and I took to my knees wondering what fresh hell was going to be unleashed on me. 'Go on,' she said, 'Yell out my name is Alexis and I love golden showers!'. Balls. Remember I am the person who uses my own personal swear words like "sons of the pharaoh", "stars and stones" and "sons of the saints" instead of using real bad words. Taking a deep voice I began to yell, 'My name is Ale....'. She stopped me, chuckled and said, 'I said yell it'. I looked back at her and said confused, 'That is my yell'. She looked at me rather disgusted and said, 'Come on now I know you've got it in you! Yell!'. I took a deep breath and began again, 'My name is Alexis and I love golden showers!'. She promptly poured water over head and had me roll in the dirt. Only to be told that I still didn't look dirty enough!

She told me to follow her back up to the Homestead where I was met by a group of her cousins. Apparently to dirty me up we needed to discuss my sexuality...which they found rather woeful. All I can do to defend myself here is to remind them and my readers that part of what makes me unique is that this part of the world hasn't made much of a mark on me. Once they were satisfied that they had thoroughly dirtied me up they released me back to my search for the pool. Which now sounded much more appealing as I felt the distinct need to wash.

Once I made it to the pool I asked the lifeguard how he recommended that I attack the challenge of getting into the water and hopefully finding a leach. He said that it was up to me but that he had a gentleman earlier who had gone in with a single sock on. My response to that is that no one wants to see me naked so I would simply take off anything I didn't want ruined. I quickly placed my SCAG bag, shoes and socks to the side and then climbed up the ladder carrying an inner tube.

I would not be allowed to get out of the tube but he said that I could stick my feet through the bottom and sweep the bottom and the sides for SCAG. He had me put the tube in the water and then go fanny backwards in. I made a large splash and decided that it was a good thing that I had brought my jammies for the journey. I was definitely going to need a change of clothes. Sticking my feet down the hole I began to walk along the pool feeling with my feet and hands for anything worth grabbing up. Even though I knew there had to be something scary in the water, I still wasn't prepared for the man in scuba gear to grab my feet. I think I jumped a mile! He surfaced a few feet away from me and I could hear him chuckling evilly. Ok I admit it, I was cruckling too. Then I felt it, right underneath my toes. Quickly I squished it between them and brought it up to my hands....a leech! Whoo! Two more pieces of level 1 SCAG to go. Climbing out of the water I found myself standing on the other side of the pool with my long draping skirt now molded to my body in a most indecent manner. Before I had time to rectify the situation, a group of fellow creepers wolf whistled and shined their lights up at me. I studiously pretended that they were simply providing me with light to get down and made my way over to my things. And did my best to get my skirt to stop highlighting parts of my body that didn't need to be highlighted.

Deciding that I'd better get a move on and change my clothes before heading back out to either find the guys or find another piece of Level 1 SCAG, I headed back to the tent rather looking like a drowned rat. Well, if a rat likes to wear long skirts and has blue, purple, pink and teal highlights in their hair. I met the same counselor that had decided that I was too clean earlier and she couldn't help but smirk at my appearance now. 'Look at you, ' she drawled, 'You went and got clean again.'. I laughed and surmised that I had. 'What pieces of SCAG are you looking for now?' I told her that I had found a leech and needed to find two more pieces of level 1 type stuff. She looked around reached into her pocket and handed me....a finger! Holy crap! That's the hardest piece of SCAG to find. I could have hugged her, but as I was soaking wet and covered in dirt and sand I didn't think she'd appreciate that very much. Instead I gave her a high five and then ran to my tent.

As I was standing there wringing out my clothes as much as possible before climbing in, I heard a familiar clicking sound and turned and found myself facing Thirst. He immediately began to crowd me and sniff my neck even as I protested that I was getting his beautiful coat dirty. Asking politely if I could get a photo of him I reached in and grabbed my Nikon, turned to take a photo, and found him launching himself at me. I took a picture quickly even as I shrieked with surprise. He then walked away from me as I was left to cruckle over the picture that I had taken in my shock.

I crawled into the tent and changed into my jammies....which while not a long flowing skirt was still a pair of loose black velvet pants and an over sized tank top. I really didn't think about what I was packing apparently.

As I left the Headmaster came over the air once again to announce the last of our speed bump challenges. Those of us in the Green Section were to head over to the flag pole. The challenge this time was for use to split into two groups so that we could play tug of war. Not just any tug of war mind you. Great Horror Campout style tug of war, which is where we each grab a rope that has been soaked in blood. It was rather like holding on to a long strand on intestines. Don't ask how I know that, you really don't want to know. I reconnected with Gabe and Jeff and they quickly organized our side of the rope to get on alternating sides so that we could pull more efficiently...yeah that didn't work. It took exactly thirty seconds for the slippery rope moving through our hands painfully and we lost spectacularly. No SCAG and our hands were covered with slime again.

As we finished the Headmaster announced that we had about fifteen minutes left to the hunt....shoot! I still needed one more piece of level 1 SCAG. I decided that I was going to head up to the witches ceremony and try for the SCAG I knew they had there....an umbilical cord.

Moving as quickly as I could, I made my way back up the hill and was instantly faced with two Mothmen. Nice Mothmen....good...Mothmen....I tried to scoot past them, but I was too much fun to ignore and I found myself caught up by not just one but both of the sentinels. Giggling I continued the rest of my way over to the witches ceremony and showed the waiting  attendant my pentacle to gain access. Just as it had in Sacramento it had sunk to the very bottom of my bag to try to hide from me. Next year I swear I am bringing a pocket for that bag, the small items demand it.

She lead us over to the witches ceremony, where they began a dark ritual. Walking over to each of us who were waiting she asked us to confess the most awful secret we possessed. Well....gosh. There are so many to choose from....what should I say? I live my life in the ideals of being kind and generous....but that doesn't mean that I haven't made mistakes and attempted to light my life on fire a few times. I opened my mouth and said 'mumble mumble confession noises' (content edited to protect the innocent) and she said 'Not good enough'. Well that's a relief. However it meant that I didn't get the last piece of SCAG and was going to have to leave without a sash. I know that would bother some people immensely but truthfully I don't need to win to have a good time, and frankly I had a great time.

I headed back to my tent, grabbed my camera so that I could get pictures of all the campers turning

in their SCAG and turned in my own contents. I received another coveted tee-shirt to wear to bed! So in answer to the challenge that was laid out before me, if the Great Horror Campout would be fun a second time around, I have to say that it was more than a success. No matter that I knew the rules, the riddles, and had an opening strategy, it was still full of it's own surprises. I'll even go one better. My group of fellow adventures and I are already making plans to join next years hunt....twice.

This is the end of the first part of my review. Stay tuned for my article on the behind the scenes of the Great Horror Campout San Diego 2014 event.

On to the next adventure!

 

Please Follow this Link to View Part Two of the Review

Finding My Daring

Well, my fellow adventurers, this post is going to be a bit more on the spicier side than I might normally post. A few weeks ago I was doing some bored surfing through the internet...(do you see what I did there? Sorry I couldn't resist pointing out my pun)....and I read this blog about on 15 Tips To Make You Feel Pretty As Hell. I'll include the link below as I thought it was a pretty good read.

15 Tips To Make You Feel Pretty As Hell For Men & Women

The people close to me would say that I have confidence issues. I say that's not quite accurate. I have confidence that I try to leave the world in better condition than I found it. I have confidence that I'm intelligent. I have confidence that I am an awesome game player. I have confidence that I'm a good mom, and I can be confident about that because my babies tell me everyday. Just the way I tell them that they are the most amazing things in my life. But when it comes to my outer shell, I'm just rather meh. After all, I'm a thirty two year old, mother of two, computer geek with a penchant for fuzzy plaid pajama bottoms. If I ever went through a phase of trying to impress people with my outside package....well hell I never went through that phase.

When I was a teenager I would have told you that I was horrific. That was a word that I used to describe myself often. I was super skinny, had a horrible perm, wore glasses, braces, and had horrible skin. There is a picture of me from my sophomore year that makes me uncomfortable to even look at. There was a time when it could make me cry because I remember how bad I felt when I saw them for the first time. I've decide to share the picture on the off chance that someone reading out there needs to know that the dark days are not the only ones that define us. I'm not that girl anymore and you couldn't pay me enough money to be in high school again. Our cultures obsession with youth really is a mystery to me.

I had the perfect combination to make both of the high schools I went to a rather interesting experience. You've heard of the perfect storm? I was, and am, the perfect geek. If you added my penchant for good grades, crafts and the books that I literally carried everywhere, I was a walking stereotype. High school memories are not my favorite. To this day I see a group of laughing teenagers and shudder. The years of being bullied and ostracized left their mark. It was at least a decade after high school before I was comfortable looking into a mirror.

Over the years, as I grew to be comfortable in my own skin, I realized that I was very overcritical of myself. Especially after I had my babies and I went from not being able to keep a pound on to having extra weight on my bones. Right about the time I turned thirty I forced myself to look at my reflection and see who was really standing there. And behold. Instead of the monster I thought I was going to see there was a thirty year old woman who wore a size ten pair of pants. She had short hair, dyed purple and blue, glasses perched on the end of her nose and something she didn't expect. That her Plain Jane face had a smile on it and somehow that made the package work. I took that self acceptance for what it was worth and ran with it baby.

Then I read this article and realized that I had some more inner gazing to do. The very first tip was to wear pretty underwear, something special that makes you feel awesome. And there was the problem. I didn't own any pretty undergarments. Not one. My underwear drawer was full of white, beige, and strict black underwear that was very functional and in some cases designed to trick my mind into believing that my curves were earned without a love of food. They were ugly and I realized that if push came to shove, I wouldn't want anyone to see me in them. I mean it's underwear and not really meant to share anyway but my point stands.

That also go me looking at the state of my entire wardrobe. Holy crap, when did I start wearing everything so baggy and in such dull colors? My entire wardrobe was in shades of brown, grey, black, white, dark blue and consisted of loose skirts, baggy shirts, sweaters, cover-ups, mom jeans and pajama pants. I sat down and had to ask myself, when was the last time I actually felt pretty.....and could not come up with an answer. I don't even remember feeling pretty on my wedding day and it's been almost two years since then. That is a problem that I couldn't ignore.

So I thought about it for a few moments and then decided there was only one thing that could be done. I needed to head over to the store and see what I could find in the way of lingerie that didn't make me feel like I was trying to squeeze into anything obscene or like I was trying to be someone I'm not. The goal, to find a bra and panties that made me feel like I could walk around my house and not be ashamed if someone saw me in them....I mean besides the fact that I would be walking around my house in my underwear in the middle of the day. My pick for the journey was Ross, which fits my families sometimes stretched budget to the tee and at least gives me a fair chance at finding something pretty in my size. Although sometimes that's not true. The stuff they  have on the Large rack can be a gamble, hullo irregular zebra print jeans.

I get there and have a few minutes of ZOINKS. Some of what they had was the same straight up ugly material that I already had at home. White, beige, and black seas of confining fabric. Then there was the stuff that was just not made for my Downton Abbey loving happy self. I love lace and sweeping fabrics. If I had my druthers I'd dress like Lady Mary every single days. But I digress. What was before me was a buffet of  Zebra stripes, Cheetah print, neon colors that made my eyes vibrate in my skull....no thank you. Next! Then I found them. Pretty, lacey, frilly scraps of fabric that I'm not sure I would have even thought of in my single days. I admit that I bought them without trying them on, one of my holdovers from those dark days is that rooms with many mirrors make me itchy.

Taking a deep breath I took them into the bathroom, divested each of them of their tags so I couldn't chicken out and put them on. Holy crap! Is that me in the mirror? I mean I still have the curvy figure, stretch marks and goofy grin....but somehow the woman in the mirror seems to be ok with that. And you know what? I really did feel prettier!

On to the next Adventure!