10:00 am, Phoenix, Arizona

The car is loaded and four members of the Horde hit the road. A Tauren Death Knight is at the wheel, with a Troll Hunter in the navigator’s seat. The rear seats are occupied by an Orc Warrior and a Blood Elf Priest. Together we make up the officers of Carebear Warfare.

10:40 am, Goodyear, Arizona

The DK makes a sudden detour into an In-and-Out Burger parking lot. That’s okay; there’s really no good hunting area between here and Anaheim, so vendor food will have to do. We choose burgers and fries and chow down, then hit the road again. The lure of goodies, games, and good companions awaiting us makes us reluctant to linger any longer.

12:30 pm, Quartzite, Arizona

A McDonald’s beckons. The Blood Elf has to have a McFlurry. The rest of us grab drinks from the Traveler’s
Tundra Mount in the back (okay … it’s really an ice chest but we’re trying to stay in the RP mode here, okay?). We stretch our legs and wait impatiently for the Blood Elf. She finally appears and we hit the road again.

1:10 pm, somewhere west of Blythe, California

While the DK obeys the construction zone speed limit (who’d have thought a DK would stick to the rules?!?), a black economy car blows past us. A Horde sticker is prominently displayed in the center of the back window. We may be outnumbered by Alliance scum when we get to Anaheim, but at least we’re assured that we won’t be the sole representatives of our faction!

4:30 pm, Anaheim, California

We arrive safely at our hotel and check in. The hotel clerk asks us if we need directions to the Blizzcon badge pick-up site. We look suspiciously around for Alliance spies and ask how he knows what we’re there for. He looks at us like we’re noobs. We hastily take our keys, unload the car, and regroup to drive to the convention center. Yes it’s only a few blocks away but we’re used to having epic mounts. We ride from the Orgrimmar bank to the Orgrimmar Auction House, for god’s sakes. We’re sure as hell not going to walk the over-sized 3 city blocks to the convention center.

5:24 pm, Anaheim Convention Center

We arrive in the CC parking lot, having paid $10.00 to park for what we hope is a short time (considering the price we figure parking must be run by the Goblins) . The Blood Elf has been receiving non-stop text messages and cell phone calls from Andros, one of our raiding partners. He tells us the line is really long for badge pick up, but moving quickly. We join hundreds of other people heading to the badge pick up site (Hall E) passing hundreds of people streaming the opposite direction, goody bags in hand. We head into the hall, and wind through the lines for what seems an interminable amount of time. Andros finds us and we exchange hellos quickly, promising to meet up the next morning.

5:58 pm, Anaheim Convention Center

We leave the badge pick up site, passes hanging from lanyards around our necks, goody bags swinging from our hands. We find our car and head back to the hotel where we excitedly dump the bags on beds and look at the loot. The big gift is a Starcraft vinyl plush which is quite cool (pictures will follow, but not tonight). We also receive a Blizzard authenticator with the Blizzcon logo, a bunch of contest entries, a map to the halls which also contains a schedule of events, and a small bottle of hand sanitizer. I open it and sniff it. It smells sort of like a dwarf pissed in it, so I cap it back up and toss it in the bag. Thanks Blizz! We then head out to dinner at Buca de Beppo; returning to our rooms 2 hours and $115 later. After a strategy session to decide what our plans are for tomorrow we head to the hotel pool and sit in the jacuzzi, talking raid strategy while we swill various alcoholic drinks. If this all sounds like babble, I probably drank too much Captain Rumsey’s Lager. Blame the Orc; he spikes drinks when he thinks you’re not looking.