With sunset arriving, we decided to close up the tent. The staff assured us that the stuff inside would be safe, and Ethan of Bustn'n Balls seemed to have no qualms about his tent. So we followed suit and din't worry about anyone making off with guns from our tent (as it was, there were no problems with theft at the event that I ever heard of). Lee and I made our way over to the Marshals' bunkhouse to learn what the pump defense strategy would be before finally heading to our hotel. We stayed at Master Serios, which wasn't too bad all things considered. We sat in the bar for a while, having a few drinks and some burgers with some of the other players. Very inexpensive food and beer there - good deal. Finally crashed around midnight, hoping to wake up at 7am.

Finally left from the hotel around 7:20 and headed to the field. One nice thing about being a vendor was that we got better parking, closer to the tent. We eventaully had to park the wagon right next to the tent to serve as an anchor - wasn't very windy, but those tents sure have a lot of surface area. We opened up the side of the tent to happily find everything just as we left it. As it turned out, Lee and I never even got to play during the event - we were kept busy by a steady stream of people looking over our tables, asking questions. I still have the unopened case of paint we bought for the event, but we really didn't care - we were having a blast. Old schoolers would congregate in front of our tent, showing off the various nifty toys they had brought along.  We finally did get to meet Steve Deam after all, and we had fun talking with him, playing with the Diadem he had brought along.  Nice little gun - can't wait for mine to arrive.

As the light faded, we once more closed up the tent and decided to head off to the museum to browse the collection. I brought along the Satco 700 which Hans delighted in disassembling, discovering new and wonderful features of the gun. I teetered around the museum as if in a daze (the bottle of barley wine in my hand labeled with the brand of 'Blithering Idiot' already having an effect), amazed at the extent of nifty guns on display (while secretly amused that my own collection sports a few items not in the museum). Punisher had come down from the second level and told me that I just had to go see the collection of old mint condition magazines up there. I was making my way toward the stairs, seeing that it was blocked off, and Missy Masse stopped me saying that the area was off-limits for now. I said no problem and resumed browsing through the displays. 10 minutes later I bumped into her again and she had apparently talked to Lee, who mentioned that I was present. She apologized for stopping me from heading upstairs and told me that I had to come with her and see the magazine collection - "I didn't know who you were," she said. I replied that I'm no one really, but she insisted that I was famous - "Jessica Sparks knows who you are." Suitably flattered, I never even did make it upstairs to browse the collection, as the war stories that Jim Masse and Hans had to share were simply too entertaining to pass up. Do not underestimate Jim should you ever face off against him in a scenario game - he has turned acquiring surrenders into an art form.

At some point we left the museum in search of S7G, who we knew to have some treats from Alaska. After walking past the bunkhouses a few times, we finally found him with Yankee, BigMatt, Goat, Kozmo and a few others in the camping area. Lee and I were handed beers, and the partying began. There were Alaskan crab legs in a pot and some fantastic smoked salmon on a tray. I had my first shot, which was soon followed by numbers 2 and 3, in addition to the Captain Morgan and cola and whatever else was flowing freely from containers. There's not much more to say at this point - the pictures that everyone posted pretty much sum it all up. Fortunately Lee had the good sense to cease imbibing at some point, and we stopped the intoxication somewhere short of where we would have streaked past the Marshals' bunkhouse (honest, it seemed like a fantastic idea at the time). Lee managed to pilot us back to the motel, stopping off in a parking lot to consult with GPS to detect a wrong turn. Since I had difficulty operating my own computer at this point, I walked around the parking lot, finally having a conversation with a truck about patent law and the resulting effects of the Smart Parts lawsuit. Darn good thing Lee had me take a handful of Tylenol before falling asleep - I didn't feel any ill effects the next morning.

Since we had to get back to Milwaukee for Lee's flight out, we couldn't spend a lot of time at the field on Sunday morning.  We packed up our items and chatted with our newfound friends before we had to leave.  The long trip back got us home around 4am, and we slept until around 11.  I took Lee to BFG Paintball, our local indoor field, which impressed him greatly.  We also managed to stop in at Paintball Dave's in Milwaukee and got a quick tour of the fields before we had to run to the airport.  Just in time, too - Lee had to get on the plane immediately, and I didn't even get to say goodbye before I could park the car and run into the terminal.  No biggie - we had such a fantastic time that he'll be back this way soon enough, and I'll be off to EMR once more with my new big brother.

Thanks to everyone who came to EMR - this was by far the best paintball time I've ever had.  I can't wait for the next time, when I'll make sure that I actually get to play!

- Have Blue
h a v e b l u e . a t . a i r s o l d i e r . d o t . c o m