Day of the Fanboys

This morning I decided to continue my exploration of local caverns by visiting Kentucky Down Under, about an hour and a half south of Louisville... I paid my admission and headed up to the gift shop to wait for the cave tour group I was assigned to, and the cave tour guide immediately perked up when I walked into the building. I was wearing the Dragon*Con t-shirt I'd bought from telaryn last weekend, and he started telling me about how he'd always wanted to go and that he'd been to smaller conventions, but he really wanted to try a big one. Oh, and then he proceeded to tell me how much he loved playing D&D but he didn't have anyone to play with anymore. The whole thing was rather amusing, and somewhat unexpected.

The cavern was pretty neat, although I think it's the smallest one I've been to so far. Afterward I wandered around a bit looking at the animals... since it's not just a cavern site, but also a wildlife park for Australian animals (plus American Bison... which are apparently a requirement for Australian zoos). My allergies have been absolutely kicking my behind the last few days, and are currently trying to decide if I'm going to get bronchitis or a sinus infection, so I wasn't able to see as much as I'd wanted (it's really hard to do any sort of walking when you're wheezing from an asthma attack), and then I started running out of time, anyway. I went to take a peek at the animals they had in the "Walkabout" section and chatted with the guide there. The sign said the tour took about 30 minutes, which was a bit longer than I had (since I needed to be back in Louisville by 4:00), however, since there wasn't anyone else around, he said he'd give me the whirlwind tour.

And then said "So, you went to DragonCon this year? I haven't been in ages" and proceeded to tell me how his wife didn't care for conventions so he hadn't been able to go for awhile... but that he was going to try to drag her to one that had more costuming, since he was pretty sure she'd really enjoy that. About this point, I'm wondering what the odds are of running into two fannish types within an hour of each other. The little tour he took me on was actually quite fun... I got to pet an Eastern Grey Kangaroo (who had been raised by Fanboy #2 and was very used to people) and hold its tail (which was pretty heavy), plus I got to pet an Emu, and the guide showed off how the feathers work as a defense mechanism by pulling out easily if a predator tries to grab them. All in all, well worth doing, even though I wasn't able to really explore the park.

After that I headed back toward Louisville and tracked down the Massage Envy where I had an appointment. I swear, I have never once regretted getting a membership there. And I love the fact that I can use my pre-paid ones at any location (especially since I still have quite a few stacked up from when I couldn't use them right after the accident). The massage therapist I got was a guy, and he did a really excellent job... hit all the spots that really needed working on, with all the traveling I've been doing lately... and we got to talking. Turns out, he and his wife are really into SF&F, although they've never been to a convention. We've watched some of the same shows and have definitely read a lot of the same books. So that makes three fannish-type people I've managed to bump into randomly in the space of about four hours. Apparently, fate decided to extend Dragon*Con a bit for me this week!