Good Day to Dine, May 2004
800*600



Report on the LSWA's Good Day to Dine. May 29th.
The annual "walkabout" in Fort Worth.

We had a decent turnout and a lot of fun. Due to the heat expected, and the fact that this was intended to be a "walkabout", we had slightly lower attendance than expected. Well, add to that my own son being sick and another couple of regulars having work and family issues coming up. But it was still a respectable turnout.
On the train ride in, our conductor was new to me as he was normally an engineer. He came to us and said, "a woman in the last car was asking me if there were any klingons on board. I told her that I had never seen any before today and that, yes, there are some on board." We found that Jenny was in the cab car as we got off of the TRE at the T&P.
We definitely got the attention of the mundanes as cars would honk and footpads would ask "what is going on?". (As a computer geek, I submit that this is how the sentence SHOULD end for proper parsing.) We were stopped on occasion and asked to explain the shirts, symbols and flag. I served as "color guard" and carried a guidon with the veteran LSWA flag (of the backwards blades). As "color guard", I wore my Class A armor and carried the guidon. Everybody else was in Class B uniforms due to the expected heat.

Half of us got off of the Trinity Railway Express to meet the other half in the parking lot of the Texas & Pacific Railway Station. While we were organizing, a Cadillac pulled up and the window went down. "Q'pla, Brother", rang out of the driver's window. This was our first and most promising contact of the day as this fellow was very into Star Trek and interested in klindom. He just was not aware that there were klingon fan clubs until then. Dr. Gizmo gave him a resin mini of a Sword of Kahless while I handed over a few business cards in hopes of a future contact. We described and discussed our activities and he appeared very interested. Time will tell.



We then left the T&P directly for Billy Miners for a beer and burger. This place had big honkin' burgers. After being asked about the leather and leaving a business card with another set of potential recruits, we left for the ITC to get a paper train schedule since I was not wearing my pocket computer. The next stop was the Fort Worth Water Gardens where we were photographed as we enjoyed the cooler air and some popsicles. Regrettably, Person1 and Person2 had hit their time limit and had to leave. The rest of us went to the Marble Slab for ice cream of the serious sort. Our next stop was to go to Starbucks. Those of us who had had popsicles and passed on the Marble Slab were ready for iced coffees. By the time we finished there we were due to head back to the T&P for the ride home.
One of my regular conductors was the engineer on the return trip. She has seen me kilted, but never armored. This was her first time to see the klingon armor and the flag. We talked a bit and we laughed about breaking in the earlier engineer (as conductor). It was a good ride back and we had the opportunity to attempt to recruit another family on the train ride back.

This was a long and hot day. But it sure was fun. We just hope that the potential recruits do pan out. Thus was our Good Day to Dine.



Strength and Honor

Cdr. Salek Sutai
Ship's Brewer
An Approved Brewmaster of the Empire
www.janissaries.net


                 


AER's Page
Home