The Gathering: In Texas This Year

[Dracos]

Okay, Gonna make things a bit simple.

Austin Texas.  I believe we have a few folks there.  We're gonna have a gathering there sometime this year.

Things remaining to hash out which folks can ring in below on:
1)When?  What time and for how long would be best for people?
2)Where should we have it?
3)What events would folks like to have as part of the get-together?
4)Who's coming?


:)

Anyhow, I figure over the next month we can figure these out.


----

When Will it be:
September 22nd to 28th, basically a full week there monday to friday, with arriving and meeting up sunday and departure on saturday.

Current Attendee list:
Dracos - 786-338-1439
Brian
Halbarad - 512-567-6366
Merc
Iddy
Yuthirin - 847-219-7283

Hotel Information:
La Quinta Inn & Suites
Austin/Cedar Park/Lakeline
10701 Lakeline Mall Dr
Austin, TX 78717
Phone: 1-512-568-3538

Parking is free, wifi is free, free crummy breakfast if we want it, and should be near Hal's place.

To help organize: http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,102836.0.html

Travel to/from Airport
To Help Organize: http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,102836.0.html
You can hail a cab.  It's a 30 minute drive, so groups would be wise cuz it's gonna be about a 63 dollar fee each way.  Ouch.

Added by Hal: Cheaper option is to use Super Shuttle, which is how I get to the airport when I'm flying out rather than park down there. From my place (which is very close to the hotel), it's about $35-40 depending on your tip. If folks can book a shuttle trip together, I believe the overall rate will be lower, but that'll depend on arrival times. </end Hal addition>

If we can arrange a group, Hal might be able to do a trip up to get some of us.  Equally so, splitting that kind of taxi several ways won't be that bad.

Guesstimate Budget Information:
With AAA this should run folks about 630 per room.  If folks split rooms, that's 315, so with airfare and food puts a reasonable about 800ish trip budget: room, food, events, travel.  Or at least that's my guess right now.  Please let me know if we should look for a cheaper outing, since I prefer us all being in the same spot.  Makes hangouts way easier.

We are going to grab a van and hopefully split it between those there.  Reason being is I am hearing we have enough folks that it'd be uncomfortable to fit them all in one vehicle.

Temperature consideration:
Weather sites say it is generally in the mid-upper 80s during the day, with dipping just a bit below that at night.  Should generally pack for warm weather.

Vehicle Rental Information:
We will likely get 1 van to promote easy group travel to locations.  Unless people very much want to split up. :)
This will be handled day one, once everyone is at the hotel.  I'll coordinate with Yuth on this one.

Events:

Sunday:
Goal for everyone is to arrive safely at the hotel.  If you need help with this, make sure to arrange it beforehand.

Acquire a vehicle if we need it.   THis will depend on whether enough space is already there.  If not, I'll rent a van and we'll split it up.

Monday:
Travel down to Downtown Austin. 
Grab breakfast down in Austin Downtown.

Take a light hike - http://www.austintexas.org/listings/Lady-Bird-Lake-Hike-and-Bike-Trail/4369/
Once we're done there, we'll likely grab a light lunch and keep going with one of these, based on votes at the time.  Do bring swimwear this day just in case.

Hal: This puts us in the Zilker area for the day. Other stuff to do in the area:
- Barton Springs Pool
- Canoe rentals on Lady Bird Lake
- Peter Pan Mini Golf - it's nothing hugely fancy, but it's something of an Austin landmark
- Several other parks and trails in the Zilker area, including the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and the Zilker Botanical Gardens
-Possibly a trip to pinballz for an hour or two (looks about 10-15 dollars an hour) - 8940 Research Blvd., Suite 100 Austin, TX 78758

Grab Dinner in the downtown.  We'll go by Yelp/Hal recommendations.

Return and watch anime, And/Or Cards against Humanity.  Everyone Hates Humanity~ :)

Tuesday:

Grab breakfast near/at the hotel and head out for Cave Journey?   http://www.myinnerspacecavern.com/home.php

Head south to new braunfels and grab lunch.

Spend some of the afternoon on Tube Haus ( http://tubehaus.com/ ) bring some swimwear, suntan lotion, hats.  It's near the end of the season, so hopefully won't be too crowded/hot.

Tuesday Night will be some Poker. :)  No pay in, but it's a silly tradition.

Wednesday:

This is going to be mostly a free afternoon.  Some will be going to the Gun Range.  Some will be hanging out with other local area friends or family.  Mainly this is the spot to do that in.

This is going to also be a board game night.

Thursday:
Theme: Return to Downtown

Breakfast and Arcade UFO in the morning

Check out the downtown, check out the bat colony:  100 S Congress Ave
Hal: If we're doing downtown, notable stuff to hit would be:
- The Texas State Capitol - just like the Capitol in DC, except bigger (of course). And pink.
- Bob Bullock State History Museum
- The Blanton Museum of Art at UT Austin

We'll probably wrap up with the bat colony since that's a better evening thing.

This'll probably be a video game night.  Certainly we can have some mushroom kingdom murder simulator or something else.  Not sure where we'll set this up, whether its a hangout at hal's place for a bit (Needs approval) or whether we can do it in the hotel (sometimes not an option :( ).

Friday:
Trip out to San Antonio for a day.

See the Alamo.
Other options:
   Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum
        The River Walk
        San Antonio Missions National Historic Park
   Ripley's Haunted Adventure, Guinness World Records Museum, and Tomb Rider 3D

Spend the day in San Antonio.  Head back in the evening. 

Board game night. :)  Merc will share another fun game with the crew. :)

Saturday:
Departure.  Make sure to have a way back to your home planned out by here.  We may have a meal together or two before headout, but nothing is planned for here.

What people are bringing:
Dracos: I'll definitely bring laptop, 3ds, and the traditional poker set.  I'll bring 2 ps3 controllers.  I can bring controls/games if we've got some system to do 4+player craziness on.
Merc: Bringing some board games.
Brian: Bringing Cards against Humanity.
Hal: The gaming rig. PS3 with 2 controllers, Wii with 4 controllers. If a 360 is wanted I can hook one up, but I don't have one myself. If anyone has specific Wii or PS3 games they want to play, bring 'em.
Iddy: Some guns, Cards against Humanity.

How will we get around?:
Dracos will rent a minivan/6 person vehicle for the trip.  This is intended to be a split cost but if you can't budget it in we'll see what we can do.

What you should also pack
Hats
Comfortable Walking shoes (We will probably be doing a bunch)
Travel bags/backpacks (Something to carry anything you want to pick up)
Swimwear and towels.
Sunscreen
Clothes

[Dracos]

Providing a spontaneous disaster doesn't occur, I will be there :)

[Brian]

Eh ... I have less vacation than I thought.

But I still would like to go.

[Halbarad]

Well, if it's in Austin, I'm kind of automatically there. >_> I can offer my place as a hub for gaming/hanging out (so long as we're not making tons of noise late into the night), and given that we managed to squeeze 20+ people in for DLcon a couple of years ago without getting too cramped, I think it'll be manageable.

That said, my capacity to house or shuttle people will be limited.

[Dracos]

We'll probably rent a vehicle or two.  Hopefully we have someone comfortable with driving a large van.  I'm not, but historically it's been a 'bad choice' every time we've split up with multiple vehicles.

Usually these gatherings are <10 people, cuz we're a smaller hangout group than DL.  So it won't be a big deal hopefully for house size.  That said, we'll definitely be using a hotel as a main base because it is not cool imposing for some long period of days.

[Iron Dragoon]

I'd show up, barring abnormal life stuff happening.

If needed, I can bring my car to help ferry people around. If we're doing a mass rental, though, and it's during good weather, I'll be on my bike most likely.

[Iron Dragoon]

Hopefully we have someone comfortable with driving a large van.  I'm not, but historically it's been a 'bad choice' every time we've split up with multiple vehicles.

I can drive large vehicles if needed. Van < Armored Vehicles.

[Dracos]

That'd be great, Iddy. :)  It's usually best when we can go as one group, since that keeps people from being excluded from the hangout.

[Merc]

I'll be going, and I can offer some transportation for up to three people that might want to make a stop at the Houston airport instead of Austin's as well. I can take some games with me as well for stuff to do.

Besides that, not really sure what a good time would be to head over to Austin.

[Halbarad]

If we want to use my place as a hub for stuff going on, I did run a RPGDL gathering out of my current place a couple of years back, so I can recommend hotels that are nearby, etc.

A couple of recommendations:

If we do this during the summer, earlier is better. The heat here starts up around mid-May and intensifies all the way through the end of August before it starts to taper off slowly. DL folks were able to cope with late June weather without too much trouble, but I wouldn't even suggest doing it anywhere between the middle of July and the middle/end of September.

Austin is a great place for stuff to do if you like live music or clubs, but not so much for other things. If you do, I'd recommend checking out someplace like Pollstar to see who'll be playing during the gathering and where.

Aside from live music, there are a couple of museums locally for people who want to do the 'culture' thing (the Texas State History Museum and the Harry Ransom Art Museum at UT), along with the Texas state capitol. Not terribly exciting, but it's there.

For gaming, one of the few remaining arcades in the US is here - Arcade UFO. They're closed for renovation at the moment, but by the time any gathering would happen, they should be back in operation. It's a pretty awesome place (the DL loved it, and I've heard that people have come from as far away as Missouri to check it out), so it's a definite recommendation.

For longer trips, there are a few amusement parks in day trip range. First off is Schlitterbahn, which is a rather awesome waterpark a bit over an hour away from my place. If we've got a summer gathering going, it would not be a bad call to head there if folks are interested, although we'll want to avoid it on the weekends.

A bit further south in San Antonio is Sea World and Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Sea World is what you'd expect, and Fiesta Texas is a pretty standard amusement park. San Antonio's also got a lot more of the tourist-trap type of stuff to do if there's a day trip down that direction, but it's just there as a possibility.

Aside from that, there is the ubiquitous hanging out and gaming, which I can support pretty handily at my place.

[Dracos]

Good stuff.  Sounds like we should hit that arcade for some amusement :)

Sounds like we'd want either late april/early may, or late september/early october.

Just narrowing things down for folks to comment on.

[Merc]

If we're looking at stuff some distance away from Austin area, and people want to, there are Houston events as well that could interest people.

I know around the May/June time there are going to be theater plays for a Sherlock Holmes mystery and Monty Python's Spamalot amongst other stuff, and there's usually some sort of video game themed concert around that time of the year or the september/october time.

[Iron Dragoon]

We could also do the Guadalupe if we want to do out-doorsy stuff. Basically get a bunch of floats and cruise down the river for a while.

There's also Fredricksburg and New Braunfels. They're German towns. I hear lots of good things about them. I think New Braunfels is closer to Austin? Might be wrong on that.

[Halbarad]

New Braunfels is slightly closer, but if you want a better experience I'd hit Fredericksburg. Does the whole old-timey Texas German enclave better. Plus if people want to do the outdoorsy thing, you could do a trip out to Enchanted Rock for some hiking and hit Fredericksburg with the folks that don't care to climb a giant rock. Or do both, if everyone's up for it.

[Dracos]

I don't have a grasp yet on distances, but we've totally done 1.5ish hour drives to places in past gatherings. :)  Certainly available on the map.