Relay for Life and MS Walk: mortonfox

It was a tiring but enjoyable two days this past weekend. Did two mascot gigs. Also went geocaching before and after. (as though there wasn't enough physical exertion already :) )

Saturday:

Found 4 geocaches in Queens (Cunningham Park, Alley Pond Park, Forest Park) before heading over to Shea Stadium at around 1:30pm to do a gig at the American Cancer Society Relay for Life event. (would've been on time if I didn't hit two traffic delays, both because of auto accidents, along the way) Met up with Damian K,

freakylynx, and

jbadger there.

flykat arrived a little later.

Our changing area was a luxury suite and skybox on the 4th level of the stadium. There was a private restroom and a fridge inside the suite. The door of the suite had a lock. Initially, we thought that was useful for keeping our stuff safe, but it turned out to be a double-edged sword later on.

It was a good event. Except for perhaps one untoward incident, it was a fun group of people. Elvis and Mr. Met were there too, although I wish Mr. Met could've stayed a little longer. We did our mascot interaction thing in the picnic area and then we also did a few laps around the track.

Here's where the double-edge sword came in. We did the gig in shifts, so at any one time, some of us would be in costume and some of us would be the spotters/photographers. The problem was midway during the event, when we had to switch shifts, there was a miscommunication and we had a bit of trouble tracking down the person who had the key to the suite. That problem was resolved after some time, but we kept the suite door unlocked after that, until the end of the event.

For dinner, we met up with

rapidtrabbit at the Georgia Diner in Elmhurst.

Sunday:

Sunday's gig was the MS Walk at the Culinary Institute of America (the other CIA) in Hyde Park, NY. I knew I wasn't going to be on time for this one because I got home from Queens way past midnight, but I didn't miss the walk itself at least. Once on campus, I met up with

freakylynx,

grizz593, Grizz Jr.,

renegadehusky, who were already in costume, and

alias_pup, who was the spotter and photographer. Our changing room was a restroom in a building between the parking lot and the event area.

Once I got changed, the walk had already started so we joined in with the stragglers at the end. The CIA campus is huge and I heard that the walk was a few miles long. We didn't do the whole loop because that would've been too long to do in costume. At the first rest stop, we took a shortcut across the campus and joined in near the end. After the walk, we mingled with the crowd until the event ended.

The people, especially the kids, were great at this event. It's like we got ourselves a new fandom. :) Also had fun playing with the drums and gong that someone in a van had brought to the event.

After that, we had lunch at the Applebee's across from Marist College in Poughkeepsie. Then I went off on my own and did 6 geocaches down the Taconic Parkway on my way home.