As always I start with pictures of things I saw on the way to the meet, which of course are far more interesting than any of the people or happenings at the meet itself. For example, I never saw a house/zebra hybrid before.

Look! Horsies! BAAAAAAAAAAA!

This particular cemetery (aka "corpse grove") is named Fairview Cemetery.

1) Mailboxes at a corpse grove are hysterical. Think about it.

2) "Fairview"? Why just fairview? "Hey, Earl, you should see the view from up here!" "Why, Gomer? What's the view like? Is it great? Is it scenic? Is it picturesque? Is it glorious?" "Earl, the view from here is totally fair!!!" "Gomer, you're a dick."

3) Not to be completely insensitive here, but why would the view even matter? It's a corpse grove. All the residents are not only deceased, they're underground. Even if they could see, and in the dark no less, all they'd see is the inside of the coffin. The view, fair or otherwise, is completely irrelevant.

Another one! What are the odds?

I am sorry to day that I didn't get a photo of the best part of this section of the trip. There was a church somewhere in here called "Church Of The Faith." It had a sign outside, the sort of sign that you frequently see on Bad Church SIgn websites, only instead of a pun or a bible verse, it stated simply "Closed For The Season." That's even more hysterical than mailboxes at a corpse grove. Jesus clearly ain't the reason for this season.

The best place to fish for elk.

An Alaska plate. Don't see those too often.

Okay, actually, I think this is Fairview Cemetery. I get all the cemeteries I took photos of on this trip confused with each other.

Oooh! Amish SETI!

I am positive this isn't Fairview Cemetery. At best, it's Adequateview Cemetery.

Penn State Creamery Alumni Swirl: Now made with real alumni! (Thus, the chunky pink look.)

My friend John at what is purportedly the entrance to Sweet Tooth Bakery. They appear to have misplaced their door.

John stares in mock sorrow at the debris field that used to be a building, as though some sort of metaphor was taking place.

This is what happens to "Too Big To Fail" when it doesn't get federal bailout money from the taxpayers.

John, a statistician, mugs for the camera in his office, the very nerve center of statisticianating.

Yes, that's a real word. Shut up.

Doesn't "Make it FAST, FOAMY, and FURIOUS for 15-20 seconds" sound like really bad sex?

Okay, seriously, what are the odds of seeing this on the same day as the Alaska plate?

At my sister's house, the cats take turns playing King Of The Mountain.

If you set Pennsylvania on fire, please put it out. Thank you.

Tanker cars parked on a bridge in a 15-minute unloading zone.

"Wild And Wonderful"? Seriously? That's the best they could come up with? I'm placing my vote for the next state slogan to be "West Virginia: FAST, FOAMY, and FURIOUS!"

You are now leaving West Vrginia, only eight minutes after entering it. Note both the prestine, mint-condition tunnel (NEVER take tunnels out of their original packaging!) and the rarely-seen Exit 0.

Okay, seriously?

FAIL! I'm actually submitting this one.

What the hell kind of license plate is that?

Wow. That's the most lopsided college football score I've ever seen.

This guy was actually rifling through stacks of paper and reading them while driving. I just aimed my camera over my shoulder to get this shot. I also got several lousy pictures of my backseat (not pictured).

So much for taking your ox-drawn plow out for a spin on the interstate.

Holy shit! An actual meet photo! I take a picture of Doc Trauma taking a picture of me taking a picture of Doc Trauma taking a picture of--and on and on and on into infinity.

I totally kicked Sweet Sarnia's ass at Bananagrams. With luck, that won't be the high point of my life.

The more I heard this game explained, the less I understood it. Considering I started out knowing nothing about, I somehow now know less than nothing about it. And I was sober at the time.

TechSmurf demonstrates what he would look like with male pattern baldness.

This is the practice run for allowing people to take their own picture by remote control. I made a comment about our official professional photographer having people take their own photos, and he countered, "That's what you get for pro bono."

In other great comeback news, Lilac had been singing for Rock Band for a while, and I saw him step out for a moment and comment that his throat was fucked seven ways to Sunday. Being my typical smart ass self, I asked him to name the seven ways. He promptly rattled off seven different ways and went back into the room, leaving me totally pwned.

I like the wire KoL figure, but I wasn't about to pay what it went for at the auction.

Ah, yes. The bouncing rubber fetuses (feti). I don't know where you get a bag of these, unless you make them youself, which I'm sure Princess Sunshine is capable of. I didn't know these were around until Princess Sunshine introduced them to me in her traditional method of throwing one at my head when I wasn't looking. It whistled past my ear and tore at my hair a bit before falling to the floor. I decided I could do without having one of these for my personal collection. I saw this one later in the evening, and thought that it was wonderfully horrible and took a picture of it. I walked past that desk about 90 seconds later and it was already gone, and I didn't see another fetus for the rest of the meet. ("I didn't see another fetus for the rest of the meet." Boy, there's a sentence I never thought I'd write.)

Somebody played a card that annoyed Nameless1. See if you can figure out which person in this sea of poker faces is responsible for playing that card.

At least I'm snappy.

This completely spontaneous mirror photo took about a half dozen attempts to get even this close to right.

This is who you think it is. Or is it?

PinkLady and I being all adorable and sickening.

This is about the only photo of Jick I got during the meet. (Really, it is. Squint at it a bit if necessary.) I saw him around a few times, but it seemed to me that whipping out a camera and taking a picture of him as he walked down the hall lacked a certain class, especially since he doesn't have a clue who the hell I am. I could have tried striking up a conversation, but I haven't been playing the game much, so the only thing that occurred to me to say was that in my opinion his new glasses look awful on him, and that also seemed to lack a certain class. So, no great Jick photos. I'm sure he's more than okay with that. The rest of you can cope.

Doc Trauma is a televangelist with a great idea.

These people actually got their check. I bet they didn't have to tell their waitress their orders twenty minutes after they were done eating, too, because I bet their waitress didn't forget their orders, like ours did. And after making us wait that long, she had her hand out to take my money less than fifteen seconds later. I ended up tipping under $2.

This is either a joyous hug or an attempt to break AlBassoon's neck, I'm not sure which.

I don't want to know.

I think if you're celebrating your 75th birthday, you won't fit into this chair.

We had dinner here one night. We were told that the food was great and they make the best shakes in the world. Unfortunately we failed to realize the significance of the part of the recommendation where we were told it's open 24 hours so they all go down there drunk at three in the morning. I'm sure under those circumstances anything would taste great. In the end, the food was okay, but the shakes don't hold a candle to the shakes at Bobby O's, located in Dupont, PA (FREE PLUG!)

And this was the point where people campaigned to be in the photoset. I was quite clear. I told both these people, no, you're not going to be included. They took it in good cheer.

She, on the other hand, did not.

No, none of you are in the photoset, either! Nobody's in the damn photoset! Not even Jick. I said the other photo I took was the best photo I took of him, so this clearly cannot be him or his glasses, case closed.

That goes for you too, TechSmurf, but there's no need to look so hurt about it. It's not like I'm singling you out.

Me on Sunday morning, as the meet winds down.

Isn't propping fire doors like this against code?

PinkLady graciously got out of the way so I could take that photo, so naturally I took one of her as well.

Doc Trauma is a televangelist in a musical.

Kroger Bahgdad is looking better. (That's a reference to an earlier KoLumbus photoset, designed to reward people who do more than glance over the photos once and then forget them.)

The blurry entrance to Starbucks bears a striking resemblance to the entrance to Sweet Tooth Bakery.

Some light reading for the drive home.

This was news to me. In Ohio, the yellow lights are on the bottom.

At least it's not Fairview Funeral Home. The blue light not really visible through the shrubbery is a police car with the lights flashing. I don't want to know.

Weston is in disguise.

If you have to tar the road this much, maybe it's time to repave it.

Flying J. Not to be confused with Fucking A, whose slogan is "FAST, FOAMY, and FURIOUS!"

I don't have a clue what the hell this is, but I want one.

Pennsylvania welcomes you with a notice that you're speeding.

So much for 15-minute unloading.

State of the art Pittsburgh bridge technology.

For those of you who have never driven in Pittsburgh, here's an example of how easy to navigate the road system is. You just have to keep track of all of this at 60 MPH. Notice that there are three Exit Only lanes, and two lanes for staying on Interstate 376, and only four lanes total.

I stayed on 376, which you have to make a right turn to do, on the Interstate, and ended up also on 22 and 30.

Now the highways are parallel. There's one to the left of 376-22-30, with an exit to the left, and also an exit to the left on 376-22-30, which one would think would be a problem with the other highway right next to it. Even further to the left, there's a sign informing you that if you want to get onto Stanwix Street, you've already missed it and have to turn around.

Sure, just stack the bridges like cordwood. What could be more efficient? I like the way the bridge curves, as though they built the thing and didn't notice until they got over there that there's a hill in the way.

How 'bout this? The black netting is wrapped around the bridge because it is deteriorating so badly that pieces of it are falling off and damaging cars, and the netting is meant to hold the concrete together and keep pieces from raining onto the highway. Even worse, the netting didn't work, so they had to build a separate structure over the highway just to catch the debris. Welcome to Pittsburgh!

Even off the highways, the topography led to such haphazard road systems that signs like this are necessary.

Me with my sister's two troublemaker cats.

The non-essential wheat gluten was two aisles over.

Kids On A Mission 2005, whatever the hell that is. This is the first time I ever saw air conditioner graffiti.

I'm the cause.

Okay, really... Are you fucking serious? Glenn Beck will be all over this one in no time.

I had no idea prepared egg product technology had come so far. They are selling pre-boiled eggs and bottles of egg whites that look like containers full of snot, especially when you pick up the jar and shake it a little, and the snot is just sloshing around inside. FAST, FOAMY, and FURIOUS indeed.

Chocolate and bacon: Together At Last! If this had existed fifty years ago, Elvis wouldn't have made it to the 1970s.

I don't have a clue what this means but it sounds disgusting on multiple levels.

Can you spot the asphalt patch on the brick road? The patch is so small that I can't help but wonder why they bothered.

Decapitated pedestrian crossing.

For the record, decapitated pedestrians don't care about the view, either. Seriously.