The purpose of the trip was to deliver the Ad Group T-shirts for the cast and crew and Richard's birthday presents in person.

Janice Golden, the TS Production Assistant, originally wanted us to be extras for the filming of Four Point Shot, but that was scrapped. We did, however, get to watch them block shots for the episode.

So, without further adieu, here's the story of our:

Adventure in Sentinel Land

Tuesday, September 15th

Five of us went on this little jaunt -- Nancy Reed, her son Travis, Erin Fry, her sister Jessica, and me. Nancy and her son picked me up around 6:00 p.m., then we drove to Erin's, where we transferred all the gifts to her 93 Dodge Shadow and were on our way.

The drive to Vancouver was uneventful until we got to the border. I don't know if it was nerves or the excess of sugar she'd had, but when the border guard asked Erin if she had anything she'd be leaving in Canada, she answered, "Yes, all the presents in the car and what we have in the trunk." D'oh! We were detained for 45 minutes while trying to explain that the 100 t-shirts were *not* for one person.

After looking in the trunk, the border patrol waved us on our way.

We spent the night at the Lord Stanley, right next to Stanley Park. They were having a grand opening special of $89/night American for a 1 bdr suite. And I mean suite. It had a full kitchen, including utensils, and a washer/dryer. Ah, luxury...

Wednesday, September 16th

Erin called Janice Golden at 9:30. We were to meet her at BC Stadium at 1:15 at the lunch truck. Four hours never seemed so long.

We checked out of the hotel and drove to the stadium. The first thing we notice are the 'SENT' signs on the road. We park and go to the lunch truck--Janice isn't there, but everyone else is. The first person we see is Garett playing ball with Lola, and Gus is with him too. We hang around until Janice shows up.

After the 'main stars' eat, the five of us are ushered in line so we can partake of lunch. Looking around, I see Ryf, Henri, Bruce, Richard, Garett, Ricardo, Maureen, Darryl Banks, some basketball players, and the Cascade Jags cheerleaders.

Okay... lunch is over quickly cause none of us is really hungry. We go back to the car with Janice to get all the stuff and lug it inside the stadium. As we near the entrance Erin yells out, "Hey, there's the hayseed. (Jim's truck.)" Sure enough, there in the parking lot is the Ford along with a SWAT Team truck, several Cascade Police cars, an ambulance, and the Tactical Team van. There were also some police cars from Viper.

Once inside we relax, kinda. Janice explains that when a break in the shooting is possible, we will get to present the stuff. So we just watch what's going on until then -- which isn't much -- just the guys playing basketball. Not that that wasn't enjoyable. How often do we get to see the guys in shorts and sleeveless jerseys? <g> Lotsa, lotsa skin...

The time comes for us to haul the stuff to the other end of the stadium (I felt like a gofer). Danny Bilson called everyone over and it began. [And I do mean everyone. Danny shut down the entire production for us.]

Nancy was the official spokesperson. She starts off by saying, "Mr. Bilson..."

Garett laughs and says, "*Mr.* Bilson. Hey, Danny, is your dad here?"

Nancy started by explaining what we had to go through to get the t-shirts and gifts to everyone (e.g., the border patrol story). Everyone chuckled. She then goes on to explain about the campaign to get the show back, DB elaborates on it a bit, and Nancy presents DB with one of the t-shirts, then says there is one for the entire cast and crew. The 'special' t-shirts are given to Richard, Garett, and Bruce, and then the Tribal War Chant book was given to DB. (That was a book composed by fans of what TS means to them.)

Nancy was explaining about Tribe Sentinel and 'he's damp, not dead'. Garett jumped in and said, "Yea, they gave me all the towels. I'll never have to buy one ever again."

After that, we passed out the presents to the stars. Richard had two huge trash bags full of stuff. When we put them in front of him, all he kept saying was, "Oh. my. god." He was shocked beyond words. Then we all got hugs from him. <g> Because I'm only 5' tall, my lips came in contact with bare Richard shoulder. <vvbg>

We spent some time passing out the t-shirts to the crew, then went back to sit down and wait again. When there was some break time, Bruce, Garett and Richard came over to sign the picture Janice gave us (along with TS hats). Bruce didn't chat long, but Garett and Richard did. Jessica told Richard about the People Mag article and how they'd omitted him, but fans wrote in to complain. Richard commented, "You ladies didn't have had anything to do with that, did you?" (Nope, not *us*.)

While he was signing pictures, Richard accidently hit Jessica with the marker. He apologized and said something about getting schmutzie on her. Jessica said, "Schmutzie?"

(My shining moment occurs.) I chimed in, "Yea, schmutzie, from the German  word schmutzig, meaning dirty." Richard looked up at me with this big grin and said, "That's absolutely right. Are you an etymologist?" I told him no, just took four years of German.

Richard also told us that Burgi is Celtic in origin. (Hehehehe... I wrapped his present in a Highland plaid paper.)

We got to hang around until 5:00 p.m., then reluctantly left. I got some pics of the vehicles in the parking lot before we left though.

The cast and crew were genuinely touched by the fans' gesture. Maureen Caine said that they should be giving us gifts, not the other way around. One crew person thanked us for giving her a job this year.

It was a dream come true. Something that I'll never forget. Not to mention a helluva birthday present (it was on the 13th). And it makes up for the fact that I won't be able to attend CouverCon.

Also, I left my camera on the seat while we were moving all the stuff from one end of the stadium to another, so I didn't get any pics during the presentation. However, the crew took Polaroids and gave them to us. I scanned them in, but Bruce is almost impossible to see against the black background.

I've broken the pictures down into subgroups:

Richard Burgi
Garett Maggart
Vehicles
Other
 

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