Entry 02: The Chicken Has Landed

October 14, 2007

Entry 02 - Homestay, Salt Lake City, UT

Well, we touched down in Salt Lake City pretty much on time. Travelling on a smaller production like this is good practice for bigger productions down the road, as we had to pay nearly $200 to check all our gear. And that was in addition to stowing two bags each plus carrying-on another two bags each ... yikes! You live and you learn. Anyway, we got our rental car, a huge Nissan Armada, loaded it up with our 137+ bags, and headed toward the fairgrounds where the Space Games are going to be held. Or so we thought ...

We arrive at the Davis County Fairgrounds having followed the official Space Games directions to the letter. But instead of being met with anything or anyone related to the outer space, instead found a huge Poultry Convention. Slightly confused, we went next door and found a huge 8-year-old Dirtbike Convention. Now, the drivers of the dirtbikes were 8 years old, not the convention itself. And from what we could tell the 8-year olds were the veterans. And there were HUNDREDS of them!! Puzzled, we drove around a bit more, only to end up deep in Mormon country. Needless to say, we headed back to the safety of the Poultry/Tiny Tike Dirt Bike Conventions. Positive that this couldn't be the right spot, we asked a man leaving the hanger-sized chicken coop where the Davis County Event Center was. Now, at the time, his response seemed reasonable. However, looking back on the misadventure that ensued as a result of his directions (a circular sight-seeing tour of the Davis County Criminal Justice Center of Farmington, Utah) we're pretty sure he had it out for us. In fact, he must have.

Another half-hour of driving later and we found ourselves drawn back to the safety and harmony of the magestic Poultry Convention. Only this time, we dared to go inside. Fourty minutes of walking up and down the asiles of chickens, leghorns, roosters, roasters, ducks, and birds that can only be described as "twisted freaks of nature" ... we headed back to the car. Beginning to be convinced that our investors have inadvertently paid for a film about chickens (seriously ... our options were pretty limited at this point), we paused to take our picture by the "Poultry Show" sign, each making like we, too, were poultry. Hi-larious!

In celebration of seeing so much fowl, we treated ourselves to a king-sized meal at the nearest Kentucky Fried Chicken. We peeled into the lot, hopped out of our Armada, and raced inside -- pausing just long enough to photograph ourselves acting like chickens, this time outside the KFC sign. Apparently doing this is frowned-upon, as the family watching us through the window quickly proved.

You might think that sitting in a KFC in the middle on Nowhere, Utah, smelling like chickens (and eating something similar) might have been the highlight of our day. But you would be wrong. We had only just started to tear into our extra crispy bucket of bird bits when the smooth, smooth sounds of "Open Arms" by Journey began to play over the KFC loudspeakers. Pure Heaven.

In the end, it turns out that the Poultry Show was closing tonight and we had been in the right place (several times) all along. So yes, we're pretty positive that guy who gave us directions had it out for us. After settling in at our homestay 20 miles away in Salt Lake City proper, we ended up going back to the fairground where we met the Kansas City Space Pirates. This is a 25-member team. They refer to themselves simply as "The Pirates," call their fearless leader "Captain," and love to talk about lasers.

This is going to be a fun trip.