my fanfest..from memorable to painful..

[bobbyryates]

my week started on wednesday afternoon when garvinstomp (matt) arrived with stingmark (jeff) at my door. we had some places to go and ended up at HOOTERS for dinner. then back to my place to get ready for the coming trip.
i woke up thursday morning with the news about Heathrow airport in london. that concerned me about sittingstill (michael) making it to the US, much less making it to the fanfest.
after a lenghty ride north, we arrived at the Double Tree. SSteward told me his room number on the phone earlier. after i checked in, i went to his room trying to get in with the key for my room (real bright huh?) had his number in my head instead of my number. that's when i first met aaron. i saw jimmy kimmel (chris) and his family.
michael called me and said he was in newark but had to work on getting here and it would be late.
downstairs is when i got up with the above mentioned folks as well as smeltzer and his incredibly fine friend, becky. then we hooked up with robert from tennessee, tracy(brunogod) and his pal mike. natureboy14 (alan) and brad joined us and our group was complete for the first group meal of the trip.
ran into a bunch more folks i knew from various events and boards of the past.
friday came with the arrival of michael in the very early hours of morning. more folks came in, wrestlers and fans alike. getting to hook up with dogsthruhoops and his pal
was good as i haven't talked to either in awhile. the thrill of seeing the bill eadie Q&A. as he is my favourite masked wrestler of all.
got up with my buddy michael from NY and his friend bob.
call me a minority here, but the cornette/heenan show was like a scripted comedy show for me. i left halfway through. yeah, i laughed a few times, but i felt most of it was wasn't funny but the attempt at comedy was being forced..well, that's me.
saturday was another day to meet more folks and bring us closer together. met up with the "maestro" and dawizard911. met the new guy shane, who later joined a board as "shanegang". kevin from canada finally arrived. this was THE day for me as i finally met buddy roberts. i have been a freebird mark for ages and he was the only one i never met. he was very nice and took time to tell me about his health problems, i didn't pry but he openly told me about his having to adjust to changes and carry on. and live.
i met bill moody who was extremely nice. after hanging around for awhile, i joined jeff, matt, and michael at the local TGIFridays. couple hours later, i returned with noodlepoodle, the gateway boys, and kyle rosser and his lady.
the hart foundation Q&A was ok. too many rehashing the montreal incident even AFTER bret said he's already said all there is to say about it. the MX/Bodies/cornette show was very good.
sunday was a short day. i spent alot of time with dogthruhoops and his buddy.
i finally met rocky johnson and ernie ladd.
after it was all done, our huge group of 11 of us, i think, walked and had a big meal at HOOTERS. some of the group left for home.
after all this, some of us sat and talked about the future of wrestling events.
my back had been bothering me some all weekend. as i took my bag to the SUV monday morning, i was in bad pain and could barely walk. me, jeff, matt, and michael left rockville. we got to my house and matt left for his drive home.
on tuesday afternoon, the three of us met a friend i have to take jeff to raleigh. i can barely walk still, but took michael to charlotte for his last trek on his trip to america. we went to smokey bones for a late dinner. i told him that by the way i was bent over walking, i felt like i was on the set of a planet of the apes movie.
me and michael said our goodbyes on wednesday morning, after we found Price's Chicken Coup for lunch (thanks to dick bourne for that great story he had on the gateway).
i then came home and had my appoinment at the chiroprator. he said my sacrilliac (?spelling) joint was spraigned.
i went back to the chiropractor today and will tomorrow. i was supposed to go back to work today. maybe saturday now...maybe.

[themaestro]

Hey Bobby - again it was a pleasure meeting you. I hope you are feeling better. If you have the coverage for one, I would get an MRI to be sure. I have had some back problems, and the MRI is usually the final answer, and can give you some comfort knowing exactly what is wrong. Your doc saying one particular sprain is present may not be inclusive as to the breadth of your injuries. Not to scare you, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

And probably my biggest regret of the Fest is not meeting Buddy Roberts. I saw his huge line, and I said that I would go back later. When I was ready at about 3, I asked Darnell (dawiz), and he told me he was gone for good. I couldn't believe it!

[bobbyryates]

thanks for the advice. i will see how it goes.

[bluedevil71]

Bobby, get well soon.

[bobbyryates]

thanks pal, i'm working on it.
sure wasn't fanfest without you and cody.

[bluedevil71]

Maybe next year, we'll be back.

[stylin61]

I have back problems too so I can sympathize. Every year by the day to go home from fanfest I am in physical agony (but wrestling ecstasy). Last year in Charlotte at the Sunday signing with Bret Hart by the time I got to the front of the line I could not even get all my stuff I had to get signed out of my bag and skipped a couple of wrestlers completely because I literally thought I was going to drop right there. I could barely move and had to drive home 3 hours afterward. I remember stopping in Greensboro to eat and taking over 5 minutes to get out of the truck and stand upright. Getting back in the truck was even worse. It took over a week to get back to some resemblance of normal as far as standing and walking. I hope the new numbered system helped cut dowm some of the long periods of standing in DC. I hear it worked Saturday at least. Part of the problem for me at least is if you get to events either on-time or a few minutes early, carrying your stuff for signing, it is usually late starting plus you are crammed in a line. Anyway, that is my bad back story from fanfest. I hope you are better, watch those chiropractors man I have tried them too & am not so sure they are for real though they work for some people.