Heepvention 2008 The Adventure begins, Day 1

[Bob Winward]

Day 1, Sept. 18 2008

This is the full monty now, when it comes to Hv reports. I sent the blurbs
as HV happened, but now for the details for those inclined to read. I met up
with Esa, Ron and Mac at the airport in NY city and had an eventless flight.
After landing, Ron and Mac went one way, Esa and another. What is an Hv
without adventure? Esa and I had difficulty finding car rental office at
the airport, lost an hour there. (I was also later to find out, the only
arrivals video taped and you tubed to the list were the Granada airport.)
Then we ventured into Malaga to pick up 3 folk from Finland. About 1 mile
from the hotel the gps unit went dead. So we spent an hour stuck going
around a maze of one way narrow alleys. Finally we saw 3 people standing on
corner and I said uriah heep and they said yes. So offto hotel. Then got a
call from Mike Taylor and it seems he cannot locate Mac and Ron!!! He found
them hours later in Granada trying to convince the locals they were looking
for the Maria Jose hotel and not the Virgin Mary! Language was definitely a
barrier for many of us.

When Esa and I arrived at the hotel, we found a group of folks having lunch,
including Lee. Well I thought that was easy, there he is!! I exchanged
hellos and then was informed by Ed that the room we were to share only had a
twin bed in it and he was not crazy about spooning me!! I did try to
convince him if we spooned at night, I would not fork in the morning! But
to no avail. However, there was another fellow from the UK Phil Baker, who
just happened to have a room with 2 beds, so that problem was solved. And
what a great pleasant guy he was. He is the one that also ran and organized
the jam, did a tremendous job!

After relaxing in room, changing etc. I headed back over to the Maria Jose
hotel, which ended up being the hangout spot for the majority of attendees.
I bet we had 40 folk on patio slurping down cerveza (the one spanish word,
for beer, that we all picked up quickly) By 9 we all hopped into cars and a
bus to travel to the venue for a meet and greet. All the former members
were there, outside of Ken. It was great to see everyone again, and I bet
we meeted and greeted and drank lots of cerveza for about 3 hours! Then we
all made our way back to the Maria Jose and many stayed up til sunrise. I
myself called it a night at 2 am

Wow, I went to bed, tired, awestruck and in Spain!! For awhile I could not
sleep, so I put the TV on, only 10 channels. All in Spanish, but there was
one channel, where dialogue was not necessary. In the USA, we call it the
Spice Channel on cable, this however was on public tv, raw, unabashed,
uninhibited, uncensored porn!! And the guy on the screen sure looked happy
and I could swear he was humming the tune "Easy Livin