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[Kobun]

Those of us on Team Vegas must state, our axons will prolly be the mental, exasperating death of us... anybody else getting the same idea?

Oh well, back to the axon mines...

[bugbbq]

So here's my hurricane Frances Axon story:

I've been trying to get the lone Tampa "Miracles" axon hot, but being as I had too few people and there being too many payphones in the area, it was a futile effort. That didn't stop me from trying.

Neither did Hurricane Frances, apparently.

After a few days of trying to find the right payphone, and after many no-rings, I decided to try one more set of payphones before calling it quits. Now, to let you all know, Tampa is on the west side of Florida, but we're starting to get the feeder bands of the hurricane which as apparently taken residence over West Palm Beach.

Fast forward to 5:15EST. I'm hanging out at one of the last few pay phones in the area, and I start to see the sky turn pitch black. "Hrm, this can't be good" I thought as the winds began to pick up. After that thought I saw a beige cloud of road/dirt/debris start to come towards me. After being sandblasted for a few minutes, it decided to rain. I don't mean rain...I mean RAIN. 40mph rain. Stinging cold needle rain. Rain that makes a person thing "WTF am I doing at a payphone in the middle of a hurricane?" kind of rain.

I should also mention that the phone I was manning had to have had the most faint ring in the world....it would ring once at about -100dB. So here I was, 5:17, in the middle of the most torrential rains, not a single dry spot on me, with winds that were about to blow both me and the phone I was hanging on to...


...and it rang.


Answered, and it was melissa. In a VERY broken speech, she told me that the location I was had has technical problems (or something along that line, it was in the middle of high winds, mind you) and that she didn't have a lot of time left. I'm guessing she would say this because the axon has been ringing for the past 3-4 days.

Gave me the message, and that was it. Axon hot. I was soaked, but alive. A tree decided to lose a big limb just a few feet away from me, but no real damage was done. Shortly after, the feeder band decided to let up and it was once again nice (but windy) outside.

So that's my story. A fellow beekeeper willing to brave the beginnings of a hurricane to make one out of 777 axons go live.

[Astald]

Way to go bugbbq!

[vpisteve]

/me nominates bugbbq for Axon Hunter of the Year.

[DoNotPokeTheFro]

Wow Bugbbq, the way you wrote that just made it sound hilarious. Which sucks because I'm sure you weren't thinking "Holy shit! This is funny!" when you got the shit kicked out of you by all sorts of natural entities, all for a payphone... Good job, dude. Bungie/Microsoft/Whoever's in charge of ilovebees should award you graciously. Perhaps a complimentary pie? Because we all know that Bungie/Microsoft are avid pie entrepreneurs, right?

[C_Brennan]

Del seconds Vpisteve's nomination.



You are so damn diehard.

[bugbbq]

Haha. It was really a nice day until it became time for the phones to ring. I wish I had pics, but there would have been no way for a digicam to survive that torrent.

It was almost on cue when the skies turned black. I remember looking up at the dark clouds coming towards me and my friends covering the phones and thinking how perfect the timing was.

Just imagine jumping into a pool with all your clothes/shoes on. Now imagine being twice that wet. Once you do, you'll understand how wet it was to be me. The place went from dry to water up to the soles of my boots in minutes. Total insanity.

It really was fun, actually. I wanted to go out because just about everything in the area was either closed or was ready to close. Heck, even the local 24hr Wal-marts are closed.

It's all good though. Winds are really beginning to pick up down here in FLA, but it's ok...plenty of brew to get me through the night! No pie though...

Cheers!

[Kobun]

Dude, bugbbq, nice job, but the odds are, you'll prolly get another axon at that location (hopefully next time, without a hurricane chaser)....

but damn dude.. exemplary example...

why is there never a clapping one? YM has one.... sigh...

[bugbbq]

I hope so. That axon is 15 minutes from where I live. And now that I've boiled it down to the right phone, it should be easy.

One thing to note. I was also at one of the 8/24 axons in brandon, FL, and thankfully there was only one phone in that area (no hurricanes, mind you). That phone was a Verizon phone with a yellow headset. All the phones at the Hurricane Axon (has a nice ring to it) had a black headset...all except the one that rang, which had a yellow one. Hrm.

All of them were Verizon phones, btw.

[the42guy]

Okay, I have a good story. I was heeading to activate the 16:59 axon in Griffith Park, and so I left extra early Friday - 4:15 - plenty of time to get there. Then, I got in traffic. Then, I stupidly forgot I had to go through a town to get to the 101. (It gets better) I'm speeding along, 4:50. No exit in sight. 4:55. Finally, I've found the exit. I take it, and start heading up the LONGEST street in the world. Geez. This street, however, did have a fantastic view of the Hollywood sign. Anyhow, its 5:03 already, but damn if I dont want to find this phone. So I keep driving, finally reaching the top - were there were no phones, but tons of cars. This is the Hollyridge trail head. Crap. And theres NO PARKING left. and it's 5:10. So I decide that I better get onto to the freeway again. Of course, its rush hour, and I travel 15 miles in 50 minutes. And I'm still not sure if the phone is on the trail. A phone on a trail? Whatever......

ETA: Another LA axon story - I was at the Media city center, and the most likely bank of payphones was next to the security office. I swear, standing there, next to payphones, next to a security office, in a crowded mall - I'm surprised no securit came up to me. I swear they were gonna come and think I was a terrorist plotting, or something. Especially went I went back the next day to another bank of payphones next to the security office. :p

[rowan]

Wow, everyone has such interesting stories..mine seem quite boring in comparsison.

Friday night I hit the Wilkes-Barre coordinate (41.250171, -075.840748 16:19) after work. Thanks to the payphone directory and geocode, I was able to find out that it was at a TGI Friday's next to a Holiday Inn. Got there about 7:00, scouted out the payphone location and decided to put my name in for a table. Since there were quite a few people waiting, I figured I wouldn't get seated before the phone rang. 30 seconds after I get my little pager and walk back towards the phones, the pager goes off and the waitress is seating me. Luckily, I get seated right across from where the payphones were located. Waited till about 7:16, went and waited by the payphones, answered Melissa correctly and the Axon went Hot. I then went back, ate my sandwich and got a really great dessert which I had to take home cuz it was so big.

For anyone going to this point in the future: the payphones are back near the bathrooms. The one that rang was the one on the left (with a broken earpiece - so be careful when listening). I even put a small bee sticker on the left hand side to mark it.

My second axon was Painted Post (42.17002, -077.1028 13:35) which I got this afternoon. This one was at the Crystal Cinemas. There is only one payphone there, but it's in direct view of the (very bored person at the) ticket window. I had thought about seeing a movie, but there was nothing good playing at 4:30, so I just stood around waiting for the phone to ring. At least the guy didn't ask me what I was doing - he just sat there reading a book. Phone rang, I answered, and Melissa recognized me much faster this time.

I do have pictures of both locations, but I haven't had a chance to have the film developed yet. I'll post them when I do.

I also have one more axon I'm gonna try to hit tomorrow (07:37 PDT) if I can manage to get myself up earlier than I did today.

[aliendial]

After kaziel got four on Thursday, and nobody else appeared to hit any more of the multitudinous DC axons (mostly because of the holiday weekend, I'm sure), I had a leisurely Sunday downtown hitting four more. That leaves one I just couldn't get to, and two that require team work because there are too many options.

[C_Brennan]

Got my freelance phone, but missed the pigeon phone again. We finally found the right phone for pigeon (it was behind my Weston Hotel, not in it) but it could be broken because when my friend picked it up after it rang, all he got was beeps and more beeps and then a dead line. But the call did come in at the right time, and we were in the right area, so, we'll see... I'd call it to see if it's broken, but the number was scratched off...

So, yeah, that leaves 1 phone left in my area. And I'm not even sure if I can answer it. I'll try again come Tuesday or Wednesday.

[aliendial]

Deltina, use the pay phone to call one of your cellphones - caller ID on the cell should give you the number. That's one way to confirm.

[C_Brennan]