What a Long Strange Trip It's Been!  

I wouldn't have missed it for the world - the final LOST panel at San Diego Comic Con.  Michael had other plans - he really wanted to see the Chuck panel in Ballroom 20. Traitor! I talked him out of it and, in the end, he was glad I did.

I told him, you can't miss camping out with everyone beforehand.  This year was the wildest ever. The fans were out in force. The overnighters were rewarded with a Friday night visit from Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cruse - cool!

The Dharma Initiative was well represented on the lawn outside Hall H.  Now, that had to be the most comfortable costume at Comic Con!

Seen among the crowd queued up for Hall H Saturday morning were these familiar LOST characters:

Naomi - equipped with walkie, that gal was a ringer - Michael was convinced she was the actual actress!

Jack - suitably stubbly with shirt and tie

The Orchid - yes, a young woman dressed up with vines and donkey wheel to represent the station

The Island - a friend of the Orchid dressed up in a gown with various show references attached including an airplane hanging from her hat!

But, my favorite sight was the two Hurleys dressed in Dharma jumpsuits. (See bottom photo.)  I had the pleasure of seeing them meet as one Hurley saw the other and raced (as much as a Hurley can race!) to meet the other. 

The look of pure delight in recognizing each other was hilarious. Later, one of the Hurleys got to ask Jorge Garcia (the real Hurley) a question during the panel Q & A and thanked him for giving someone like him a role model on TV.

The party got started when Jo of JoOpinionated (one of the top LOST bloggers) ran a trivia contest. 

Anil of The ODI (another awesome LOST blogger) helped her grab the crowd's attention and hand out the prizes.  It was great to finally meet Jo and to see Anil again - he gave us one of his T-shirts at last year's Con.

Jo really had the crowd stumped on this one:  Name three people who knew Locke was paralyzed before he came to the island.  (Three people who crashed on the island, that is.) Yeah, yeah, Rose...who else? It's a toughie!

I had a ball checking out all the fans in line.  Even as late as 8:30 am, people just kept pouring in - obviously these folks weren't so concerned about getting good seats!

Considering how packed in we were, this was a mellow crowd.  I attribute it to the Dharma influence and sadness that this was indeed our last LOST panel camp-out.

Thanks to our new line buddies from Tennessee, Andy and Fara Dockery for saving us great spots in line!