After the conference (day 3 for me, day 1 for the general conference), we had our yearly "thank you" outing for the PASS volunteers. There were about 40 to 50 of us in all, though many other volunteers couldn't make it to the outing.
We went to Billy Bob's Honky Tonk, which claimed to be the world's largest honky-tonk. They had a bull-riding maching inside, huge dance floor with a live band, lots of room for 'drankin', and a small indoor rodeo arena. We drank, ate, and caroused in a private room before everyone was rounded up for pictures in the arena. I don't know how they talked me into it, but I wound up inside the rodeo clown barrel for the pictures. I actually went in willingly because several of our biggest volunteers (Chuck Heinzelman and Kirk Haselton - you know I'm talking about you!) looked very ready, even eager to stuff me into that thing!
A couple things surprised me about the barrel. First, it was incredibly padded with little foot handles on the floor for the clown to hook his feet into. Second, it wasn't hard like a real barrel. It was flexible and wrapped in coloured duct tape. I expected the crew to start kicking the barrel around like a soccer ball right after the pictures (with me still inside). But mercifully, I was released.
I left a bit early with about half of the volunteers. But I hear that most of the remainder stayed for dancing and shots into the night. I might've stuck around if I hadn't already had a lot of long days and nights with many more to go. But as it currently stood, I needed the time for catching up on email and a couple hours of sleep.
Cheers!
-Kevin
