Today, three SimHQ staff members (Jay "Weasel Keeper" Jenkins, Tom "20mm" Hayden, and myself) met up in Tucson, AZ for an impromptu summer retreat. The 70° weather was brisk for Tom and I - the thin-blooded Tucsonans who donned long-sleeve shirts and jackets - but Jay, the self-proclaimed country boy from Indiana, was sporting shorts and just shaking his head at us. I'd love to see him come back when the mercury is passing through 115°!

Per a long-standing company tradition the meeting started off with cheeseburgers. For this particular lunch we chose In-N-Out Burger, a favorite of Jay's. I fully expect to see a forum thread with Weasel Keeper sporting a new In-N-Out tattoo any day now.


How to start a staff meeting off right.

Munching completed, we piled into Jay's rental car and began the relatively short but packed scenic drive up Mount Lemmon.


Tom makes a convincing The Dude, no?

Here Jay's driving skills came in handy as he dodged the crazy Tucsonan bikers who feel that riding 15 mph in an 35 mph car lane on a curvy two-lane mountain road with no shoulder (but a perfectly usable 3' bike lane) is both their privilege and right. There were, luckily, very few incidents.


What Tom and I saw.


What Jay saw.

In between swerves around suicidal bicyclists all three of us were oggling the views:


Oooooo!


Aaaaah!


Ohhhhh!


Vista points are sprinkled along the twisty drive up to the top of the mountain and we couldn't help but stop at a few to soak in the scenery. At one stop we caved in to our off-road instincts and did a little rock-hopping.


Rock hoppers, unite!



This image may have been slightly edited from the original.

SimHQ staffers are spread all across the globe and it's a rare treat for two to get together, let alone three (in some states, there may be applicable legislation that prohibits the gathering of more than three). I know I enjoyed my time with the team and I hope Jay can come back and visit again soon.

And if any other SimHQers happen to truck on out to Tucson, just give Tom and I a holler. We'll be here.

Very cool! Nice to see you guys being able to get together.

If I allow these gatherings to continue, they'll soon begin hatching plans to restore normalcy to the Community Hall forum, and that would interfere with my plans.

Oh Benson? Find out where they are now. Robert, standby to leave for Arizona at a moment's notice.

Cheers!

Rick...

Very nice pics Einstein and it's great to see 20mm again!!

@ Sauron - Interesting pic of David Warner from a film I'm sure he'd like to forget! It was even riffed by the crew at Mystery Science Theatre 3000. I belive the film is the "Quest of the Delta Knights"?

Nay nay nay!

It is the cinema classic, "Time Bandits".

Now go rent it and watch it for getting it wrong.

Cheers!

Rick...

Ohhhh ahhhh pretty scenery

Look like everyone had a good time.


Wheels

All I can say is WOW! Nothing beats an In N Out double double!

I can honestly say, compared to the only other SimHQ staff meeting I've had, meeting Einstein and 20mm was MUCH safer than my meeting with Chunx in Iraq in '07.

Doing the graffiti tagging on the rock formation was a freakin' bear though!

Nice scenery And good to see Tom out and about!

Get some goatee growing tips from 20mm, Einstein?

Nice edits lol. Looks like you guys had fun...awesome.

That looks good!

The three amigos, or is it the terrible triplets (!) look ruggedly comfortable in what appears to be nice warm weather. In my part of the world we're currently down to -9F during night time, and 14F during the daytime.

Me likes Tucson

Great pictures. Beautiful country. I can almost smell it. Glad you all had a good outing and visit.


BTW, I knew what Sauron's picture was from and not Panzer?!! "RETURN WHAT YOU HAVE STOLEN FROM ME"! I used to love that movie as a kid.

If I ever make it out there, I'll definitely let you guys know. The furthest West I've ever been is New Mexico.

I laughed a lot. Thanks for the tales and pictures. Great to see Tom doing well also.

ok.. so whats myself's SimHQ tag.... hahaha...

Nice scenery, what mods do you have installed?

I'll be driving my way through on the 28/29th of Feb. I'll have to give Tom a call...

Cool pics and great looking country Tom looks slightly worried in the first pic then quite happy in the second...what was in those burgers

Let me get this right, if we visit 20mm we get a burger???

Cool!


ps how many bicyclists did yall accidently knock over on the way?-)

Accidentally? None.

Well... I see EinsteinEP, Weasel_Keeper and 20mm - they're all mods. Right?

Too much bloom though.

Awesome scenery folks.


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Very nice outing guys! Looked like a lot of fun.

And Time Bandits is a personal favorite of mine---how I'd love to have the map....

v6,
boNes