This is the story of our GH weekend in L.A.. It's long, meant to be read in parts and sprinkled with top ten lists. We hope that you enjoy it, and get a little of the sense of what it was like to be there. We had decided in advance to attend The High Lonesome concert Saturday night and The Interact Theatre (with Matt Ashford) on Sunday night, but the rest of the weekend was up in the air depending on what last minute tickets we could acquire. Late on Friday July 18th or rather very early on Saturday July 19th we set out for Los Angeles California, from Tucson Arizona. It's not a very long trip, only a seven to eight hour drive, which passes quickly when you play High Lonesome music. And since Razz asked... Top Ten Things You See On I10 From Tucson To Los Angeles 10)Wreckage 9) High gas prices 8) Cabazon Dinosaurs 7) "Rest Area - Closed" 6) Hundreds of windmills 5) Tumbleweeds 4) UFOs 3) Bored Highway Patrolmen 2) Phoenix And the number one thing you see on I10 from Tucson to Los Angeles: 1) Road Kill When we arrived in Los Angeles we went straight to The Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City. After wandering around the hotel for awhile we found the announcement board of which we had been told. Well, there was no big handwritten note announcing someone's miraculous intention of selling Luncheon tickets. There were tickets to the Kurth/Taylor event that night (too late, we were already going to THL.) and tickets for Maurice Benard's event after the Luncheon. The board directed us over to rooms 105 and 106, poolside, The Soap Boutique. We went over there, and two nice ladies put us on a waiting list for tickets, should any become available. We looked at the merchandise, t-shirts, hats, Kurth/Taylor stuff, etc.. But we were still saving aside our money, in case those golden tickets appeared. Exhausted from the trip, we didn't even consider going to the Kin Shriner event scheduled for two that afternoon. We went over to our big round Holdiay Inn (the Lodge had been all booked up) and crashed. After a few hours sleep, we got ready for the RATSA alternate altercation and THL concert. We had remembered the time incorrectly and arrived at the Santa Monica Pier at 6:15 instead of 6:45. So no one was at the asssigned meeting place by the historic Merry-go-round. So we strolled along the pier and took a picture of a giant lobster, and bought souveniers for the folks back home. We went back to the Merry-go-round still empty of fans and waited. We realized that we'd never met most of these people, (Razz was sure to be late) so we might not recognize them... Top Ten Ways To Identify A RATSAfarian 10) "General Hospital - Ask for Mercy" bumper sticker 9) Speaks primarily in acronyms 8) Handy emergency supply of chocolate 7) Wonders how there computer is doing home alone 6) Carrying map of Port Charles instead of Los Angeles 5) Incredibly talented, intelligent, good-looking, courteous, and, above all, modest, human beings 4) Strange green glow from monitor irradiation 3) Wearing a fuzzy little Koala Bear 2) Juxtaposition of "Simone" and "VR Troopers" in the same sentence And the number one way to identify a RATSAfarian 1) The Secret Handshake A young man and a woman walked into the Merry-Go-Round. It was instant tribal recognition. Adrian, and we could tell it was him, asked if we were RATSAers. We introduced ourselves and he introduced us to his RATSA friend Laurel. It was still early, so the four of us went outside and looked at the polluted Santa Monica water. We talked about Australia, California and the Rat Pack. We went back to the Merry-Go-Round and then the GH fans began to show up in force. McAmy and Arda, SturdyClyde and her husband TolerantJerry, Kathyrn "Geneaology is my bag" Basset, Michele, and darn it, a nice girl whose name we can't remember. SturdyClyde handed out special GH picture magnets to everyone. (We chose a Kevin and Lucy picture that matched our web page background.) Kathryn handed out maps of Port Charles, circa 1981. And Adrian gave everyone a small furry clip on Koala bear with a little hard hat. The enlarged group started down the pier. We stopped and watched a magician pour water out of a newspaper, but couldn't stay long enough to watch him make that dove disappear, or whatever it was he intended to do to it. We deserted the group halfway down the pier, because it was getting kind of chilly (for us Arizonans) and we wanted to retrieve our coats from the car. While we were down there we stopped by the Merry-go-round to see if any more RATSAers had shown up. As we left there, we spotted Razz and Rika and Pat. We promptly handed out gifts. (For Rika, a Kevin/Ryan tape. For Razz a framed 4x6 picture of the Santa Monica Civic Center, autographed by Rick Springfield.) While they were putting their gifts in Razz' car. We walked down to the Pier looking for the other RATASfarians. We walked all the way down to the end and back but couldn't find them. We did find webmaster Jeff Jungblut and his friends Dave and Susan. We chatted as we walked back to "Rusty's Surf Ranch". As it turns out the rest of the group had already ducked into Rusty's (an hour before our reservations). After finally getting our change from the cashier, we went in too. RATSA folks accounted for the entire middle row of tables. (The AOL people were off on one side.) We took our seats somewhere in the middle. Met Christine and her friend, and Marliss and a few other people. AnneBPT stopped by before going to set up her video camera. Razz introduced Cheryl to the table, and ebullient LRC (Kristin) made her appearance. Our waiter finally got around to us (He bore a striking resemblance to Billy Warlock.) and drinks were ordered and red, white and blue chips with salsa (and no blue chips). There was much chattering going on before the Mark Allen band came on. Mark is also the bassist for The High Lonesome, for those who don't know. They were a straight rock kind of band with a Journey flavor. Next The High Lonesome came on. And that will be in the next part of our report.