Three amigos - On Friday morning, Rob and I picked up John and his colorful pillow at his house.

We stopped by 7-11 for some maple bars. Mmmmm...maple bars...

John is very happy!

We picked up my Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires co-hort Mike Hegg in Portland. He just got in the car and is laughing already. A sign of things to come.

Finally! We stopped at an Applebee's in Washington for lunch.

Onion rings...greasy goodness....

I had the cheese penne pasta with chicken. Good stuff.

John is a trooper for agreeing to pose for this hilarious photo. He has no illusions that his political career is over.

These weird statues along I-5 in Washington State are Gospodor Monument Park, a series of statues installed by Dominic Gospoder, a millionaire in his 80's who wanted to commemorate the Holocaust, the American Indian struggle and Christian faith with statues or symbols atop 100-foot-plus steel-pipe towers. Wow.

Look! Seattle!!! We're here!

Now, where the hell are we?

I love this photo. Mike's a trooper.

We found it! It's this way!

Rob seems extra excited about the pat down search.

I preferred the visual search. Actually these were over by the Key Arena, not the Crypticon.

John sets out some flyers for his movie Platoon of the Dead on the freebies table...and soon they were all gone! Now go and get your own copy at tempevido.com!

I really felt man handled after this photo.

After we watched a few horror shorts, Director/Writer Don Coscarelli of Phantasm fame was interviewed as a part of the con's opening ceremonies. Don had some fun stories and is a heck of a nice guy.

We headed out past the ferris wheel and Space Needle in search of dinner....

...past the the giant spaceship on the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame...

...and found McDonald's!

After chowing down, we headed back to catch the Best of the Zompire Film Festival, including the dark, funny and strange The Revenant. The best, though, was the totally hilarious The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon. Really really great - and the main guy in it was Paul Clemens, whom I fondly remember as both the teenage kid who graphically turns into a monster in The Beast Within, and as a man with Tourette's Syndrome in a particularly moving episode of Quincy.

After crashing at our friend Mike's house (Thanks again, Mike!) we headed back down Saturday morning to the con. After parking, we discovered a McMenamin's nearby. Score!

John thought the little ketchup bottles were cute. And he was right.

Ruby Ale. Mmmmmm.....

I had a BBQ pork burger topped with coleslaw. It could've done with a bit more sauce, but it was pretty tasty just the same.

John with our lovely waitress Leslie. This is a tradition I started on our 2007 Fangoria Weekend of Horrors trip: www.drsquid.net/fango2007.html

OK, now this was a sign on a dinner theater place on our way to the con. Look at that guy. I don't want this guy interrupting my dinner, pulling me out of my seat to do some stupid improv or role-playing. I can just imagine his high, silly voice, probably with an exaggerated Italian accent. Can't you?

John and I with the lovely and talented Bryn Kristi. Bryn is in my Twisted Fates movie and John's Evil Rising movie, both currently in post-production.

Kathy Lester, Reggie Banister and Don Coscarelli at the Phantasm panel. Don got Angus Scrimm on the phone so we could hear from The Tall Man himself! It was supercool!

Bill Thornberry, Kathy Lester and Reggie Banister tell some great stories along with Don about shooting the Phantasm movies. This was a great panel.

Charles Cyphers, Tom Atkins and Adrienne Barbeau share some great stories about working on John Carpenter's The Fog!

Vendors Beverly and Magenta

I'M LOOKING AT YOU!

John meets his future ex-wife.

Mike notices that the guy from I.T. had a meltdown...literally!!! This is the Mike who let us stay at his house this weekend. He's also played anchorman Link Masters in John and my movies. What a guy!

For dinner, we went to a famous burger joint called Dick's. Apparently it was prom night, but luckily we got our food before 50 teenagers in shiny dresses and suits came in and took over!

This swell cartoon was on the cups - cows branded with OK FOR DICK'S. Insert your own joke here.

At the screening of the short film The Tunnel.

Rob had decided to get a new tattoo at the con! Here is his arm before any work is done.

Here is the pirate zombie skeleton guy stencilled on...

An attendee ready for the Saturday night costume contest.

This mother and son did their own gruesome make-up!

This guy was Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Simple, yet creeeeepy! Someone as Dr. Philip K. Decker from Nightbreed.

Madeline Morgan all vamped up for the costume contest.

Bryn Kristi in her Medusa outfit. Sweet!

I don't know what exactly she was supposed to be...but I think I like it.

These guys had awesome Ghostbusters costumes including gadget-adorned backbacks with all kinds of flashing lights...and beer!

A few hours into it, Rob's arm is getting inked up.

The final tattoo! Rob named him Ronnie!

The mystery gas mask chick and her buddy, a cenobite from Hellraiser. Nice puzzle box!

After the contest, we were invited over to the Gravestone folks' hotel room and out for a late night snack. They said that when we saw the elephant car wash sign we were getting close...and we were!

Annie proves that she is indeed not just an actress and cheerleader, but a contortionist as well. Jason just says, "She's got a bright future in movies!"

Holy moley! She could kiss her own feet! Now, that's talent.

So we all headed out to an all-night diner. Along the way, John found John Street!

Just because he is ridiculously tall, Madeline thinks she can just ride Adam to the diner. Actually, he doesn't seem to mind much.

Annie said this would be a bad picture. I thought it was funny. Rob's hand makes it funnier.

The all-night diner, the Hurricane Cafe. Let's eat!

Holding court.

John entertained us with his Creature From the Black Lagoon impression while we were waiting for our food.

Pretty classy mac 'n' cheese for a diner. Penne pasta with a cream, garlic, cheddar and parmesan cheese sauce, topped with tomatoes and garlic toast rounds. It was fantastic.

No waitress this time. Josh was cool enough to pose with John anyway.

Once again, Mike Hegg indulged me when I told him to go sit on something for a photo.

When we passed by this store, Rob said, "So THAT'S where it all goes!" Boy did we have a good laugh with that one. We made it back to the van, drove to Mike's place and got to bed about 4 a.m. Crazy.

The host with the most - Mike made bacon!

Not only that, but look at this spread we rolled out of bed to find on Sunday morning: eggs, bacon, toast and cinnamon rolls! That Mike is one heck of a nice guy.

Some people say that Seattle is full of kooks. All I can say is, look at this sign! It reads:
Peace! Devide 8hr Day... by2...
(Robot)Workers=We a Government(s)
...100% FREE of (home)Work.
ISSUES include are
(If sexualy educated well enough then) what about anti-(age) discrimination (sexualy)?
Drug addicts should be treated (like patient) not as criminal.
[How may I become (meet with) out President regarding this matter?]
Above speech to be given by Percy J. Haggins 4pm
June 13th Saturday 2009 at Denny Park located at Denny Way & Bell St. North of down town Seattle a few blocks East of Space needle! PLEASE COME!

Sculpture, fountains and duck at the Seattle Center.

Adrienne Barbeau, Electra and Elise Avellan AKA The Crazy Babysitter Twins and Elske McCain on the Scream Queens panel. Another great one with lots of funny stories.

Elske had a shirt on that read,"Ken is an asshole." At the end of the panel, someone asked, "Who is Ken and why is he an asshole?" Elske replied, "He's my ex-husband," getting a big laugh out of the crowd.

Two of the volunteer helpers at the con.

Oh, My. God. This was awesome. I've been a fan of Phantasm for almost 30 years now and I got a chance to meet and chat a bit with writer/director Don Coscarelli. I picked up a snazzy DVD of Don's cool movie Bubba Ho-Tep, told Don about my first experience seeing Phantasm on the CBS Late Movie back in 1981, and had a couple of supercool photos taken with him. Don was an easy going, really nice and personable guy. It was a real pleasure to meet him.

We swung by the Gravestone Entertainment table to say goodbye and Kevin was making up this guy. Sweet!

I grabbed one more quick shot of Rob with this ultracreepy statue by make-up artist Brian Sipe

We walked over to the Seattle Center food court and this big Philippines festival was going on complete with drummers and dancers.

So I got myself some fish and chips, which were pretty darn tasty, but sadly the end of my Crypticon experience was tainted by some truly awful cole slaw! It was way too vinegary for my taste, but I understand that there are plenty of folks who dig it that way, so I can live with that. However, I ask you, who in their right minds puts uncooked ramen noodles and slivered almonds in their cole slaw?! Ramen noodles?!?! Almonds? Really?!?! Really?!?! I dare say that if the undead pirates from The Fog pulled into harbor and ordered this cole slaw, the person responsible would be run through with a machete! Crazy!