| I didn't take a lot of pics because there's 40 million cameras around, but here's my rundown. Tetsu-san and Yasu-san from the UltimateZCC in Japan arrived on Sunday. 'Mad' Mike and I picked them up from the airport and brought them back to Mike's for a little social time with a few local club members. Afterwards, Yasu-san came home with me to be my house guest. The next morning we launched out to Memphis for ZCON2015. We had a nice caravan of about 10 cars headed up from the Dallas/Ft. Worth clubs and Rodel from Austin tagged into the group as well. 
There is a matching No Loitering photo at the gas station in Texarkana.
I haven't driven in a Z caravan in forever... barely qualified here as I'm in my Ford car hauler with Z-Lab on top.
Yasu-san enjoying the same.
Yasu-san enjoying some other Zs. The time change was working against him.
We got left somewhere in Arkansas, as I can top out at about 76MPH before I watch the gas needle drop. I need more gears in the rig I think. Anyway, the rest of the caravan made a wrong turn close to the hotel, so Yasu and I were victorious on our arrival! Hotel setup was really nice. The main parking area for Z cars was reserved and right next to the pool. Even though we arrived a day 'early', the parking lot was already almost full of cars. 
The hotel had a moat around it with 'penguins' in it.
NISMO 370 Roadster on display.
BRE replica in front of the hotel.
Titan with Cummings diesel.
Monday night I hung out at the pool with Pinkie (Shawn), Shane, Mike and Jean. There were a lot of Z folks down there. Pat & Song bought BBQ from Corky's along with beer for pretty much everyone. Thanks for that!! At some point later on in the evening, I get a message from Bernie that he, Adam, Nate and Sarah will be there soon. Once they arrive and get checked in, we decide to Uber to the Fox 'n' Hound close by. That was an experience... So B,A,myself and Pinkie pile into some small ass car with 'Phil' the driver. After a series of left turns we ended up at the bar like at midnight. Bars close at 3am in Memphis so we had some time to kill. Shiner Bock on draft and Jordan (soon to be Jordache) behind the bar the conversation was full ditch to ditch with her until the crowd thinned out and Rona the GM got involved. She was a trip too. The girls working the bar were friendly and could roll with our brand of nonsense so we decided it would be the place for the tt.NET informal gathering Wednesday night. Rona kicked us out at 3a. Bernie looks over and sees Jesus sitting on a park bench. Jesus joins our traveling party. In the Uber on the way home, Bernie gives Jesus to me, because apparently I needed him. BTW, if you work Uber, please be able to answer simple cabbie type questions. What's the hot club close by, what's the situation with buying beer/liquor, etc. We get back to the hotel at 4a. tt.NET is busted. I spend a little time on it, but have to see what Greg can do to get it back on track. Next day was pretty low key. Took the Japanese shopping, etc. 
Mike feeding his new friends. This is what old people do...
Caravan going to pick up Yama-san from the airport.
Mike meeting Yama-san and his Boss.
The opening banquet and Texas Chili Party were in the evening. Get to bed 'early' since we have the track day on Wednesday. 
At the track there was no shade so people crowded the 300 Degree tent to stay out of the beating of the sun with humidity. I still want to know who though mid July in Memphis was an acceptable date. I couldn't walk out to the truck and back from the hotel without sweating... I'm from Texas and I'm outside all the time lately, but this is a different brand of heat, and it sucked. 
Regardless, Memphis International Raceway was a lot more fun than I expected. NHRA drag strip with a sweeper at the end of the strip and the return ride to the staging lanes has an M and some other features to get through. No significant elevation changes, although the 'peak' on the return is in the middle of the M were you really couldn't see the back half coming in. That bit me and I off'ed in the first session across the grass there driving too hot. No big deal. I also off'ed in the 4th session at the 90 degree turn. Just a little too hot and once I was aimed away from the barrier I just parked it in the infield waiting for traffic to come around. The staging lanes and strip have Jersey barrier lining them so that section of the track was pretty spooky and the transition from the staging lanes to the rubber covered strip would cause the back end to step out while turning onto the strip. Once you got used to this, it was fun to get close to the walls and straighten out the turn. I instructed Yasu on his first session driving Mike's car. Once he figured out the track map, he was doing OK. I completely forgot about VDC in the 350Z so that was defeating him more than I realized. He rode with me during the second session and I made his head spin. Not the first, not the last. I had a student to manage too, Robbie has the silver 280 with the LS1 in it. Well balanced car and a good novice driver. We had a lot of fun shaving seconds off his laps and he was getting around safe and clean after 2 sessions of instruction. I turned him loose in the afternoon. I turned a fastest single lap of 1:17 and ran all 5 sessions. Warren in the GTR was doing about a 1:14 on slicks too, so I don't feel to bad about this. I was doing about 135mph at the end of the straight, he was doing 165. About the same as TWS without the high bank. My 5th session was basically private track time. After a 1:17 on lap 2, the remainder were ~1:19.3, extremely consistent and not bad in 95+ degree heat. I was supposed to come back for the autocross the next day but decided after the heat beating that I would pass.. not to mention the tt.NET gathering was that night. Get back to the hotel, B&A have arranged to have Yama-san, the Boss, Nagata-san and his son join us for dinner before Yama-san's presentation of Z32 design. Nagata-san among other things he did for Nissan during his career, was tasked to establish NDI in America. He picked out San Diego over other California locations and the property it was built on, stood up the facilities and got it started. We take them to the 'fancy' restaurant and then waited at the table. Eventually Yama-san had to excuse himself to get to the presentation. 20 minutes later we finally get our food. Embarrassing. B & I have a conversation with the manager afterwards about things... not good. Anyway, get up to the last couple minutes of Yama's presentation and the Q & A. If you saw it in San Diego last year, it was largely the same, he added and updated about 20% according to him. 
Ride over to the tt.NET gathering with Mike, Tetsu and Yasu around 9:30p. We told Rona about 40 people were coming and she set aside one of the pool rooms for us. We didn't get the two servers we negotiated for, but Kirsten and Kelly were up to the task. Yama-san and the Boss arrived and sat close by. The rest of the room filled up. I think the head count was right at 40 so it was raucous in there. Also, they allow smoking in the bar (can't find that in Dallas anymore) so it was 'old school' bar night. Ayon was across from me and Yama was trying to understand his name. He spells it Ayon, but he pronounces it like ion. Yama called him Onion... ding ding ding! Our first Yama assigned nickname. Wear it with pride my friend! We called him Onion the rest of the week. Once the crowd thinned out after 2a we bought shots for our servers. Some pickle juice and Jameson shot thing they obviously do a lot around this place. Other idiocy happens and we get invited to a pool party at 10a the next morning... Uber home with Mitch and the first normal driver I had got us to the hotel safely. Pass out at 4a.
Skipped out on Autocross on Thursday and take Tetsu and Yasu to Graceland. I've been to Memphis a lot over the years, even flew up there to get the Green Queen and drive her home. Never been to Graceland. Bought tix and then had to wait over an hour just to take the bus across the street to the mansion. Tour was really nice, although it's a iPad presentation narrated by John Stamos and a lot of people are just fixated on their tablet and bumping into each other. The additional amount of info isn't worth it compared to a live tour guide. Not to mention the tour guide doesn't need to be rebooted in the middle of the tour. Anyway, if you're remotely interested in Elvis it's well done. 
So we tag up with Chris, Joe, Onion, Brad and a pile of other folks at The BBQ Shop for dinner. Yummy yummy dry rub pork ribs! I could have gone into meat coma there easily. Mike was super flirty with the server. When he went out to smoke, she asked the rest of us if he's always like this... yeah, he's kinda sedate today actually. She rolled with it and was calling him Big Daddy. Too funny. Left there for the Paul Newman Winning movie screening. Huge theater filled with Z dorks. The movie was really well done. Click the link and watch it when you have a couple hours. That was great and didn't hurt that the theater was really nice and air conditioned. Afterwards, we go to the lobby and BS around some. Look down at my watch and it's like 12:30a. Time to Uber to F&H. As we're walking out, Pat and Song are walking in along with some others that had gone over there after the movie. Bummer! Adam has been passed out somewhere so B & I, along with Dennis and Brad head over. Pat and Song make a U turn and eventually join us. Jordache and Rona are working tonight. We close it down again, of course. Next morning is the Judged Car show on Beale St. ZCON got Memphis to block off this historic tourist area for the show. While it was still hot, the venue was the best! My only complaint would have been to put the cars on the other side of the street and the shade on the opposite so you didn't sit behind your car with your chairs and mess for better photos. Tiny complaint, I know... 
Bernie's punk band...
The convention rented a 'riverboat cruise' for the evening's dinner. Not impressed. Crowded and the food was not stellar, and the boat is smallish and has some motion to it. Kyle's wife needs Jesus more than I, so I gave him to her for comfort. Sat with Tetsu, Yasu and Tamura-san (Nissan GTR Manager) to make sure they were OK. Interesting conversation about Tamura's role. I met him back in 2001 as part of the 350Z program. 
Tamura-san and Tetsu on Beale St.
After the cruise, it was back to Beale St. Silky O'Sullivan's offered no cover if you showed your ZCON badge. Air conditioning, dueling piano stuff and Z dorks. It was a good night. Got on the shuttle at midnight. Was going to have to get up early the next morning to set up the booth at the People's Choice car show... so called it done. 
While it was nice to be inside the hangar and out of the sun for the show, the back dor was closed and it was an oven in there at first. I haven't sweat like that in a long time. Gross! Eventually someone worked with the airport to get us power for the band and get the back door opened. Thank goodness!
Got some model time at the end of the day with Z-Lab...
Closing Banquet started with bar and chicken strips/meatballs/salad stuff in the hallway, then let us into the ballroom. We get a couple tables off to the side. tt.NET doesn't fit at a single table anymore and we're splintered between local clubs too so we were a little more scattered than in the past. Mike gave a nice speech about Mr. K. and Toronto was announced as the next convention location the 2nd week of August 2016. I won a Track Night during the raffles... 
I got Jesus back from Christina at the closing banquet. He also got a tech sticker from the track day along the way...
Loafed around the lobby for some good mixed drinks and beer. We're leaving at 8:30a the next morning for home. Said good byes and crashed out. Sunday and it's time to head home. Our caravan is half power as some are heading other directions for vacation or just aren't awake yet. 
Onion, (confused) Tetsu and Dennis in their new 300 Degree shirts.
Tetsu using straws as chopsticks to retrieve his hash brown that broke off in the ketchup. First world problems...
Tetsu passing Yasu and I on the way home.
Had a Good-Bye party for the Japanese at Mad Mike's Monday night. A lot of the prior Japan travelers from Texas were there. It was good to catch up with everyone! Overall it was fun because of the people, which is almost universally the saving grace for these things. Oh, and thanks to Fox 'n' Hound for taking care of the deeper night drinking. Pleasant surprise as the FnH's around here are kinda snooty. The weather was obnoxious and I feel bad for people from more temperate climates. I'm pretty used to this and it was still a whipping. Ouch! That's all I know for now... There is a lot of side conversation and idiocy I'm not putting into print, you need to come to a ZCON to be part of it!
Later
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My ZCON 2015 Recap! - 
