COG Tales

So, anyways, here's my story...

I hop on my 360 at 9:30pm Central to get in some Halo trigger time. I'm playing Multi-Team awaiting for Dahji the Douche to send me an invite so I can hang with some friends and not some foul-mouthed timmies. I prefer foul-mouthed friends anyday.

So, finally, around 10pm, Dahji sends me an invite, and I hop in with his room. We are are searching for games when my phone starts ringing off the hook. WTF? I think. Who the fuck is calling at 10pm at night? I don't recognize the ring tone of the call, so I ignore it. Then my phone rings again, and I recognize this ring tone. It's Jeep. Again, why is she calling at 10pm at night? I ignore the call, but when the voicemail beeps, I decide I should find out what's up.

Jeep tells me that Pearl has been trying to call me, and that coordinates for another COG have been posted on Six's Twitter site (SixOkay Twitter), and that the coordinates are shown to be in Plano, TX.

HOLY SHIT! I've been jonesing for one of these COGs ever since I read about the viral campaign, but was resigned to the fact that chances were slim-to-none that I wouldn't have a chance.

I give Jeep a call and she informs me that the coordinates show the COG to be located in East Plano. Even better! I live east of Plano, so my drive would be short. She tells me to call Pearl, and so I hang up and give Pearl a call. She's at work, but tells me that Waterborn is all over this and that she'll connect me with him.

Here's the funny thing. Just that morning, I had read Waterborn's blog about his COG find. After reading his blog and various loose relationships between the COG location and the game (Carmen Park = Carmine (character in the game) and the "Holocaust Memorial"), I hopped on Google and did some research into the public parks in Dallas, TX hoping to maybe find some loose relationships to the game in hope of possibly pre-determining where a COG might be placed in Dallas, TX if they decide to place one here.

So, Waterborn gives me the coordinates (33.0352, -96.6613 - ), and I plug them into Google. Yup, I know where this park is... not too far away. I start printing out a picture of the map while gathering up a couple of flashlights and getting my shoes on.

I tell Waterborn I'll call him back, and proceed to my bedroom where the wife is partially asleep. I tell her I'm going to go COG hunting and she gives me a look of pure WTF? I explain to her what the deal is. She's skeptical, but tells me to be careful. I grab the printout and flashlights and head out the door.

I head out towards the park, hoping that no cop pulls me over. You see, I wasn't exactly sober. I wasn't drunk, but I had taken a couple of Vicodin a couple of hours earlier because my back had been killing me, and had just finished off a Black Russian.

So, I'm on my way to the park, driving the speed limit, and worried that someone else has beaten me to it.

I'm just about there, when I have a bad feeling that I've overshot the park somehow. I call Waterborn, and he re-orients me in the right direction. Yeah, I overshot the park and got all turned around.

Anyways, with Waterborn's help, I get on the right road, and sure enough, there is the park, and parking lot, just like he described them. Great job looking at Google Earth Waterborn!

I hop out of my car, and am a bit worried that other people have beaten me to it. There are actually a fair amount of cars in the parking lot, but not many people to be seen. I head towards the point on the map where the coordinates point to. Waterborn informs me that they point to what appears to be (2) trees by the walking path.

Sure enough, there are (2) trees, which appear to create an Arch over the walking path.

I turn the flashlight on, and with Waterborn still on the phone, start looking around the base of the trees, the trashcan, and the benches in that area... About the 2nd time around, with no success, I say... "I should be looking UP, as well as DOWN. So, I look up, and BINGO! There it is right in front of my eyes, nestled in the crook of one of the trees:

I inform Waterborn, who's ecstatic. He informs me that he'll post in the Epic forums that it was found, but also that he had to head to bed as he had to get up at 5am.

I txt Jeep and Pearl and let them know, and I get a reply from one of them: "How's it feel to own one of the coolest cockrings ever?" LOL.

Thanks again to Jeep and Pearl for giving me the heads up, and especially to Waterborn for sticking with me on the phone and getting my sorry ass re-oriented in the right direction. I probably couldn't have done it without any of ya.