It WAS Awesome!

I got to play with handcuffs and a thermal imaging device. I got to see a K-9 officer (Franz) and his handler in action. I watched a bank robbery and car chase, a couple of rescues, and some really interesting speakers talk about things that ordinarily don’t come up in polite conversation (why a corpse might burst, for example.)

Wisconsin weather could NOT have been more lovely, and I found myself wanting to look for real estate in the Fox Valley. After all, we’re in a decades long drought in California, and when I saw all that green–green trees, green grass, green, green, green, I fell instantly and irrevocably in love. I’ve always loved Wisconsin because that’s the great state that produced Mr. ZAM, so I of course, I had to get my cheese curds and my Packer Backer T-shirts and my Bucky Badger sweatshirt.

Fox Valley Technical College has to be the most exciting place for the kids who go there. They have a whole fake village, complete with motels, bars, banks, and an actual airplane in which to experience these dramatic rescue and criminal apprehension scenarios. So much thought was put into this little school, it’s truly, truly a gem. I’d love it if my kid, the one who wants to be a firefighter, could go there.

The only problem I had was an iffy ankle (that I had to walk on constantly) and the fear that I wouldn’t know anyone when I got there! But on the very first day, I found Piper Vaughn, and on the second, I found Jamie Lynn Miller and J.D. Ruskin! Could I have been more lucky? I got to see my M/M cohorts there!

At any rate, I had a wonderful, wonderful time. A huge thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make that happen, especially Lee Lofland, Joe Lefevre and those amazing Sisters In Crime! I hope someday, once I’ve taken all this to heart, I’ll write a great scene with accurate technical details and make all of you proud.

Or maybe I can simply keep some of you from tearing your hair out!

I’m back at home now, but plot bunnies seem to be boiling out of the woodwork!