I have been a DQ fan from the first episode and it has always been a dream of mine to one day meet Jane Seymour. That was probably the biggest   motivating factor that help me to make this trip. Another factor, I wanted to make this trip for my friend Carol, who passed away five years ago from Breast cancer. She and I use to watch DQ every saturday night and discuss it much like the discussions on the list now. She was madly in love with Hank. We talked about making a trip out to visit the Pranch, but never made it. Then the next thing we knew the show was canceled. I like to think she was there with me in spirit.

I am a very shy person and it was not easy for me to make this trip by myself to Los Angelesto spend a week-end with a group of strangers. I knew this would be a once in a life time experience, so as I walked on the plane, I took a deep breath, set in my seat and buckled my seat belt and hoped this would be a great experience. I was not disappointed.

I arrived in LA, thursday the 29th of April and took a shuttle van to the hotel in Augora Hills. I am so glad that I had not rented a car at the airport. I know I would never have found my way to the hotel through all the traffic and winding roads. I do not do well at reading road maps. Augora Hills and Malibu is very pretty and I was amazed at all the beautiful houses that were built on the sides of the mountains.

Once at the hotel, I checked into my room (about 4:30 PM PST) and went downstairs to the resturarant as a lot of people were meeting there for a light dinner. I was really nervous and out of my comfort zone, but as I walked into the room, I saw Pam Hughes sitting at the table to my right. I recognized her from  pictures in the DQ Times. I introduced myself to her and she said to sit anywhere and meet the other people. So, I proceeded to a table where three ladies were sitting, Julie, from MN; Penny, from NC; and Judy, from NY. They started introducing themselves to me and I began to relax. Then, Anne E. came to sit at our table and Anne S, who was my roomate from the UK. A very nice group of ladies.

Once everyone had finished eating, around 6:30 PM, we went into another room where we could relax and visit with each other. More people were coming in at that time. Pam had arranged to have tables set up with Jane's art work on one, some of her "This one and That one" items on another, and some of Jane's bedding and pillows on another table. It was there for us to look at and buy if we wanted to. I finally got to meet Pam Hr, from Austrialia. She is the one who helped me to get on the DQ List. I was also meeting other people like Deb K. and Debbie S. It was nice to be able to put faces to the many names I have seen with post on the DQ List.

Friday monring a few of us loaded in the car with AnnE and went to the Pranch. It was the first visit for a few of us and Ann and Deb were very good tour guides for us (I thought maybe they worked part time for the Pranch as they knew so much). They were very descriptive about everything and it really helped me to be able to picture the way the town use to be and how the homested looked. I can honestly say, I have walked the streets of Colorado Springs. I could see in my mind the busy streets, Grace's Cafe, Loren's store, Dr. Mike at the Train Depot picking up her mail from Horace. It was a really nice time.

We spent about an hour or so there and then it was off to Zuma Beach for our Beach party. We drove by Jane's house on the way there. Couldn't see too much with the wall and the gate. Could see some nice flowers around the drive way.

It was a very windy day at the beach. I think we all got a little wind burn the short time we were there. We ate our lunch and visited some more. Tried to introduce ourselves over the wind. We went back to the hotel and relaxed and rested up before our Members dinner at 6:30 that evening. It was a very nice and casual affair. After dinner, there was a raffle for some left over DQ items from the DQ auctions.

People came from all over the world for this reunion. Some from Germany, UK, Austrailia, Italy, Canada, and the US. Everyone was so nice and friendly. Being from the East coast and three hours ahead of California time, I never got adjusted to the time change so by 9:30 PM I was ready for bed. I was usually awake by 5:30 AM.

Saturday, May 1, I awoke with a bad cough and scratchy  throat. So instead of going to Jane's art show, I decided to stay at the hotel and take some medicine and try to rest. I didn't want to miss the Cast and Members dinner that night.

Finally, it was time to head over to the Calamigos Ranch for the big dinner. I had my camera and eight rolls of film and I was planning on getting lots of pictures. Well, I hadn't even thought about checking the batteries in my camera. So little did I know, my picturing taking would be short lived.

The Cast had arrived about ten minutes before we the members did. They were in a seperate area reuniting with each other and getting their pictures taken. For most of them, they probably hadn't seen each other since the last reunion.

We were all ushered to the patio area of the resturarant. Pam Hughes told us that William (Hank) wouldn't be there nor Orsen Bean (Loren) because of deaths in their families. She also told us Jane would only be able to stay for a couple of hours as she had an unexpected business dinner come up. We were all glad for the time she was there. Barbara Babcock (Dorothy) couldn't make it. She wasn't sure about some of the others.

The cast members started making their way up to the patio area to mingle with everyone. I couldn't believe I was actually seeing in person, Jane Seymour, Shawn Toovey (Brian), Frank Collison (Horace), Helen Udy (Myra), Jennifer Youngs (Ingrid), Jessica Bowman (Colleen 2), Kathryn Ford, one of the wirters, Beth Sullivan, the creator of DQMW, Chuck Bowman, Director, William Olvis(music composer) and Eve Brennan (Sam from the Pikes Peace episode).

I must admit that my meeting with Jane did not go the way I had imagined it. When I was able to stand beside her to have our picture taken, I remember thanking her for being there with us. I am embarrassed to say, I don't remember much after that. I had made myself so nervous, that my mind went blank and the next thing I knew, I was walking away from Jane so someone else could have a turn to visit with her. I wonder if she thought I was weird for just walking away. I don't know if anyone else was that nervous on their first time meeting her.

I did regain my composure and spoke with Shawn for a short time. He is a very nice young man. He said he hopes to get back into acting once he graduates from college. (maybe by then all the reality shows will have gone by the way side and we can get real family programming back) He also said that he was really enjoying this reunion as it was so casual and relaxing. I think it was about this time that the batteries in my camera died and I couldn't use it anymore. A special thanks to Pat R who came to my rescue and let me use an extra digital camera she had brought along. So I was able to take a few more pictures.

Just before we went inside for dinner, Jane brought out her oil painting she had done of Michaela and Sully. (This is where everyone goes AHHHHH, right Anne E?) It is beautiful. That woman is so talented. I don't know where she finds the time to do everything she does. Jane said she has to get permission from CBS before she can sell prints to the public. I hope she can catch Mr. Moonves in a good mood.

The dinner, the decorations, the deserts and the rest of the evening was great. There were nice little dream catcher key rings on the table for all the fan members to have. Those were nice. All the cast and crew members there were so friendly and down to earth people. After Pam had introduced the fan members tables, saying how members came from all around the world, all the cast and crew people stood up and clapped for us. I thought that was neat and to me it shows how much they appreciate all of us for our support.

After eating, they all went around to the different tables and talked to the fans. It was great. Jennifer Youngs sang some songs as her husband played back up guitar. That was interesting.

So, Chad, Henry, Jonelle, Jason, Brandon, and Joe did not make it to the dinner. Too bad as they missed a good time. But life gets complicated sometimes and we can't always be where we want to be.

Sunday morning, the time is coming for me to head back home to GA (time went by too fast for me). The shuttle picked me up at 8:20 AM, I said good bye to everyone that was in the lobby. I had plenty of time to make my 11:00 AM flight going to Atlanta. As we were sitting on the plane (by this time my cough was worst, my throat hurt, my head hurt and I was not feeling good at all) backing up so we could taxi to the runway, all the power in the cabin went off. Oh, Man!!! I whined. The Pilot came over the radio and said the Auxilary Power had shut off for some reason and they were going to try to bring it back up. If they couldn't get it back up, we would have to be pushed back to the gate and get on another airplane. So, I'm thinking to myself, What exactly is this "auxilary power"? Do we need this to just take us out to the run way or do we have to have this to help us take off? Needless to say some scary thoughts were going through my mind. About ten minutes later, they had the auxilary power back on and we were on our way to the run way. In another ten minutes we were up in the air and off in the wild blue yonder. As long as we stayed there, I was happy.

So, twenty minutes behind schedule, we landed at the Atlanta airport and I had missed my connecting flight (not good). I had to wait two more hours for the next plane to Jacksonville, FL. When I finally got home, I just fell into bed and tried to sleep.

I just want to wrap this up by saying with a deep heart felt thank you to all the wonderful DQ Fans that were at the reunion and helped me to have a great time. Sometimes it feels as if it was just a dream, but then when I looked at all the neat pictures I have----it was real, real great!!! A once in a lifetime experience, unless Pam or someone decides to have one more DQ reunion and then I'll be there again. I will remember this one for a long time.

Nina