U S A '9 3

(A journal by D. Maxwell)

History

In May 1993, Star Walking Inc. "The Star Wars Appreciation Society of Australia" hosted a large science fiction convention in Melbourne. One of the two international guests to appear at this event was Don Bies, the then archivist for Skywalker Ranch (headquarters of Lucasfilm Ltd). Don had such a great time in Oz that not long after returning home, he invited a number of us to go to the US and visit Skywalker Ranch. With just two months to prepare for the trip, only four of us were able to make all the arrangements to go.

 

The trip turned out to be the most excellent 4 weeks of travelling you could imagine. Throughout the entire holiday, I kept a journal of everything we did, from the moment we were in the airport lounge waiting to leave, to the moment we began to descend back into Australia. Aside from the Skywalker Ranch visit, we also toured Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam, Disney Studios, Disneyland and the Meteor Crater. Our final stop was at the home of Steve Sansweet in Los Angeles who is the largest Star Wars collector in the world (whom at the time we had never met).

Once I got back, I typed up my handwritten diary (in verbatim) and have presented it here for prosperity - only the swearing has been modified so as not to offend anyone.

 

If some of the reference seem a little confusing, below is a summary of what they all mean:

TERM MEANING
Worldcon The National World Science Fiction Convention which coincidently was occurring in San Francisco while we were there
Skywalker Ranch Headquarters of Lucasfilm Ltd (which is not the home of George Lucas)
ILM Industrial Light and Magic, special effects division of Lucasfilm
Don Bies Our main contact for the trip and head archivist at Skywalker Ranch
Steve Sansweet Our main contact for LA, owner of the largest Star Wars collection in the world
Bob Partner to Steve who works for Buena Vista – a subsidiary of Walt Disney
Kaths Katharine, my girlfriend at the time
Janet Katharine’s sister
Lyn Toms A friend at work who I wanted to send a postcard too
Trexpo A Local Star Trek fan club event which I attended the moment I got home from the airport (Katharine was also attending)
Geoffro (Geoff) My best friend back home who is a big sci-fi collector
Lady E Starship Enterprise from Star Trek
Happys Happy snaps = Dag speak for photographs
Dennis, Wossa, George My best friends from a very long time ago when we were all really young Star Wars fans. I still keep in contact with George
Aussiecon II World Science Fiction Convention held in Melbourne in 1985
Cools Dag speak for sunglasses
Australia in ‘99 Australian bid for the World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Melbourne in 1999
DS9 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
1 sheet One sheet movie poster. The most common size used at the cinemas to advertise a film around the venue
Teeth (issue) My wisdom teeth were coming through at the time of the trip and I was concerned they would start to ache
Exxo Dag speak for excellent
Specco Dag speak for spectacular
Chunky Dag speak for something really wonderful
Collectaphilia Science Fiction collector fairs which used to take place in Melbourne
Excelsior Starship Excelsior from Star Trek III The Search for Spock
Servo Service Station
'Nanna (pronounced 'nar-na') Dag speak for when I get annoyed at something (short for banana)
Big G Grand Canyon
George Ivanoff Our friend at home who is a big ET fan
Makkas McDonalds
XXXXXXXXX A Disney film that I couldn't remember the name of
D&M Deep and Meaningful discussion

There are photos included with the text but they are only in sprinkles here and there.

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