So after my beer meetup to kick things off for WDS, I headed over to get registered and get my WDS schwag, which included a backpack, t-shirt, water bottle, small notebooks, luggage tag, and other miscellaneous items. They try to do a pretty good job of putting together useful, nice stuff, and it is appreciated, I know. I saw plenty of t-shirts from previous years and plenty of the green backpacks in use all over town.

After checking in, I headed off to knock out some other Unconventional Race points before the Welcome Party that night. One of my first stops was to drink some local coffee and also buy a cup for the person behind me in line. I managed to find a great local coffee shop called Case Study, and the girl behind me in line was more than happy to let me buy her a cup as well.

I snagged a few more points in the race by buying a cupcake from a specific local bakery, finding an elephant, and finding the site of the Welcome Party from the very first WDS. Then it was time to head to the Welcome Party.

They were a little late getting the space for the Welcome Party opened up to everyone, and there was a line, so I decided to finish out one more task on the race list – buying an ice cream cone for someone else. I spotted a Ben & Jerry’s from the line, so I headed over there. There was a group of teenage girls in line in front of me, and it turned out that they were celebrating a birthday among them. So, I got to buy the birthday girl an ice cream cone. Buying these things for other people was one of my favorite parts of the race. It’s so funny how we go through life and almost never talk to strangers, just ignoring them as we go on about our own life. Turns out, most people are really friendly and like interacting with others. Who knew??

The Welcome Party was fun, and of course I got to meet even more new people. I stuck around for a while, but soon headed out for a wine crawl with more new friends. Funny how I wasn’t entirely sure about coming to WDS and if I would fit in since it seems like there are a lot of entrepreneurs, and I’m really not one, but instead work a pretty “conformist” corporate job. But, oddly enough, in the first day there, I had easily managed to find people to talk both beer and travel (two of my favorite things) with. No worries about fitting in here!