Once a train gamer, always a train gamer. Chuck Foster and Evan Davis get one last fix before departure.	Ladies were well represented with 23 in the field and took four of the top six places.

As the packup crew broke down kiosks and others loaded games into cars to start the long haul home, others decided to join in the TransAmerica tournament, one of the last events of the convention. Because it is often considered a disadvantage to be first player in this game, each player is the first player once per game -- no more, no less. In the case of ties, the player who scored the fewest points when he went first would win. If this score is tied, the scores in the second round are compared; in the event they are still tied this process is continued until there is a winner. This year we had six 6-player and four 5-player games, with winners only advancing. Travel connections forced one winner out before the semis, resulting in a 4-player and 5-player game in the semis; with winners and runner-ups
advanced to a 4-player Final.

At the 5-player tables:

David Burkey advanced as one of two people who earned zero points twice -- able to advance by winning a tiebreaking score of zero in the round where he went first. Laurel Stokes pulled out a win and a pass to the semis even though she never went out first (nicely done!). Janet Ottey advanced with the lowest advancing score of all of the 5-player games. At the last table, the victor seemed clear going into the final round; until the leader was forced to gain 7 points, putting Mike Kaltman into the semis.

At the 6-player tables:

Daniel Ottey advanced to join his wife in the semis. Young April Gardner proved the aplle doesn't fall far from the tree and advanced by tiebreaker, again earning zero points in the round where she went first. Eric Hymowitz advanced by scoring zero points in one round and two points in each of the five other rounds. Virginia Colin advanced by tiebreaker, but needed to go to the second-player scores to do so. Matt Calkins, a 2007 laurelist, advanced, going out first in four of his six rounds! Nicola Bradford advanced from the last table.

Odd fact: 10 was by far the most common advancing score, putting six of 11 players into the second round.

Seating was again randomized at the semi-final level, with the exception of again splitting the family unit of Janet and Daniel Ottey. April Gardner won at her table, going out first two times but still winning by but one point. Laurel Stokes and Janet Ottey tied for second and the last chance to advance. While Laurel won the tiebreaker, Janet's very close third resulted in her 5th place overall. Matt Calkins advanced to the Final for the second straight year, scoring less than half of any of his opponents scores in the other game. This was the result of forcing his opponents to take between 5 and 10 points in the fourth round. Virigina Colin followed Matt into the Final. Daniel Ottey's third earned him 6th place - just behind his wife - something he is probably still hearing about.

With the lowest score in the semis and being the only returning laurelist, Matt looked like a heavy favorite in the Final, but three ladies had other ideas. In the first round of the Final, Laurel went out first, forcing Virginia to score a devastating 8 points, April scoring 1 and Matt 3. Virginia made a comeback though, in the second round, when she was the first to go out. All of the other players were close behind, however, scoring 1, 2, and 2 points for Laurel, April, and Matt, respectively. Matt went out in the third round, with Laurel, Virginia, and April gaining 1, 2, and 1 point. Laurel was unstoppable though, going out in the fourth and final round to finish with only two points after four rounds!

The final standings were: Laurel 2, April 6 points, Matt 8, and Virginia 13.

April and Laurel both advanced from this semi-final table.	Finalists go after the last wood of the week.

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Tamara Houde lends a hand with the young travellers.	These juniors even got a kiosk to make it official.

 Trans America Junior

There were 17 little train travellers this year. Jaclyn Sands proved to be the most successful and she was followed by

2nd: Ben Gardner

3rd: Jack Doughan

4th: Thomas Melton

5th: Ian McGraw

6th: Cassidy Mullett