"SO LONG SPRINGFIELD"
Las Vegas ~ December 5, 2009
Copyright © 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Drama Queen

I recount here my trip to Vegas for the So Long Springfield event to bring closure for the loss of Guiding Light.

The actors who attended the event in Vegas were : Robert Newman (Josh) Frank Dicopoulos (Frank) Bradley Cole (Jeffrey) Jeff Branson (Shayne) Crystal Chappell (Olivia) Kim Zimmer (Reva) Ron Raines (Alan) Jessica Leccia (Natalia) Michael O'Leary (Rick) Gina Tognoni (Dinah) Tom Pelphrey (Jonathan) and Justin Deas (Buzz)

It was a day and evening event on December 5, 2009. My daughter drove me there on December 4, accompanied me to the event and took photos, as well as taking care of me as she saw the need. We returned home on December 6. Vegas is 4 to 5 hours from here. We stayed at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino because the venue was there and it would make things easier. The room was enormous, and the accomodations couldn't be nicer.

In the evening as we checked out where the event would be, we came across a group of excited women who had just come across Frank (Frank) and Michael (Rick) and were getting pictures. They turned to leave after that and I scurried after them, calling their names. One of the group who just talked to them called out "wait, you have old fans!!" Whatever worked, they did stop. Our photo didn't come out too well as all three of us have our eyes closed. That is because the camera was slow to take the photo, which is how we discovered the battery was exhausted. Daughter had brought extras along that fit both our cameras, so that was a good thing to find out and rectify. Anyway, the two of them were very nice about the extra attention, and shortly afterward we spotted them with Ron Raines (Alan) but didn't bother them again. We returned to our room to rest up for the big day the next day.

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