Vulcan, Leonard Nimoy and R2-D2

Good dad that I am I took the day off from work and made my daughter skip school so the two of us could drive out to Vulcan to witness the homecoming of Mr. Spock/Leonard Nimoy. It was all so nerdy of me, but hey, that's because I'm a nerd, or is it geek…whatever.

So we drove the two and a half hours out to Vulcan and it was pretty cool, it's always cool to do something with my daughter (insert awwww here). As we motored along we got passed, periodically, by news vans and other vehicles that were decked out in Star Trek accoutrements because, as far as things go, this was a big deal. You may not remember this but Mr. Nimoy campaigned to have the new Star Trek movie premiere in the town of Vulcan…and they don't even have a theatre.

All in all it was a lot of fun, and it was a very sweet gesture on behalf of Mr. Nimoy. And the citizens of Vulcan are a good group of people in my book.

Me in my Spock/Obama designed homage shirt in front of the Vulcan starship landmark.

So here are some of the things we saw.

 

Leonard Nimoy exiting his vehicle to go into the Star Trek museum in Vulcan. I managed to get a series of "action shots" as he made his way into the museum. The first was him getting out, the next was him raising his hand to do the traditional Vulcan salute and then, of course, him lowering his hand after completing the traditional "Vulcan" salute. Everyone else in attendance got the hand gesture but me. For the record, I gave myself my own little mental finger gesture for having missed this photo opportunity.

The museum. For a limited time they have the last known pair of Leonard Nimoy's original series ears on display (they are from Mr. Nimoy's own collection). He went into the museum with a select group of people and everyone else waited outside, and it was pretty cold that day, for Mr Nimoy to re-emerge and lead the parade to the unveiling of a Spock bust.

The local Enterprise float. And YEAH BABY – IT'S A HEMI.

Mr. Nimoy in the lead vehicle that drove the few blocks to the grand stand where he delivered a very nice, heartfelt speech to the citizens of Vulcan. The town council sat in, or walked beside, the smokin' hemi float that was pictured above

A parting shot of the starship that welcomes visitors to Vulcan.

One last item of note. Someone showed up at this event in Star Wars costume. Now this will sound mean but bear with me. Do you remember the final episode of Seinfeld where they got arrested for seeing something and doing nothing about it…now that you have that mental picture, here is the story. My daughter and I were waiting along the parade route (so there is our alibi), and as we were standing there, waiting for Mr. Nimoy to drive by, we saw R2 descending the gradual slope. At one point, R2 lost footing and fell. I was immediately reminded of the line from A Christmas Story - "Randy laid there like a slug… it was his only defense" (a minute twenty into the linked clip). As R2 flailed about like a turtle on it's back I looked at the multitude of Star Trek fans looking at the incapacitated unit and doing nothing and, YES, I admit it, I laughed. Then, as I saw that no one was going to help, I decided to get off my perch (which was perfect for viewing Mr. Nimoy, so you know what I was about to give up here) and go help. By the time I finally decided to do this I saw a few people approach R2 and help out, thus saving the droid™ and allowing me to keep my prime spot.
So you can go ahead and judge me now, but I think one really has to question the motives of someone who comes to a Star Trek event like this dressed up as a Star Wars character…I think they were looking for trouble.