I found imPhotog's summary of his experience last year incredibly helpful, so I thought I would try to do my part and write up mine this year (he'll
be posting his as well, and we were on the same tribe at the start, so it will be interesting to see both perspectives). 
First off I would say that anyone who is serious about wanting to be on the show really isn't serious if they don't go to one of these events (either the Kentuckiana Police and Firefighters Benefit or the Houston Survivor Event, since they both model closely after the show). The reason I say this relates back to one of the questions I asked Susie when she got back from Gabon - specifically what did she wish she has done more of to help prepare, knowing what she knows now. Her answer was that she felt one of the most important things was to actually try to compete in events where you had little knowledge of what to do or what strategies to adopt. While I thought the advice was very insightful, I struggled with a way to actually do it - and that's where these events really shine. The reality is that these kinds of events are as close as you're probably going to get without actually being on the show. Now, the social-side of the game is kind of under-represented, and the alliance side is over-represented because of the abbreviated time difference, but the events play out pretty closely (in my opinion) to how they would on the real show. Gallant did an awesome job on the challenges, and they were a mix of things that were from the show as well as his own creations, which meant you had to come up with a strategy on the fly. Now, combine that with the fact you get to spend tons of time with previous Survivor/Amazing Race winners and players, and this becomes a must-do kind of event. Anyway, enough of my pitch on going - I must admit that I'm biased, I would have liked to see more Pygmy domination in the game, but the vast majority of us were gone by the merge.
So starting off, my GF wanted to do a roadtrip, so we drove from Phoenix to Houston - right around 16 hours. While we broke the trip into two days going there, because of scheduling conflicts we ended up needed to do the trip back in one day. Anyway, back to the story - I made an audition video (figured it was good practice) and set it off, made it through the phone interviews (pretty straight-forward), and confirmed that I would be a contestant about two weeks before I went. One side note for organizers of events like this - for out of state contestants, you should confirm them as contestants a month in advance - this way it would be easier to get tickets and get other people to come. I have friends I could of gotten to come as well (that aren't die hard Survivor fans), but with two weeks heads up it's just too short of notice to make it happen.
Anyway, so I arrived Thursday to Houston and got in touch with WatchMeNext, who had helped me throughout the application process, and was also gracious
enough to have a Survivor viewing party at her house that night. While I thought it would be cool to watch Survivor with a bunch of other fans, the main
reason I went is that I suspected there would be at least one or two other contestants, and this would be a great way to get to setup some pre-game alliances.
Even if none of us disclosed that we were contestants (no one there did mention that, that I heard), but you're no longer just another nameless
stranger to that person - plus you know they're a Pygmy, and I was gunning for the Pygmy alliance to the end. The party was really fun, plus Bob and Sandy
from Survivor came along and hung out for the evening as well, which was super-cool. They're both super nice and lots of fun to hang out with (as was
everyone else). Most of the other people at the party knew eachother, but since I'm not a very active poster they were all new people for me. We (my GF
and I) took off somewhat early since contestants were supposed to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 10am, and I didn't want to be a zombie.
9:45am rolled around, and I headed down to the lobby where a bunch of the other contestants were hanging out. There wasn't a 'handler' there, so everyone was kind of ad-hoc introducing themselves and chatting - there were a fair amount of out-of-towners, which was good because I was somewhat concerned about other Houston contestants banding together. Eventually someone from the event came over, and then notified us that there would be no talking amongst contestants, and we were ushered up to the floor that they had a couple of rooms that we'd be using. I saw Mike (mikeybear321) and Mark (imPhotog) from the previous night, so they were the first people I wanted to make contact with and get an alliance going.
Once everyone had arrived (20 contestants, 5 women and the rest men) we were broken into 5 teams of four and given a list of 11 items to get in a scavenger hunt kind of format. Our team ended up getting first place, due in no small part to the fact we split into two teams and one team took a car and went to all the distant places. We were then awarded points (as a team), from 3 to 0.5, depending on the order we came in at. Once this was done, we were informed that all future points we would get would be as individuals, and that the person who got the most points would get individual immunity for the first vote.
The next things we did was wait and wait and wait around in the hallway... We did this for literally hours and without food. Some people got pretty bent out of shape about this, but to my mind I kind of enjoyed it, since it was probably a truer to the actual sequestering process that real contestants go through. Periodically one of the previous Survivor contestants would come through the hallway and give us crap, since their rooms were on the same floor - it was actually pretty funny and very cool.
The next test was a taste test, using baby food that we were told to bring... If they do this again, and you're unsure of what something is, guess "apple sauce", that was pretty much the most common thing people brought. Next was a memory test using the Old Maid cards we were told to bring, and then that was it, we were off to what was supposed to be a pool party, that ended up just being at a club because of weather.
The club was fun, a couple people got totally wasted, and were were told to return by 11pm (points being deducted if we returned past 11:30pm). We split into two rooms, so basically 10 people per room (yes, it was tight), and slept until 6:30am, where we got ready for the days events.
We were shuttled over to the wrong park (which was apparently deliberate?), where we then walked to the correct park once we figured out where that was. Once there we prepped for the game until the teams were actually announced. Teams were picked and I ended up on Green, which was comprised of:
Mark T (Contestant, Me)
Mark L (Contestant, imPhotog)
Bob Crowley (Survivor)
Erik Riechenbach (Survivor)
James Miller (Survivor)
Rita Verreos (Survivor)
Krista Stegall (Big Brother)
Scott (Contestant, fan of show but not a Pygmy)
Rose (Contestant, recruit)
Brad (Contestant, recruit)
At this point it's worth pointing out that most of the contestants were effectively recruits... I thought this was cool, since it makes it once again
closer to how the real Survivor plays. Some were familiar with the show, some weren't - some were really into it (like once of the guys on my scavenger
team, Greg), some were a bit strange.
I was actually really pleased with the team, to my mind it kind of was like a dream team, but Mark L didn't seem as thrilled. When I asked why, he said
the reason was that we ended up with all people he liked, so it was going to be hard to vote them out - which turned out to be very true. So once the team was
formed, Mark L, Rita, Krista and myself formed an alliance - I don't know if anyone else did, I suspect maybe Bob and Erik did, but none of the other
contestants did. Brad asked if it was possible to switch to the blue team, which really endeared him to the tribe.
The first challenge was the whole holding a pole with a small platform at the top, where the person has to move from one pole to the other - from one end of the field and then back. We had originally thought to use the lightest person and carry them, but the rules made it so we couldn't carry the person. We were planning on using Rita, but at the last minute Erik swapped out because he had a longer stride and good balance. The challenge started and we were running strong in dead last - not a good feeling. It took us a while to get it worked out, but finally we got our stride and started catching up - and as luck would have it, the team in third place had their person fall off, which gave us a chance to overtake them. Brad was in charge of the ladder and kept moving it in front of everyone - it was a real nightmare, and finally after being told multiple times he just stood off to the side with it in case we needed it (it was to be used if the person fell off). The last minute switch of Erik REALLY paid off and is why we managed to squeak out 3rd place.
It should be pointed out that there were 4 teams of 10, 5 contestants and 5 celebrities. The winning team got immunity, the teams that came in 2nd or 3rd
would vote out one person, and the tribe to come in last would vote out 2 people - so you REALLY didn't want to come in last. You also had to alternate
who you were voting out, contestant then celebrity, so there would always be a balanced number. This was actually a very good change, since it sort of means
you had immunity every other tribal council, and also meant that it wouldn't be a landslide of nothing but celebrities at the end.
So while we were waiting to vote someone out, Redneck James sort of separated himself from the group and sat down - no one really wanted to vote out anyone, but he sort of 'voted himself out' since he wasn't in the mix. He was REALLY bummed about getting voted out first (I don't blame him), and he vowed his revenge against Mark L (I guess he got voted out first the year before as well, and felt it was at the hands of Mark L).
The next challenge was on a big (two story maybe) inflatable waterslide thing - you had to run down, climb up the ladder in the middle, slide down the
slide, run over to a rope on a slip-n-slide, get pulled under another rope by your team, grab a flag, and then hang it on your tribe flag. Sounds easy, eh?
The slide turned out to be BRUTAL - it was super slippery, so you had to pull yourself up on these straps, on top of that it became a total battle on the
stairs. When I was going up, I had literally two other guys (I think) trying to pull themselves over my while I pulled myself up - there was no way in hell I
was going to let that happen, so I battled my way up - but at the same time some girl scampered over all of us and slide down. I finally powered up to the top
and slid down, but during all the grappling on the stairs I realized someone had broken my toe (it was hanging off my foot at a 90' angle), but
couldn't let that stop me so a ran over to the slip-n-slid, grabbed the flag, hung it up, and then laid down on the ground and waited for the EMT to check
it out. He confirmed it was broken and taped it up, and recommended that I not compete - but in true Survivor fashion, since it wasn't life threatening
the choice was left in my hands, so I went back into the game. We actually won first place, so that was great and it felt like the effort had paid off...
For the next challenge I was barefoot (because the shoes I wore had individual toes, so I couldn't put them on with my broken toe taped up) which
sucked). It was a more common survivor challenge, where there was a caller, and all the tribe went out in pairs blindfolded, through a small maze, then were
guided to pick up puzzle pieces, then return it back. Once all the pieces were returned, you could take off your blindfolds and solve the puzzle. I was
worried that someone would step on my toe, but I lucked out and our team was able to get everything quickly and pretty painlessly. Scott was our caller and
did a good job, but we choked a bit on the puzzle and ended up coming in second - but as long as it's not last, it's all good. This time we need to
vote out a contestant - Brad was lobbying to vote me out, so I returned the favor. People were pretty concerned that I would be able to continue playing, and
I ended up getting two votes, but not enough to get out (one vote from Brad, and ironically one vote from my alliance, Krista). I don't blame her, because
I think she actually saw how bad the break was, and personally I probably would have voted me out. Mark L told me the reason I managed to dodge the bullet
(apart from our alliance) is that people thought my knowledge of the game would be more handy - plus Brad was annoying.
At this point I found out Mike (mikeybear321) got voted out on the Slide, which sucked - he had a particularly brutal experience, although no toes broken, which was good. I told him I thought I was not long for this world either because of my toe, and he offered to let me use his shoes, which were just the right size. This was an absolute god-send for me, since they protected my toe and also allowed me to pretend like my foot wasn't that badly hurt.
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I have to get ready to take off to LA, but I will continue this post hopefully later on tonight...
