Colonel Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin is an American pilot and astronaut who became the second man to set foot on the Moon (after Neil Armstrong) during the Apollo 11 mission, the first manned lunar landing. It's not everyday that a man who has walked on the moon comes to town, so Sterling and Earl perked up when we learned he was landing into town for a special event.

       On September 27, 1999 the only plans were for all of us (Sterling and Earl were joined by friends Mj and JR) to pay a visit to the news station that Earl was interning for. Before we headed to the station, both of us wanted to try and scope out the venue where Buzz Aldrin would be speaking in the coming days.

       All of us climbed the stairs of the hotel and were not prepared for all of the commotion on the top floor. A camera crew was walking all over the place shooting footage and there were signs advertising the Buzz Aldrin event. It turned out that we had written down the wrong date on our calendars and had now inadvertently arrived on the correct day, crazy.

       As expected, both of us were totally caught off guard and quickly headed to the news station so Earl could give a quick tour of the place (because people were expecting us). Earl asked his mentors if they had any index cards and thankfully they hooked us up with some things to get signed.

       Mj and JR are best friends of ours, so they had no problem going with us to meet Buzz. Nobody had a camera and we were running late, so we just went straight to the hotel. Once we were there we just mingled and kept an eye out for Mr. Aldrin. We finallly spotted Buzz Aldrin and now it was only a matter of making the first move.

       Earl was the first one to approach Buzz and he quickly signed his index card. Unfortunately the pen ran out of ink so the autograph was barely noticeable, which sucked. Earl returned and notified the gang and we headed in his direction, after picking up a fresh pen. When Sterling, JR, and Mj approached him for an autograph Mr. Aldrin replied, "No more autographs" and headed into the event. He was kind of grumpy about it and it made us have second thoughts about asking him anymore.

       Instead of throwing in the towel all of us waited in the lobby hoping that the event wouldn't last that long. The event was a lot longer than expected and Mj was growing anxious (and ready to leave) because he wasn't used to these autograph outings. All of us had some fun though, talking and cracking jokes, which helped pass the time.

        Finally people in the event started leaving and we saw this as an opportunity to sneak in. Buzz Aldrin was sitting at a long table on the stage and was chatting with some of the guests. As we were approaching Mr. Aldrin, we found some really nice promo cards/flyers for the event that made even better autograph items. This time around Buzz was willing to sign and didn't seem as grumpy as earlier. Each of us got an autograph and thanked him before heading off. It was a crazy night, but it was well worth it to have a moon walker's autograph in our collection.