I haven't written yet about Relay for Life, even though it was 2 weeks ago. It was one of the most moving experiences I've had on SecondLife. Our team, the Steelhead Salmons, was formed late and I never really understood what the whole thing was about until the relay actually happened.

To say that you "walked" virtual laps sounds idiotic, but on SL you actually do feel as if you are walking or running along a track that winds through many different kinds of country, past many different buildings. Each team had a "campsite" of about 1/4 sim where they could create whatever they wanted. We put up a replica of the train station and a tiny version of the whole town. High above it all floated Baron KlausWulfenbach Outlander's huge airship castle. Other groups put up things like a park filled with huge open books (Infogroupies), a swamp (CoyoteAngel Dimsum for Lovelace), a steampunk cavern (Equine McMillan for Caledon), a corral (the Texas Tech Aggies), Hogwarts castle, Camelot, a Moorish palace and garden, a movie theater that played somebody's life story.

The track, which was 800 meters long and took about an hour to walk when the sim was empty and 2 hours when there was appreciable lag, was lined with luminarias. People could pay a donation to light a luminaria and add a dedication to someone. Right in front of the Steelhead campsite, directly in front of the depot, someone had dedicated one, "To my Mom, Jean." Nobody I asked had any idea who this person was.

Walking with my team members, seeing my friends along the track, cheering for Mr Volmar, who used his flying pony av and completed 41 laps in 24 hours. It was the most incredible experience of community I have known, and I'm dying to do it all over again next year.