Runescape Bonus Experience Weekend Final Results

Well, Monique and I took the bit in our teeth and ground out about 19 hours of play during Runescape's Bonus Exp Weekend.  When I got up this morning, it was still active, so I managed another 30 minutes before work.  When it was all said and done, I'm pretty pleased with the results. 

Monique leveled up some Herblore, and some Agility, even a bit of fishing.  Even now, while I'm writing this, she's still leveling something up every time I turn around.  She just went up a level on Construction, using the Sacred Clay Hammer she got from Stealing Creation before the weekend started.
I stayed with Agility the whole weekend.  My reward for running around in circles for 19 hours?  4 levels of Agility!  Doesn't sound like much, until you realized it's levels 82 - 85. Started off with Ape Atoll, because after level 75, you no longer fail on it.  But after a long while, that got boring, so it was time to visit the Dorgesh-kaan agility course.

 Didn't need ranging experience, so the entire trip was done on the eastern half.  It's pretty fast experience, but it... feels... slow.  So after gaining a level and a bit, it was back to Ape Atoll.
For those who haven't done it, Ape Atoll has a beautiful Agility course.  Lush hills, plenty of greenery, a variety of agility hazards.  It's probably the most attractive agility course in all of Runescape (I haven't been to the Advanced Barbarian course yet, but I don't expect it to look any better.)  There's a Fairy Ring access point, but you have to have done Fairy Tale III, Battle at Ork's Rift before you can use it.  After the quest, you go back and unblock the log, then you have full access to the fairy ring (access code CLR).

The fairy ring takes you to the middle of the agility course, on top of a hill a bit east.  You have to be wielding a small ninja greegree to use it, but that's the best greegree for running the Ape Atoll course anyway.  It's kind of fun seeing your character and everybody elses running around as monkeys.  Still, the fun wears off after a few hours.  It helps to find a mental zone where you lose track of what you're doing.  Sometimes music helps, or maybe I'll play an old favorite movie.  (Has to be one that won't distract me from making the rounds, so I pick old ones I can listen to and know what's going on.)  Or call a friend and talk on the phone.

When all this finally wears off, just grit your teeth and keep reminding yourself how much closer the goal is getting.  I hit this point with about 168k to go, to finish level 84.  Kept at it until achieving 85

Then it was time to head over to the Gnome Stronghold Advanced Agility Course.  Worked that one for about 200k, then it was bedtime, and the end of Bonus Exp Weekend.

Maybe it's because of the newness, because I'd never been to the Gnome Stronghold advanced agility course before, but it was a lot of fun.  Plenty of variety, fast-paced and fun graphics/animation.  The only thing I didn't care much for is that I failed running the sign about half the time.  At first, it was okay.  After a while, it got frustrating to lose so much time whenever the sign slowed me down.  So I bought about half a million Summer Pies.  They raise agility by 5 levels.  Hopefully that'll let me earn at least enough levels to not fail so often.  If I'm lucky, it'll get me to 89 agility, at which point I won't fail the Advanced Gnome course any more.

Of course, by level 90, the Barbarian advanced course will be calling my name.  I'm looking forward to getting the Agile Top and Agile Legs.   The Agile Legs are earned by making 250 perfect runs (not consecutive) around the Gnome advanced course.  The Agile Top is earned by making 250 perfect runs around the Barbarian advanced agility course.  Both reduce weight, and will be very nice for any skill where I need to run a lot.  I can see a lot of Runecrafting in my future wearing this gear.  And, definitely for Penguin Hunting!

I'm in the back... but this guy in front looks pretty cool!

So, it was a great weekend, got a lot done, and very happy with the progress we made.  Now it's time to get back to normal.