Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

George Harrison once said, “It doesn’t take long to go from being 17 to 57. Forty years just goes like that.”

The more I think about that quote, the more grateful I am that I had the opportunity to attend my first in-person Pokemon Go event in February.

I flew out of the Altoona-Blair County Airport to Charlotte and connected to American Airlines for a flight to Los Angeles and back. Going through TSA’s security screening was easy at the Altoona-Blair County Airport, and I enjoyed the convenience of leaving my car parked there for free while I was away.

My Contour Airlines flight out of Martinsburg was delayed because of bad weather conditions, which made for a longer day of traveling since I had to push my connecting flight back a few hours. Still, I made it to my destination safely and was able to have a great time.

The chase for many Pokemon GO trainers is to catch a hundo, which is a Pokemon with 100% IVs (individual values) — perfect attack, defense and HP stats. The odds of catching a hundo in the wild are one in 4,096, and I was able to do that 10 times within the three-day timeframe of the event.

For those who aren’t familiar with the game, another way of looking at it is to imagine rolling a dice with 4,096 sides. Only one side of that dice yields perfect stats in the game. So, out of the 3,923 Pokemon I caught, 10 of them landed on that one perfect side.

Considering how rare hundos are to find and that people can catch thousands of Pokemon without getting a single hundo, to me, getting 10 within three days is a win.

Another hunt for some trainers is to collect shiny Pokemon, which are rare variants that have a different color scheme than other Pokemon of the same species. I caught 62 of them during the in-person Unova Tour event, including the new costume Pikachu and a few legendary Pokemon with the Los Angeles location card background.

On Feb. 21, I played the first day of the city experience walking back and forth from Gloria Molina Grand Park to the Los Angeles City Hall for several hours until dehydration and physical exhaustion finally kicked in.

I walked 24 kilometers, or nearly 15 miles, during that time — the game keeps track.

Saturday was my ticketed park experience at the Rose Bowl Stadium and the adjacent Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena. I battled raid bosses in gyms and let my Pokemon GO plus autocatcher catch wild spawns for me as I walked another 25 kilometers.

There was a lot of shade under trees with a nice breeze from the wind and refreshments available to purchase, which made for a nice day at the park.

I met several notable trainers, including The Trainer Club and AyyyLexa, who gave me a 96% IV shiny Zamazenta through a lucky trade.

After the event concluded, I was invited to meet up with AyyyLexa and a group of friends at XLanes LA, a downtown bowling alley with arcade games, karaoke rooms and a small restaurant. We weren’t able to reserve a bowling lane, so we played in the arcade for a couple hours and later threw darts and played pool together.

By far, this hangout was the most rewarding part of my trip and I can’t wait until the day we all meet again.

I will be at Pokemon Go Fest in June to reunite with my friends, Grant and Alex, in New Jersey. Although I would love the opportunity to see some of my West Coast friends there, if I ever need to travel that way to see them again, I know what airport I’m going to fly out of.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.