Trip 1: Drove north, hit like 5 church parking-lots, saw nothing.
Trip 2:
How I saw the comet:
Drive to an empty parking lot out in the middle of nowhere. Wait for sunset. Begin scanning the north-west sky. Practice focusing your binoculars on things. Get bit by mosquitos. Set up the telescope, scan more things. Give up, wait for stars to come out, get bit more. Scan everything. Read 4 articles on "how to spot the comet". Scan more. Finally clearly see the big dipper, get the telescope focused. Begin a grid-search of the sky beneath the big dipper. Kill the batteries in your telescope. Start manually pushing the scope around. Get bit on the %@&ing ear. Discover a very fuzzy star next to two clear stars. And it's more fuzzy "upwards" than in the other directions! I win!
How to actually see the comet:
Go out at 10pm. Let your eyes adjust a few minutes. Find the big dipper. The big dipper should be about one dipper-length away from the horizon, 2/3rds of a dipper down you'll see a weird blur. You win!
Trip 3:
