Apple opened its latest retail store last week, on New York's Fifth Avenue, and I was there.

I should clarify: I traveled five hours by bus from Boston and waited in line for 18 hours (much of it in unrelenting wind and rain) for the chance to be one of the first inside the sparkling Manhattan store. I wasn't alone. In fact, when I arrived at 12:30 a.m. Friday to line up in front of the 32-foot glass cube, there were already 12 people ahead of me. They'd come from Germany, Scotland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and elsewhere to be there for the store's opening.

Not long after I plopped down my stuff to claim my spot as number 13, I couldn't help feeling a bit foolish. What was I doing, having just worked a full day and spent five hours on the Fung Wah bus, camping out on a New York street corner? Was it really worth it? I came to question my sanity even more about two hours after I arrived, with my cellphone battery dead (after assuring friend after friend on my phone that I was not, in fact, crazy), the urge to sleep started to creep in, and raindrops dampened my plan to snooze.

But I'd come prepared – or so I thought. My overnight bag had a pair of waterproof pants and a jacket, two changes of warm clothes, a pillow, a book, my Apple iBook computer, and a Crazy Creek-style camping chair. If I had it to do over, I would've traded the pillow, book, and camping chair for my yellow rain boots, as the rain made it impossible to sit or recline and stay dry – even with an umbrella. So I stood. For 18 hours.

It was miserable. But even at 3:00 a.m., with rain pouring down, when a few members of our newly-bonded crew toyed with the idea of paying $375 for a Fifth Avenue hotel room, we never really thought of giving up. We were squirming in discomfort, yes, but we weren't giving up.

As day broke after the long, wet night, a renewed spirit of "we can do this" pulsed through our ranks, even as the rain continued to fall. Passersby on their way to work would stop and ask us what we were doing. The CBS Morning Show brought excitement and activity (and free coffee and pastries) to the plaza where we were stationed. A few reporters and camera crews stopped by to interview some of us, though notably missing in the early morning and overnight hours was the ironically named Stormy Shippy, the "first person in line." He'd spent the night in a hotel, only to come back in the morning looking rested and refreshed to claim his place in line. Those of us that had spent the night braced against the elements in line weren't so thrilled about that, but there was enough of a consensus that it wasn't that big a deal that no one told him to beat it.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed up in the morning too, to check out the sparkling cube with a group of executives. His presence was even more of a morale booster, as most in the group of overnighters rank him somewhere between rock star and prophet. The sight of him brought out cameras all around, even from behind the cube, shooting through, to get a glimpse of him. This shot is my favorite. I'm the guy in the background wearing the Red Sox hat.

As the 6:00 p.m. opening hour drew nearer, more people started to show up – a lot more. Apple doesn't release attendence numbers, but one person estimated the line to be .45 miles long at the height of the opening frenzy.

What were we thinking? Isn't it just a computer store? I don't know that there's a definitive answer to those questions, but what I can tell you is that I decided to make the trip just to be a part of the experience. It wasn't so much about being first into the store, or about snagging one of 2,500 nifty T-shirts. It wasn't really even about the prospect of bringing home a "Lucky Bag" filled with Apple swag (which Apple for some reason decided not to offer at this opening). Call it crazy, a waste of time, or foolish, but what motivated most in line was just their fondness for Apple, and I think that's OK.

What is it about Apple that inspires me and the complete strangers I bonded with that night to go to such lengths for their favorite brand? Borrowing from Apple's popular "Think Different" ad campaign of a few years back, I think it's our "differentness." In a world of Windows users, where Apple's meager market share means its fans are often the odd ones out, events like the store opening are a chance to band together to celebrate our choice to be different. For this Red Sox fan, the parallels are obvious. Like Red Sox Nation circa 1918-2004, Apple fans stay faithful because they know they've got the best thing going, no matter what everyone else is saying. Last week's glitzy Apple store opening – in New York, the home of "The Evil Empire," no less – was an Apple fan's 2004 World Series.