Yeah, I'm with Psuedo. I gave up just waiting around to run into someone a long time ago. When I log in, I send a tell to a few people to see what's going on, then decide on an IC reason why my character would be in a place near wherever the others are. I.E. I send a tell to Filatus, and he tells me Hardragh is scaring kobolds on Black Ice Isle. I decide the reason Steel might travel to Krashin (and summarily "bump" into Hardragh) is to hunt ice drakes for their oh-so-delicately-tasty wings. :p
How often do people send tells to someone you don't know that well or that your pc hasn't met?
So whats wrong with Hempstead and Vehl?