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Thursday -- The trip out.
DataJager and I did actually make it out of town by 8am, as planned. We did, however, miss the exit we were looking for a few miles into the trip. We rarely go out this direction so it was understandable and, thankfully, we noticed nearly a dozen miles into the trip so it wasn't so bad. So far that was the only real booboo in the trip.
We stopped in Roswell to gas up, get lunch and stop by wally world for some sun screen. We'd completely forgotten about it by the time we'd crawled into the car and it was a bright, sunny trip.
The trip was pretty uneventful, which is the way I like it. Next year I plan on having a GPS system with us and a larger car. This means I need to start working on my car soon if I want to be able to take it with us next year.
We finally rolled into Dallas late, checked into the hotel and took the shuttle to a Spaghetti Warehouse. It was so nearby we wound up walking back to the hotel after it closed. By the time we got back to the hotel, SkitsyCat and Zippiner had made it to the local airport. I put Skitsey's name down on the room as well just in case he or Zippiner misplaced their room keys and we all passed out for the night.
Friday -- AKON-21 Starts
I woke up early on this morning, got dressed and bopped down to the convention center. The convention hall had seemed to have opened it's doors only an hour or two before and the line for Pre-Reg was growing longer. Fine by me, I dug out my DS Lite and hit the Picto-Chat feature. I don't think I was in the line longer than 10 minutes then I was off to the races! I hit up as many writers panels as I could, attacked the webcomic section and hit a panel called "Introducing Ave Q"! It was great and totally worth the long trip out.
Steampunk was HUGE this year. So much so they had several panels dedicated to it. The best one so far was the Steampunk Tea Social, where I recovered dozens of pictures for ideas for my own steampunk costume for next year. While there, I got a picture of a gentleman with a homemade contraption that was basically a wooden backpack with two jars on the back with pumps. They jars were filled with a lovely alcoholic concoction that was quite fruity and went through a small hose to a modified nerf gun.
After the Tea Social DataJager and I split up. He went to one panel while I went to another with Peter S Beagle (author of The Last Unicorn). I did, eventually, run into Maggiethecat and Hubbythecat. Very nice people and my CS.com infamy is going up!
Saturday -- AKON-21 is in full swing.
More writers panels and Mookie's (writer of Domenic Deegan: Oracle for Hire) panel on "Writing Unique Heros and Villians". It seems that since it was such a HUGE hit last year Mookie's Panel was moved to a much larger convention room. It. Was. Awesome!
Later in the afternoon, DataJager and I hooked back up for the off broadway production of Avenue Q and it was definately worth it! Again, we took the shuttle and walked back to the convention center. I never knew all these places were so close to the hotel and con building so I did feel kinda bad having the shuttle driver drive us such short distances.
Back at the Con, we browsed the dealers room, pester some more webcomicers (Yes, I bought stuff from Jeanie!), and took more pictures. It wasn't long before I returned to the hotel by myself to get ready for dinner at Medieval Times. Zippiner had never gone and bought tickets for herself, Skitsey, G-Ni (a friend of theirs) and myself since the tickets were cheaper that way. I had fun but I don't think I want to go again. Sure, we got half a chicken, some spare ribs, a potato half and a bowl of tomato "bisque" (bullocks, it was soup.) with a dessert of apple turnovers. It sounds like a lot but it really wasn't. And we only got two refills of whatever your drink was. Luckily there was a bar in the lobby-area so it wasn't too bad (I drink slower if it's alcohol with my meal).
Sunday -- Last day of the Con and Return Home
We hit up the last couple panels and the dealers room. I was on a mission from Zelda; I was in search of a Legend of Zelda wall scroll but none where to be found.
Oh well, I'll just have to order one online. We had decided to leave around 2 since there wheren't anymore panels we wanted to go to.
So we piled into the car and headed out. It was pretty nice, parking only cost me $24 for the 3 days. Since Skitsey and Zippiner needed to return to ABQ we decided to head up to Amarillo, TX and run I-40 all the way home. The return trip wound up being 13 hours because we lost an hour during the timezone change. But it was also a lot smoother ride and we did lose another hour or so stopping for gas, restroom breaks and the Chili's in Amarillo for Dinner. I guess we also lost some time considering we stopped at Krispy Kreme Donuts on out way out too but that doesn't count. "There's always room for Donuts."
We wound up rolling into Socorro around 4:30am and spent the two following days trying to catch up on rest. Man, I need a vacation from my vacation!
DataJager and I did actually make it out of town by 8am, as planned. We did, however, miss the exit we were looking for a few miles into the trip. We rarely go out this direction so it was understandable and, thankfully, we noticed nearly a dozen miles into the trip so it wasn't so bad. So far that was the only real booboo in the trip.
We stopped in Roswell to gas up, get lunch and stop by wally world for some sun screen. We'd completely forgotten about it by the time we'd crawled into the car and it was a bright, sunny trip.
The trip was pretty uneventful, which is the way I like it. Next year I plan on having a GPS system with us and a larger car. This means I need to start working on my car soon if I want to be able to take it with us next year.
We finally rolled into Dallas late, checked into the hotel and took the shuttle to a Spaghetti Warehouse. It was so nearby we wound up walking back to the hotel after it closed. By the time we got back to the hotel, SkitsyCat and Zippiner had made it to the local airport. I put Skitsey's name down on the room as well just in case he or Zippiner misplaced their room keys and we all passed out for the night.
Friday -- AKON-21 Starts
I woke up early on this morning, got dressed and bopped down to the convention center. The convention hall had seemed to have opened it's doors only an hour or two before and the line for Pre-Reg was growing longer. Fine by me, I dug out my DS Lite and hit the Picto-Chat feature. I don't think I was in the line longer than 10 minutes then I was off to the races! I hit up as many writers panels as I could, attacked the webcomic section and hit a panel called "Introducing Ave Q"! It was great and totally worth the long trip out.
Steampunk was HUGE this year. So much so they had several panels dedicated to it. The best one so far was the Steampunk Tea Social, where I recovered dozens of pictures for ideas for my own steampunk costume for next year. While there, I got a picture of a gentleman with a homemade contraption that was basically a wooden backpack with two jars on the back with pumps. They jars were filled with a lovely alcoholic concoction that was quite fruity and went through a small hose to a modified nerf gun.
After the Tea Social DataJager and I split up. He went to one panel while I went to another with Peter S Beagle (author of The Last Unicorn). I did, eventually, run into Maggiethecat and Hubbythecat. Very nice people and my CS.com infamy is going up!
Saturday -- AKON-21 is in full swing.
More writers panels and Mookie's (writer of Domenic Deegan: Oracle for Hire) panel on "Writing Unique Heros and Villians". It seems that since it was such a HUGE hit last year Mookie's Panel was moved to a much larger convention room. It. Was. Awesome!
Later in the afternoon, DataJager and I hooked back up for the off broadway production of Avenue Q and it was definately worth it! Again, we took the shuttle and walked back to the convention center. I never knew all these places were so close to the hotel and con building so I did feel kinda bad having the shuttle driver drive us such short distances.
Back at the Con, we browsed the dealers room, pester some more webcomicers (Yes, I bought stuff from Jeanie!), and took more pictures. It wasn't long before I returned to the hotel by myself to get ready for dinner at Medieval Times. Zippiner had never gone and bought tickets for herself, Skitsey, G-Ni (a friend of theirs) and myself since the tickets were cheaper that way. I had fun but I don't think I want to go again. Sure, we got half a chicken, some spare ribs, a potato half and a bowl of tomato "bisque" (bullocks, it was soup.) with a dessert of apple turnovers. It sounds like a lot but it really wasn't. And we only got two refills of whatever your drink was. Luckily there was a bar in the lobby-area so it wasn't too bad (I drink slower if it's alcohol with my meal).
Sunday -- Last day of the Con and Return Home
We hit up the last couple panels and the dealers room. I was on a mission from Zelda; I was in search of a Legend of Zelda wall scroll but none where to be found.
Oh well, I'll just have to order one online. We had decided to leave around 2 since there wheren't anymore panels we wanted to go to.So we piled into the car and headed out. It was pretty nice, parking only cost me $24 for the 3 days. Since Skitsey and Zippiner needed to return to ABQ we decided to head up to Amarillo, TX and run I-40 all the way home. The return trip wound up being 13 hours because we lost an hour during the timezone change. But it was also a lot smoother ride and we did lose another hour or so stopping for gas, restroom breaks and the Chili's in Amarillo for Dinner. I guess we also lost some time considering we stopped at Krispy Kreme Donuts on out way out too but that doesn't count. "There's always room for Donuts."
We wound up rolling into Socorro around 4:30am and spent the two following days trying to catch up on rest. Man, I need a vacation from my vacation!