Day 0
Day 0 is the travel day. For the 2nd time I misjudged the timing and got to the airport late enough it was a frantic scramble to the gate. I can't even blame the lack of travel for so long for my mistake since I didn't travel any more before the pandemic. This trip had a full plane and I was wedged in a front row seat that has fixed seat separators. Good for my seat mate since I'm wide. Bad for me because I'm wide. The flight was 2.5 hours so it wasn't overly unpleasant and a learning lesson on planning my airport arrival time better.
I said 2nd time because I did the same stupid thing on my trip home from ReaperCon.
I brought my walker this time and it seems to help. Being at the con itself will be a true test. I had my duffel over my shoulder as well as my new-to-me backpack so this wasn't a true experience. I did find people seem to be more considerate and helpful when you use one. Nice to know.
They do have an official Block Party as a kickoff event tonight but I didn't go. I don't get a rental car for this trip and didn't see the value in a pair of Lyft rides when I don't know anyone here. I'll have access to the food trucks when I am there.
My hotel is NOT the one I stayed at last year. I was able to get the nicer one that faces it for a good room rate. My room overlooks the old one which I find amusing.
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| I can see my old room from here! |
The room is nice enough. Spacious and only a few things to show it's not that great. A few carpet stains. Some wear to the furniture. That general feel of an inexpensive hotel. Still, it's tidy and has a good bed. We'll see how the shower is in the morning - the true test.
I took the room pictures the morning after I arrived because I forgot to take them earlier. I'm allowed. It's spacious and decent enough. I booked a 2 star hotel, I got a 2 star hotel.
I did spend far too much time having to talk to my boss today, both texts and calls. I knew there would be some due to things that were put into motion Monday but I had to cut him off in the evening. It's my vacation.
As expected this will be a delivery food trip. Even if there were restaurants in what most people would consider walking distance that wouldn't work for me. Tonight was a Rueben sandwich which was quite tasty. Thank goodness I'm not on a tight budget this year tho.
I brought my Chromebook and a thumb drive of movies for my evening enjoyment. Tonight was The Mummy with Brendan Frasier. I think I need to buy some overpriced movie snacks from the hotel shop for the next movie night.
I split the difference between Eastern and Mountain time for when I went to bed. As expected the bed was comfy and I'm pleased to say the curtains blocked the light. That's not always the case.
I set my alarm to get me up in time to get breakfast and take it back up to my room. Then I have a few hours before heading out.
Vacation, remember?
Day 1
3 snooze alarms later I dragged myself out of bed, put on my 'should never be seen in public' comfy clothes, and got my breakfast sack.
A small muffin, a mini peach yogurt, and a Jimmy Dean microwavable egg and cheese breakfast sandwich the approximate size and density of a hockey puck. Those went in the room fridge for later and I went back to the warm comfy bed.
As I was getting ready to leave my room the fire alarm went off. Really? Again? I didn't smell smoke and didn't hear anyone rushing about so I finished getting ready and left my room. Housekeeping was doing their business and said it was a false alarm. But honestly it wasn't what I wanted on this trip.
Lyft to the convention center and the day began. I specifically decided to show up well after the doors opened to avoid the worst of the crowding. I succeeded.
The halls were darn near empty. I was probably between events but the number of people was low. I've seen other pictures showing the crowd I was trying to avoid. It was when they were waiting for the vendor hall to be opened. I've got a picture like that from 2019 and sadly the crowding seemed similar this year.
As you can see the vendor hall was not overly crowded. More people showed up later in the day but still it was lightly populated with some congestion points.
I won't say I shopped too much but I did walk too much. My original plan was to walk half the vendor hall today, then the rest tomorrow doing any buying that I missed. When I reached aisle 1300 out of 2600 I was there. Half way through. So of course I kept going.
I quite stupidly walked the entire vendor hall. The walker helps more than I could have expected but I still had a tough time of it.
It wasn't all walking and doom. There was just doom at times. The bolter is a very nice piece and I couldn't loot it. The chainsword needs two hands for me to decently lift it much less mock-wield. From what I heard it's a resin cast and I could see it had already been dropped and broken once. There was another weapon and a thunder hammer available for pictures but this was enough. I think the sparkly cat ears set it off nicely.
The sparkly cat ears get their own mention. I got them at GenCon 2019 from the Exploding Kittens human vending machine. Not only are they darn cute they work to keep my hair off my face. Considering how warm things got in there that's a huge consideration. It also styled my hair into beach waves, as I found out later that night. No one got to see the beach waves.
My impulse purchase for the convention was a hand turned pen set. I'm trying to do more hand writing (per the other posts) and figured not only would I get a nice pen set with both ball point and nib options I'd help one of the small vendors who took a space in the hall. They only had two thinner pens that fit my hand and both were in the sets. Therefore I bought a set.
Talking to some of the vendors I found out that people were canceling right up through the week before. That explains why I couldn't find some and the empty spaces. There were empty spaces even with a good chunk of the vendor hall closed off. In a way it's a good thing for the smaller vendors who were able to get in and hopefully they did well.
I ended my convention day by picking through dice sets. Technically these are sets you take or leave as packaged but this is the reason I'm at the convention. I very much dislike buying swirly sets without picking them myself if at all possible. I'm friendly enough with the booths that they cut me slack and let me dump out the dice to pick them over.
This is where I found out just how much the day had taken out of me. I was far too close to dropping and by that I mean literally dropping. I got about 2/3 of my dice picking done before I accepted that I couldn't do more. Then I crept to the convention hall entrance, stopping when I could find a place to sit for a bit. I still don't like having to use the walker but being able to use it made the difference.
I was tired when I got back to the hotel. I decided on Chinese food and was mostly disappointed. How can a restaurant that completely nailed crab rangoon make fried rice that bad? A question for the ages I guess.
I slept very well on the huge bed. I forgot just how big a king size bed can be for one person.
Day 2
Today I ate the breakfast I got yesterday. Of course the cheese melted so that most of it ended up not being on the muffin at all. They do that. And the density comparison was correct for the muffin. Very dense. But it was food and that's what I needed.
Technically this hotel is 'housekeeping on request' per the sign on the mirror but it turns out they're doing it every day unless you opt out. OK... I opted out because I don't need someone to tidy up the bed and take away towels every day. I do take all the food garbage out of the room and dump it in the lobby trash bin that's on the way out. I dislike having food garbage sitting around.
Lyft to the convention and off I went. Today should be far less strenuous because it's all shopping, no browsing.
More photos showing that the crowds weren't really crowds when observed. There were clumps of people who seemed to be there together and then singles. In general it's the best that could be expected from the convention. Later I'll look up their stated attendance and get a feel for just how many people were there. Today is when I think more people start showing up to spend the main days at the convention. This is why I leave after today. Smart, right?
I was still dragging from the previous day and took it slow to buy the rest of my dice. I picked over more sets and bought what I wanted. Then I bought a few more things that I didn't expect to buy. But hey, dice.
After hauling myself to the convention entrance I fired up Lyft and experienced their little joke called 'surge pricing'. I will say it was prime time on a Friday so it is somewhat my fault for wanting to use the service then. But seeing that the ride was more than twice the price of the previous day was frustrating. I didn't have Uber loaded so I could compare and of course the yellow cab company uses an app to schedule pickups (the local taxi was a suggestion from a local sharing the stone seat outside). After grumbling and waiting the price dropped a few bucks and I accepted that I was going to have to pay the higher price.
Once again I surfed through Uber Eats to find what I wanted for dinner. I finally settled on what seemed to be a local Mexican restaurant. I was trying to avoid chains because, well, I can get that anywhere. I had a really good coupon for UE and used it to get what I hoped would be tasty food.
My delivery driver called and said they couldn't get into the hotel. The police had it blocked off. Really? Again? What now? After taking some pictures from the window I headed to the lobby to find out what was going on and to try to find a way to get my dinner.
Another guest was nice enough to meet my driver in the parking lot behind the hotel and get my food for me. The walker did its magic again. I increased the driver tip for this delivery.
This time it was a suspicious package. Someone else who had been taking video had some of the bomb disposal crew wandering around. After chatting with the nice police officers in the lobby for a while and seeing the desk team fielding the situation I went back to my room to eat. Eventually it all cleared out without any loud 'boom' noises.
The food was excellent.
Day 3
Today was packing up, checking out, and meeting up with a friend who was driving in to have lunch with me and take me to the airport. They live far enough away that I felt bad for them to make the trip for such a short visit but they insisted. I hadn't seen them since I attended their wedding and they were quite insistent.
We found a couple places to shop while we talked then had a leisurely lunch before heading to the airport. They were a bit confused since it's a small airport and they're used to a very large airport. But it all worked out and THIS TIME I was there well in advance of my flight.
The flight itself was just bumpy enough not to allow for beverage service. That was disappointing because I wanted to see if my gift of chocolate to the flight crew would 'buy' me a full can of soda again. Not that I needed one. I just wanted to see if it would. But nope. This time I did get more of a choice in seating and took an aisle that wasn't in the front row. My thinking was that the aisle would give me more room to spread out than the window seat I always took before. I was mostly right. If the person next to me hadn't had a solid suitcase under the seat in front of them it would have been much better. But I can't complain.
The neighbors took good care of the cat and she showed up from under the bed when I set my duffel bag down. Then she was cuddly for the evening. My adventure was over.
Summary
If I figure in the cost of the trip those are some stupid expensive dice I brought home. Mind you they're test sets and may never get into production but still. Stupid expensive. The 2019 trip had me filling in big gaps in my collection so that was more reasonable but this time it was pretty much all test sets and one other one I happen to like. I also got to see two people I don't get to see. The third is a local and it's funny that we spend more time together there than here. But that's life.
I'm very glad I took extra time off work after this trip because the cumulative effect of this one and the one before are hitting me hard. I'll recover.
Will I go again next year? That's an excellent question. As of writing this post I'm going to say I won't be going back. If there are new test sets I want cherry picked I can ask one of the people I know who work at the dice booths to do it. If there aren't new sets I want then I would have no reason to be going. Of course this is all assuming I'm not in a heavy relationship with someone who wants to go.
I fully expect not to be going again.
I'm glad I was able to go before the pandemic and get the real feel for a huge convention. I'm glad I during what may be considered a lull in the pandemic because I got the feel for what things may be like in the future. That and I had the experience of travel and being around people again.
I can't talk about the games, panels, and other convention events since I never had any intention of attending them. Those make up the bulk of the reason people tend to go to these. I go to shop. It turns out I don't want most of what they sell.
The vendor room is more than just sales. It's game companies doing demo play. It's showing off new products. It's a way to see the wares and experience them in a way that can't be done. It's huge. After shopping those hundreds of booths I still ended up buying nothing from them except that one thing I could get at almost any vendor fair. That's kind of sad and shows me how much I don't need to spend my time and money.
That's my 2021 GenCon trip.
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