SMOFCon Day 0: Flight Delays and Getting There
When I woke up at 4 AM this morning in Sunnyvale, I had an e-mail from United Airlines asking me to call them because of an overbooking condition on my early-morning flight. I called and they explained that due to an equipment change (sounds like a 777 morphed into a 737), there were a lot of people they were trying to get to take a later flight. In exchange for a flight voucher, I let myself be rebooked onto a 10:45 flight, which meant I did not have to rush this morning. I was already up, however, so I finished my morning and got to the airport, beating most of the traffic, and having plenty of time for breakfast at SFO.
I boarded the 777 for my later flight. Because of the issue with the morning flight, this flight was completely full, but we seemed to have loaded pretty much on time. And then we sat. And sat. And sat some more. Apparently the issue was that SFO ground staff wouldn't come and take the trash off the plane from the inbound flight. After an interminable delay, the on-board crew ended up dragging bags of trash down the aisle and tossing them into the jetway so that we could actually leave, albeit about 90 minutes late.
The flight to Chicago was routine, although crowded. I'm glad I got an aisle seat. (I'd asked on the rebooking if I could get Economy Plus, but the only way I could have an E+ seat would have been to move to a center, so I stuck to my aisle seat.) When we got to Chicago, I joined David W. Clark (he had been seated up in E+) and after we claimed our bags, we made our way to the shuttle center and caught a ride over to the Crowne Plaza Rosemont.
Going on down the street (and sharing hotel space with us) is Midwest FurFest. We SF/F conrunners are so old and boring by comparison.
I registered in the con suite and spent the next few hours hanging around the con suite, what else, smoffing, which is of course the whole point of this event. About 10:30, I realized that I'd not had dinner. As everyone else around had already eaten, I walked over to the hotel restaurant and bought a to-go dinner that I brought back to the con suite (which is a converted former restaurant space in the hotel) so that I didn't have to eat alone.
Friday is lightly programmed, but I do have a 10 AM meeting of the CanSMOF (Montréal Worldcon) board of directors (this and Worldcon are usually the only time we can ever get a quorum), so now I must try to get some sleep. I wish I'd known in advance that my hotel room had a mini-fridge; I would have tried to hunt down a mini-market in the area and get some small supplies.
I boarded the 777 for my later flight. Because of the issue with the morning flight, this flight was completely full, but we seemed to have loaded pretty much on time. And then we sat. And sat. And sat some more. Apparently the issue was that SFO ground staff wouldn't come and take the trash off the plane from the inbound flight. After an interminable delay, the on-board crew ended up dragging bags of trash down the aisle and tossing them into the jetway so that we could actually leave, albeit about 90 minutes late.
The flight to Chicago was routine, although crowded. I'm glad I got an aisle seat. (I'd asked on the rebooking if I could get Economy Plus, but the only way I could have an E+ seat would have been to move to a center, so I stuck to my aisle seat.) When we got to Chicago, I joined David W. Clark (he had been seated up in E+) and after we claimed our bags, we made our way to the shuttle center and caught a ride over to the Crowne Plaza Rosemont.
Going on down the street (and sharing hotel space with us) is Midwest FurFest. We SF/F conrunners are so old and boring by comparison.
I registered in the con suite and spent the next few hours hanging around the con suite, what else, smoffing, which is of course the whole point of this event. About 10:30, I realized that I'd not had dinner. As everyone else around had already eaten, I walked over to the hotel restaurant and bought a to-go dinner that I brought back to the con suite (which is a converted former restaurant space in the hotel) so that I didn't have to eat alone.
Friday is lightly programmed, but I do have a 10 AM meeting of the CanSMOF (Montréal Worldcon) board of directors (this and Worldcon are usually the only time we can ever get a quorum), so now I must try to get some sleep. I wish I'd known in advance that my hotel room had a mini-fridge; I would have tried to hunt down a mini-market in the area and get some small supplies.