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Loscon Trip Part 2: Bishop to Los Angeles
Nov. 23rd, 2023 08:28 pmI "slept in" a whole hour past my usual alarm time on Thursday morning: 5:30 AM. But that did mean we did not have to rush this morning. We refueled at the Von's gas station and went into the grocery store to buy a couple of things I'd forgotten. We then went to Schatt's Bakkery, the nice specialty bakery in Bishop, where we bought a loaf of their famous sheepherder bread as well as some raisin bread and cookies, and set off for Los Angeles.
Today's trip was longer than Wednesday's, but the weather was very agreeable. Clear and cool most of the way.
We made one detour into Palmdale to buy groceries and refuel the minivan at the Pilot truck stop. They were advertising a 15 cents/gallon discount to their affinity-club members, but no discount was applied at the pump, which is a shame.
The San Diego Freeway wasn't too terribly congested, and we made it to the LAX Marriott around 5 PM or so. We initially wanted to try and park near the function space on the lower level, but the garage was full, so instead we tried parking around back of the hotel. It was there that Lisa's parking-fu hit the jackpot.
See that door in the distance? That's one of the side doors to the hotel, and our key opens it. Our hotel room is only a few steps straight ahead through that door. That means, with Lisa having found this prime parking space, that we we were nearly as close to our hotel room as we were to the front door of the house when we loaded, and unlike when we loaded, there are no steps to negotiate. We therefore didn't need a bell cart; we just carried stuff from the van to the room.
After collecting our membership badges and putting up a sign pointing people from Registration to the Fan Tables area for Westercon Site Selection (thus satisfying a Westercon Bylaw requirement), we walked a few blocks to the nearest convenience stores, where I wanted to buy a gallon of milk. Unfortunately, all of the large milks they had were expired, and there doesn't appear to be anything else within walking distance. We'd drive to a Ralph's grocery store a couple of miles away, but we'd risk losing our prime parking space.
I misread the Westercon schedule. I thought that the Future of Westercon panel was on Friday afternoon (which would have ticked another Westercon bylaw requirement, but as no bids filed for the ballot, there's no actual harm done to a bid), when it's actually on Sunday. That means I have no programming commitments on Friday and thus I'm likely to be found around Site Selection on Friday. Because Loscon is only three days long instead of four, site selection voting will be on Friday only. We received one ballot by mail. There's still time for a bid so show up out of nowhere and file by 6 PM Friday. Lest you think this impossible, I note that I administered a NASFiC site selection where one of the bids (running as a write-in) filed their legal-but-strange bid with one second to go before the deadline. If there's anything I've learned from my involvement with WSFS and Westercon site selection and their Business Meetings is that almost anything is possible.
On the bright side, I don't have to be up that early on Friday, because site selection doesn't open until Noon.
Today's trip was longer than Wednesday's, but the weather was very agreeable. Clear and cool most of the way.
We made one detour into Palmdale to buy groceries and refuel the minivan at the Pilot truck stop. They were advertising a 15 cents/gallon discount to their affinity-club members, but no discount was applied at the pump, which is a shame.
The San Diego Freeway wasn't too terribly congested, and we made it to the LAX Marriott around 5 PM or so. We initially wanted to try and park near the function space on the lower level, but the garage was full, so instead we tried parking around back of the hotel. It was there that Lisa's parking-fu hit the jackpot.
See that door in the distance? That's one of the side doors to the hotel, and our key opens it. Our hotel room is only a few steps straight ahead through that door. That means, with Lisa having found this prime parking space, that we we were nearly as close to our hotel room as we were to the front door of the house when we loaded, and unlike when we loaded, there are no steps to negotiate. We therefore didn't need a bell cart; we just carried stuff from the van to the room.
After collecting our membership badges and putting up a sign pointing people from Registration to the Fan Tables area for Westercon Site Selection (thus satisfying a Westercon Bylaw requirement), we walked a few blocks to the nearest convenience stores, where I wanted to buy a gallon of milk. Unfortunately, all of the large milks they had were expired, and there doesn't appear to be anything else within walking distance. We'd drive to a Ralph's grocery store a couple of miles away, but we'd risk losing our prime parking space.
I misread the Westercon schedule. I thought that the Future of Westercon panel was on Friday afternoon (which would have ticked another Westercon bylaw requirement, but as no bids filed for the ballot, there's no actual harm done to a bid), when it's actually on Sunday. That means I have no programming commitments on Friday and thus I'm likely to be found around Site Selection on Friday. Because Loscon is only three days long instead of four, site selection voting will be on Friday only. We received one ballot by mail. There's still time for a bid so show up out of nowhere and file by 6 PM Friday. Lest you think this impossible, I note that I administered a NASFiC site selection where one of the bids (running as a write-in) filed their legal-but-strange bid with one second to go before the deadline. If there's anything I've learned from my involvement with WSFS and Westercon site selection and their Business Meetings is that almost anything is possible.
On the bright side, I don't have to be up that early on Friday, because site selection doesn't open until Noon.
