Driving to Costume-Con
Apr. 20th, 2023 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeLast night, Lisa decided that she just was not up to attending Costume-Con. She's not sick; she just did not have enough spoons to deal with it. She did tell me that she wanted me to go, though, and I was essentially committed, even though my original staff position evaporated when nobody filed a bid for the Costume-Con two years from now. (The owner of the Costume-Con service mark will make a Direct Award.) I'll be running at able for Pemmi-Con, and I have a doctor's appointment on Monday morning.
I intended to sleep in for an hour this morning, but I woke up just a few minutes after my alarm would have normally gone off anyway, so I decided to go ahead and get started.
Lisa made this Big Breakfast sandwich for the road for me. I decided that I had enough time to eat it at home before I finished loading the minivan and setting off for San Jose at 7 AM.
My timing was pretty good. I missed any significant traffic in Reno (but it's a good thing I wasn't going the other way out of Reno as I-80 eastbound was blocked at Lockwood, east of Sparks). I got a coffee in west Reno, stopped at the lottery sales at Gold Ranch to cast the $4 winning ticket I've been holding since the last big round of lottery sales, and kept going west. Next stop was Donner Summit. The weather was fine.
I stopped at the Donner Summit rest area. As you can see, snow was still piled up over the buildings there.
The spring sunshine is melting the snow, but the ground is still cold enough that it's icing over.
Water over ice is a bad combination.
I slipped several times, but managed to hold my footing and not go splat. I carefully made my way to and from the restrooms and continued west.
Another stop for more coffee at Colfax, and then it was off to Sacramento. My timing was such that I passed through during a mid-morning lull and turned south on I-5. I stopped to refuel at the Flying J at Lodi Jct, and made one other brief restroom break along the way, before getting to the Doubletree San Jose about 2 PM. Seven hours for this trip is pretty good by my standards.
This hotel, back in the 1990s when it was a Red Lion Inn, was at one time Fan Central Station for the Bay Area, and I was spending up to a month per year (not all consecutive days, of course) here. However, I think it's been more than five years since I last stayed here, and after moving in to my room, and I to familiarize myself with the place in its current configuration. However, before I could do that, I had to lie down for a while and take a nap for about an hour. It wasn't enough, but it would have to do.
The food situation isn't great. The hotel rooms don't come with refrigerators or microwave ovens. (A 'fridge would have cost an extra $25/day that I wasn't prepared to spend. I did find a very promising burger place 850 m from the hotel. (That's about the same distance as the walk between my house and the post office in Fernley.) I have a feeling that I'll be back at BurgerIM at least once again this weekend. Breakfast I should be able to get for take-out from the hotel restaurant, or else I can go to the Starbucks about 500 m from the hotel.
If I had a refrigerator, I could get a half gallon or gallon of milk, but as it stands, I have no way to keep anything larger than a quart, as that's all that will fit in the ice bucket in the hotel. Oh well, I'll manage.
I have my membership badge, and I have the package of Pemmi-Con promotional material that Tom Becker handed off to me this evening for me to use at our promotional table this weekend. Now all I need is some sleep, which shouldn't be difficult.
I intended to sleep in for an hour this morning, but I woke up just a few minutes after my alarm would have normally gone off anyway, so I decided to go ahead and get started.
Lisa made this Big Breakfast sandwich for the road for me. I decided that I had enough time to eat it at home before I finished loading the minivan and setting off for San Jose at 7 AM.
My timing was pretty good. I missed any significant traffic in Reno (but it's a good thing I wasn't going the other way out of Reno as I-80 eastbound was blocked at Lockwood, east of Sparks). I got a coffee in west Reno, stopped at the lottery sales at Gold Ranch to cast the $4 winning ticket I've been holding since the last big round of lottery sales, and kept going west. Next stop was Donner Summit. The weather was fine.
I stopped at the Donner Summit rest area. As you can see, snow was still piled up over the buildings there.
The spring sunshine is melting the snow, but the ground is still cold enough that it's icing over.
Water over ice is a bad combination.
I slipped several times, but managed to hold my footing and not go splat. I carefully made my way to and from the restrooms and continued west.
Another stop for more coffee at Colfax, and then it was off to Sacramento. My timing was such that I passed through during a mid-morning lull and turned south on I-5. I stopped to refuel at the Flying J at Lodi Jct, and made one other brief restroom break along the way, before getting to the Doubletree San Jose about 2 PM. Seven hours for this trip is pretty good by my standards.
This hotel, back in the 1990s when it was a Red Lion Inn, was at one time Fan Central Station for the Bay Area, and I was spending up to a month per year (not all consecutive days, of course) here. However, I think it's been more than five years since I last stayed here, and after moving in to my room, and I to familiarize myself with the place in its current configuration. However, before I could do that, I had to lie down for a while and take a nap for about an hour. It wasn't enough, but it would have to do.
The food situation isn't great. The hotel rooms don't come with refrigerators or microwave ovens. (A 'fridge would have cost an extra $25/day that I wasn't prepared to spend. I did find a very promising burger place 850 m from the hotel. (That's about the same distance as the walk between my house and the post office in Fernley.) I have a feeling that I'll be back at BurgerIM at least once again this weekend. Breakfast I should be able to get for take-out from the hotel restaurant, or else I can go to the Starbucks about 500 m from the hotel.
If I had a refrigerator, I could get a half gallon or gallon of milk, but as it stands, I have no way to keep anything larger than a quart, as that's all that will fit in the ice bucket in the hotel. Oh well, I'll manage.
I have my membership badge, and I have the package of Pemmi-Con promotional material that Tom Becker handed off to me this evening for me to use at our promotional table this weekend. Now all I need is some sleep, which shouldn't be difficult.
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Date: 2023-04-21 08:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-04-21 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-04-22 11:53 am (UTC)Checking, I see that mini-fridges can be obtained for under $100 if one isn't picky; at $25/day someone's really raking in the profits for any rentals. A traveler with room to carry one would be ahead the second convention they used it.