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I made it to Anthrocon.
8 years ago
Hi,
So I went to Anthrocon this year. This was my second time at the con having gone way back in 2012. Back then I was a very naive con goer. I planned out the trip months in advance. I took the train in because I didn't want to mess with driving that far nor wanted to drive in the big city of Pittsburgh. I even took out traveler's cheques to be cashed as I needed them for spending money. Even though I was traveling withing the U.S. and ATM's are a thing. I annoyed many friends with this whole setup. Especially since the train didn't arrive until 4 in the fucking morning and left at midnight, so I needed to bother other friends to crash and store stuff in their room after arriving/prior to leaving. This year, being much more grizzled and experienced in con going I said to myself, “Fuck it, I'm driving to Pittsburgh for Anthrocon,” about two weeks before the con.
So yeah. I did that. The trip started when I got off work at five in the afternoon central time. Now, the trip was estimated as a 7.5 hour drive by google maps. But this was five p.m. in Chicago area so I knew that wasn't happening. I tacked on an extra hour for traffic and breaks. Add in an hour time zone jump and I was expecting to arrive around 2:30 a.m. local time. I told my roommates 2 to make it not seem as terrible.
The drive went mostly as expected. Traffic was a pain in the arse around Chicago but that was expected. I stopped in Elkhart for dinner and to fuel up (I would not recommend this). The remainder of the trip through Indiana and Ohio went smooth, aside from the tons of construction on the Ohio turnpike. I reached the Pennsylvania border on track for somewhere in the 2-2:30 a.m. window I had predicted. And then the rain started. Now the roads in western Pennsylvania aren't terrible. But still, in a downpour, at night, on roads I'd never driven before I was going slower than I needed to. The rains didn't last long, thankfully. And I was only slowed down to probably the original 2:30 I was expecting. I thought of that as the final boss of the drive. I was wrong, though, that wasn't the final boss.
The final boss was when I reached Pittsburgh. I had planned to come in via 579 straight off the 6th Avenue exit. The ramp from 279 to 579 was blocked because of construction. I did not have a backup route planned. This led me to driving around trying to find a route inward. I knew I wanted to get to the United Steel Tower, since it's right next to the Double Tree. And I could see it. But that was not very useful in Pittsburgh. In Chicago, if I can see the Willis (Sears) Tower I can point my car in its general direction and I will get there because flat and regular grid system. But Pittsburgh with the hills and rivers makes that not a thing that can work. Eventually I remembered I had a smart phone with gps that could give me directions. I did this and it took me where I wanted to go within like five minutes.
Then I had to park. I had intended to park in the Steel building garage. But the entrance I had spied on Google maps was a secondary entrance which was closed at that time of night. I did not know where the main entrance was (in the morning I saw that it was literally on the other side of the street.) So I drove off in search of a different garage. And again I became lost unable to spot a garage. There were of course many about I saw in the morning. But it was late and dark, and I was tired and stressed out of my mind. Eventually after more being lost in Pittsburgh I again remembered smart phone, told it to find me parking, and blindly followed its instructions. It took me to a garage just a couple blocks from where I wanted to be anyway. So I was thankful to Google maps. Even though Google maps had been what told me of the 579 route in the first place and caused the mess I was in.
I gathered my stuff and headed off to the Double Tree. A few dead ends because straight lines still were not a thing that worked here. But I made it to the hotel room around 3:30 a.m. local time. I crashed on the floor because I had come prepared for floor space.
So I had successfully reached Anthrocon. I dragged myself up around ten so I checked of the 6 of the 6-2-1 rule. Breakfast was at Bruegger's Bagels. They had a tasty salmon bagel. Much better than the salmon bagel I had gotten previously at a more prominent bagel chain which was a crime against the fish that had died for it (stick to relativistic physics, brothers). And off to the convention center to registration. I got to the convention center and saw the signs for downloading the reg app to fill out registration while waiting in line. I saw the line for the on-site registration, a well organized set off queue. The line was short, too. Probably because it was Friday morning and not the peek time for registration. But none of that mattered to me, because I had pre-registered.
I saw the prereg desk and walked straight to it. There was only a couple of people standing before the desk and I went up to stand behind them. At which point I was informed by the desk clerks that I needed to get into the prereg line. And then they struggled to tell me where it was because they didn't know themselves. See, this was shortly before Dealer's Den opened. And the line for the Dealer's Den was meandering everywhere about the center as it does at that time. This included about the prereg line, because it didn't have its own designated area as on-site reg did. And a good number of people standing in line didn't know which line they were actually in. Eventually, as the den opened, one staffer got involved and really started to get the two lines separated and organized. But the pre reg line was still long, and had only a couple of people working it. And this was extremely annoying and frustrating as my body was still stressed from the night before.
It would have only been half as annoying, though, if Kage hadn't tweeted this two weeks ago: https://twitter.com/Unclekage/statu.....58348601962496 . I know and understand that having people pre reg for the con is far better for the con. But if you're going to use how much easier and faster it is as the main selling point you should probably put effort into making certain it actually is. MFF is bad for this as well. My friends who on-site regged there last year had their badges before me. And I was sponsor and got into reg pickup half an hour earlier.
But that annoyance dealt with I could finally start enjoying the convention. Most of my time was spent in the Dealer's Den. I picked up a few books from Sofawolf. The newest Heat, Kyell Gold's Out of Position, the Anubis Dark Desires collection, and Ursula Vernon's Digger. The latter of which I got signed. I've been fan boying over Vernon recently so I was eager for this. I attended a few panels. I took in Fox and Pepper's shows. I also made my way down to the fountain at the origin of the Ohio river. I hope to walk down to the National Aviary in future Anthrocon trips. I also got to pet one of the chickens from the charity.
Unfortunately I picked the one Anthrocon when none of the five people I usually hang out with at cons were going. So I mostly stuck to myself all weekend. Food was mostly gotten from the con center restaurant and Fernando's. And the aforementioned bagel place.
The one other fun turn of events happened Friday night/Saturday morning. I cut out of Fox and Pepper's show early because I was dead tired and wanted to crash. When I got back to the hotel room my roommates told me how our room's plumbing was leaking and we now had to pack up all of our stuff and move to another room. Thanks, Double Tree.
Anyway, other than all of that it was a decent vacation. I'll go back again. And I'll still preregister in spite of my complaints because I know it is better for the convention.
But yes, that was my anthrocon.
So yeah. I did that. The trip started when I got off work at five in the afternoon central time. Now, the trip was estimated as a 7.5 hour drive by google maps. But this was five p.m. in Chicago area so I knew that wasn't happening. I tacked on an extra hour for traffic and breaks. Add in an hour time zone jump and I was expecting to arrive around 2:30 a.m. local time. I told my roommates 2 to make it not seem as terrible.
The drive went mostly as expected. Traffic was a pain in the arse around Chicago but that was expected. I stopped in Elkhart for dinner and to fuel up (I would not recommend this). The remainder of the trip through Indiana and Ohio went smooth, aside from the tons of construction on the Ohio turnpike. I reached the Pennsylvania border on track for somewhere in the 2-2:30 a.m. window I had predicted. And then the rain started. Now the roads in western Pennsylvania aren't terrible. But still, in a downpour, at night, on roads I'd never driven before I was going slower than I needed to. The rains didn't last long, thankfully. And I was only slowed down to probably the original 2:30 I was expecting. I thought of that as the final boss of the drive. I was wrong, though, that wasn't the final boss.
The final boss was when I reached Pittsburgh. I had planned to come in via 579 straight off the 6th Avenue exit. The ramp from 279 to 579 was blocked because of construction. I did not have a backup route planned. This led me to driving around trying to find a route inward. I knew I wanted to get to the United Steel Tower, since it's right next to the Double Tree. And I could see it. But that was not very useful in Pittsburgh. In Chicago, if I can see the Willis (Sears) Tower I can point my car in its general direction and I will get there because flat and regular grid system. But Pittsburgh with the hills and rivers makes that not a thing that can work. Eventually I remembered I had a smart phone with gps that could give me directions. I did this and it took me where I wanted to go within like five minutes.
Then I had to park. I had intended to park in the Steel building garage. But the entrance I had spied on Google maps was a secondary entrance which was closed at that time of night. I did not know where the main entrance was (in the morning I saw that it was literally on the other side of the street.) So I drove off in search of a different garage. And again I became lost unable to spot a garage. There were of course many about I saw in the morning. But it was late and dark, and I was tired and stressed out of my mind. Eventually after more being lost in Pittsburgh I again remembered smart phone, told it to find me parking, and blindly followed its instructions. It took me to a garage just a couple blocks from where I wanted to be anyway. So I was thankful to Google maps. Even though Google maps had been what told me of the 579 route in the first place and caused the mess I was in.
I gathered my stuff and headed off to the Double Tree. A few dead ends because straight lines still were not a thing that worked here. But I made it to the hotel room around 3:30 a.m. local time. I crashed on the floor because I had come prepared for floor space.
So I had successfully reached Anthrocon. I dragged myself up around ten so I checked of the 6 of the 6-2-1 rule. Breakfast was at Bruegger's Bagels. They had a tasty salmon bagel. Much better than the salmon bagel I had gotten previously at a more prominent bagel chain which was a crime against the fish that had died for it (stick to relativistic physics, brothers). And off to the convention center to registration. I got to the convention center and saw the signs for downloading the reg app to fill out registration while waiting in line. I saw the line for the on-site registration, a well organized set off queue. The line was short, too. Probably because it was Friday morning and not the peek time for registration. But none of that mattered to me, because I had pre-registered.
I saw the prereg desk and walked straight to it. There was only a couple of people standing before the desk and I went up to stand behind them. At which point I was informed by the desk clerks that I needed to get into the prereg line. And then they struggled to tell me where it was because they didn't know themselves. See, this was shortly before Dealer's Den opened. And the line for the Dealer's Den was meandering everywhere about the center as it does at that time. This included about the prereg line, because it didn't have its own designated area as on-site reg did. And a good number of people standing in line didn't know which line they were actually in. Eventually, as the den opened, one staffer got involved and really started to get the two lines separated and organized. But the pre reg line was still long, and had only a couple of people working it. And this was extremely annoying and frustrating as my body was still stressed from the night before.
It would have only been half as annoying, though, if Kage hadn't tweeted this two weeks ago: https://twitter.com/Unclekage/statu.....58348601962496 . I know and understand that having people pre reg for the con is far better for the con. But if you're going to use how much easier and faster it is as the main selling point you should probably put effort into making certain it actually is. MFF is bad for this as well. My friends who on-site regged there last year had their badges before me. And I was sponsor and got into reg pickup half an hour earlier.
But that annoyance dealt with I could finally start enjoying the convention. Most of my time was spent in the Dealer's Den. I picked up a few books from Sofawolf. The newest Heat, Kyell Gold's Out of Position, the Anubis Dark Desires collection, and Ursula Vernon's Digger. The latter of which I got signed. I've been fan boying over Vernon recently so I was eager for this. I attended a few panels. I took in Fox and Pepper's shows. I also made my way down to the fountain at the origin of the Ohio river. I hope to walk down to the National Aviary in future Anthrocon trips. I also got to pet one of the chickens from the charity.
Unfortunately I picked the one Anthrocon when none of the five people I usually hang out with at cons were going. So I mostly stuck to myself all weekend. Food was mostly gotten from the con center restaurant and Fernando's. And the aforementioned bagel place.
The one other fun turn of events happened Friday night/Saturday morning. I cut out of Fox and Pepper's show early because I was dead tired and wanted to crash. When I got back to the hotel room my roommates told me how our room's plumbing was leaking and we now had to pack up all of our stuff and move to another room. Thanks, Double Tree.
Anyway, other than all of that it was a decent vacation. I'll go back again. And I'll still preregister in spite of my complaints because I know it is better for the convention.
But yes, that was my anthrocon.
