Spacebabie writes...

It Begins Again. The Con Journal and Road trip.

We a lot had happened since the last Gathering. I moved to Conroe Texas and I am living with Revel. Do I miss Orlando? I do a bit, but home is where the heart is and before I get any more Saccharine I shall begin the journal.

Tuesday June 20

The trip began days before as usual, or at least usual since the past three years. The nights before I prepared for everything, cats were taken care of, gave my apartment key to Revel's mother, had everything packed. All I had to do was wait until work ended. Hard to focus on work when all you are thinking about is The Gathering. Time also seemed to move even more slowly, but hey, I got through it.

We loaded up our suitcases into Hyena and set off for San Antonio, only stopping on the way for food like chicken nuggets and fries.

When we arrived at the apartment of Aaron, Mara and Lynati the gate was closed and Aaron was at his mother's place. This was a problem because it Aaron was the only one who knew the code to the gate. We had to wait until somebody else came up to the gate and followed them in.

Lynati and Mara did meet us halfway between where we parked and their apartment. We dropped off our backpacks and chatted while we waited for Aaron. Lynati had her computers in Stereo. She had her desktop on one side of her work area and her laptop on the other. She showed us the art project she is working on with Mara while she printed out Mara's pr0n. Meanwhile, Mara drew a picture of Matt Bluestone in his undies, and Lynati gave me a purple crayon to color it.

Aaron returned and went back to the World of Warcraft. He and Revel went over the last details of our route while us gals looked through more pr0n. Not long after we went to bed. Revel and I drifted off to sleep while listening to Aaron play World of Warcraft and curse at the screen.

Wednesday June 21

The guys went to get the rental van while us gals did some last minute packing and Mara played some funny anime music videos.

Revel returned and we loaded the minivan and Aaron took his car to his mother's place. Aaron returned and Revel gave him the keys. Aaron went back to the apartment to feed the cats. Aaron couldn't leave until he had locked up. The apartment keys were in Lynati's purse, Lynati's purse was locked in the van and Aaron had the keys to the van.

After we got that fixed up Revel and I followed Aaron in Hyena to Aaron's mother's house. We parked Hyena, got up in the rental and we were off.
Our first stop was a sandwich place where we got sandwiches to eat on the road. I had the Manhattan.
Our first big stop was in El Paso where we had Burger King for dinner. I had a whopper combo. After we ate, we made some comments about our scenery. There was an oil refinery on fire and we joked about the Eye of Sauron. There was also a star set against a mountain. At night it looked like it was floating.

Thursday June 22

Our second main stop was Tucson Arizona were we crashed at a Days In. It was a pretty decent motel, had a microwave and a fridge. After we showered we returned to the minivan and it was onto Valencia. We stopped off at a McDonalds and got breakfast to go. I got a yogurt parfait and some coffee.

Another place we stopped at was a historical site that had a few shops, a gas station, a historical post office and a lot of tanks. Revel got several pictures and bought me a bag of wasabi peas to munch on.

We made it through the dessert and the L.A. area traffic till we made it to Valencia. We stopped by at this one traffic light before we could turn to get to the hotel and there was a crowd of people that crossed in front of us.
"Hey could that be?"
"I see Silver."
"There's Jen and Greg X."
"I see Nikki."
"There's Greg Weisman."
"Open a window."
Aaron and Revel opened their window and waved to them. They waved back. Greg Weisman said something pointed to the hotel and then to the restaurant. We were not sure what his exact words were but we think he told us to park the van and join them, and we did…well after we parked we helped Ckayote take his stuff up to the room he was sharing with Aaron, Mara, and Lynati and by the time we caught up with them we had a bigger crowd than before.
Jen's group was seated first and after they had cleaned up a few more tables we were able to sit us down. Revel and I were at the table with Silver, Kirsten, Ckayote, Shaun, Kyt, Greg Weisman, Liz, Siryn and a few other people. We caught up with everyone while waited for our food. Silver, Revel and I shared a pizza and I had a margarita. You know you are getting old when you are glad they card you.

After we returned to the hotel we grabbed our bags, got the hotel situation worked out with Gregx and got the keys. We dropped off our stuff and we hung out in Aaron's room for a while until we got tired and returned to our room. Gregx joined us and set the alarm for the con staff breakfast and we talked before we went to bed.