I Have Returned
I'm back from ConQuesT in lovely Kansas City, Missouri. The convention was fun, I got both KC barbecue and steak, much good wine and beer was drank, and generally a good time was had. Oh, and I sold a few books too. Con and travel thoughts, in stream-of-consciousness order:
1) The hotel was okay. It's chief problem was that the only thing it was handy to was the Royals stadium. A secondary problem, which became more of an issue Sunday night, was that it was also overrun with kids attending the water park and softball players in town for at least one tournament.
1a) Related to above, some dude got his car busted into Sunday night, and was making a fuss about it in the lobby Monday AM. This despite getting comped for one night's stay. Really, dude, there's only so much the hotel can do to secure your car.
2) The convention volunteers were really good. Everything that was under their control went smoothly, and the convention was much better attended then last year's. There seemed to be a number of first-timers - I was asked "what's a con suite?" by one such group.
3) The base cost to rent a car was only marginally more than the shuttlebus, but once you add in the extras it was significantly more spendy. However, having a car proved a plus for my mental health, allowing me to see a movie and the Truman library. (His house was closed the day I went). The library is worth the trip.
4) Related to that, I had an impression that Independence, MO was way out in the sticks. It's not, and is actually a distant suburb of KCMO. I think I got this impression from a book I read years ago about the Korean War. The author complained about what a PITA it was to have to research in Independence. The book was written a couple of decades ago, so I expect that there was less in town back then.
5) I am truly underwhelmed by KCI, the main airport. I've mentioned before that, because the gates are less than 100 feet from the curb of the airport road, security checkpoints are a PITA. Well, nobody thought that it rains in KC, so the rental car return and the bus drop-off result in one getting soaked.
1) The hotel was okay. It's chief problem was that the only thing it was handy to was the Royals stadium. A secondary problem, which became more of an issue Sunday night, was that it was also overrun with kids attending the water park and softball players in town for at least one tournament.
1a) Related to above, some dude got his car busted into Sunday night, and was making a fuss about it in the lobby Monday AM. This despite getting comped for one night's stay. Really, dude, there's only so much the hotel can do to secure your car.
2) The convention volunteers were really good. Everything that was under their control went smoothly, and the convention was much better attended then last year's. There seemed to be a number of first-timers - I was asked "what's a con suite?" by one such group.
3) The base cost to rent a car was only marginally more than the shuttlebus, but once you add in the extras it was significantly more spendy. However, having a car proved a plus for my mental health, allowing me to see a movie and the Truman library. (His house was closed the day I went). The library is worth the trip.
4) Related to that, I had an impression that Independence, MO was way out in the sticks. It's not, and is actually a distant suburb of KCMO. I think I got this impression from a book I read years ago about the Korean War. The author complained about what a PITA it was to have to research in Independence. The book was written a couple of decades ago, so I expect that there was less in town back then.
5) I am truly underwhelmed by KCI, the main airport. I've mentioned before that, because the gates are less than 100 feet from the curb of the airport road, security checkpoints are a PITA. Well, nobody thought that it rains in KC, so the rental car return and the bus drop-off result in one getting soaked.