Thursday September 3rd, 2015:
At last after a long year of waiting DragonCon 2015 had arrived! My wife and I were only able to experience one day of last year’s convention, and that just wasn’t enough! As soon as tickets for this year were available we signed up for the entire convention; now the time had arrived!
Left work at 1pm and grabbed Checker’s on the way home to pack the car and feed our army of cats. Packing the car was quick and easy, feeding the cats…not so much. After everyone was calm, fed and behind proper doors, we were off to the same Red Roof Inn we stayed in last year. The four hour dive up was nice, despite the fact half the new music I tried to take with us didn’t load/play. The big disturbance was traffic slowing to a near crawl. After two miles of slow we saw the cause: a new, “use to be” white VW Beetle had plowed through a guard rail and caught fire; rendering it useless as a mode of transportation, and a grim reminder of why we buy Honda.
6:30pm: we arrived at the Red Roof Inn and spent the next 15 minutes in line. New management had taken over and wasn’t the most organized institution. Once we made it to the counter everything went smooth. Room 141 was to be our lodging until Monday. Now last year when we arrived we judged the motel’s exterior and deemed it to be a mistake, but were surprised by the comfort and quality of our room’s interior. This year the inside matched the outside. The safe was locked and inoperable, the funny looking “loop lock” motels/hotels have in addition to the deadbolt was broken in half, but the real kicker: mold growing on the office chair a the desk. The bathroom was in no better shape. The paint was pealing badly and the shower itself was detaching from the wall almost if it were attempting an escape!
It didn’t matter we told ourselves as we un-loaded the car, avoiding the holes in the carpet. The bed was king size memory foam, the water pressure was amazing, but most importantly: the air condition worked and worked well!
Once un-loaded we were back on the move to the Marta train station. Tonight we had three missions: Number One was accomplished by getting to our room, Number Two was to reload our Marta cards allowing us to use the train, and Number Three was to get our passes for the convention. We used a different Marta station this year: the “East End” station. Much easier to get to and far less crowded.
Reloaded our cards and took the train to “Peachtree Center” right in the middle of DragonCon! After ascending what is without a doubt the longest escalator I’ve ever been on, we walked to the Sheraton Hotel for our badges. Making the decision to get our badges that night was a great call on Beka’s part. The crowd on the street was minimal (something that wouldn’t stay that way for long), and the badge line at the Sheraton was manageable. Once in line it was maybe five minutes before we had our badges as opposed to the fifteen minutes last year.
Badges in possession, we looked at a few cosplayers lurking around the lobby level and entrance. Several Deadpools, several Jedi, and a few Ghostbusters. We headed back to the Marta and back to the hotel.
Before returning to our room we stopped at a nearby IHOP for dinner a little past 9pm. Beka enjoyed a simple supper of eggs, bacon and pancakes, while I enjoyed a more exotic treat: chicken and waffles! We both however drank something we would be getting very little of on this trip: water.
Back in the room we narrowed down the next day’s agenda and prepped our supply bags. After watching a bit of Forensic Files, we readied for bed. Tomorrow would begin our busy weekend…
To Be Continued In: [DragonCon 2015: “Day One”]
~_M.H._~
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The Pork-Chop Express 