Dragon*Con 2008 - Day 0 - Blog - News

Blog : Dragon*Con 2008 - Day 0

Posted by Mister Vertigo on Monday September 8th, 2008 6:50 PM (406 reads)

Wow, what a trip. Tricia and I had been looking forward to Dragon*Con for a VERY long time. We had no idea what to expect, and I’d say it was everything I could have hoped for and so much more!

I’m going to start the story of our first Dragon*Con on what I’m going to call “Day Zero”. This is for all the time we spent before leaving getting packed and ready to go. It will also go into our adventures on the road trip to Atlanta. The plan was to leave Thursday afternoon and head east through Iowa. We would stop off in Des Moines to visit our friend Dave and pick up a couple details Tricia needed for her TIE helmet. After that, it would be off to West Branch, IA to pick up Chris Andrews, aka CAndyman. The three of us would then make the long haul all the way down to Atlanta, GA.

I had Wednesday off of work. Tricia had to work so I had the day to get my Jeep all ready to go. The day before I took the Jeep to the dealership to get a few things taken care of that were covered by warranty. Then on Wednesday I took it to get the interior detailed and looking pretty for the trip. It looks fantastic and was worth every penny! After an oil change, the Jeep was ready for the long road ahead.

Since we were leaving Thursday afternoon and driving all night until we reached Atlanta, we decided to try and stay up as late as we could Wednesday and then sleep in late on Thursday. The plan worked out pretty good. We both stayed up until 3AM getting last minute things ready to go.

Since we were up so late, we slept in Thursday until well after noon. We got up and finished getting everything packed up in the Jeep. We did a good job of making everything fit in the back of the Jeep while still leaving room for CAndyman and all of his stuff. Finally, we painted “Dragon*Con or Bust!” on the back window and our names and other messages on the side windows. We were finally off!

Tricia painting up the windows of the Jeep

We left Omaha around 4:00 PM, and arrived at Dave Mondo’s house around 6:30, which was about the time he got off work. Unfortunately, we had to make it a quick stop. Tricia got the greeblies attached to the side of her TIE helmet, and we were off again. Next stop: CAndyman’s place in West Branch!

We arrived at CAndyman’s place around 10:00 or 10:30. We then played Luggage Tetris to get everything to fit in the Jeep and still have room for CAndyman to sit. Lucky for us, Tricia is a champion Luggage Tetris player! After stopping for some dinner at the Wendy’s at the Iowa-80 truck stop, we were on the road south.

After many many hours of sleep deprived driving, we came across a town in Illinois named “Metropolis”. Of course, being the geeks we are, we immediately start making Superman jokes. As we get closer we see a sign along the interstate declaring that there is a HUGE Superman statue in Metropolis! What the hell, we are on the way to Dragon*Con, ground zero for everything geek. We can’t pass up this opportunity! Besides, the sun is just coming up and it’s time for a stop anyway.

We pull off the interstate and into a gas station to get some rest and to ask for directions to the Superman statue. The whole gas station is decked out in Superman decorations and even has a mini Superman gift shop. Wow. After getting directions, we head into town. Let me tell you, this town is milking the Superman thing for ALL it’s worth. He was everywhere! Finally, we come to the center of town. Right in front of what I’m guessing is town hall in the middle of downtown is a HUGE Superman Statue! He stands on a platform that looks like the trademark Superman “S” with his hands on his side and his flowing cape behind him. To be honest, I was impressed! We posed for some pictures and decided it was time to get back on the road.

Tricia and CAndyman posing with the Superman Statue

I found out later that Barack Obama must have stopped off in the same town while campaigning for US President. He has a picture with the statue too!

Barack was here too!

After departing Metropolis, we continued onward to Atlanta. It was now Friday morning and the excitement of Dragon*Con was building!

To Be Continued with Day 1: Friday

The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.

Poster	Thread
brozek	Posted: 2008/9/10 16:38 Updated: 2008/9/10 16:38
Just can't stay away Joined: 2005/6/28 From: Posts: 125	Re: Dragon*Con 2008 - Day 0 I had to look up Dragoncon on Wikipedia, and was disappointed to find that there weren't any real dragons there. I was also confused by this line, which is apparently important enough to be in the first line of the wikipedia entry - "[Dragon Con] was the subject of considerable controversy by a small segment of SMOF fandom in 1995 [2] when it was scheduled on Labor Day Weekend, often a date for domestic Worldcons."

Poster	Thread
Mister Vertigo	Posted: 2008/9/10 21:21 Updated: 2008/9/10 21:21
Webmaster Joined: 2005/6/25 From: LaVista, NE Posts: 128	Re: Dragon*Con 2008 - Day 0 Trust me, there were Dragons there. As far as your quote from Wiki, I have no idea what that means.

Poster	Thread
Imperial Mistress	Posted: 2008/9/11 9:16 Updated: 2008/9/11 9:16
Just popping in Joined: 2008/4/7 From: Posts: 20	Re: Dragon*Con 2008 - Day 0 That superman can't be the same guy! Look at the tree on the left hand side of the picture behind Obama. Clearly in our picture that tree is no longer there!! Thank you Sesame Street for helping me find the difference!