Wednesday, August 5

Gaming stuff and suitcase in tow, we boarded the plane in San Francisco. I hate planes, so this was the hard part for me. It was even harder when I noticed the group of mechanics having a confab under the still-open engine of our plane five minutes before it was supposed to board. This did not fill me with a high level of confidence.

Whatever the problem was, it must have been a real problem, because the next thing we know we were told that boarding would be delayed by about half an hour and we'd be getting on a different plane. They never did tell us what was wrong with the other one. Dan was frustrated, but I figured I'd much rather get on a late safe plane than an on-time unsafe one. The movie was "City of Angels," about which I discovered something: it's perfectly possible (easy, even) to follow the plot of this movie without sound. I was too cheap to pay the $5.00 for the headphones, so I just watched without 'em. Didn't notice a particular difference. By the way, at least according to this movie's vision, angels dress rather like shadowrunners. All of them were wearing dark longcoats throughout most of the story.

Arrived in Chicago something approximating on time (all things considered) and were informed that they were having "weather" there, so the flights out might be delayed. We grabbed our carry-on and scurried across O'Hare (apparently they delight in putting the incoming terminal and the outgoing one as far apart as possible--I think it's one of the games they play when they're bored. Either that, or they're so proud of their airport that they want us to see all of it).

Anyway, by the time we reached our gate, it was time for our plane to leave. Never fear, though--not only had the weather delayed it directly, but two of the three cabin crew members (the co-pilot and somebody else) were due in from Sacramento and their plane was delayed too, so we had to cool our heels. By this time Dan was seething, so to prevent him from yelling all sorts of choice things at the hapless United Airlines folks, we took a walk, got some dinner, and arrived back in time to board. Fortunately the flight from Chicago to Milwaukee was flawless. Can't complain at all--even the seats were comfortable, and that's saying something given my hatred of airline seats.

Got in to Milwaukee somewhere around midnight and took a taxi to our hotel, the Park East. The lady on the phone said it was a twenty-minute walk from the Convention Center; I guess she must walk a lot faster than we do. Either way, we were glad to be there. The cabdriver was most entertaining: he had a voice straight out of "Fargo," and regaled us with talk the entire way from the airport to the hotel. "This Gen Con is the biggest thing we got 'round here," he told us. "Bigger than the national paint-seller's convention. Bigger than them insurance salesmen." Upon getting out of the cab, Dan began doing a very passable (and very funny) imitation of our cabdriver, and continued throughout most of the weekend.

Got to bed around 1:00 and prepared to get up early the next day so as not to miss anything. I planned to be front and center for the unveiling of the Shadowrun hardback at the FASA booth.

Next Day