Home At Last

I'm home! It was another crazy drive and included locking the keys in my car, getting harassed by the police, and yes, even more detours. At least this time though I was actually able to follow the detour instead of getting lost in the Smokey Mountains. My hobby enthusiasm is totally fired right now and I feel very excited to get home and start some projects. I spent almost the entire drive home thinking about what I would most like to work on and have already started mapping out in my head how to go about it. There will be some totally new things, as well as a return to an old project that just never got off the ground. Now I feel inspired and am eager to get things rolling.

I've only been home for a couple of hours and I anticipate needing some time to recover from this trip. I will be writing up a description of my time at AdeptiCon, including a review of each of the seminars that I took, and hope to get it posted in a day or so. There might be some delay though as my wife decided to give away 80% to 90% of our furniture while I was gone and started some serious home remodeling projects. I therefore anticipate some additional demands on my time as we try to put things back into order that might keep me from getting to this as fast as I would otherwise prefer. I've also got more than six hundred (mostly blurry) photos to go over from the past eight days and I will try to figure out what to do with them as well. For now here's just a preview of a few of my favorite images from the con... enjoy!

AdeptiCon Eve

AdeptiCon gets underway tomorrow and I feel like I did as a kid on Christmas Eve... well, a kid who is going bald I suppose but you know what I mean. I've already seen tables scattered all over the first floor of the hotel, but what more will I see in the morning? I'm excited about the crazy display boards and dioramas and hope to see them as they get set up, as well as the potential for some early-arriving armies. And who will I meet over the coming days? I expect many of the writers and painters whom I've followed over the will be in attendance and if I can overcome my normally shy disposition, I think it would be fun to meet some of them.

For my first trip to AdeptiCon I decided to register for as many hobby seminars as I could. Despite being the main draw for many attendees, I'm not interested in competing in any of the tournaments primarily due to my acknowledged lack of in-game experience. Besides I already know that I want to come back for future AdeptiCons so there will still be more opportunities to play. So instead I thought it would make sense this time around to learn as much as I can about the non-gaming aspects of the hobby, and meanwhile just try to take in the scope of the event and all that goes on here. Fortunately I am spoiled for choice of hobby classes and was able to book a solid weekend of seminars. Here then is my schedule for Adepticon 2010:

Thursday, March 25th
WH40k Tactics Boot Camp (8pm-9:30pm)

Friday, March 26th
Live Flesh: Painting Skin and Faces (10am-12pm)
All the Small Things: Freehand Designs (12:30pm-2:30pm)
Here We Stand: Advanced Basing Techniques (3pm-5pm)
Metallics with a Shine (8pm-10pm)
Building and Painting Historical Armies (10pm-12am)

Saturday, March 27th
Hirst Arts Terrain and Casting (10am-12pm)
Painting Monstrous Faces (12:30pm-2:30pm)
Weathering with Acrylics, Dry Pigment, and Oil Paint (3pm-5pm)
Lose the Fear: Working with Greenstuff (5:30pm-7:30pm)
Moving Forward: First Steps to Advanced Painting (8pm-12am)

Sunday, March 28th
Stepping Up Your Game: Painting to a Competition Level (10am-12pm)
Airbrushing for Figurines (12:30pm-2:30pm)

I thought I had signed up for another one on Friday, Introduction to Miniature Painting (5:30pm-7:30pm), but I just double-checked my confirmation and it was not listed. Although there are some basics things I had planned on asking about, if I'm going to miss a class I'm glad it's that one. I imagine that might also be a good time to have off as one of my best friends of the past 20+ years, DrGabe, will be getting into to Chicago that afternoon and hopefully we can get some dinner together. Already I feel rejuvenated with regards to my hobby in a way that I haven't in a long time. I'm glad to be here.

Mountain Crossing

After more than 21 hours in the car, I have arrived! It's been a weird drive and I am very grateful to have made even if it did take several more hours than anticipated. I hit a bunch of detours and argued with the GPS navigator quite a bit, resulting in more than three hours of wasted driving on just the first day. Other than getting lost, there was nothing out of the ordinary during the day, but once the sun went down things got weird. I left the foothills and entered the mountains just as it was getting dark, going first through the Cherokee Reservation and then the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. I was stressed out just getting through the reservation with it's twisty, sharply curving roads, and I had no idea just how much spookier the drive would be going over the mountain range. Going up the mountain was bad, but coming down was nerve wracking to say the least. There was still a lot of snow and ice at the higher elevations which added to the surreal experience, as well as my stress. It was eerie and beautiful in the mountains at night, but on the way home I will be sure to cross during the day.

Since being detoured off of Highway 40 and into the park, I was going without the assistance of my GPS and so I had no idea what was coming next or how much further I had to go. I was very relieved to finally return to civilization when I left the park and entered Pigeon Forge, and what a weird welcome that was. I had spotted Gatlinburg during the descent and assumed Pigeon Forge would be just another little mountain town. Instead everything is lighted and flashing and it has a very Branson type of vibe going on with some crazy attractions and architecture. It all made sense though once I realized that it is also home to Dollywood, so that explains the gaudiness and spectacle.

As tempting as it was to stop and take in the sights, I pressed on last night to Knoxville, Tennessee. Taking into consideration the time I lost while driving toward Charlotte instead of Asheville, I thought I would be arriving in Knoxville around eight or eight thirty. As it turned out, I did not pull into the parking garage until 11:30. I was exhausted and my ankle is still sore from having to ride my brake pedal so much thanks to the mountains. I didn't leave this morning as early as I had hoped, but still managed to get on the road just after 10. Knoxville seemed pleasant enough, though almost immediately after leaving the hotel I hit yet another detour and got a little tour of the University of Tennessee campus. Other than getting turned around and lost a bit one more time, thankfully today's drive was a lot easier as it consisted of long, straight roads and seemingly endless farmland. I arrived at the hotel just before nine, got checked into my room, and have now started to gradually bring in all the stuff that I packed. Damn, I need to go to sleep. It's been a long ride and I am tired, but I am so excited to be here. Woo-Hoo!

Crisitunity

After careful consideration, it looks like my best option for getting to Chicago will be to drive there. I still have plenty of time to book a flight, but at this point I would just rather not. Being abused by the airlines is simply not worth it to me right now even though it would be the quickest way to get me there. But since I have the luxury of time on my side, why should I bother? My wife is okay with me taking an extra day to handle the additional travel time, so I think this will end up working out so much better for me. While I'm not thrilled by the 15+ hours that it should take me to get there, I have at least taken measures to make the drive as painless as possible and plan on splitting it into two days behind the wheel.

This means though that I will be leaving tomorrow instead of on Wednesday, and so I have a lot of packing to do! The good news is that I don't have to be nearly as careful in my packing now as I do not have to worry about the myriad airline luggage restrictions. Also this completely resolves my quandary about whether or not I should take any miniatures with me. Last week I had gotten to the point at which I was not going to take any of them onto the plane, but now I will be hitting the road with three or more army transport cases! Who knows, I might even take my painting lamp with me if I feel like it. This takes care of so much, I'm a little surprised that the possibility of driving to AdeptiCon had not occurred to me sooner.

In the meantime, there is much to be done. I need to get the car emptied out and cleaned, then get all of my gaming paraphernalia packed up and loaded. I will also be spending a good part of the day on laundry so that I can stuff a week's worth of clothing into my bag. Plus I'd like to be able to spend as much time as possible with my wife and baby today... leaving them is the one thing to which I'm not looking forward. Oh yeah, I also need to learn how to use the GPS navigation system in the car, as well as figuring out how to get music loaded onto my phone. Also I would like to go shopping to stock my wife up on groceries and whatnot to hopefully make things easier for her. So enough with this writing, I've got things to do! I'll try to post some updates over the course of the coming week, although I really have no idea what type of opportunities I will actually have for this. I'm going to be very busy once things truly get underway on Friday, but I will check in here when I can.

Right then, time to get cracking! If anybody reading this is also going to be at AdepitCon, feel free to let me know. I'm excited about getting to meet lots of new gaming friends so there's no need to be shy. Even with the tight schedule I have, I'm sure there will be time to raise a few glasses at the hotel bar... cheers!