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...Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and at long, long last -- Maine! I make it to be 24 hours of traveling on the yesterday-that-was.
We had a mostly uneventful trip, saving two things of note. The ...aggressively obvious presence of manymany police persons of various ilks and guises in New York Penn Station is worthy of mention. I dern near stepped on a police dog's tail (do the airports feel it necessary to broadcast a message warning travelers not to pet police dogs? I can't believe that's necessary, but clearly Amtrak thinks so). Happily, Whatever It Was that concerned this Massive Gathering of Armed People was focused on the East Gates; the regional train from Penn Station to Boston South Station left from a West Gate.
The second thing worthy of note was the Britney Spears concert last night at the Banknorth Garden -- also known as Boston North Station -- from which the Downeaster departs the city.
The approach to the station was filled with young women wearing high heels, and in various stages of undress and sobriety -- two of whom demanded that I sell them tickets ("Tickets to what?" I thought, not having remembered to check Britney's schedule beforehand) -- loud men pushing t-shirts and demanding payment, and a smattering of your garden variety panhandlers, pickpockets, and street toughs. Once we managed to dodge our way from the sidewalk to the doors of the station, we found cops in great quantities, and from them emanated the subtle suggestion of threat, which was most wonderfully calming.
(I think I forgot to mention that coming into Boston on Wednesday night, on our way to North Carolina, we walked into the chaotic leavings of a Fleetwood Mac concert, including a large fellow who bellowed something unintelligible but heartfelt at us and moved menacingly in our direction. Happily, he was drunk, and we were not, and so he ate our dust, we found a taxi, and all's well that ends that way. Clearly, we need to pay closer attention to the concert schedule at the Garden.)
Upon reaching Portland at ohmighod this morning, we bunked at the Clarion next to the train station. Arising some few hours later to discover a lovely blue and white morning, we breakfasted, then drove down to Old Orchard Beach to pay our respects to the sea before motoring on up to the so-called center of the state, stopping once for a shared sandwich, and once again, for groceries.
The cats were pleased to see us, each immediately demanded hisorher due. We have unpacked, downloaded ridiculous amounts of email, and caught up on the webcomics. Steve has gone off to do his duty as a library trustee, leaving me in charge of remembering to put the pizza in the oven.
StellarCon 33 -- the reason we undertook these two separate, but related -- journeys was wonderful. If you're in the area, you owe it to yourself to check this con out. It was small, but lively (here, look), our fellow guests were a convivial and knowledgeable lot, and I can't remember when a con has taken such warm and personal care of us. Con Manager Warren Buff (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
laminahospes) was convivial and approachable. Bill Mann went above and beyond several times, not only getting up at Unreasonable Hours(tm) of the day to pick us up and drop us off at the train station, but leaving the con to fetch us a sandwich when Sunday events suddenly piled up on us. Special thanks are due to Hope Evey (hopeevey), who was our point-person on the concom and who met every challenge with good humor and good sense.
All of the panels I was on were interesting, even if we did from time to time stray from the core question, and Opening Ceremonies was, I thought, particularly apt. In addition, we were able to spend some time with Barbara Karpel, Glennis LeBlanc (missingvolume), elektra_h, Mike Hammond, Susan (whose last name I've just blanked on), Robert and Freda Stearns. In sum? I had a grand, grand time.
Two more things of note before I sign off to herd pizza: Buzzy Multimedia interviewed Steve and me for about 45 minutes on Sunday. Eventually, that interview will be on YouTube. Watch this space for further news on that.
The Baen Traveling Slide Show was also recorded at Stellarcon and will eventually likewise be accessible to those who weren't able to make the con (and those who were able to make the con, too). As soon as I have more information on that, I'll post it here.
...and now...good-night. I have to work tomorrow. Wonder how that'll go?
We had a mostly uneventful trip, saving two things of note. The ...aggressively obvious presence of manymany police persons of various ilks and guises in New York Penn Station is worthy of mention. I dern near stepped on a police dog's tail (do the airports feel it necessary to broadcast a message warning travelers not to pet police dogs? I can't believe that's necessary, but clearly Amtrak thinks so). Happily, Whatever It Was that concerned this Massive Gathering of Armed People was focused on the East Gates; the regional train from Penn Station to Boston South Station left from a West Gate.
The second thing worthy of note was the Britney Spears concert last night at the Banknorth Garden -- also known as Boston North Station -- from which the Downeaster departs the city.
The approach to the station was filled with young women wearing high heels, and in various stages of undress and sobriety -- two of whom demanded that I sell them tickets ("Tickets to what?" I thought, not having remembered to check Britney's schedule beforehand) -- loud men pushing t-shirts and demanding payment, and a smattering of your garden variety panhandlers, pickpockets, and street toughs. Once we managed to dodge our way from the sidewalk to the doors of the station, we found cops in great quantities, and from them emanated the subtle suggestion of threat, which was most wonderfully calming.
(I think I forgot to mention that coming into Boston on Wednesday night, on our way to North Carolina, we walked into the chaotic leavings of a Fleetwood Mac concert, including a large fellow who bellowed something unintelligible but heartfelt at us and moved menacingly in our direction. Happily, he was drunk, and we were not, and so he ate our dust, we found a taxi, and all's well that ends that way. Clearly, we need to pay closer attention to the concert schedule at the Garden.)
Upon reaching Portland at ohmighod this morning, we bunked at the Clarion next to the train station. Arising some few hours later to discover a lovely blue and white morning, we breakfasted, then drove down to Old Orchard Beach to pay our respects to the sea before motoring on up to the so-called center of the state, stopping once for a shared sandwich, and once again, for groceries.
The cats were pleased to see us, each immediately demanded hisorher due. We have unpacked, downloaded ridiculous amounts of email, and caught up on the webcomics. Steve has gone off to do his duty as a library trustee, leaving me in charge of remembering to put the pizza in the oven.
StellarCon 33 -- the reason we undertook these two separate, but related -- journeys was wonderful. If you're in the area, you owe it to yourself to check this con out. It was small, but lively (here, look), our fellow guests were a convivial and knowledgeable lot, and I can't remember when a con has taken such warm and personal care of us. Con Manager Warren Buff (
laminahospes) was convivial and approachable. Bill Mann went above and beyond several times, not only getting up at Unreasonable Hours(tm) of the day to pick us up and drop us off at the train station, but leaving the con to fetch us a sandwich when Sunday events suddenly piled up on us. Special thanks are due to Hope Evey (hopeevey), who was our point-person on the concom and who met every challenge with good humor and good sense. All of the panels I was on were interesting, even if we did from time to time stray from the core question, and Opening Ceremonies was, I thought, particularly apt. In addition, we were able to spend some time with Barbara Karpel, Glennis LeBlanc (
missingvolume), elektra_h, Mike Hammond, Susan (whose last name I've just blanked on), Robert and Freda Stearns. In sum? I had a grand, grand time.Two more things of note before I sign off to herd pizza: Buzzy Multimedia interviewed Steve and me for about 45 minutes on Sunday. Eventually, that interview will be on YouTube. Watch this space for further news on that.
The Baen Traveling Slide Show was also recorded at Stellarcon and will eventually likewise be accessible to those who weren't able to make the con (and those who were able to make the con, too). As soon as I have more information on that, I'll post it here.
...and now...good-night. I have to work tomorrow. Wonder how that'll go?
