Eventually, game wrap ended. We ended up at Noodles & Co for lunch (dear places that stock rice noodles: I love you.) We walked back to the convention center for awhile and hung out and chatted, until people slowly started peeling off. We debated what to do for awhile, tried to get a board game out of the board game library (closed), played some Monopoly on Ginger's iPad until they kicked us out of the convention center because it was closing at 6, went back to their hotel (where their luggage was checked, though they'd checked out) and poked at the Monopoly some more.
Eventually, Ginger's friend
darkwolf_childe showed up, and eventually, I realized I was melting into the floor and needed food. We discussed dinner options until Mike mentioned mongolian bbq and Ginger's eyes lit up, so we ended up at Stir Crazy, which was really, really good.After that,
darkwolf_childe was able to melt into the floor from lack of sleep, so we sent him on his way and dropped off Ginger and ironman4do at the airport, since they had a 6am flight. We drove back to the KOA and were out like lights.Monday morning, we were on our way before 9am, but didn't get home until almost 8:30 pm. This is way longer than Friday took. There were a number of reasons for this, including:
- had to stop for lunch, since the picnic stuff was eaten (which was fine, I'm not sure I want to eat picnic supplies that have been in a cooler for 4 days); Blimpie had trouble with both of our orders ("What else does it say on the board for yours?")
- tried an alternate route that was all highway, but more miles, but we figured would still be faster because it was all highway. Not so much.
- got on 64 east instead of 77 south in Virgina
- bored Ohio cop decided to hassle Jeff about his tags a mile from the state line (they're actually current, no ticket, so it's all good)
- car getting towed at rest stop blocked exit
Whee.
But, we finally got home, both Jeff's mom and the cats were happy to see us, and that was that.
We had a fabulous time. We got to wander the exhibit hall for a couple hours on Saturday, which was long enough to confirm that yes, we want to come back next year with badges and actually con (and I will play a lot of board games). It was good to see Ginger and meet some of her gaming folks and put names with faces. I ran into
gwenifyre, which was random and cool.We stayed at the Indy KOA this year, since the trip was kind of last minute and we wanted to save some cash. Pros: cheap (under $30 a night for a water and electric site), dead quiet, clean, very close to the highway. Cons: out of town (though we got way lucky with parking and found somewhere doing $3 event parking 5 blocks from the convention center), 2 women's showers for the whole campground, holy mosquitoes Batman. We might stay in town next year; we need to run the numbers and decide. If we stay with Ginger and company, their suite had a kitchen, which would 1) save money on food and 2) save me from potential contamination and 3) save me from that oogy feeling I get on too many days of take-out, even if I'm avoiding contamination, so, it might be a wash. We'll have to see.