Tuesday, August 23, 2005
The saga of Saturday.
Saturday past I went with Barry, Byron, and Japheth to GenCon Indy. "The best four days in gaming." We went only for one day of those four and let me say that they must have used up the really good days before we got there.
The drive: We left in our rental car, a pseudo-luxury honda, at around 10am (having supposed to have left at 9am) and hit the interstate flying speedily on the cloud that was our car. About 40 minutes into the drive traffic stopped. And I mean STOPPED. Dead stand still on I-74. So we're waiting for the road to be cleared of the debris from the accident ahead. As we had just passed an exit some two miles back someone (no one claims responsibility) suggested we cross the median and head back to the exit to catch a connecting state route around the accident. So off we go into the median, with Byron the driver, and as we reach the bottom of the ditch we stop moving. Stuck. STUCK! In the median. With some 100 cars watching as we get out to push the car. No luck. Mud is everywhere. So out of a pickup pops the head of an elderly man. "Need a chain?" He's grizzled. And by grizzled I mean REALLY grizzled. As in, he hefts a 10' length of log chain out of the cab of his truck with one arm. Mainly because the other one is MISSING! So the one-armed old guy hooks up the chain to his truck and we secure the other end to a convenient eyeloop on the frame. Out comes the car from the mud. Moral of the day comes from the old man. "You boys gotta be patient. Life's too short to be rushing around."
The rest of the drive passed without event.
The Convention: Imagine the weirdest person you know. Now double that, imagine they married someone weirder than that and had children. Those children wouldn't even come close to the weidness that is incarnate at GenCon. And the smell. Oh buddy, the unwashed masses were ripe and in peak form. The convention center was jammed full of people of every age, race, and (possibly) species variant. All of them there to celebrate geekdom in its finest hour. Spending literally millions of dollars on games, autographs, food and more games. After about four hours of this the three of us were hungry. (We had lost Japheth somewhere along the way)
The search for sustenance: Downtown Indy has a great array of restaraunts, eateries, bistros, and delis. I think the all had a forty minute wait list when we got to them. One in particular was quite vexing. Barry, with his love of all things associated with the Brittish Ilses, suggested an authentic pub we had seen while walking from one diner with no seats available. The pub looked promising. The wait was 30 minutes, but Barry used his waiter knowledge and asked for a bar table. The host said we could seat ourselves. We did. The booth we set down at was no more than ten feet from the bar. A waiter came over and we asked if this was considered bar seating. Yes replied in the affirmative and scampered off to get us menus. A waitress then came up and asked if we had been seated here by the hostess, we said no, that the waiter had informed us that we had nabbed the last available bar booth. She stalked off. Our waiter returned, took out drink orders and left to fill them. A manager, who assumed we were idiots (big mistake), asked if we were aware that the hostess was taking names for a waiting list. Of course we were that's why we chose bar seating! She says, "This isn't bar seating its a booth, so you'll need to talk to the hostess about putting your name in for a seat."
I said, "Our waiter told us this is bar seating."
She said, "Who said that?"
"Our waiter. The guy who just took our drink order."
"Well did you know we have a 30 minute waiting list?"
"So what are you saying?"
"That you'll have to leave."
So we got up, walked out, and didn't look back.
We were off to find another place to get our grub on. "The mall," said Barry, "its bound to have food!" So to the mall we went. To whomever designed the mall in downtown Indy...You are an idiot. No two areas of the mall are interconnected, so you have to go outside to get to the four different quadrants of the mall. Also the directories are not current, so the restaurant we went to not only was it closed, but the entire storefront was empty. The food court was our next stop. We finally got some food. Then there was no place to sit. We wandered around for a good ten minutes until we stumbled upon a little used section and grabbed a seat. With all that time spent looking for food, I missed the only game I had signed up (and payed for) to play. Grrr.
Needless to say we were all grumpy, disappointed and in foul moods for the ride home. But we certainly had a memorable trip. I hope next year goes much more smoothly.
The drive: We left in our rental car, a pseudo-luxury honda, at around 10am (having supposed to have left at 9am) and hit the interstate flying speedily on the cloud that was our car. About 40 minutes into the drive traffic stopped. And I mean STOPPED. Dead stand still on I-74. So we're waiting for the road to be cleared of the debris from the accident ahead. As we had just passed an exit some two miles back someone (no one claims responsibility) suggested we cross the median and head back to the exit to catch a connecting state route around the accident. So off we go into the median, with Byron the driver, and as we reach the bottom of the ditch we stop moving. Stuck. STUCK! In the median. With some 100 cars watching as we get out to push the car. No luck. Mud is everywhere. So out of a pickup pops the head of an elderly man. "Need a chain?" He's grizzled. And by grizzled I mean REALLY grizzled. As in, he hefts a 10' length of log chain out of the cab of his truck with one arm. Mainly because the other one is MISSING! So the one-armed old guy hooks up the chain to his truck and we secure the other end to a convenient eyeloop on the frame. Out comes the car from the mud. Moral of the day comes from the old man. "You boys gotta be patient. Life's too short to be rushing around."
The rest of the drive passed without event.
The Convention: Imagine the weirdest person you know. Now double that, imagine they married someone weirder than that and had children. Those children wouldn't even come close to the weidness that is incarnate at GenCon. And the smell. Oh buddy, the unwashed masses were ripe and in peak form. The convention center was jammed full of people of every age, race, and (possibly) species variant. All of them there to celebrate geekdom in its finest hour. Spending literally millions of dollars on games, autographs, food and more games. After about four hours of this the three of us were hungry. (We had lost Japheth somewhere along the way)
The search for sustenance: Downtown Indy has a great array of restaraunts, eateries, bistros, and delis. I think the all had a forty minute wait list when we got to them. One in particular was quite vexing. Barry, with his love of all things associated with the Brittish Ilses, suggested an authentic pub we had seen while walking from one diner with no seats available. The pub looked promising. The wait was 30 minutes, but Barry used his waiter knowledge and asked for a bar table. The host said we could seat ourselves. We did. The booth we set down at was no more than ten feet from the bar. A waiter came over and we asked if this was considered bar seating. Yes replied in the affirmative and scampered off to get us menus. A waitress then came up and asked if we had been seated here by the hostess, we said no, that the waiter had informed us that we had nabbed the last available bar booth. She stalked off. Our waiter returned, took out drink orders and left to fill them. A manager, who assumed we were idiots (big mistake), asked if we were aware that the hostess was taking names for a waiting list. Of course we were that's why we chose bar seating! She says, "This isn't bar seating its a booth, so you'll need to talk to the hostess about putting your name in for a seat."
I said, "Our waiter told us this is bar seating."
She said, "Who said that?"
"Our waiter. The guy who just took our drink order."
"Well did you know we have a 30 minute waiting list?"
"So what are you saying?"
"That you'll have to leave."
So we got up, walked out, and didn't look back.
We were off to find another place to get our grub on. "The mall," said Barry, "its bound to have food!" So to the mall we went. To whomever designed the mall in downtown Indy...You are an idiot. No two areas of the mall are interconnected, so you have to go outside to get to the four different quadrants of the mall. Also the directories are not current, so the restaurant we went to not only was it closed, but the entire storefront was empty. The food court was our next stop. We finally got some food. Then there was no place to sit. We wandered around for a good ten minutes until we stumbled upon a little used section and grabbed a seat. With all that time spent looking for food, I missed the only game I had signed up (and payed for) to play. Grrr.
Needless to say we were all grumpy, disappointed and in foul moods for the ride home. But we certainly had a memorable trip. I hope next year goes much more smoothly.
Posted by: Rob / 3:07 PM 
