The elevator in our hotel is unlike any I've ever seen. It serves seven floors (0 through 6, with 0 being the basement), and it does not have integral doors. Instead, each floor has a door that interlocks with the elevator so that you can only open it when the elevator is stopped on that floor. Here's what it looks like to travel from the first to ( Read more... )

We did pretty good getting packed and on the road than I expected, buttoning up the house and leaving around 2 PM. We had one local stop in Fernley, then Lisa took the wheel and we set out east on I-80. Here was the general route without our slight diversions here and there.

We zipped across the Forty Mile Desert in air-conditioned comfort. The ( Read more... )

On Saturday, Westercon 76 (July 4-7, 2024, Salt Lake City Airport Doubletree Hotel) opened room booking for the convention. Rooms are $155 + 13.8% tax single through quad occupancy. Parking is free and is a parking lot (i.e. no height restrictions), and there is a shuttle from SLC airport ( Read more... )

I had $2.50 left on my Clipper Card, so I used it for an excursion to go get dinner via the light rail bus bridge. I'm a little bit annoyed with Clipper: I have over $70 stranded after the lost-but-found card, and despite Clipper customer service saying they could transfer it to another card (that I did buy and that I did provide a card number), ( Read more... )

Today I got an advance-of-my-trip notification for the hotel stay at Worldcon. I'm very glad that I got it, too, because somehow the reservation had me arriving three days earlier than I actually planned to arrive. Our plans are to leave Reno on the Coast Starlight next Saturday and arrive in Chicago on Monday afternoon. The reservation had us ( Read more... )

So yesterday evening we checked into the Belvada Hotel in Tonopah.

( A Welcome Addition to the Queen of the Silver Camps )

As I mentioned yesterday, Lisa and I had dinner at the Peppermill Hotel buffet, and as is our usual practice, we did a walk through the convention facilities on the second floor. Anyone who attended the 2011 Worldcon's Hugo Awards and/or Masquerade will remember the large ballroom, which is formally the Tuscany Events Center. As we made our loop, ( Read more... )

I got away from Fernley later than I meant to do so this morning, in part because I was up until 2 AM last night working on Westercon and WSFS stuff that can't wait much longer. I'm down here with the minivan rather than the Rolling Stone because my mechanic wants to take another crack at the problems with additional equipment and because I want ( Read more... )

The word from my mechanic is that he expects to be able to fix the minivan, but that he won't be done until late Friday. Therefore, I've extended my hotel and rental car through Friday night and won't head home until Saturday.

As of this evening, all of the 2015 Worldcon's hotels have rooms available from the Sasquan Hotels Page. However, the closest hotel (the Doubletree) only has official availability for arrivals August 20 and departures August 23. Yes, that's arriving Thursday and leaving Sunday, for a Worldcon that starts Wednesday and ends Sunday ( Read more... )