Kaioto writes...

Well, I'm not sure if this is very relevent, but it is a post anyway. ;-)

My Gathering Experience - Montreal 2004

Honestly, I think I spent less time focused on Gargoyles this year than any other. I blame driving competely. This was the first Gathering I'd ever brought my car to, and it was a mixed blessing.

On the positive side, I could afford to take myself and my wife to this event due to the fact that I could drive to and from Montreal in only 6 or 7 hours. It wasn't that far from Boston. I also managed to help out a friend in a tight spot.

On the down side, the drive was taxing, traffic problems conspired to make us miss registration and Opening Ceremonies, and I spent more time than I bargained for outside of Montreal proper.

I have to say that the city reminds me of home. The construction still causes assinine traffic. The drivers are atrocious. The only big differences were that everyone I ran into from a bilingual Francophone / Anglophone and it is illegal to make a right turn at an unposted red light.

On the up side, we got Kael's bag back for him. Seems that when he flew down to Virginia to hook up with Chris Rogers car to drive up, his airline lost his luggage with his clothes. They got yelled at and agreed to FedEx it ASAP to the hotel in Montreal. Of course, they didn't bother to make sure it would clear customs in time to actually get there. So it was to sit at the airport in a FedEx depot for the entire weekend until after Kael left. That was uncool, so we drove up there, got lost in the airport, surrounding highways, and auxiliary roads. Eventually we were directed to the depot, then redirected to the terminal where we had to repeat the litany of disaster to a friendly customs agent who eventually took pity and stamped the release forms. We took them back to FedEx, filled our more forms, and Kael finally had his stuff back.

You know, I wonder how Elisa coped with not having a change of clothing during that whole Avalon Tour. It must've been annoying, especially with all the adventuring. It'll ruin your clothes pretty quickly.

That was sort of the tone for the whole Gathering. Run around. Drive around. Get lost a lot. I was so tired I spent most of the time lounging here or there, just listening to interesting people talk and drifting. Hudson always has interesting stories to tell. The writers panels seemed to be going well, but I just don't have any time or ambition for writing at the moment. The dealers room was very cool. I got a chance to go through the art show and pick up some pins, T-Shirts, and pre-register for Vegas.

The Banquet was very nicely done. I enjoyed everything but the loud noises coming from the next room over. Keith David was as charming as ever. Managed to get some good coordination going with Siryn and Chris about web-marketing the Gargoyles DVD and Gathering 2005 online. I managed to take a peek at a lot of the awesome costumes from the contest and harass Greg a bit about a comic project we've been plotting for a while now.

Chris managed to convince me to take Lexy along and go to the Montreal casino that night. It was very late, but I really didn't want to call it a day since I had to drive back Sunday anyway and wouldn't have time to do anything else this Gathering.

I never have any luck at crowded casinos on a weekend night, so I should've known better. I dropped some money at a cold Blackjack table. Lexy was caught by the slot-machine that wouldn't die. It just kept playing down to one quarter and then hitting back up to 40. It yo-yo'd like that 3 times staight! Chris had more luck on the higher blackjack tables and a little time playing craps. He treated Lexy, myself, and Kael to dinner / midnight snack over at the buffet. I had chocolate and raspberry death-cake and a lemon pasty of some sort. The sugar was enough to get me back to the hotel in one piece.

The drive back home wasn't too bad, except for having to double-back for something vitally important right at the U.S. border. That added 3 extra hours of driving time, but people were so honest and helpful that I could still count it as a somewhat positive experience.

Perhaps I'll have better luck with my travel and my tables in Vegas next year.

Hope to see you there!

- Marty "Kaioto" Lund