Miss D. and I arrived safely in Chattanooga late yesterday afternoon, after about eighteen hours on the road from Texas, through Oklahoma and Arkansas and across Tennessee. Apart from mutual stiffness and aches and pains, it was a pleasant journey. Miss D.'s new car behaved perfectly, and astonished me with its excellent fuel economy. I'm sorry our larger SUV's air-conditioning crapped out, but we'll save enough on fuel for this trip that it might pay for the repairs.
The Libertycon crowd has already begun to gather, after two years when it wasn't held at all thanks to COVID-19. That's left a lot of old friends and acquaintances without personal contact for three years, and they're eager to break the drought, so to speak. Happy, chatty groups formed at the hotel bar and elsewhere, and the (justly famous) City Cafe, a diner in downtown Chattanooga within walking distance of the hotel, saw a surge of hungry people demanding to be fed. They're going to do land-office business this weekend . . . their portion sizes are notoriously large and very tasty, and their desserts (particularly their gigantic, creamy, sticky cakes) have to be seen to be believed. I'm headed there for breakfast later this morning, and my stomach is already groaning with happy anticipation.
The convention kicks off late this afternoon with the opening ceremony, leading into a day and a half of panels, seminars and private get-togethers. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Peter
Glad to hear your trip is going well. Be safe and God bless.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you sell a lot of books!
ReplyDeleteGame:count how many dead head 18 wheelers are on the freeway.
ReplyDeleteNorth Texas thru Oklahoma into N Arkansas last week we got to 80 bare trucks running north and south.
Winter is here.
If City Cafe in Chattanooga is too busy they have a sister shop a short drive away up in Cleveland which is the same great menu.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised my Ford Escape averaged 30mpg when traveling 75 with the AC on when on my last 400+ mile trip on mostly flat land. It was 36mpg when traffic flow was only 60. The 1.5l turbo and 6 speed transmission did its job, I guess. My son's Fusion with a naturally aspirated 2.5l does even better. The down side is that 'city' traffic (20+ stoplights in 8 miles) results in 22mpg.
ReplyDeleteAnd, in honor of attending a convention in Chattanooga, a little filksinging is in order...
Pardon me, boys, is that the lair of Great Cthulu?
In the City of Slime, where it's dark all the time?