Archon 30
Archon 30 was held over the weekend of October 5-8, 2006 at the Gateway Convention Center and Holiday Inn in Collinsville, Illinois, one of the St. Louis Metro East suburbs. Because we'd wante to cut expenses a little, we decided to stay at the Super 8 on Thursday night, because it looked cheaper. However, we subsequently discovered that they add a fee for the safe in the room even if you never use it, a fee that made the Super 8 just as expensive as the Comfort Inn, which is a nicer place with a really nice breakfast.
When we got there, we were able to get my art on the art show without any trouble. However, registration was still setting up, so we went back over to the Super 8 to have supper. I did some writing while we were waiting. At least they were able to get us our badges before the artists' reception opened, so we didn't have any trouble getting in there.
On Friday we got out of our room at the Super 8 and resolved to find cheaper digs further away for that first night in future years. We headed over to the convention center to get our merchandise into the dealers' room and get set up. Then we got checked in at the Comfort Inn.
After that I went looking for a post office in order to get a book shipped. However, the post office down the road didn't have counter service, so I wasn't able to mail my book. I finally dropped it off at our new sleeping room and headed back to the convention center to do business.
Sales were pretty brisk, even if a lot of them were consignment items. However, it did mean we were getting rid of a fair amount of our heavy stuff. Given the amount of trouble we'd been having with the van, I was just as glad to lighten our load some.
In the evening we got ourselves a good soak in the hot tub to work out the aches and pains of loading in. We also got our supper.
On Saturday we got up early to have breakfast. Then we headed over to the convention center to get our dealers' tables open for the day. Sales were pretty good, but they kept coming in spurts -- but never with enough time between them to actually get any writing done.
After the dealers' room closed for the evening, we went back to our sleeping room to get supper, then got a good soak in the hot tub. Afterward we headed over to the main con hotel and checked out the parties. That turned out to be a complete bust -- there was only one party, and it was too loud. I guess I'm just too old. So we just headed back to our sleeping room and turned in for the night.
On Sunday we had breakfast and got our personal belongings out of our sleeping room so we could check out. Then we headed over to the convention center to get our dealer tables open for business. Sales were slow at first, but by lunchtime they picked up to the point we actually had trouble getting packed on schedule, since we were getting interrupted so much by people wanting to buy stuff.
However, once the dealers' room actually closed, we were able to get enough help that we actually got out ahead of schedule. That turned out to be very good for the simple reason we got stuck in traffic on I-70 as a result of a wreck. By the time that mess was cleared up, we were right where we usually would've been.
Copyright 2012 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated October 21, 2012.