Grand Rapids Comic Con Spring Fling 2022
Grand Rapids Comic Con is one of the major nerdy events of Western Michigan. When the COVID-19 restrictions of 2020 led to it having to be canceled for the year, the promoters decided to put on a special fan event in the spring of 2021 as a make-up. As things turned out, it still wasn't possible to hold it on its original dates, so the promoters turned it into a summer event.
This year it was able to be held in the spring as originally planned, over the weekend of April 8-10, 2022 at the DeltaPlex in Walker, Michigan (a northern suburb of Grand Rapids). Because we needed to be up there in time to start loading in on Thursday, we made the drive on Wednesday.
When I carried the last few personal items out on Wednesday morning, I discovered that the van was loaded somewhat tighter than I'd anticipated. However, with some careful rearranging I was able to get everything in, even our heavy winter coats. Although we were having nice spring weather in Indianapolis, the forecast for Michigan was definitely colder and we wanted to be prepared.
On the way north I mulled over my latest Odd Prompts writing challenge and slowly came to realize it was a perfect opportunity to explore an alternate version of the Grissom timeline (my rocketpunk verse) that I'd been playing with for a while.
We got to the hotel in good time and settled into our room. After having come to this hotel for a number of years, it was easy to get settled in, and we knew which rooms were best for our needs when the desk clerk asked. I got my Internet stuff caught up and did some more work on the writing. I also had to write some e-mails to deal with a problem with some of my promotional activities for my books.
On Thursday we got up and had the hotel's complimentary breakfast. In 2021 they'd required us to take our breakfast items to our room to eat, but now they'd reopened the breakfast nook and we could eat there.
Then I started work on writing my Odd Prompts story. It was fun to explore a novel that I'd set aside a number of years earlier.
After lunch it was time to head up to the DeltaPlex and get ready to load in. In 2021 the doors had been open early and several vendors loaded in early. However, this year they were holding fast to the time, so we had to wait. I used the time to go through some old notes on another story I'd like to get back to one of these days.
Once we could get in, I hauled stuff in as fast as we could. Having the corner booth as well as the inline booths made things easier, since we could stack stuff in the other aisle as well. Once I got everything in and moved the van to a regular parking space, I set to work on building everything as rapidly as I possibly could.
When we got back home, I made an unhappy discovery: because of how cold the DeltaPlex had become with all the rollup doors open, my computer had crashed. Fortunately, it restarted without too much trouble, and I was able to get some backups made. Then we turned in for the night.
On Friday we got up and had the hotel's complimentary breakfast before heading back to the DeltaPlex to finish setting up. We actually were able to get done early and I had some time to look around.
Then the doors opened and we settled in to sell. Sales were slow at first and the crowds seemed lighter, even outside the slow periods. But by the time the vendor hall closed for the night, we had a decent amount of sales.
Then we headed back to the hotel, where I made some notes for a story I've been working on. It finally allowed me to firm up where it fit in the timeline of that 'verse.
On Saturday we had breakfast, then headed back to the DeltaPlex for our second day of sales. When we got there, we discovered the doors weren't open yet, and we were stuck just sitting and waiting. I tried to get at least a little work done on the iPhone./p>
Once we did get inside and our booth opened for business, I got signed up for next year's Spring Fling and finished paying for the November event at DeVos Place. It's good to know that I have all these things lined up already.
The day started slow, but soon picked up. Around lunchtime it got so busy we could hardly keep up with the flow of sales, and I wouldn't be surprised if we lost a few sales. We also had to delay lunch until a slow period, which meant we were getting rather hungry. But later in the day we had some slow periods so long I was able to open the Notes app in my phone and get some work done on writing challenges.
In the evening we headed back to the hotel and had supper. Then I got my cosmic horror newsletter out and did some other online work before we turned in for the night.
On Sunday we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then headed back to the DeltaPlex for the last day of the convention. We got there early enough that I had plenty of time to work on one of my Sunday writing challenges on my phone while we waited to get in.
Once we got in and set up, I had a little more time to look around before the doors opened for customers. Sales were slow at first, but soon picked up to the point I really hated to have to start packing because it always means that people stop shopping.
We'd tried to line up helpers to get us out, but when the doors closed, we found ourselves alone, left to our own devices to get everything out in much less time than we were given to get everything in. Later on a couple of con volunteers did help us get everything hauled out to the van, where I could pick through everything and get it into the van. However, I could tell that things weren't loading nearly as well as they had coming down, and we would be apt to have trouble when it came time to get our personal belongings into the van.
Even with help, we were quite late getting back to the hotel. I still needed to get my retail newsletter out, so I didn't get to write out some ideas that I'd resolved while doing the physical labor of loading out.
On Monday we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast for one last time. Then I gathered everything up and carried it out to the van. I discovered that I couldn't quite fit everything in, and ended up having to abandon one empty box. If I'd had a little more time, I would've liked to have saved some of the packing materials in it, but we wanted to get back home in time to go to a meal.
Once we hit the road, I had to deal with weariness from a very busy convention. It got to the point I had to crack a third Monster Energy just to keep from dozing off behind the wheel. However, it did mean we got safely home in time to carry in the critical items and still get be able to go to the supper we wanted to get to.
Copyright 2022 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated June 16, 2022.