Kanpai! Con 2018
Kanpai! Con is held in Omaha, Nebraska in early February. This year it was held over the weekend of February 9-11, 2018 at the Hotel RL and CoCo Key Water Park. This is the same hotel that hosts Anime Nebrascon, and the same place it was held last year.
Because it's a two-day drive for us, we headed out on Tuesday after a meal one of our local churches serves every week as a community event. We drove over to my dad's place in central Illinois, where we stayed the night. I got some laundry done and spent a little time struggling to get moving on a story that had become stuck on me.
The next morning we carried stuff out and hit the road as early as we could manage. It took some extra time because the cold weather meant that everything temperature-sensitive (beverages, some foods, certain products) had to be carried inside overnight and then taken back outside. All the same, we made fairly decent time.
By the time we got to the Interstate, road conditions were fairly decent. However, it was clear that they had been quite nasty earlier, since we saw spun-out vehicles in the ditch all the way across Iowa. I was actually rather glad to get to Omaha and arrive at our hotel.
However, I was less than impressed by our room. The hotel had just been taken over by new management, and they were still in the process of renovating. Our room had yet to receive its new furniture, which would include a microwave and mini-fridge. So we had to keep our food in our cooler all weekend, although at least we'd be able to use the microwave oven in the breakfast room to heat up our food. Just to add insult to injury, shortly after we moved in, the really nice Comfort Inn where we'd stayed last year sent us an e-mail with an offer for a better rate.
After supper, I tried to do some more writing, but couldn't get any traction on anything. It seemed like one of those times when everything feels like crap.
On Thursday we got up and had the hotel's complimentary breakfast, which was actually pretty good. Then we headed over to the main hotel to be there the minute they opened the doors for us to start setting up. That was when I discovered just how far our hotel was from the main hotel -- and I was going to have to drive this distance each day, no matter what the weather.
While we waited to load in, I fiddled around some more with the story. Finally we were allowed into the dealers' room, and from there on it was pretty much nonstop work. This time I went ahead and pulled the van in under the awning, so I didn't have as far to haul every load, and there wasn't as much trouble with the steep slope the hotel is built on.
Once we had everything inside, I took the van to a regular parking spot, then set to building structures. I got one figurine hutch unit built and a good start on the second when we got shooed out for the night. At that point there was nothing to do but drive back to the other hotel. We were hoping to cut off some of the twists and turns in our route, but in the dark the "shorter" route turned out to be less than ideal.
On Friday we had breakfast, then headed back to the con hotel to finish setting up. We were so far behind that we were still getting figurines out when the doors opened for the general membership. We finally just stuffed a bunch of boxes into our backspace and hoped for the best.
We did have some decent sales, but there were also some slow periods. I used them to grab some rice and ramen from the con suite, which was a welcome change from the cold food we'd brought with us. However, there was a snowstorm moving in, so some people speculated that it might have suppressed attendance.
By the time we got out, it was already snowing. I had to take the roads a lot more slowly, which meant we were very late getting back to our room. I got us supper, then dashed off a few words on a short story before turning in for the night.
On Saturday, we got the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then cleaned off our van and headed back to the main hotel. I got the rest of the figurines out, then got our signs out. I also had a little time to walk around and talk to some of the other dealers about upcoming conventions.
Then the doors opened and we settled in to do business. Things started off slow, but as time went by, traffic began to pick up and we started making fairly steady sales. However, there were still a lot of gaps in which we were standing around doing little or nothing. I used some of those moments to run over to the con suite for ramen, but I also did enough stuff on my phone that I had to get out one of the power packs and recharge it.
In the evening, we were hurrying to get out enough that I didn't even realize that my scarf had fallen out until the doors to the dealers' room was already closed and there was no going back to retrieve it. I had to think what would've happened if I'd forgotten my coat or something else equally vital. Perhaps I could've gone to con ops and begged and pleaded to be let back in long enough to retrieve it, but since the scarf wasn't essential, I just had to get along without it.
We drove back to our hotel and had supper. Then I did some more writing.
On Sunday we had breakfast before heading back to the main hotel to get everything open for our last day of sales. Things were slow at first, but picked up within an hour or so. I did have an opportunity to get ramen, but the water hadn't gotten as hot as it really needed to be, so while the result was edible, it was less than delicious.
In the middle of the afternoon, I started packing the figurines. We had some great help in packing, but as soon as it was time to actually start hauling stuff out to the van, everyone vanished, leaving us to our own devices. As a result, it took all evening to get everything out. When we were hauling the very last load out, I saw one of the hotel staff having a very stern discussion with the promoter, presumably about the importance of getting all his people out in a timely fashion.
It was bitterly cold, and although I kept my phone in a pocket of my coat once we hauled my purse out, it still had the battery seem to lose its effective charge. When we got back to the hotel, I had to warm it up and get it back onto the charger while we had supper. I scribbled a few notes on a story before we turned in for the night.
On Monday we gathered up our belongings and got checked out of the hotel to head back east. At first we were making good time, but somewhere in Iowa, I got to the point where even the second Monster energy drink couldn't perk me up enough to be awake and alert. So we stopped at a rest area and took a nap to get reasonably alert before resuming the journey to my dad's place.
I was doing better for a while, but by the time we reached Peoria, I started getting tired again. I got some more regular caffeinated pop, which enabled me to push through to Dad's place. I carried stuff in and got some laundry started. After supper, I did some writing before turning in for the night.
On Tuesday I carried stuff out early so we could get on the road right after lunch. It meant we had to take some clothes back wet, wrapped in plastic bags, but at least we got time to make the stops we needed to on the way, including the bank deposit. We also made it to a free community meal at another of the churches, but all the energy drinks had messed me up inside so badly that I ended up nauseous and barely able to eat. I was very glad to get back home and safely parked in the driveway.
Copyright 2019 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated June 21, 2019.