Visioncon 2019
Visioncon is southwestern Missouri's largest media convention, and has typically been held in February. However, this year it finally moved back to Springfield after several years in Branson, and that move involved a change in dates to mid-spring. It was held over the weekend of May 10-12, 2019 at the Springfield Expo Center, a convention center about the size of the one in Branson, but laid out differently.
Because of the distance, we left on Tuesday after the lunch one of the local churches hosts. We stopped in Champaign, Illinois to do some shopping, but still made decent time to my dad's place. This time I was able to lift and carry the heavier stuff without having to struggle and strain. It just goes to show how much the thyroid gland regulates, and how important it is to have the right levels of thyroid hormone.
Once I got the essential stuff in, we had supper. Then I did laundry and cooked our meals. I also had a little time to visit with Dad before turning in for the night.
On Wednesday we had breakfast, then carried our belongings out to the van and hit the road west. Although we were about half an hour late getting started, we made decent time. We made some stops for gas, as well as a stop at a branch of our bank in St. Louis so we could deposit my husband's birthday check.
As we drove through Springfield, Missouri, on our way to our friends' place to spend the night, we had a very close call with a broken-down vehicle on an off ramp. Fortunately, we were able to steer around it and made it safely to our destination. However, I was still shaken when we arrived.
We visited for a while, catching up on one another's lives. I also did a little writing before we turned in for the night.
On Thursday we got up and carried our stuff back out to the van, then said good-bye to our friends. Then we drove over to the convention center to discover that load-in had started earlier than had been stated. So we found our booths and got started on the process of loading in. A number of staff members helped us, so we got in reasonably well. Another friend of ours, who was going to help us with the show, arrived but her ability to help was limited because she was having some trouble with an inflamed tear duct. She pitched in as best she could, especially with building the structures and setting out merchandise.
Even so, we were most definitely not nearly ready when the dealers' room closed for the night. I retrieved the van and we headed up to our hotel to check in. By the time we got everything carried in and had supper, it was quite late to get to bed. Still, I managed to squeeze in a little writing.
On Friday we got up and had the hotel's complimentary breakfast. Then we headed back to the convention center and got to work setting up. However, we were running behind on leaving the hotel, which put everything else behind. We didn't have everything set up when the doors opened, but people did buy from us while we were still finishing setup.
Foot traffic was intermittent all day long, and there were some times that I was falling asleep sitting up. But we did manage a reasonable number of sales for a Friday, especially for a convention that had just changed venue and dates. However, I was left definitely hoping that sales would pick up on Saturday.
Once the dealers' room closed for the evening, we headed back to the hotel. We had supper and did stuff online, and I got a little writing in. Although I'd wanted to get to bed earlier, we didn't quite manage it as well as I'd hoped.
On Saturday we got up and had the hotel's complimentary breakfast before heading back to the convention center to get everything open and ready to sell. I finally got the hardcover books out and properly arranged, and we got signs hung.
Sales were decent, although they still came in spurts rather than steady traffic. However, we were selling a large volume of consignment items, which made it difficult to determine how much money we were actually going to take home. Still, even a percentage of something is better than all of no sales at all, so I counted the space given to that merchandise space well spent.
In the evening, after the dealers' room closed for the evening, we headed back to our hotel room to have supper and relax. I did a little more writing, and I got things ready for our final sales day so we could get out more quickly in the morning.
On Sunday as we went to the breakfast nook, I was wished a happy Mother's Day by a number of people. It was a really odd feeling, since we'd never had children, but I decided that I could be considered a spiritual mother to the various younger women I've mentored over the years.
We got to the convention center in good time and got everything open. However, sales were disappointingly slow, and after lunch I had to start packing. From there on out it was a non-stop forced march to get everything packed and out to the van. We had a couple of helpers for a while, but they were the children of another dealer, and when it was time for them to go, we were on our own. We pushed as hard as we could, but we just didn't have enough push in us to keep up the pace. We finally hauled everything down on two huge carts so they could close up the loading dock, and I struggled to get everything loaded. One of the con staffers came by to scold us about being late, and took pity on us enough to help us get the rest of our stuff in the van.
By the time we got back to the hotel for supper, it was a lot later than I would've liked. We ended up not getting to bed until midnight.
On Monday we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast one last time. Then we packed our belongings and loaded them out to the van. We also helped our friend who'd been helping to get her stuff to her car, and we all went over to Sam's Club to get gas. Then we said goodbye and headed our separate ways.
At first I was doing fairly well on driving. We got out of the Ozarks with relatively little trouble, and made it to St. Louis in time to make the deposit at the branch of our bank there. But as we headed up I-55 in Illinois, I grew progressively more tired, until I was having to actively fight off drowsiness. Worse, it was late enough that I didn't want to drink too much caffeinated pop or energy drinks and risk not being able to sleep enough to stay awake for the rest of the journey the next day.
I was very glad to pull in at my dad's place. We carried stuff in and got a load of laundry going, and then heated up the chicken we'd brought with us as a backup supper. The food perked me up enough that I was able to go through our ledger and see just how big a check we'd need to write to our consignor when we got back home.
On Tuesday we slept a little later than we'd planned, which made for a late start for the day. However, I did make reasonable time on getting stuff out to the van, which made it more likely that we'd actually get to Indianapolis in time for the free community meal, which was the last one that church would do until school started again in the fall.
We said our good-byes to Dad and hit the road. At first we seemed to be making good time, but when we came to Indianapolis, we started hitting backups every way we turned. We actually got to the church just as they were closing, so they made carry-out meals for us to take home, but let us have our root beer floats there. So we ended up eating dessert first, and then ate our main course when we actually got home. Afterward I carried in our personal belongings, very glad to be safely home at last.
Copyright 2019 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated July 21, 2019.