Visioncon 2022
Visioncon is Southwest Missouri's big media convention, held in Springfield, Missouri. However, it hadn't been held for the last two years, due to the COVID-19 shutdowns and subsequent restrictions. As a result, everyone was really eager to get back into the swing of things.
This year's Visioncon was held over the weekend of April 29-May 1, 2022 at the Springfield Expo Center. At least this year I was in much better shape than I'd been in 2019, when I was still recovering from three months of untreated hypothyroidism and struggling to rebuild my strength.
Because of the distance we had to drive, we left on Tuesday after a meal at one of the area churches. We left from it and caught I-74 west to visit my dad in the Bloomington-Normal area. On the way we also stopped in Champaign, Illinois and did some shopping.
We got to my dad's place in good time and I was able to get all the laundry done before bedtime, as well as cooking for the weekend. I also cranked out my Odd Prompts story, although it ended up meaning I didn't get to bed as early as I'd planned.
As a result, I had a short night, and Wednesday morning came a little earlier than I would've liked. I carried everything back out to the van and we said our good-byes to Dad before hitting the road to Springfield, Missouri. The trip actually went pretty smoothly, and I had plenty of time to think about the relationships between several different series of novels within my rocketpunk 'verse.
We also discovered that the gas station near Fort Leonard Wood that had once been the best price for gas was no longer. Worse, it had deteriorated in general condition so badly that about half the pumps were bagged, and I didn't consider it safe to pump from any of those that were working. We just visited their restrooms and continued to Springfield, although this meant that we were lower on fuel than I would've preferred by the time we arrived at the hotel.
We got checked in and carried our personal stuff into our room. This was a little awkward because we ended up in a room on the second floor, so everything had to go up an elevator. However, it was comfortably spacious, which would be good when our friends arrived to help us with the convention./p>
Then I ran some errands, picking some stuff up at Walmart and then stopping at a nearby gas station to get enough gas that we could commute each day to the convention center without taking the van's tank down to unacceptable levels. When I got back, I got supper ready, and while we were eating, some local friends dropped by to say hi. We ended up all going down to the hot tub for a very welcome soak and chatted about life, the universe and everything./p>
Afterward I finally was able to get my laptop to connect to the hotel's WiFi, and started the process of drafting my newsletters for the weekend. Then I made some notes on my latest Odd Prompts writing challenge before turning in for the night.
On Thursday we got the hotel's complimentary breakfast. I was happy to see that it was as good and as varied as I'd remembered from 2019. There were scrambled eggs, sausages and fried potatoes, as well as yogurt and other goodies. And we were able to sit in the breakfast nook to eat.
Then we headed downtown to the convention center to load in. We had to deal with intermittent rain, and when the convention people had me relocate, I backed into a pole and put another ugly dent in the bumper. It didn't damage the pole, which was probably made of concrete. But even with the rain, which was occasionally so heavy we simply had to stop and wait for it to move on, we were able to get most of our booth set up before we were shooed out for the night. Of course it helps that we're only doing a 10x20 rather than a 10x30, at least partly because of the constraints on load-in and load-out times.
When we got back to the hotel, we took another soak in the hot tub. Then I got my newsletters as ready to go as I possibly could, so I'd just need to finalize them and send them out. Then I did some more planning on those three series of novels and how they interrelate, and felt rather satisfied when we turned in for the night.
On Friday we got the hotel's complimentary breakfast before heading back downtown to finalize our setup. We did the last few things just as the doors were opening for the public.
Sales were slow, and I spent a fair amount of time reading on the Internet or working on my writing challenges in the Notes app of my phone. By the time the dealers' room closed for the day, I was really wondering whether we were going to have our first flop of the year.
We went back to the hotel and soaked in the hot tub before having supper. Then I made a bunch of notes on one character's dual role, which I had not understood when I first started writing about him back in high school, nearly four decades ago.
On Saturday we had another delicious breakfast at the hotel before heading back to the convention center. I'd just dropped my husband off when I got an urgent call from our friends; their keys had stopped working and they couldn't get back into the room to get dressed after a dip in the pool. So I had to run back up to the hotel and get all new keys made before I could finally park the van and get ready for the day. So there was no time for me to walk the floor and look around. Then one of our wholesalers dropped off a bunch of t-shirts we'd ordered, and I didn't even have time to inventory them and work them into the hutches.
Sales were better, although I still had time to get more done on those writing challenges. By the time we finished and got back to the hotel, I was feeling much more confident about our financial situation, although we wouldn't know for certain until I went through our ledger and calculated our consignor's check.
When we got back to the hotel, we did another soak in the hot tub, then ate supper. Then I caught up my blog and did some more work on the connections between those three storylines./p>
On Sunday we ate breakfast and I decided to go ahead and get my retail newsletter early so it could still mention Visioncon. Then we headed back to the convention center for our final day of sales. I actually got to look around a little, but not as much as I would've liked because I also had to get those t-shirts inventoried and up./p>
When the doors first opened, business was slow and I got some more work done on my writing. Then things sped up just about when it was time to start packing so we could get out in time. We ended up having some excellent help, and we were able to get out in record time. I'd been worried about being late after the dire warnings about fines for lateness and our experience in 2019, but the timestamp on the dash cam when I started it up to leave was 5:30.
When we got back, we had supper and took one final soak in the hot tub. My husband had twisted a knee in the haste of getting everything packed, and he was hoping the heat would help the pain. Then I wrote my Sunday writing challenges and some more notes on the larger scope of my rocketpunk 'verse before we turned in for the night.
On Monday we had one last breakfast in the hotel's breakfast nook. This time things were much less crowded and we found a table with ease. After that I packed our personal belongings and got them back in the van so we could check out. Because of the pouring rain, I had to pull the van under the hotel awning to keep all our stuff from getting soaked in the process.
Then we went over to Sam's Club to get gas before hitting the road back to my dad's place. We did most of the drive in the rain, although it varied from a downpour to an annoying mist. We stopped at the Walmart near Fort Leonard Wood for gas, and it was just annoying enough I was glad we'd remembered to bring coats with us. By the time we stopped at the branch of our bank in St. Louis, it had pretty well stopped, and we didn't have any more after we crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois.
However, by this time I was starting to feel truly exhausted. Even stopping at the Walmart in Litchfield couldn't completely refresh me, and I was very glad to finally pull into the driveway at Dad's place and power down.
I carried essential personal stuff into the house and got supper ready. Once I'd eaten an actual meal, I started to perk up and was able to get my Indies Unlimited writing challenge written. I also got some work done on the rocketpunk 'verse notes.
On Monday we had some time to visit with Dad while I got the final load of laundry done and carried our belongings back out. I was even able to get a little more writing done while we were waiting for lunch.
After lunch we had to deal with a plumbing mishap. Dad was still mopping things up when we were ready to hit the road, so he took a break to say good-byes.
The trip went pretty well, although was very wet. There were places where the downpour was so heavy that I had to slow down. When we got to the second rest area, we had to wait for it to slack up enough that we could make the dash to the building.
When we finally got to Indianapolis, we discovered there were major jam-ups on I-465 on both north and south. So we tried to punch through on surface streets, only to run into all kinds of road construction. When we finally got home, I was very glad to get back in and power down. Then it was just a matter of carrying our personal belongings in and having supper.
Copyright 2022 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated June 16, 2022.