What a nice weekend!

Left Friday morning around 8:30am and had a relatively pleasant drive to Huntsville with only a little rain around Nashville. The directions were great; it was basically a straight shot down 71 to 264 to 65 to 53. Which worked quite well.

Since I was going from EST to CST, I actually gained an hour going down and got there around 2:45. After I checked in, I called Vicki and figured she was about an hour behind me. After all, traveling with a six year old means you have to stop a bit more often. ;)

So, since my roomie wasn't going to be there for a while, I decided to eat a late lunch before I fell over (by that time I hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning.) See, I had decided to eat lunch at Cracker Barrel, but there were no Cracker Barrels between Nashville and Huntsville, apparently. So I went to O'Charley's and had loaded baked potato soup and unsweetened iced tea. It was heaven.

Back at the hotel, I got my badge for the con, checked out the dealer's room (half the dealers were in the process of setting up when I got there, and I didn't get back to the dealer's room the whole weekend) and then walked out into the courtyard by the pool to sit and write for a bit on one of the park benches. The temperature was in the mid-seventies all weekend with low humidity and a nice breeze, so it was optimal weather for sitting outside.

Vicki and Michael arrived (I don't remember what time exactly, but I want to say around 4pm) and we hit it off right away. Michael is the cutest kid. And he is so knowledgable about dinosaurs!! I was very impressed. (He is also very in-the-know about trains as well... this kid is going to be an engineer and a paleontologist (sp?) when he grows up. I just know it.) I brought home some original artwork by Michael as well, which will be worth a fortune when he's famous. :)

So we went out for a late supper, then got back to the hotel room and basically crashed. Luckily, there wasn't anything much going on at the con Friday night; I don't know if I could have managed to go to anything. We did try to go to the dealer's room, but it was closed by then. :(

Saturday, we ate breakfast at the IHOP, then went on a whirlwind tour of the EarlyWorks museums, Constitution Village, and the Huntsville Botanical Garden.

Let me take a little time here to wonder a bit... where was the population of Huntsville, AL on Saturday morning?! The downtown streets were empty. Nicely empty for us; we didn't get caught in any traffic jams or anything. Later on we met up with some school groups and other people, but when we reached the children's museum, it was like parking in a ghost town.

The Historic Huntsville Train Depot was really neat, especially the robots guys. They had a little scene set up in the ticket room and when someone pressed a hidden button, the three men came to life and talked about life at the train depot in the early 20th century. I took a couple of mini-movies as well as a bunch of pictures.

Then we went to the EarlyWorks Children's Museum. Which was cool. It had a bunch of neat history-based displays that history-minded kids would love, like a keelboat, clothes from the 18th century that you could dress up into, and a bunch of other stuff. I think, though, that kids would get more out of it by going with a school group. I didn't take many pictures there, but I did take a picture of the talking tree that looked like it would scare little kids when it came alive. :)

Constitution village was right across the street. It was a living history village, set in the early 1800s, and was quite cool and interesting. I got quite a few photos there as well, and one of Michael dipping candles (with the help of a very nice lady in period dress who was orginally from Indiana.) The cabinet maker's house was the coolest part, with its huge hand-powered lathe. Neat-o. I bought some pottery in the giftshop for Mom and Dad, and a mug made at Constitution village for myself.

After that, we went to the Botanical Garden. And spent the next three or four hours walking at least five miles, taking pictures, and running into great clouds of little midges. It was a really nice botanical garden, with monarch butterflies and other butterflies everywhere, and lots and lots of cool plants and flowers.

My one 'complaint' was the lack of plants for sale in the gift shop. I would have thought they would have made a killing. But I did buy a couple of things nonetheless, and after we realized we were famished, we decided to leave and eat an early supper.

We were back at the hotel in time for me to go to my one and only panel, which, despite the title, was really a panel for new writers. It was interesting, but mainly a Baen show, since the other two panel members, Julie Cochrane and Doc Travis Taylor were being published by Baen. But I managed to get a couple words in edgewise nonetheless. ;)

And then I went back to the hotel room and crashed again. Vicki and Michael poked around the dealer's room while I was at my panel, but the dealer's room closed at 6pm, so I didn't get there again. *sigh*

Since we both were leaving the next morning, we decided not to hit any of the parties (and walking all day had worn us out!) So we turned in for the night, and after Michael fell asleep, Vicki and I talked until midnight. So much for a good night's sleep!

The next morning, we said our goodbyes after a breakfast at IHOP again, and went on our way. It was a fun weekend, and I was so happy to finally meet Vicki and Michael!!

On the way home, I decided to take my time and try to visit a couple of the antique malls that were advertised along the way. Well... I tried to visit three, all of which were closed. I finally hit paydirt in Glendale, KY, where I visited Bennie's Antique Barn as well as a shop right off the expressway. Didn't find anything, but the barn was three stories high and packed to the gills with stuff. I thought for sure I'd find the fourth bowl to my set of old pyrex mixing bowls there, but no go. (I did, however, see an amazing display of amber depression glass as well as every other kind of pyrex bowl there ever was.)

I attempted to stop at the American Cave Museum in Horse Cave, KY, but after driving around Horse Cave for ten minutes, I gave up and got back onto the highway.

I might have stopped at a cave or two, but I didn't want to get home too late. And I got back before 7pm, ate supper, and immediately felt wide awake. But I did crash around 9:30.

Whew. It was a nice weekend, and a great mini-vacation. We're thinking about next year already! :)

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