Huzzah, sort of

So my plan to get to the renn fest when it opened nearly worked. I got to the exit 10 minutes after opening. It took me THIRTY minutes to get up the exit ramp. I am going to look to see if there's a suggestion page because they are bringing traffic on I-71 a major highway to a damn stand still (for two months) every weekend because there is nothing but a stop sign at the end of the ramp so people get jammed up. Maybe we should have a stoplight (even those temp ones they use at construction sites) or a cop or something. They are setting up a very dangerous situation.

I did manage to get a handicapped spot but MY GOD the people. I no longer fear Comi-con San Diego, that's how many people were there. Tomorrow when I'm alive again I'll try to share a picture. It's actually gotten SO big it's less enjoyable.

Don't get me wrong. I had fun. But from here on out a) I must get there in the early A.M. or don't even bother b) make this an every other year event. I mean I was there last in 2019 but almost all the vendors are exactly the same and there is only so much nonsense I need to buy. The unfortunate thing is they are now allowing non-hand made stuff there. I get why but on the other hand I feel bad for the craftsmen because they can't match the prices of cheap chinese crap. A few of my favorites were gone though, one I knew was retiring the other who did stone jewelry was gone.

I also can't believe I need to say this in 2022 but dear Renn Fest vendors, women collect weapons too. FOUR different vendors seemed to find me invisible which fine, saves me money. Sad for you though.

The food/drink lines were insane. I already planned to not drink (i never do, dangerous I know) because there is always an inch of piss on the portapotty floors. WHY? I wear a gown so no peeing. I found the middle eastern place that is mostly veggie and no lines (you fools, this is good) I got the beef/lamb gyro last time so I got the falalfel plate and baklava. It was good. Later I DID break down and found a relative short line for a mead joint. I bought the blood orange blossom bottle because I needed a 30$ bottle of mead right?!? But to drink I got the buckwheat mead. Instant buyer's remorse as the blood orange can NOT be as delicious as this rich molasses forward caramel mead. OMG. But my ass was not getting back in the line (because it had been 'discovered' and the line was more then 20 people long. Also Ohio doesn't allow for alcohol samples unless you pay for them so no one samples)

I saw some of the acts or at least part of them. There are all new acts at least but a lot of it is juggling or acrobats. I like the latter. The former is okay. I bought a shit ton of jewelry I didn't need but is lovely. Got mom a few things.

Four hours later I slog back to the car feeling kinda bad because my dumb ass took my jaradience again (Dana DO NOT take it if you're not going to drink/pee). If you don't know, it's a diabetic pill that makes you pee away the sugar and it really works for me unlike the others. Lightheadedness/fainting can happen as it will pull water right out of your cells. When I got back to the car, I drained a 52 ounce thermos of water by the time I got 20 miles out.

Stopped at Popeye's at the truck stop, changed clothes got a large ice tea, drank it before my chicken was ready (note to all, they do the same thing KFC has started, if you want just chicken no sides/combo it's still the same price AS the combo. wtf. I was too tired to realize that until I was out the door. sigh) I drank another one before the chicken was ready. Took a third with me. Drank it before I hit chillicothe 30 miles away.

Stopped at Spirit Halloween to see if this one was nicer than Huntington's.Yes. However wtf are they smoking? I wanted tombstones for my graveyard that aren't styrofoam resin if I can get it, plastic works. the only ones they had that were plastic (no resins) were Beetlejuice's, the ones from Disney's Haunted Mansion and the one from Hocus Pocus. Now I get there are licensing issues but these things were 50-60$for ONE plastic tombstone. Keep it. I can get the small animatronics for that.

Got a red velvet cold brew from Tim Horton's (the cold sugar foam was good the rest might as well have been ice water) because I was still thirsty. Barely had to pee when I rolled home 40 miles later.

And on my porch was a generous box of mysteries from alexcat's hoard. THANK YOU! I had to dig through that naturally. Got too tired to take pics of my loot. I'll share that soon. My knee held up fine without a hint of pain. Go figure.