Ponyville Ciderfest 2022 Trip Retrospective (Attempt!) · 10:34pm Nov 14th, 2022
Well! This isn't how I expected to be starting this con-trip retrospective, but it seems like I might as well! To explain, the trip, spoilers, was quite good! ...Until about Washington, on the way home. Maybe around Charlottesville? We'd been running not just on but ahead of schedule for most of the run, but we started to hit delays around there, I think... and then we got seriously delayed in Washington, due to some difficulty with the locomotive switch, or... something. I'm not sure. The pertinent upshot is that we got into New York Penn Station late enough that I missed the last train home, with the next one not for about five and a half hours. In a station mostly closed off, partly due to the hour (we got in around midnight) and partly due to being an active construction site.
Pardon; I just stopped typing for a moment to look for a different seat, since the one I have currently has a power outlet which doesn't work and is across a table from someone who I thought smelled a bit unpleasant -- not that I said anything, of course -- and who just admitted to someone else at the table that, as I understood it, he was too high to read the time off the phone he was looking at (though that does mean that perhaps he didn't trick me out of the working outlet earlier, so much as wasn't fully aware what was going on; I don't know the details).
Aaaaanyway, so the trip's taken a bit of a plummet, but! There are still upsides! Or nice moments, at least. For instance, I found the place I'm currently sitting with help from someone at an LIRR information desk. Granted, I had to walk across a fair bit of the station twice (carrying heavy luggage), because I though I _must_ have gotten the directions wrong. No, turns out the only way up here, with all the others, including the stairs directly next to it, blocked off, was to walk up an inactive escalator facing away from the main corridor and out of sight from it. And then I was right by the old but still open even at this time of night Amtrak seated ticketing area! Which, as the name suggests, has CHAIRS! Of course, technically, I didn't have authorization to access it -- but the guard at the gate very nicely accepted my argument/plea that, although technically my train got in yesterday, I was only seeking access to the waiting area, and should be granted it, please, because the train had through not fault of my own gotten in so late that the next train home was ~five hours away in the middle of the night.
So, here I sit, at least able to get my computer out and use a working internet connection (the internet connection on my train here was broken). I don't expect to finish this retrospective tonight, but that's perhaps for the best, as I'm rather tired and indeed expect to have been up over twenty-four hours straight, minus nodding off a bit earlier, by the time I finally get home and to bed.
Hopefully, I'll remember the con well enough, though some retrospective blog is at least more than no retrospective blog, yes? And I don't recall having done a con retrospective blog before, at least at the moment, but someone, I think, suggested it, and, well, why not?
So! "If I remember correctly", or something like that, should probably be assumed to apply to all of the following, though I might say it anyway.
WEDNESDAY
As a bit of preliminary information, the week before the con, I caught a probably-a-rhinovirus, which was quite unpleasant and also put the plans and hopes of months for the trip in jeopardy. It was, happily, clear by the planned day of departure that I should be well out of the contagious period, but the question remained whether I'd feel well enough. I was on the mend, but not yet mended, and eventually the most further postponing I could do was doing my packing Wednesday and taking a later train into the city than originally planned.
Up I got, coughing and medication and whatnot happened, and I packed and headed out... a bit later than I'd planned, and thus with a harder walk to the station than planned. But I made it! The walk was more tiring than it might have otherwise been, but the important thing was that, when the train pulled out of my local station, I was on it.
Still, the whole trip into the city (my first since at least early 2020) I did find fairly tiring, and instead of exploring the changes to NYP (oh, which I have, at least, now had some chance to do thanks to this otherwise unwelcome layover... though I've concluded that, at least from the bits I've now seen, I wasn't missing much), I had a restoring sit, gluten-free muffin, and cup of non-sweetened iced tea on the Metropolitan Lounge balcony. So that was nice.
Then, the time came to head down to the train! Not when boarding was called, though; I had little desire to pointlessly line up for it, even moreso than usual given my weakened state. There are, or at least were, ways to get around that at NYP for Amtrak trains in general, but I had here a great advantage: the Lake Shore Limited, my train to Chicago, uses the Empire Connection to head up the Hudson Valley. There are only a few tracks at NYP that allow straight running through from Sunnyside Yard to the Empire Connection, and I'd guessed that the train would be at one of two adjacent platforms. As it happened, I was wrong about which of the two to check first -- but I knew this pretty much as soon as I went down due to the train actually already being at the other one. And it turned out there were already accepting people boarding!
So, I settled into my roomette (I'd also managed, uncertain up to the point I actually got to it (since once can't actually do it directly, and must work through traits with a high probability of association), to successfully request a Viewliner I roomette on the port side of the train. And the seats still had cloth upholstery!), and the ride was nice, listening to a history podcast, watching the Hudson Valley go by outside... nice.
THURSDAY
Chicago! First time I'd ever been there, so far as I know, and I wasn't there for long, this time. Nor did I leave Union Station, as I was just there long enough to look around a bit (Which I was now feeling well enough for! At least after I left my luggage in the Metropolitan Lounge's storage room.), get some food (Which went better than I'd expected! Thanks, surprisingly, to a vending machine salad-in-a-jar.), get some advice (Taxi to my hotel when I got back to Chicago, or walk through the Loop at night while weighed down with lots of luggage? I was emphatically advised to do the former.), and board my northbound Hiawatha.
Milwaukee! Also the first time I'd been there, and this would be a visit with much more presence... if not over that much of an area. The hotel was a pretty quick and easy walk north from the station, the radio antenna(?) atop it a towering landmark. And I think the person ahead of me may also have been heading to the con, the first in-person sign I saw of it, if so, but the Brony signs were subtle and I was rather a ways behind (see: heavy luggage, recovering from illness).
At the hotel, I checked in -- or, rather attempted to check in. My arrive coincided with them having technical difficulties, so it took me a bit to actually get checked in. But that was sorted out, and I headed up to my room to drop off my luggage.
Incidentally, I ended up on the twelfth floor, and I'd later have reason to be glad for this. The hotel has two sets of lifts, one of which serves the whole building, the other only going up to the 14th floor (that is, the floor directly above the 12th floor). The former set of lifts could get quite congested at times -- but since my room could be accessed with the latter, I only had to use the former to get up to the cider lounge. Well, and down from it.
Incidentally, again, one of those six lifts, and apparently only one, had a button for a twenty-fifth floor. I never got around to having and taking advantage of an opportunity to press it; I wonder if any of the other attendees did?
Anyway, my luggage dropped off, I... wait, hm. Had badge pickup started yet at that point? I think I relaxed in my room a bit first, actually, since it hadn't. But then it did, so I went down and started the con! Linecon, that is!
After some time attending Linecon, though, I picked up my badge and some other things for Ponyville Ciderfest 2022! Then I think headed back up to my room to drop them off, then went in search of food.
Food I found in the pub on the ground floor of the hotel, where I'd end up eating dinner each night I was there. By myself, though it turned out I needn't have at least on... Saturday, I think it was, as Wanderer D and some others were there; he'd later tell me I could have sat with them, but the idea of just sitting with someone else without an active invitation hadn't occurred to me. Hopefully I remember if an opportunity comes up again. :)
Anyway, I had, as I would Friday and Saturday as well, the... I think they were called chicken tenders with french fries and honey mustard? That sounds right. And they seemed to work.
Then I went back up to my room, took a shower (and quite enjoyed it; the shower at home is... well, between the iffy valves and the oil-fired water heater, much more frequent attention is generally needed to the dials, resulting in a less relaxing experience), and went to bed.
FRIDAY
First proper day of the con! For which I think I want to reference con materials! Which are packed, currently, and I do not want to unpack here and now to the degree needed to get to them. So that'll have to wait. But I've gotten this typed to here, at least. :)
And I am home! And mostly unpacked, at the time of typing. Also, I think I may have unfairly maligned our shower at home, at least on a good day after some initial valve adjustment.
I am also tired, however, so I'm currently planning to finish this... some time in the hopefully not too distant future.
Alright! It's a few days later, I've gotten through some of my backlog, and I'm currently procrastinating getting through some more of it, but maybe I can at least do something useful -- writing this -- as part of that procrastination!
Though, by the way, regarding New York Pennsylvania Station, I do still feel like what I suppose we might call Middle Penn Station (as opposed to pre-demolition Old Penn Station and the significant redesigns and construction work that seem to currently be shaping a new New Penn Station (though I do rather hope Penn Station South doesn't go through, as as far as I can tell it's less a useful transit project and more an example of a corrupt deal with a real estate developer that will demolish part of a community, including a number of historic buildings, and incidentally have some minor transit benefits on the side)) was unfairly maligned. Sure, it wasn't Old Penn Station, but I feel like it had its charms! And I think I probably experienced it, multiple times, at perhaps its most underground-warren-of-tunnels-like. Poor thing, being so hated. It wasn't that bad! In my opinion, at least.
...Right, yes, the convention trip. Even though NYP was near both the beginning and the end of the trip for me, most of the trip was spent rather farther west. I was on Friday, I believe, so I'll just go get the con book with my notes in it...
Alright! Er, already said that, but again! :D
So, this first bit, I don't need the book for: I got up, made some tea with the inn-room coffee maker and a bag I'd brought along (at least, I think I did then; I did that multiple times while at the hotel), probably, I'm guessing, took some of the medication I'd also brought along to ease the then-still-ongoing tail end of the recovery from my illness, and then after a bit of waking up went in search of breakfast. I found it in the hotel's breakfast cafe, there, it turned out, somewhat pricey, but also palatable and quite proximate; I'd end up eating breakfast there each day I ate breakfast in Milwaukee, and generally a large enough breakfast from the buffet that I just ate that and dinner in that restaurant in the hotel I already mentioned.
And then, opening ceremonies! After that, I went to the Orchestral Music in the Fandom panel. I don't have much to say about either of those, though I recall them being good.
After that, as I recall, I made my main visit to the vendor hall, where I bought a number of things, some of them as gifts -- and after that, I made what would end up being my only trek out into Milwaukee not between the hotel and the train station, heading to I think it was a nearby FedEx store to buy a mailing tube to take things home in my luggage in and an envelope to mail the gifts I got in; this was successful, and I got to see at least a bit more of the city.
And then, possibly plus a bit of time, not sure, I headed back to my room to change out of the street clothes I'd changed into from my con clothes for the expedition and, in due time, to get ready for the Gala.
Ah, the Gala! This was actually one of the main things I'd been anticipating about the convention, because I'd never been to one before. They had them, as I recall, at at least two of the Bronycons I went to, but I didn't have usable clothes.
This time, thanks to a bit of creativity, some very lucky thrift store finds, and some purchases on Etsy, I did. I don't know if there are any pictures of me dressed for the Gala on the internet, though I'd be interested to know if there are (I did attempt to take one myself, using the camera on my travel laptop, but it came out so poorly I didn't attempt another. (My cellphone does have a camera, but a: I rarely remember that, not being in the habit of taking pictures of things or using it for that purpose, and b: I did once try to figure out how I might get pictures off the phone were I to take them, and failed. In any case, so far as I'm recalling now, the idea of even trying the cellphone camera then didn't occur to me until just a moment ago, as I was typing this.)). It was the most feminine I'd ever dressed by a bit, since I'd previously only tested the hat and the rest of the outfit separately, and by far the most feminine I'd ever dressed where anyone else could see. And it went well, I think! Though I didn't try dancing, spending most of the time sitting down; between my lack of dancing experience and the fact the only appropriate shoes I had were slightly too small (Though I did get complimented on them!), that seemed best. Still, had some conversation, didn't actually eat anything because I'd not been expecting much from the food and hadn't included it in my plans but did learn that apparently it was much better than I'd thought it would be, and that was the quality it usually was, listened to the music and watched people... and was generally just there. Like I said, I think it went well. :)
After the Gala (I wasn't sure, ahead of time, that I'd end up staying for the whole thing, but I did.) I headed back to my room to change back into more comfortable shoes, among other things. And I don't have anything else noted down after that, but I think I just kind of wandered around a bit and looked in on various things? I was curious about the After Dark Vendor Hall, having not been to one before, but I'd found out from someone at the Gala that, rather than being like the normal vendor hall, it was generally pretty packed and not conducive to people wandering in, having a look, and wandering out again, quite possibly without buying anything. I believe I recall getting a look at the line that night and seeing that that did appear to be the case, and while I think I recall looking again the next day, since so many people seemed to have better reasons to take up the limited time available than my curiosity, I never ended up trying to get in there.
And I think I went to bed kind of early? Still recovering from an illness, after all, and quite pleased the day'd gone as well as it had especially given that. And I know I ate dinner at some point, though I don't recall when; it might even have been before the Gala, I'm not sure.
SATURDAY
The full day of the con! Neither opening nor closing ceremonies, but con from start to finish!
I have noted in my con book that I attended the Make Your Mark Chapter 2 Screening, but I think I missed the beginning due to still being at breakfast? Not sure.
After that, though, I went to the Author Meetup For Writers and Fans, and did indeed meet some people! I particularly remember Admiral Biscuit, from whom I finally got an Admiral Biscuit Shirt, Wanderer D, who I didn't even know was at the convention until then, and AlwaysDressesInStyle. There were a number of other people there, too, but apparently names are escaping me at the moment. Sorry!
After that I headed to the Guest of Honor Script Reading, which was fun, and then was still able to catch most of The History of Magic and Writer's Workshop - Dialogue, IIRC, despite them being so close together. After that, looking at its closing time, is presumably when I made that day's visit to the vendor hall, though I'm not sure; I do recall going, though, as at some point that day I got an artist's name it'd turned out I'd not the previous day, and I think it was also this day I bought another thing.
After that I headed to The Gallus Appreciation Panel, which was interesting and more comedic than I'd expected, as I recall. And I think then I headed up, not for the first time(?), to the cider lounge, for cider (I only ever had the cold cider in my visits there this con, but I enjoyed it) and seeing what was going on there. There, as I recall, I met AlwaysDressesInStyle again, who happened to be there, and nice conversation happened.
After that, I'd been planning to go to Cons Before and After Bronies, but after a bit of dithering (ah, alas, for cons scheduling multiple things one wants to attend at the same time is just one of those aspects of the experience) ended up attending G1 Movie Night with Trivia and Prizes! with him, which was fun. I'd also not actually seen that much of G1 before.
After that may have been when I went to dinner that day? Again, I know it happened, and this would also have been, I think, when the sighting by and of (I think) Wanderer D happened. But it might have been at some other time.
After that (...And sorry about the repetition of that phrase here, but better a retrospective blog with that in than no retrospective blog here, I think!) I went to The Mystery of the Mare. It was interesting, though I didn't ask any questions; those I'd thought of, to the extent I'd even done that, were more on the academic side of things, I think, and other people filled the time with questions that seemed like they might be much more practically important to people there.
And then bed!
SUNDAY
Ah, Sunday. Last day of the con, and the day I was heading out (though I think next year, if as I hope it works out, I'll plan to leave Monday). As such, part of the start of the day for me was packing and checking my luggage at the desk, and I spent the day wearing street clothes instead of con clothes.
Still, the convention wasn't quite over yet! I don't recall if I did anything else con-wise before it, but I attended Cartoon Court, which was fun. Though I believe I recall feeling that Princess Celestia was treated rather unfairly in the end. She did, indeed, one way or another, keep the realm stable for a thousand years of sole rule, and if she delegated much at the very end to the Bearers, well, that worked, did it not? Certainly, her handling of things was perhaps imperfect, but hardly worth a ten thousand year banishment to the sun, I think. And as her defense said, well, take her off the throne, as happened in the court, and you eventually get G5's postapocalyptic setting...
But the panel was in good fun, really, of course. :D
I think after that was my last visit to the cider lounge, where there was some more conversation (oh, and I'd not only conversed with AlwaysDressesInStyle there previously) and I had, as I recall, some of the last of the cider. Then I headed down to Convention Storytime, then off to How Ponies Have Helped Us To Find Ourselves.
That one, I missed the beginning of, but I caught most of it, and, well, some heavy stuff was gotten into. I didn't say anything during the panel, but immediately afterward I was one of those to go over and offer some hopefully successful support to someone who'd spoken up about some particularly major problems in their life that they weren't eager to go back to after the con. Happily, they appeared to have much more support than just me, but I hope that the fact I was a random stranger, who still wanted them to succeed, might have helped. Anyway, glad I went to that panel.
I think then I just kind of walked around a bit, and maybe went into Mane Events early, since I saw there wasn't a line? I stood in the back of a corner near the doors and watched the end of the charity auction, which was good but ran long. I was rather anxious by the time Closing Ceremonies actually started, since the train out I was on was the last of the day, but happily, even though I rushed out basically as soon as the con was officially declared over, I got to stay for the whole thing. :)
Then down to the desk, getting my bags, stowing the con stuff I'd had out, and heading off to the station. Turns out I needn't have hurried quite so much, as I got there with a bit of time still to spare -- but I didn't know how long it'd take at the time.
Overall, I found the con a really great experience, and I very much hope to be at next year's. :)
Hopefully without getting sick the week prior! :D
(Though, on the plus side, I'm writing this on Monday, November 14th, and I still seem, at least, to have avoided getting Con Crud.)
...Was there something else I wanted to say about the con? I'm not sure. I feel like there might have been something. Well, I don't think this was it, but as usual, I worry a bit about not getting enough use out of the things I got in the vendor hall, or the registration level bonuses, or the like. Still, at least they support the fandom. ...Hm, no, that wasn't it. Maybe there wasn't something? Ah, well, I'm glad I finally got on Discord before the con, as not only was being on the con's Discord server helpful in planning, it was a useful way to connect with some people I met at the con -- they could just look me up on the server and contact me there.
...Not sure that was it either. Oh well.
In any case, though, the end of the con wasn't the end of the trip for me, or even the start of my trip home.
STILL SUNDAY BUT AFTER THE CON
So, there I sat in Milwaukee Intermodal Station, surrounded by non-bronies for what felt like the first time in a while. It felt like I'd left somewhat abruptly, too, possibly because I in fact had. A bit of post-con depression already, as I recall. Then my train to Chicago arrived, I boarded, and I think maybe dozed a bit? Not sure. It's not like there was much to see outside, though; on the long-distance runs on the trip, I could turn off the lights in my room and have a better chance of seeing things outside, but in coach, the window was mostly black. Though I think where I was sitting on this run was in enough shadow I could see a bit? Not sure.
After arriving in Chicago Union Station, I made my way out to the taxis, and from there it was a short ride to my hotel for two nights in Chicago, the Hampton Inn Majestic Chicago Theatre District. Interesting old building; the hotel is actually built into a tall building on top of a theatre, as I understand it, and the lobby isn't actually on the ground floor as a result, just a small room with elevator access and the like. Well, I rode up to the lobby, checked in, then headed to my room. That ended up being on only the eighth floor, as I recall, so not much of a view, but it had a bed, a full bathroom, internet access, windows... Anyway, it was still fairly nice. So, to bed. Though without dinner, as I didn't want to venture out into the city, which I'd been warned against at night by someone at Union Station and even more by someone in the cider lounge at one point, and the hotel only had some vending machines (though I did actually eat twice in CUS from a pretty nice vending machine called a Farmer's Fridge, these were the more ordinary soda-and-junk-food sort).
...Did I eat in the pub at the hotel again before leaving Milwaukee? It'd have had to have been before going to Mane Events the last time. Hm. I don't think I did, but I find now I'm not entirely sure.
MONDAY
Monday, my full day in Chicago! I got up and went to the free breakfast the hotel did offer, rather hungry, and found it good. Just good, this time, though I've more to say on that.
After breakfast, I headed out not yet on my main planned expedition of the day but instead to find a post office. After a bit of walking, I found one, posted something to Estee's P.O. box, and headed back to the hotel (getting briefly and slightly lost on the way, but no harm done). I got ready for the main expedition, and headed out again, to Millennium Station!
There, ah, well, I'm afraid I may have accidentally forced a transit worker to play the guessing game "Confused Tourist Or Nefarious Terrorist?" through having multiple sequential misunderstandings of how things worked at the station and ending up where and when it turned out I was not supposed to be, but hopefully that didn't result in too much stress; in any case, I was indeed a confused tourist, so no acts of terrorism took place on Metra Electric that day that I know of, certainly none involving me, and I was apparently sufficiently convincing on that true point that I left the station going the way I'd planned and without having a chat with the police first. So, er, oops, but no lasting harm done, seems like. Tip: apparently, even though if there were any signs to this effect I didn't see them, one is supposed to wait above platform level for the train to be announced, then head down, not just amiably stroll down to the platform and follow a worker through the door they've just opened on the train bearing the number of the one next to depart.
So, I judged it best to not try for the railfan window (a window at the front or back, particularly and in this case the front, on rolling stock so equipped; the cab on EMUs of the design I was on, gallery cars, is on the upper level) on that run, even though I was sitting right next to it, and instead just sat in the seat and tried to look harmless and eager to comply with the rules as soon as someone actually explained them to me. Which, hey, did appear to work.
Soon I was getting off at the station I'd planned, and then it was a quick walk over to the Museum of Science and Industry. Where I spent about five hours, though it didn't seem that long, including lunch; they've a fair bit of neat stuff there.
Then back to the station as the sun was going down (and this time I did take advantage of the railfan window), and then back from Millennium Station to my hotel before dark. I contemplated going just a short distance over to a restaurant I'd seen, but I'd had a large lunch, and by the time I felt ready for a dinner it was definitely night outside, and I think by that point I'd had a shower already too... and basically, I decided not to bother with it for a combination of reasons, and had a "dinner" of, IIRC, a couple of possibly overpriced bags of chips. But the hotel hadn't claimed to have any food other than the breakfasts, IIRC, so. [shrugs]
And then to bed.
TUESDAY
So, the breakfasts. I, as I recall, went down to eat this day before finishing packing, because I was hungry and the end of breakfast service loomed larger than checkout time. And I would like to particularly highlight the person running the breakfasts there here, one Ismeta (she gave me a card with her name after I gave her a large tip), because I think she really went above and beyond. I'd seen her with other guests the previous day and saw her with other guests this day, and she seemed pretty eager to take care of them, but when it happened to come up that I had some digestive sensitivities (the key one in question I think might not technically count as an allergy, from things I recall some people said, but I'm not sure -- anyway, point is, I really want to avoid oregano) that were restricting my options somewhat (Tuesday's spread was a bit different that Monday's), she actually offered to go back into the kitchen and make something specially for me that wasn't offered in the basic spread either day I was there. I accepted, and it was good. And, again, these are free breakfasts; they're included in just having a room there. And I mentioned the vending machines (Though there was some other food of a similar sort behind the front desk, and I think maybe I could have actually asked for that, as I am a Hilton Honors member? I'm not sure. Still, at least from what I saw, I might have spent a bit less money, but the food would have been the same sort I got from the vending machine. Hopefully I'm not mischaracterizing that; there is at least one other way I underestimated the hotel's services.). If there'd been no one there are at all and a buffet consisting of a selection of commodity cereals, I don't think I'd have been surprised or disappointed. Instead, service like what we, and I, got? Wow! So I've been trying to talk her up a bit; the rest of the hotel was pretty much as good as I'd expected (though the building was perhaps a bit more interestingly historic than I'd expected), but her breakfast service really stood out positively to me.
(Okay, maybe I'm a bit biased here, given how much difficulty the various peculiarities of my digestive system can cause me when looking for food away from home, and how much I appreciate something like that as a result, but as far as I saw I don't think I was getting better service than anyone else there. My impression was that she just really tried to take care of everyone staying there.)
So, again, that's Ismeta's breakfasts at the Hampton Inn Majestic Chicago Theatre District, if you're considering visiting the city.
...Anyway. :D
So, after breakfast, I headed back up to my room, IIRC did some more planning and some other things on the computer, packed, and headed down to check out. Then I called a cab to the station (This being the second cab I used in Chicago, to be clear; this time wasn't late at night, but I decided it would still be easier than walking with my luggage. When not carrying my luggage, I used foot travel or transit.) and headed down to the ground floor to wait. Where I was told by an employee of the hotel that the hotel could have called the cab for me and gotten one much more quickly, so... oh well on that. It still didn't take all that long for the cab to arrive, at least (though I'd spent some time on hold on the phone trying to get one), I'd guess in part because I was going from around the center of the Loop to a pretty close place where it's apparently profitable enough for cabs to just sit and wait for passengers to show up.
So, a quick cab ride to CUS (and, indeed, someone else there was in the process of hiring the cab even as I was getting my luggage out of it, IIRC), and I headed to the Metropolitan Lounge to store my bags again. Then, off on the day's adventure!
I headed south through the station and connecting passageways to a fairly new pedestrian access point, the closest, as far as I know, CUS entry/exit point to an L station. In this case, Clinton station on the Blue Line. I'd previously bought a day pass, so soon I was on a train headed back towards the Loop.
Now, my earlier plans had had me transferring to the Red Line at Jackson and riding that to Roosevelt, but either this day or the day before, I think it was, I'd realized that I could instead get more of an experience, or at least view, of the city by getting off the Blue Line at Clark/Lake and using the Orange Line between there and Roosevelt. The Red Line is fully underground, as far as I know, for the portion I'd be using, as was the Blue Line, but using the Orange Line like that would give me a full run around the Loop.
So, that's what I did. Off at Clark/Lake, made my may up to the elevated platform serving the Orange Line, rode that down to Roosevelt, and then walked over to the Field Museum of Natural History.
That was also neat. My top priority was their Ancient Egypt section, but I had time left after I finished there and saw some other things as well -- if by the end in something of a rush. Still, I reasoned, as I recall, that seeing the galleries I quickly walked through was still seeing them more than not seeing them at all.
Then it was back to Roosevelt, though I was getting a bit nervous about the time of day at this point (and I recall passing someone shouting about... something or other on the street, but fortunately I was able to keep by some other people at the time), but I got back to CUS safely.
Then, as I recall, I ate my second meal from that nice vending machine (oh, which I see, looking back, I'd already mentioned before the text I'm adding to this today) and waited for my train.
Boarding the Cardinal was, happily, much simpler than boarding the Hiawatha here had been; as I was in sleeper, I was basically able to just wave my ticket and get accepted for early boarding.
So, soon I was on the train and settling in. The Viewliner II I was on was somewhat concerning worn already, given how new it was, and, as I think I mentioned, the internet access it was supposed to have wasn't working. The thermostat also stopped working at some point, but fortunately the temperature trended to a little on the cold side, and I had a blanket. The bedroom (my first time taking a trip in one) as a whole was comfortable, I thought, neither too small nor too large, and the sink had good (rather than then super high I was familiar with from Viewliner I roomettes) water pressure and some convenient controls. My SCA (Sleeping Car Attendant) was good, I thought, and after a nice dinner (which indeed was, as I'd requested, just the entree and the side salad, no roll or dressing) I made up the top bunk for myself (after an earlier brief conversation with the SCA on it in which she offered a helpful suggestion but also had me confirm I relieved Amtrak of any liability should I be injured doing it myself, which seemed fair to me -- and, as expected, I managed it just fine (though the suggestion was indeed helpful), so that didn't come into play) and went to bed.
WEDNESDAY
I got up, put the bed away, and basically had a pleasant day listening to podcasts, watching the scenery roll by, and enjoying the meals (I am so glad they happened to have some good-to-me food available at the time of my trip). Though the window was rather dirty, which somewhat impaired the view once the relative positions of the train and sun started getting a lot of glare on it -- but we were past the most scenic bits by then anyway.
We were mostly actually ahead of schedule, from what I observed (I might not have had an internet connection, but I'd brought a PDF timetable with me on my computer). Got a little delayed around Charlottesville, IIRC, but not problematically so... but then whatever it was that happened in Washington happened.
The run from Washington to NYC had a bit of a pall cast over it from that, as we left so late I basically didn't see any way we could make up that much time -- and, indeed, we didn't. Still, I thanked and tipped the SCA on the way out in NYP, because, as I recall remarking, everything on the trip that she'd been responsible for had gone well.
THURSDAY
And now we're basically at where I inadvertently started this blog post in medias res.
Following that part, I, IIRC, bought a couple of food bars from a store that was just opening as the station started waking up, then indeed caught the 0547 home. I spent most of the ride(s, given there was a transfer from electric to diesel rolling stock involved) dozing, as I recall, but since I was going to the end of the line I didn't have to worry about missing my stop.
I got off at my local station, and then slooooowwwwwly walked home, tired and with heavy luggage and now on highly familiar ground with no particular reason to hurry.
I got home, I unpacked, did some other stuff, and thanks to maybe the train dozing and possibly a second wind still got to bed later than I probably ought to have. Eh. :D
Anyway! That was at least some degree of overview of my trip to Ponyville Ciderfest 2022! I had a good time, even with a few down points (And, hey, as I recall reflecting in the last bit of waiting for the 0547, being that tired and wanting to get home that much was at least completely displacing any post-con depression from that leg of the trip!), and I'm very glad I was able to go. :)
Oh, right, and I did just remember, as I was preparing to post this, something else I did think of to say: one thing that came up in conversation with other FIMFiction people at the con was that it would probably be okay for me to just... outright skip, or at least skim, more blog posts. It's an idea I'd been struggling with for a while, but, well, even if I used to be able to fully keep up with pretty much everything that crossed my feed, "everything" has increased over the years, and my available time's not kept up -- to some extent, it's done the reverse. So... Yeah, sorry about that, but I am so, so behind on FIMFiction at this point, with I think over a hundred feed posts, not even counting the stories I'm behind on. And knowing I am so behind, and thinking I should try to get every last bit of that done, even while more keeps coming in as I do that and other non-pony demands on my time don't exactly politely pause for me either... well, I think it's pressure that is part of the reason I'm not getting more done here, given that part of me looks at that mountain upon a mountain, looks at some other activity I could be doing without such pressure, and tries to pull me in the latter direction.
Hopefully this will help, and maybe I'll start being more active on here again. :)
(Certainly, I'm still interested in MLP and in fanfiction and in a number of the specific people here, but, argh, time, time...)
So... there we go! First con retrospective blog I've done, as far as I'm still recalling! Somewhat rambling in places, perhaps, overly terse in others, sort of accidentally begins in medias res... yep.
But it's more retrospective blog post than no retrospective blog post, so hopefully that's good. :)
Sounds like quite the trip! And you answered my question that I asked in your other blog post in this entry (what trains you used to get there; not sure any of them roll through my area but it's a thought for next year). It was a pleasure meeting you, as stated previously, and I hope we can meet up at another con in the future!
5697933
"Sounds like quite the trip!"
It was, aye!
"And you answered my question that I asked in your other blog post in this entry (what trains you used to get there; not sure any of them roll through my area but it's a thought for next year)."
Ah, well, hopefully the extra detail I provided in my answer in the comment there might be useful to you. :)
I'll link to this, too, in case you find it useful, or even just interesting: https://asm.transitdocs.com/
(Amtrak also has an official equivalent: https://www.amtrak.com/track-your-train.html
Which does actually run better on my travel computer, I think, than the first link I provided above.)
(And of course, there's the link I provided in the other reply to the timetables, because it can in fact be useful to have a timetable when planning a train trip, Amtrak.)
(...Seriously, one somewhat telling piece of evidence that there's a market for passenger rail in the United States is, I think, that despite Amtrak doing so much wrong, to the point that it's sometimes plausible that it's done something because someone in its own management is trying to deliberately sabotage service to try and get it shut down, plenty of people of all sorts still use the service.
I mean, just to be clear, I don't want to imply that there aren't people working for Amtrak who very much want to provide good service and do the best they can to do that. It's just that there are also people, some prominent in management, who... ehhh... seem to maybe not so much be that, or at the very least have... questionable competence. And the company seems to sometimes be trying to move in multiple different contradictory directions at once, some of them possibly deliberately self-destructive. And then there are the ever-shifting political winds Amtrak has to deal with...
It can be a bit of a mess.)
"It was a pleasure meeting you, as stated previously"
Thanks; also I believe as stated previously, it was nice meeting you, too. :)
Though with my memory for faces and such, I doubt I'd recognize you now. I'm still surprised I managed to recognize you that time we happened to be in the same lift car while the con was still going on. :D
"and I hope we can meet up at another con in the future"
Aye!
You had quite the adventure but sounds like it was a great time overall! Some of the best trips have unexpected turns, which can be frustrating, but often make for great stories and good memories. Glad you had fun and spent time with friends…that’s the best part of conventions
5698519
"You had quite the adventure but sounds like it was a great time overall! Some of the best trips have unexpected turns, which can be frustrating, but often make for great stories and good memories."
Aye and aye! :)
"Glad you had fun and spent time with friends…that’s the best part of conventions
"
Thanks. :)
I was nice to see you there and chat for a bit. Don't hesitate to say hi next time we're at the same con and you spot me if I haven't spotted you first!
Well, at least at my table!
5698742
"I was nice to see you there and chat for a bit."
Oh, well, thanks. :)
"Don't hesitate to say hi next time we're at the same con and you spot me if I haven't spotted you first!"
I'll try to remember that! :)
"Well, at least at my table!
"
Right, yeah; I think if I just sat down at some random other person's table and said that it was okay, Wanderer D had invited me to sit with other people, some questions might be asked. :D