Made It To G-FEST!

Above, O'Hare International Airport's hotel shuttle pick-up area.

I made it into the Chicago area for G-FEST XVI today. The flight in had to be the smoothest (and we arrived early) I've had in a while. The plane seemed to taxi forever after landing. A couple of ladies near me thought they could skip getting a cab into downtown as it appeared the plane would take them directly to their hotel.

The weather here was overcast and in the 60s. This sure is more pleasant than the oven I left (i.e., the San Fernando Valley) back home.

On other oddity, my suitcase was one of the first to come out on the turnstyle in the baggage claims at O'Hare. I had about a 20 minute wait for the courtesy shuttle from the Crowne Plaza. Speaking of which, after departing the hotel courtesy shuttle pick-up area, we drove down a street a bit and suddenly stopped to pick up a passenger who flagged the shuttle. It was August Ragone.

The usual gang was at the hotel including Randy Giesey, Lenell Bridges, J. D. Lees, Robert Scott Field and others. I saw Kenji Sahara going into the hotel while outside having a smoke with August Ragone.

My weekend roommate, Stan Hyde made it in just long enough to unpack and then head over to Bill Gudmundson's for a dinner.



As I had been up since 3:00 AM after only 4 hours of sleep, I conked out on the sofa (above) in our room for a nap that lasted five hours. That was refreshing!

On the issue of the remodeling of the hotel, the ballrooms looked untouched, but several people have reported the rooms being smaller, but they didn't complain about it. In fact, they provided positive feedback on them. The rooms seem to have flat-screen plasma television sets mounted on the walls. In our suite, there's one in the living room area (I am staying in this room and sleeping on the convertible sofa) and one in the bedroom where Stan is sleeping. The suite also has a bar (below).



Anyway, we made it in and it is almost one in the morning here. So I am going to bed. Ciao!

UPDATE (7/3/09): After a good night's sleep, I headed down to the food court. I purchased a small coffee (the stupid coffee-maker in the room doesn't want to work) and a fresh-baked cinnamon roll. The tab: $9.12. The cinnamon roll was $4.95 and the coffee was $3.25. Those prices are bad enough, but the tax was $.92! That's what you get in a city run by liberals.