FKO, part 1
Mar. 29th, 2007 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beige_alertMy FilkOntario and Niagara Falls trip was wonderful.
I ended up driving a total of 1426 miles (2295km), with the trip to FKO being 662 miles (1066km), which sounded like it was going to be a major pain, but it actually wasn’t bad at all. I did have mostly pretty good weather, and only the usual Chicago traffic congestion, but I also had the good sense to plan lots of time.
The trip to OVFF is always a matter of starting early on Friday, arriving after the action has started, and leaving early on Sunday to arrive home at night. Then, get up early the next day for work. On this trip I first drove to Port Huron and spent the night there, crossed the border in the morning and arrived at the con hotel before noon. I stayed until Monday, the drive to the falls is less than an hour and a half, and after spending the night there I set off homeward with no specific plans on where to stop. I spent the night in Coldwater Michigan, near the border with Indiana, and from there the rest of the trip was a reasonably short drive that had me in Milwaukee before 3PM. At no time was I feeling any pressure to try to reach a destination before I was “too late.”
One thing I learned on this trip was the Interstate 69 intersects Interstate 96 at Lansing, Michigan. People have got to get lost there. The whole time I was near that interchange I kept thinking “sixty-nine. Six-Nine. Not the other one. Six-Nine.”
Driving in Canada is not much different from the United States, though some of the signs are a bit different. Kilometers are plenty familiar to me, but I never did figure out exactly which signs indicate that the right lane will exit and I need to change lanes and which indicate that there will be a new lane appearing for the exit. Then again, I have that problem in the US sometimes, too. No problems, though.
I did notice that, while cruising along at exactly the 100km/hr speed limit, truckers would want to pass me, but didn’t want to go more than maybe 100.5 km/hr while passing. I saw two Smart Fortwos on the road near Toronto, a car so adorable you want to hug it, and not available in the US. I also noticed a different reaction to gasoline at slightly under one Canadian dollar per liter from the US residents than from the UK residents.
Nice things about Canada include taking all those coins out of your pocket and realizing that with the one and two dollar coins, you’ve got about five bucks there and could actually buy something with it. In the US, you’d have about $0.89, and it’s just a nuisance.
I ran into![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aunty_marion first, for the first of many, many hugs, and spent some time by the piano with her as other n’early Music members came by to join us. deborah_c soon arrived, for the first of many, many hugs, and she showed off her very considerable skills on the piano. Eventually a gaggle of people that included callylevy, pola_bear, little_cinnamon and others I’m forgetting had an animated and hilarious discussion of their plans for buying electronic bits and dessert. They eventually got electronic bits and the gang including deborah_c, maverick_weirdo and myself went across the street for food of some kind. The plan was supposedly for dessert, but we mostly ended up with actual non-desert food. Thus I was lured away by women under false pretenses. Not that I’m complaining.
By the time we returned things were beginning to get started. I got my con badge, and while in line for that metmaedbh7 in person for the first time. The whole weekend was filled with “Oh! That’s who you are!” moments, really.
There were many highly creative interpretations of the Tie and Tails theme. Empath had a tie on in addition to the tail he always has, andbookwyrm_com had tied tales. deborah_c is a very stunning zebra indeed.
phillip2637 Did a great job with his concert. sexybass did a great concert, flying solo because decadentdave was not yet at the con due, saddly, to a death in his family. We were then treated to the first of the many nMC performances. They are truly a delight.
I ended up in a very nice circle Friday night, in that room with the stairs. I had the chance to sing the other version ofaryana_filker‘s “Still Beautiful,” the German version, with all of Urban Tapestry present. Since they introduced me to Aryana that was something I really enjoyed having the chance to do.
I ended up driving a total of 1426 miles (2295km), with the trip to FKO being 662 miles (1066km), which sounded like it was going to be a major pain, but it actually wasn’t bad at all. I did have mostly pretty good weather, and only the usual Chicago traffic congestion, but I also had the good sense to plan lots of time.
The trip to OVFF is always a matter of starting early on Friday, arriving after the action has started, and leaving early on Sunday to arrive home at night. Then, get up early the next day for work. On this trip I first drove to Port Huron and spent the night there, crossed the border in the morning and arrived at the con hotel before noon. I stayed until Monday, the drive to the falls is less than an hour and a half, and after spending the night there I set off homeward with no specific plans on where to stop. I spent the night in Coldwater Michigan, near the border with Indiana, and from there the rest of the trip was a reasonably short drive that had me in Milwaukee before 3PM. At no time was I feeling any pressure to try to reach a destination before I was “too late.”
One thing I learned on this trip was the Interstate 69 intersects Interstate 96 at Lansing, Michigan. People have got to get lost there. The whole time I was near that interchange I kept thinking “sixty-nine. Six-Nine. Not the other one. Six-Nine.”
Driving in Canada is not much different from the United States, though some of the signs are a bit different. Kilometers are plenty familiar to me, but I never did figure out exactly which signs indicate that the right lane will exit and I need to change lanes and which indicate that there will be a new lane appearing for the exit. Then again, I have that problem in the US sometimes, too. No problems, though.
I did notice that, while cruising along at exactly the 100km/hr speed limit, truckers would want to pass me, but didn’t want to go more than maybe 100.5 km/hr while passing. I saw two Smart Fortwos on the road near Toronto, a car so adorable you want to hug it, and not available in the US. I also noticed a different reaction to gasoline at slightly under one Canadian dollar per liter from the US residents than from the UK residents.
Nice things about Canada include taking all those coins out of your pocket and realizing that with the one and two dollar coins, you’ve got about five bucks there and could actually buy something with it. In the US, you’d have about $0.89, and it’s just a nuisance.
I ran into
aunty_marion first, for the first of many, many hugs, and spent some time by the piano with her as other n’early Music members came by to join us. deborah_c soon arrived, for the first of many, many hugs, and she showed off her very considerable skills on the piano. Eventually a gaggle of people that included callylevy, pola_bear, little_cinnamon and others I’m forgetting had an animated and hilarious discussion of their plans for buying electronic bits and dessert. They eventually got electronic bits and the gang including deborah_c, maverick_weirdo and myself went across the street for food of some kind. The plan was supposedly for dessert, but we mostly ended up with actual non-desert food. Thus I was lured away by women under false pretenses. Not that I’m complaining.By the time we returned things were beginning to get started. I got my con badge, and while in line for that met
maedbh7 in person for the first time. The whole weekend was filled with “Oh! That’s who you are!” moments, really.There were many highly creative interpretations of the Tie and Tails theme. Empath had a tie on in addition to the tail he always has, and
bookwyrm_com had tied tales. deborah_c is a very stunning zebra indeed.phillip2637 Did a great job with his concert. sexybass did a great concert, flying solo because decadentdave was not yet at the con due, saddly, to a death in his family. We were then treated to the first of the many nMC performances. They are truly a delight. I ended up in a very nice circle Friday night, in that room with the stairs. I had the chance to sing the other version of
aryana_filker‘s “Still Beautiful,” the German version, with all of Urban Tapestry present. Since they introduced me to Aryana that was something I really enjoyed having the chance to do.
