EVE Vegas 2017: The Travel Day

I'm sitting somewhat comfortably in my room in The Linq on a beautiful Thursday morning typing out a blog post with a way-overpriced pumpkin latte and a bag of chips. Sorry, but when the untaxed price of a grande pumpkin spice latte is 23% higher than the price of the same product in Chicago's special taxing district covering the Loop after taxes, then you know the prices are jacked up. Then again, the fact that I couldn't use my Starbucks reward points to purchase said overpriced latte probably doesn't help my mood.

My first 24 hours on vacation was kind of like EVE. Sometimes great and sometimes frustrating. Despite a call from work, I was packed, garbage taken out, dishes washed, bed made, etc, a full 20 minutes before the pickup time. The limo service I use once again came through like a champ, arriving 10 minutes early, meaning after I finished fiddling around, I left exactly on time. The drive was smooth and fast, the American employees doing the curbside check-in had me processed in two minutes, and I breezed through the TSA check point. Time from leaving my house to clearing airport security: 45 minutes. Yes!

The American terminal at O'Hare International Airport is really nice and has a lot of eating choices. I wound up picking up a fish sandwich at McDonald's for lunch and a pumpkin spice latte at the Starbucks across the aisle from my gate a couple of hours later. The only bad thing that happened was I started to get a case of the sniffles right before boarding the flight. Well, something happened to American's computer system, but as I had a physical boarding pass, I wasn't affected.

The flight itself was pretty good. I spent a little extra money to get a seat with extra leg room, which I need due to getting a little older. As an additional perk, the middle seat in my row was empty, which was really nice. The flight did have to sit at the gate an extra ten minutes, which meant getting into Las Vegas 10 minutes late, but that's not a big deal. I spent the four-hour flight outlining a future blog post on my view of the Gallente Federation and listening to EVE Online parody songs. Oh, and the sniffles got worse.

Things started going really pear-shaped travelling from the airport to The Linq. Looking at Google Maps, the distance is 2.6 miles. The trip by shuttle bus took 70-75 minutes. By way of comparison, travelling from Keflavik International airport to a hotel in downtown Reykjavik when I travel to Iceland for Fanfest typically takes under an hour, with the Flybus typically covering the 50 kilometers from the airport to the bus terminal in 45 minutes.

The hotel itself I'm still up in the air about. I don't like the layout. I actually got lost for a bit as I went to the wrong elevator bank. I discovered I'm on the same floor as the spa and fitness center, which means I'll probably run into some of the folks from Fitfleet. I ran into J McClain walking out of the fitness center this morning while running down to Starbucks this morning.

My room number has 5 digits..... Guaranteed lost later tonight

— Dreydan Trovirr (@DreydanTrovirr) October 4, 2017

I'm not the only one getting confused, either. I ran into Random McNally of the High Drag podcast and he said he found the layout a bit confusing also. But he also seems to like the place after getting acclimatized.

My first swag of the convention

Plans never survive contact with reality on the ground, and my meal plans are no different. Random recommended the Hash House. The restaurant is a little pricey, but the food is good and the portions are huge. Sounds like the place to go before going to the Open Comms show. So I'll go to the Hash House for a late lunch and hit up Holstein's in the Cosmopolitan after the OC. Hopefully I'll run into Crossing Zebras' writer Dire Necessity if he doesn't read this and let him know.

I did have one more problem in my room. Connecting to the hotel wi-fi. When I tried to connect, all I got was a connection to wi-fi, but no internet connectivity. That wouldn't do. So I went to call someone from my phone. No dial tone with the phone. Ugh! So I went down to the desk and found out I shouldn't need any instructions. I left frustrated and wasn't as nice as I should have been. After taking 15 steps, I ran into J McClain and his lovely wife and he asked me how things were going. He probably heard more than he wanted. Sorry J! Then, as usually happens when J stands in one place for any length of time, a crowd started to form, so I made my goodbyes and went back to my room.

The problem with the wi-fi? Apparently The Linq's site triggered something that required me to reconfirm my security settings in Windows 10. Once I performed that task, I had wi-fi and internet connectivity. I wonder if that's because I leave Cortana turned off as much as possible and the Microsoft programming makes life more difficult until you start using her. Hey, I think that's a perfectly reasonable piece of tinfoil!

As I finish up typing this post, local time is now after 11am, which means it's time to start exploring the city. Or at least the famous Vegas strip. I have my new camera I bought for Fanfest this year and I should go out and play tourist. Oh, and try to find out if Dirk MacGirk is still alive and find out where the Open Comms show is broadcasting from tonight.

UPDATE: The location of the Open Comms broadcast tonight.

PSA: Open Comms will be Live tonight from the #EVEVegas event area at the top of the lobby escalator. 6PM Vegas time. #tweetfleet #B4Shots

— Dirk MacGirk (@dirkmacgirk) October 5, 2017