We’re here, upside down and dangling off the bottom of the world. The change keeps falling out of our pockets.

The trip took forever was not without its stresses and unpleasantries. V-Australia was great, but United Airlines sucks sour weasels.

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Looking forward to meeting my Aussie readers.

Come to worldcon! Nothing like it!

See you all Down Under.

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As much as I hate flying… or rather, what flying has become, thanks to the airlines and the TSA… I love long drives. Seeing the country as you pass through it, rather than just flying over it. Road trips are especially great if you can get off the Interstates. Stopping to eat at little mom & pop eateries, taking in the small towns, visiting the roadside attractions (the weirder, the better).

Our plan was to travel to ConQuest by road in a two-car caravan, with our Aussie friends Stephen Boucher and Janice Gelb. Sad to say, Parris came down with a killer cold and had to bow out, so two cars shrunk down to one… but Melinda Snodgrass made a last minute decision to join us over breakfast at Tecolote, and come Wednesday morning we headed off to Kansas City.

We all missed Parris, but it was a great trip anyway. Well, aside from the food. Mom and pop did not come through for us this time, I fear. A lot of mediocre eateries.

But the roadside attractions were great. Cement dinosaurs and real dino tracks in Clayton, New Mexico. The replica bomb crater in Boise City, Oklahoma (only mainland American city to be bombed during WWII) which almost had Melinda die of laughing. Hooker, Oklahoma, which seems to sell two kinds of t-shirts: ones extolling Jesus, and ones cashing in on the name “Hooker.” The Straight Road of Guyman, Oklahoma (it’s straight! really straight!! for a long way!!!). In Liberal, Kansas, we bought flying monkeys at Dorothy’s Oz House, though Stephen would not let us take the tour (he has a terrible fear of munchkins) and stayed at a motel that looked like a prison (though it proved to be surprisingly comfortable) on Pancake Road. Dodge City’s Boot Hill attraction and western museum has grown much more impressive since my last visit in 1978. In Greenburg, Kansas, we visited the Big Well (#1 of the Eight Wonders of Kansas) and I bought t-shirts and mugs to help the town rebuild (it was devastated by a tornado a few years back, but is rebuilding as a green community). Alas, the Cosmodrome in Hutchinson, Kansas was closed by the time we reached it… but it does look cool, with a full-sized Atlas and Mercury Redstone standing outside. Maybe a rival to Alamagordo’s space museum, and a “definite” the next time we take a road trip to Kansas City. We finally found something good to eat in Emporia, but by then it was dark.

So after that it was KC and Conquest, one of my favorite regional cons. I’ll write about that later. Maybe.

Flew home on Monday. It wasn’t the same.

Nothing beats a road trip with friends.

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One thing I’m really really bad at is writing trip reports. I always have good intentions, especially when headed overseas, but whenever I get back from a long trip I find myself buried in emails, bills, snail mail, deadlines, and other pressing matters, and by the time I dig myself out from under it’s time to get back to work.

I was sorting through some of my photos this evening, however, and I came across some pictures from our visit to Spain in 2008 that brought back some wonderful memories. The Spanish fans were really amazing, and the annual summer literary festival in Gijon, Semana Negra, is like no other event I’ve ever been to. If you ever get a chance to attend, do. Parris and I have been twice now, and I expect we’ll be back again someday.

Meanwhile, although it’s way too late to write a trip report, I thought I would share some of the pictures with you guys.

Here’s a panel from Semana Negra. Me and Scott Bakker and Diego, the most amazing translator.

This was from a party that the Spanish fans threw for me in Gijon. Many of them were in costume. Herewith me and a mass o’ Melisandres.

And here’s Parris with the men of the Night’s Watch:

Some of the men of the Night’s Watch were actually women, of course. (Damn, why didn’t I think to make Jon Snow a really cute girl?)

This one breaks my heart. It’s me with the specially engraved sword that was presented to me by the members of the fan group Asshai.

Alas, this was one of the swords that was stolen when my office was burglarized last year.
Since it’s engraved to me, I actually hoped the cops might be able to recover it, but of course not. If anyone ever sees a sword like this in a flea market or pawn shop… well, it won’t be hard to recognize with the engraving…

There’s lots more fond memories that I don’t have pictures for… but Spain is an amazing place, and we WILL be back one day.

(Portugal was great as well. I’ll post those pictures next).

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