The hotel did not have my camera as of today. So, I need to wait for Motor City Furry Con's staff to answer their e-mail. I grant I'm slow answering my e-mail but I'm not staff.
So let's try a trip report. As Thursday, packing day, developed and ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger drove down to her parents' to drop off Athena and attended an online meeting of her philosophy reading group. And we realized as usual there wouldn't be time to do everything and get to bed in time to make Opening Ceremonies. So what was the first thing after Opening Ceremonies we might want to attend? That would be about 2 pm, and something called the Left-Center-Right sticker trading panel, and after that, a regular un-themed sticker and pin trading session. bunnyhugger was glad to see sticker trading at Motor City Furry Con 2024 and picking out some of her many stickers that she was comfortable trading away would be one of the other things keeping her up Thursday night to do.
Our goal was setting off Friday about noon, and we were only about fifteen minutes late for that. This should have got us to Ypsilanti and the convention hotel in plenty of time for 2 pm except that we didn't realize how many dense construction zones we would pass, including one spot where the traffic came to a stop. Fortunately for just a few minutes, but still, we were pulling into the con hotel's parking lot with under ten minutes to spare.
Also the con hotel has a new bad thing. The overloaded parking lot now has a gate, and an attendant just standing around out in the weather in a ridiculously ad hoc fashion, with parking in the hotel lot $15 a day. The lot was designed like a normal parking lot, with long rows that open onto streets on both sides, and all those open ends on one side were chained off except for the parking attendant's gate.
You would think that having to pay extra to park would encourage furries to carpool in and relieve some pressure on the overloaded lot. You would be wrong. The lot was as full as ever. The attendant asked if was there for the convention and if we wanted to park. He sold me a parking ticket for the dashboard and said there were three or four spots left. So at least there was the promise that the lot attendant would tell us whether there was any point going in. This would not last; by the end of Saturday the attendant was just wishing us luck and I don't think the attendant on Sunday had any idea whether there were spots available.
A good question: was the parking pass good for one day or for the whole weekend? On Saturday they accepted the parking pass I had in the car for entry. On Sunday they charged me another fifteen bucks. It's not like the passes were color-coded by day; these were all green. Maybe they knew what ticket numbers were being issued that day but then why was my Friday pass good on Saturday? I suspect parking lot discipline completely broke down under the weight of furries trying to park. That said, the only time I was completely unable to find a parking space there was Saturday just before the fursuit parade, the one time when absolutely everyone would be at the convention. That time there wasn't even any space available in the overflow lot, and I had to park in the shopping center across the highway. It wasn't quite as long as a hike back to our hotel would have been, but it wasn't that much short. bunnyhugger was cross about that even though I'd been able to drop her off, and pick her up, just by driving through, and I didn't miss any of the parade.
Despite the fear we wouldn't have time to get through registration before the event started, we had no trouble. There wasn't a line, and they were able to give us our con badges with only enough delay to print the things out. And then we would make a sad discovery, before another sad discovery that would change our plans for the night.
On that cliffhanger now let's enjoy more of the Cass County Carousel. You know what they've got?
Giraffes! A bunch of giraffes, behind a chariot with, as traditional, cherubs or something.
Hey, a tiger! When do you ever see one of those on an antique carousel?
Uh-oh, tiger gone and attacked bunnyhugger. How embarrassing!
Another carousel ride, with the ring arm ready to extend. Around the top of the building you can see handprints from people who'd made small donations to the carousel preservation and the new building.
The G.A.Dentzel sign promising the latest improved carrousel, just like the Kiddie Kingdom Carousel at Cedar Point.
And here's the token, good for a free ride, that you get for grabbing the brass ring! bunnyhugger got this by talking with the ride operator a lot and being interested in what he had to say, but still, that counts. Next ride, she got one by actually grabbing the brass ring.
Trivia: After his 1670 trial for being a Quaker[1], William Penn, found not guilty would have been released except that he refused on principle to pay a fine for refusing to take his hat off in the courtroom. Source: The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power, Deirdre Mask. [1] Technically, for practicing a non-Church-of-England religious assembly of more than five people. The jury refused the judge's repeated orders to find him (and William Mead) guilty despite his being incredibly guilty, and the case would go onto establish the independence of juries, and that jury members could not be punished merely for returning an incorrect verdict. (Incorrect in that the jury agreed to the fact that that Penn and Mead did it, but ruled them not guilty anyway.)
Currently Reading: One Heartbeat Away: Presidential Disability and Succession, Birch Bayh.
