The view from my room is pretty damn good; Slept with the curtains open, partially to wake up with the dawn to force some timezone adaption, but also because, from the 30th, floor, it’s quite a view.

There was a triathlon going on out there, though they were swimming in the canal, not the river. Probably a sensible move, given what I’ve been told about water quality in the White River.

Was finally brave enough* to try Biscuits & Gravy. Not unpleasant, like a light unsweetened scone served with peppery bechamel sauce.

* though I’m told that this isn’t brave, it’s just jet lag making me think I should try a thing that looks like a cat was sick on an afternoon tea service.

Didn’t really do much today; Wandered through the ICC, which is still mostly empty, with isolated patches of Gen Con stuff being set up.

One of the hotels now has a very American feature wall.

Took a while to notice that they’re all a bit different, but I’m not sure whether they’re historical or artistic. ( or both )

And I found a way to slowly charge my phone.

I think it’s the socket. No sign of anything stuck in there, and it keeps stopping & starting charging even when nothing in the area moves. Probably a loose connection.

In any case, I can at least charge the damn thing overnight, and thus get roaming data wherever I am, and not have to go find a hotel lobby with free wifi & hope that the ( old ) phone doesn’t lock up because it all got too difficult.

The old phone is very old for a smartphone. I keep it around because it’s what my NZ sim card fits, and for emergency situations like this. It’s slow, but relatively tough.

… He was sitting on his ass in the Metropolitan Lounge at Chicago Union Station, enjoying complimentary beverages & snacks.

Eventually the train was called, and so we all trooped down to the boarding hall, where we stood around being occasionally required to move because they needed to get a motorized cart thingy through, because the train wasn’t actually ready. Or even present.

Someone jumped the gun a bit vis-a-vis boarding, I’m thinking; I think we started to get on the 1745 Cardinal at 1800 or so.

This was not one of those smooth trips. Lots of slow walking pace sections, multiple stopped-in-a-cornfield parts waiting for signals, or a freight, or possibly just really fresh corn on the cob, and the air conditioning was for some reason set to ‘beer cooler’ for most of the trip.

Made it to Indy maybe an hour late ( at 0100 or so ), which isn’t bad going. Walked to the hotel, because after that long on the train the idea of a non-lurching surface had some serious appeal. There were still a bunch of people on the streets, including some police folk dealing with something across the road from the station.

Check in was wildly uneventful, but getting to the room ( 30th floor with park view! ) was hampered by a couple who were too drunk, or disfunctional, or maybe just too stupid, to operate the lift. In the end I just left them on the 2nd floor, went back to Ground, and was then able to call a lift they weren’t in. ( no idea how, but their flailing at the card scanner + floor button system was stopping any other card from working as well )

OK, going to take a shower & get some actual non-plane non-train sleep.

Right, well, that was a journey.

Flight from Heathrow to Dublin was delayed by almost an hour by the end of things. Arrival in Dublin for some reason involved getting a bus to make it to connecting flights, so said bus was full of many irritated folks wondering whether they’d miss their next flight.

I had memories of the CBP clearance at Dublin being quite pleasant. Should have added the caveat “when it’s empty”; Full of agitated people, it’s awful.

On the funny side, pretty sure the CPB Agent tried a new ( to me ) trick with questions; Got my destination city wrong, to see whether I’d notice. Also, this was the first time I’d been asked whether Gen Con is work-related.

Got through clearance as they started boarding, so that was … Closer than I’d like. The flight itself was fine, and even arrived early, which came in handy, because;

The trains running between terminals weren’t; They had shuttle bus runs instead.

The train running all the way to Chicago downtown didn’t; They’re doing upgrades, so it stops, you get on a bus, get driven to the next station via Cleveland, and get back on a train again.

I’m waiting on my last train now, in the business class lounge 😁 , and so far it hasn’t been delayed, cancelled, replaced by a bicycle rickshaw, or been swallowed by a dragon.