As part of a speed-run of American Things, we went to Waffle House for breakfast, and while I don’t think anybody actually had a waffle, I think it counts as an authentic American Stuff experience.
The place looks like that small diner from every TV show or movie, which I’m told is a design choice; it’s the size & look they want. Popular as a place that’s always open, where the food is cheap & comes out quickly, and where they don’t mind students setting up to study & drink endless refills of coffee.
I got dropped downtown despite the best efforts of Indianapolis construction, though the idea of a drop off in the hotel pull-through was laughable; Ended up on the same block, at one of the other entrances to the conference centre bit of the hotel, which is honestly better than I’d hoped for given the traffic chaos out there.
The construction didn’t end outside the hotel. In the lobby, the registration desks were blocked off by construction, the lobby bar & restaurant were walled off, and registration was up on the second floor of the lobby, though they were going to be moving back downstairs the next day. I can only assume that something went badly wrong with their planning, because I cannot imagine a circumstance where any hotel would want to not have a bar and one of their two restaurants open during Gen Con.
I couldn’t book my hotel for this year as soon as possible because I was on a flight, so I did not get the standard room type ( King ) I usually get; Instead, I got a double-queen, on a much lower floor than usual. Don’t think I’ve ever been in the triple digit room number section before, so the view isn’t as impressive as previous years. On the other hand, it gave me an entire bed as an unpacking & staging area, so that’s no bad thing.
Over the course of Monday & Tuesday, signs & banners & all manner of nerdy things started to appear.
