March 20, 2005: Recuperating

The GTS Trade Show crew returned in triumph last night. Tired triumph, but you take what you can get. (Except for Sean Punch, who courtesy of US Airways only made it home this afternoon. Nothing like a 24-hour delay in your flight.)

I unpacked and reorganized for a while in the morning, took an afternoon nap . . . and was awakened by hail. Serious hail, on the last day of winter in Austin. Lots of hailstones, ranging from marble-sized to as big as our Munchkin Dice (woo, go me, product mention!). So I ran out in bare feet with umbrella to get some of the sprouting tomatoes under cover. Cold. And that umbrella took a beating.

Overall we were happy with the show. The retailers were very vocal about the way GURPS Fourth Edition has been going for them. The word Munchkin was often heard. And the demonstrations of SPANC went very well. All told, woo hoo.

But next year we'll probably stay someplace else and take a rental car to the show, if it stays at the same casino. The Riviera is just as bad as you've heard . . . rooms, food, service, all far worse than the Orleans, where the GTS had been for years. My own top gripe . . . they charged us an extra $3.81 per room per night, as a special "energy surcharge" to recover their "increased utility costs." Meanwhile the exterior of the hotel continued to be lit brilliantly . . . coming right past the curtains at night and interfering with sleep.
-- Steve Jackson

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