Michigan Trip 2017 - Travel and Horror Con

It's been a long, long time since we've been up to Michigan to visit family so over 4th of July this year we make the very long trek to the state of our birth (at least for Todd and I).

My dear husband is always coming up with interesting ideas and he got one related to the drive up to Michigan. The drive sucks, it's long and mostly boring. But Todd found a horror convention, Days of the Dead, that was happening in Indianapolis the day we were driving up. It only added on like a half hour to our trip and there was some interesting guests there so we decided to get ticket.

I tried to sleep before we left and so did Todd, even though he got home from work at 11 pm and we left at 2 am. Neither of us got any sleep. I managed to sleep a little in the car but Todd was just high on caffeine.

Once the sun came up, Emily woke up and so did I. We stopped at a rest area and I changed into my Alice costume. I'm unable to go to a convention without a costume. Emily also was wearing her Chewbacca costume which is just pj's anyway.

Sadly the main person we wanted to see had canceled. That was George Romero and he canceled for health reasons. Once we got in and got our wrist bands, we found Matthew Lillard who was in Scream and Hackers, as well as being Shaggy in Scooby-Doo (both the live action movies and in recent cartoons).

His line wasn't too long so we got in line. Emily was a bit shy but she was very geeked that he pulled her aside and talked her in the Shaggy voice. The lady who had my phone to take a picture with us and him actually got a video of it put a couple of really cute pictures. We all got hugs from him (even Todd!) and got our picture taken.

We wandered around the halls. It was a mixture of dealers tables and celebrities doing autographs.

Being a horror convention, there was a lot of somewhat scary stuff but Emily was doing fine. We found the other person we wanted to meet, Lita, who is one of my all time favorite wrestlers. She was really nice and we got a picture taken with her too.

Todd had told Emily she could have $20 to spend at the convention. My kid found the table that was selling Pokemon stuffed animals in the middle of all that horror stuff and had to get one. I got some stickers for our car.

We were only at the convention maybe an hour but it was fun. It was nice to get out of the car and walk around for a while. I did nearly scar my child for life. They had a haunted house set up and I had Emily take a picture with it. Next to it was a giant pumpkin with Michael Myers standing there. I didn't realize that it was a cosplayer and not a statue. Freaked Emily right out! I felt so bad!!

After we got to the car, we went to White Castle for lunch which was yummy and then got back on the road. I was going to drive but Todd decided he was fine and actually drove the rest of the way to my dad's house.

It was supper time once we got there and my dad took us to this pizza buffet called Pizza Ranch. They had fried chicken and a great salad bar in addition to the pizza. It was really good!

Once we got back to my dad's house, I was exhausted and so was Todd. Emily, who had gotten the most sleep, was not so we let her stay up with my dad and they watched the first Harry Potter movie. Both Todd and I passed out as soon as our heads hit our pillows. It was a really long day.

Up Next - Beach Day!

Dragon Con 2014 - Thursday

Image: https://www.facebook.com/lifesouth

Here is the first post of my Dragon Con recaps for 2014!

For the first time in two years, I've had the Thursday of Dragon Con off from work. Since the lines on Thursday for picking up pre-reg badges have been traditionally long, Todd wanted to get down to the con as soon as possible.

We packed up and were on the road early. I didn't wear a costume on Thursday but I did put my Rainbow Dash pony ear clips in my hair - my friend Jennie made them for her daughter's birthday party and I love them because they are super cute.

I'm lucky enough to have an aunt and uncle who live outside of Atlanta. They let us stay with them and they watch Emily who is still too small to attend Dragon Con. We got to their house around noon and dropped Emily off. My aunt was watching one of my cousin's kids, so Emily had someone to play with it.

Todd and I headed downtown. After a quick train ride on Marta, we walked over to the Sheraton to get our badges. We were pretty shocked when it took all of five minutes to get our badge. After years and years of long pre-reg lines, Dragon Con finally got a system that works great.

After we got our badges, I went to give blood. I give blood every year at Dragon Con. Todd doesn't like needles, so he never gives blood. It took a long time to give this year. The longest wait was to do the physical to get cleared to give blood.

Once I was done, we were pretty hungry so we went to the food court to get some lunch. Then we headed back to my aunt and uncle's house. I wanted to make sure to get a good night's sleep because I was going to be running in the morning.

It was funny - even with the wait to give blood, we were done with all our Thursday stuff before we would usually even get down to GA. But this year we got back to my aunt and uncle's house at a decent time and got to hang out with them for a bit.

Next up - Friday and the Run of Death!