JAFAX 2018
JAFAX is the annual anime convention in the Grand Rapids area. This year it was held over the weekend of June 29-July 1, 2018 at DeVos Place and the Amway Grand Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids.
Because the trip is so long, we drove up on Wednesday to make sure we were in place and rested when it was time to load in. We made pretty good time, but just short of our hotel, we saw a message board warning of a major wreck and backup. Since we were both feeling rather tired, we got off and paused at a gas station, taking a rest break.
Once we got to the hotel and got checked in, I had to haul everything in piecemeal, since this place doesn't have bell carts. It was a real pain, and I think I may have bent our luggage cart by trying to haul a couple of heavier loads. But at least we got in and I was able to get some writing done after supper.
On Thursday we could take most of the day easy, since JAFAX load-in starts much later than Grans Rapids Comic Con's. We went out to the lobby for a while to sit, in order to give the maids time to clean the room. While we waited, I lined up some blog posts and did some more fiction writing.
In the evening we headed downtown, and were actually able to get in and start loading in early. As a result, we were able to get all our stuff hauled in before we needed to leave, but we didn't get much appreciable work done on building our structures or getting merchandise out. So we were pretty much looking at another frantic hurry setting up.
This year, they were using the hall that overlooks the Grand River, which meant the hot afternoon sun was pouring right through the windows and onto the dealers' displays. After a while, the venue staff was able to put up some kind of blinds that blocked the worst of it, but it had a very different atmosphere compared to what we'd had the previous year, or had been accustomed to at Grand Rapids Comic Con.
We headed back to the hotel to get some sleep, which we both definitely needed. By the time we turned in, we were both getting cranky, which is not good when you're going to be dealing with customers.
On Friday we got up and had the hotel's complimentary breakfast. Then we headed back downtown to DeVos Place to finish our setup. While we were working, one of the staffers came around and objected to some of our merchandise on the grounds of possible copyright violations. It was all leftover stuff that we were trying to get rid of anyway, so we just put it away and stuck out some more of our traditional and generic stuff.
As so frequently happens, we were still setting up when the doors opened and people started flowing in. However, this time they were quite happy to buy from us while we were still finishing our setup, so I decided to just focus on getting stuff out of the way and looking reasonably organized.
We made a number of sales, although a lot of them were quite small. By the middle of the afternoon we were running low on change, so I grabbed up some cash and made a quick trip over to the downtown branch of our bank, where I bought a substantial amount of change.
By the time the dealers' room closed, I was weary and footsore. The walk back to the parking lot to retrieve the van seemed a lot longer than it had when I parked. We drove back to the hotel, where we had supper. Then I did a little more work on my writing before turning in for the night.
On Saturday we got up and had breakfast. Then we headed downtown and got everything open for the day. We caught up on the work we hadn't been able to do Friday and got our setup pretty well finalized. However, it meant we didn't get any time to look around.
At least sales were better, but my feet and ankles were already tired when I got there, and they seemed to just get worse with every passing hour. And then we discovered that no, the dealers' room didn't close when we thought it did. Instead, we had another whole hour to get through before we could get back to the hotel.
When we did get back, I was pretty well at the end of my tether. I just wanted to get some writing done, but of course we had to get supper ready and other things done.
On Sunday we had yet another round of the hotel's uninspiring breakfast before heading downtown to try to pull some kind of good finish out of things. We got everything open for sales, and I finally got to walk around and take a look at everyone else's setups.
Then the doors opened and people started flowing in. We had some sales, although a lot of them remained small. I was tired and sore, and running low on energy, which didn't help my ability to handle things.
After lunch I started putting away the Western dragons and fairies. Then I moved on to packing everything else.
We did get some help with the t-shirts and structure breakdown, but the guy couldn't stick around to help haul stuff to the van. Still, I was able to snag a big cart and get everything out in a reasonable amount of time. A storm passed through as we were loading out, but at least we were loading indoors, so while I could hear the rain pouring on the roof overhead, I didn't have to deal with tarps and water damage risks.
Once we had everything out and made one last check of our area to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything, we headed back to the hotel for supper. It was early enough that I could do some catch-up on the Internet as well as my writing before turning in for the night.
On Monday we got checked out of the hotel. Once again I had to haul everything out piecemeal, which made everything feel even longer. So I was pretty tired when we hit the road. We stopped in Kalamazoo to make the deposit at the branch of our bank, but as we tried to push onward on I-94, we both got to feeling more and more tired. When we got to the rest stop, we decided to just take a break. I even took a nap.
After that we caught US 31 and got gas in South Bend right as they were jumping the prices. For a while we seemed to be making good time on the drive, but south of Kokomo we ran into a huge backup. We finally ended up driving east on state highways until we caught I-69 and took it into Indianapolis. By the time we actually got home, I was pretty much wiped, and was very glad to pull into our driveway and shut down the van.
Copyright 2019 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated June 21, 2019.