Tampa Bay Comic Con 2019
Tampa Bay Comic Con is the Imaginarium Agency's original convention, and to this day is their flagship convention. This year it was held over the weekend of August 2-4, 2019 at the Tampa Bay Convention Center.
Because we'd been seeing declining sales at this convention for the past two years, and because we'd experienced such an awful flop at Wisconsin Comic Con, I approached this year with some trepidation. If sales continued to decline, we might have to seriously consider dropping it from our roster, something I didn't really want to do. And since we'd had limited funds to restock after the very modest success of AnimeIowa, I was very aware of the possibility that we were setting ourselves up to fail. But there was nothing to do but dig out as much merchandise as I could find in deep backstock to fill out our inventory and get as good of a load as I could manage.
Because the drive down to Tampa is so long, we always leave early on the Tuesday before the convention. That morning I carried the last few personal belongings out to the van and got them arranged to ride, and then we actually pulled out of our driveway and headed south on Post Road to I-74.
The drive over to Cincinnati was unremarkable, unlike last year when we had to drive through pouring rain. However, as we were driving through Kentucky, we ran into a gigantic backup out in the middle of nowhere. At first I thought it must've been a wreck, because what else would take traffic to a crawl like this? But as we progressed through it, we could see that everything had been shut down for blasting. Apparently that part of I-75 is going to be widened, and in order to do it, they're having to use explosives to remove significant parts of the mountainside.
As a result, we were delayed enough that we got to Knoxville right at the beginning of rush hour. Then we got to Chattanooga right at the end of rush hour. It wouldn't have been so bad if we'd been staying at the Super8 right at the Georgia state line, but after last year's annoyances with them, we'd decided to stay in a different place, down in Dalton, Georgia. That added another half hour to our drive, and meant we had to find our way to a place we'd never seen.
Once we pulled into the hotel lot, our biggest problem was getting the room sorted out. We were supposed to have a room that was non-smoking and handicap-accessible -- but when we walked into the first room they gave us, we could smell a definite odor of stale tobacco. So we went back to the front desk to point out the problem, and they moved us to a different room. The desk clerk even brought a can of air freshener and sprayed the room, saying they had a lot of trouble with the maintenance guys smoking while working in the rooms.
I carried in our essential belongings and we settled in for the night. I was able to get the rest of my blog posts for the weekend set up so they'd post automatically, no matter how busy I might be, and even did a little writing before we turned in for the night.
Wednesday morning we got up and had breakfast. Then I carried our stuff out to the van and we continued our journey south to Tampa. At first things seemed to be going quite smoothly, and we hit Atlanta at just the right time to have almost no traffic.
However, just south of Macon a vehicle threw a rock that hit our windshield, leaving a star-shaped chip. This was particularly annoying because we'd just replaced the windshield in February after it had been cracked by a rock when we were driving up to Chicago for Con+Alt+Delete the previous December. However, there was nothing to do but keep driving and hope that it would still be repairable when we got back home.
When we got to Florida, we had to stop at the Agricultural Inspection Station, but they waved us right on through as soon as I told them what we were carrying. So we pushed on, hoping to get to Gainesville before the bank closed, since we needed to buy change for the convention. It became rather unpleasant near the end, since we couldn't spare the time for the rest stop, but we did get to the bank with enough time to spare that I was able to make a quick necessary visit before actually going into the bank branch proper to transact my business.
We left under darkening skies, and it was clear that a storm was rolling in. As we got south of Gainesville, the raindrops started falling, and soon the rain became so intense it was hard to see. Several times I had to slow down so much I turned on my emergency flashers so people would be able to see I was there.
It slacked up as we approached Tampa, but it never completely stopped, which made it interesting to find our new hotel. Because of issues with the new management of the downtown Courtyard by Marriott, we were staying in a Quality Inn near the cruise port, which we'd never seen. So here we were, driving to it in the rain, in rapidly darkening twilight, on some fairly busy streets.
We finally located the hotel, and I pulled under the awning while we checked in. However, it was another outdoor property, with each room opening straight out into the parking lot. So we moved the van over to a parking space right by the room and started carrying stuff in. Since it was still raining, I was leery of getting too much out because I didn't want things to get wet. So I carried in the essentials that I could get without exposing other belongings to rain, then fixed our supper. By the time I got done with that, the rain had stopped and I was able to bring in the rest of our personal belongings. Then I did a little reading and a little writing before we turned in for the evening.
On Thursday we got up for the hotel's complimentary breakfast before getting ready to head down to the convention center to set up. We ended up spending two hot, sweaty hours sitting in line waiting to be let into the loading dock. When the iPhone started warming up in the heat, I set it aside and read an e-book on an old Palm Treo that I've had since 2008, so old I can't even get service for it.
Finally the gates opened and they let us enter the loading dock to load in. Supposedly there were either two or three waves of vendors, but I never received any information telling me which wave I was in. Since our booths were located near the front of the vendor hall and we had three, I assumed we were in the first wave, and we were never disabused of that notion. We got right in and I was directed to park near the front of the loading dock.
I dug out our cart and started hauling our stuff in, prioritizing the equipment to set up the minigrid display structures so my husband could get as much work done as possible while waiting. I was making good progress until it started raining and I had to start tarping each cartload, which slowed everything down. During the worst of it, the rain became so heavy that I stopped unloading altogether and built one of the display structures so I wouldn't be losing time. Once things slacked up, I resumed the unloading process, but I had to haul everything out through the side door and haul it over to the cart, which I had under the overhang. That caused further delays, so by the time I was actually finished and could take the van to find parking, it was already 8PM.
Then I hiked back to the convention center and built two more structures. By then it was getting late enough that we decided to just call it quits and go back to the hotel. My husband stayed at the convention center while I retrieved the van and picked him up, and then we drove back over to the hotel. We were able to get a decently close parking space, although not the same spot we'd had earlier. We had a very late supper and I did a little writing before we turned in for the night.
On Friday we got up early and had breakfast. Then we headed to the convention center, only to discover that the gate on the other entrance of the hotel's parking lot was closed and locked. We managed to get the van turned around and leave through the front entrance, but it wasn't an easy matter. Worse, when I dropped my husband off and went to find parking, I discovered that the lot I'd used the previous night was now restricted "monthly parking only." So I had to find another place to park, and in the process I ended up making a wrong turn and getting lost, which I had to sort out. So I ended up losing almost half an hour to the parking issues.
As a result, we were running late on getting set up, and when the doors opened, I just put away several items that I considered to be low-priority. I set the box of wall fans on a couple of tubs and let them sit that way all day long, mostly because I never got a break long enough to unbox them and spread them out.
Traffic was pretty steady all day long, but almost all our sales were small. We sold a lot of emoji masks and Japanese bells, but fewer t-shirts and ceramics. It also didn't help that we were right next to the GEICO booth, which was playing music loud enough that I had to make an effort to talk over it. By the time we were finished, my voice was pretty well worn out.
Then I walked back to the van and picked my husband up at the convention center. At least the police on security duty were willing to let me come in after the conventions ADA liaison had let them know I would be picking up a disabled person.
We got back to the hotel without further difficulty and had supper. Then I did a little more writing before we turned in for the night.
On Saturday we got up early to get the hotel's complimentary breakfast. While we were in the breakfast area, we made a point of remarking to the desk clerk that the back gate was closed and locked, and this was a problem for us getting out. They promised that the gate would be open by the time we needed to leave -- and it was.
This time the cops had the approach to the front of the convention center blocked off, and I had to drop my husband off at the Marriott. At least I didn't have much trouble finding parking, and I got back to the convention center in good time to get our store open for the day. I also made sure that the wall fans and the other things we'd missed were out, and we had signs up with the prices on various items.
Traffic and sales both really picked up, and were pretty much steady all day long. There were no real lulls, so getting breaks for essentials like bathroom visits could be a challenge. I even had trouble keeping the shelves restocked as stuff sold, and I'm sure we left money on the table as we started running out of things, particularly the big wall fans. By the time the vendor hall closed and I went to retrieve the van, I was really telling the strain.
We got back to the hotel in good time and were able to have supper and a little time to rest. I did some writing, and we even got to bed at a reasonable time.
On Sunday we got up and had the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then headed back downtown. This time we knew that we could go into the loading dock to drop off my husband, and we even got there a little before the doors opened at 9AM. However, by the time I got walked back from the parking lot, it was after 9, and the security people at the Franklin Street entrance were actually making everybody go through the bag check, even vendors, which was annoying.
As a result, there was no time to look around after I got everything ready to open. However, sales remained solid all day, to the point that I was reluctant to start packing. However, we couldn't delay indefinitely, since we had to get out of the convention center in a reasonable amount of time. It didn't help that the young woman who'd been so eager to help us on Friday had suddenly become unreachable, leaving us with nothing but our own labor to get out.
After the doors closed, I made sure we had a reasonable amount of stuff packed before I went over to retrieve the van. When I got to the convention center, there was a line to get through the loading dock security checkpoint, so I got in line and did some more reading of my e-book.
Finally I was able to get into the loading dock, but they made me park all the way over to the far side, which lengthened every trip. I tried to work as fast as I could, but it seemed like everything took forever, and it just got worse the later things got. Eventually the convention center staff were starting to get annoyed that it was taking us so long to get out, and they actually hauled some of the last things to speed up the process of loading out. By the time we actually finished, it was right at midnight and the security guard really wanted to lock the gate, but didn't want to leave us locked in (probably for liability reasons).
It was so late by the time we finally got to the hotel that we decided to delay getting up Monday morning until 8 AM. I did squeeze in a little writing before we turned in, but it was a token crumb.
On Monday I was still tired as I dragged out of bed and got the hotel's complimentary breakfast. Then we carried stuff out and hit the road somewhat later than planned. We decided to make the deposit at the branch of our bank just past the interchange to the Interstate rather than go all the way up to Gainesville with all that money.
As we were going up I-75, we went through a bunch of rain just south of Gainesville. Somewhere north of that, I came upon the debris field from a semi tire blowout without realizing it until I looked in the side mirror and saw a chunk of tire (a "gator" in CB lingo) going flying behind us. I didn't notice any obvious trouble, so I figured we were clear. However, as we approached the Georgia state line, I started noticing more vibration. At the time I chalked it up to something about the pavement, but it stayed steady even as we went on different kinds of pavement.
After several years of being exhausted by the time we got to Chattanooga, we'd decided to stop at Macon this year so we could get a good night's rest before continuing the rest of the way of our journey. When we got to Macon, we had a little trouble finding our hotel. However, once we got it located, we got checked in and our belongings carried in without much trouble. But in the process of carrying stuff in, I noticed that we had some noticeable tread damage on the left rear tire. I decided that it would need to be looked at, and resolved to call our tire store the following morning and set up an appointment for when we got back.
Then we had supper and I pulled together some restock orders for our next convention. I also did some writing before we turned in for the night.
On Tuesday morning we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then carried our belongings out of the hotel and got on the road. At first the vibration was just an annoyance, but as we got around Atlanta, it suddenly became exponentially worse. Then I heard a roar like a big truck passing us at full throttle -- but when I looked in the mirror, there was no truck. Instead, there was gray smoke coming out of the wheel well.
Realizing we'd had a blowout, I concentrated on getting the van safely to the side of the road and stopped. Then we called AAA, which dispatched a truck to us. However, the guy was unable to get our spare tire to come down, since it had never been used in all the years we'd owned the van. So he finally had to call in a flatbed retriever to take us to the Goodyear store we'd located which had the tire we needed (that store has an interesting policy -- the person at the desk does not say that they have a given tire in stock until actually going out to the storage area and putting hands on the tire in question).
The people at the Goodyear store were able to get the new tire installed astonishingly quickly, since the rim was undamaged. However, we'd still lost enough time that we decided not to try to push our way through to home that night, since it would be well past midnight before we arrived. Instead, we located a hotel where we could redeem points for a free night's stay and set up a reservation.
The front-desk guy at the Goodyear store had given us directions for how to get back on I-75, but when we got there, we discovered that the entrance was only to the express lanes. Since we didn't have a Peach Pass or any of the compatible toll passes (including Florida's Sun Pass), we couldn't use that entrance and had to turn around and find another interchange where we could actually get on. I think he's so used to using his Peach Pass that he doesn't even notice any more that some interchanges are express lanes only, and didn't realize he was steering us to one we couldn't use. At least we're reasonably skilled at improvising when needed, and we were able to get back on I-75 in good time.
Still, I was shaken enough that I was aware of every sound coming from the van. At least the vibration was gone, but any odd sound made me wonder if something else was going to go awry.
We went through Chattanooga and Knoxville without incident, and we crossed the Kentucky state line to arrive at our hotel just about suppertime. This was an all-suite hotel, and we'd gotten ourselves a mini-suite with a king-size bed and a partially separated living room area with a sofa and a desk. Because we were both exhausted, I carried in only the absolute essentials, and even left our big cooler out in the van. We had supper, then I did some more ordering and got a little more writing done before we turned in for the night.
On Wednesday morning we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then carried our possessions down to the van and hit the road quite early. At first the drive north wasn't bad, but by the time we got to Lexington, I was starting to get sleepy. At first I could use caffeine to push it back, but as we were driving on I-74 through Indiana on the final leg of the journey, things started getting hairy. I was very glad to finally pull into our driveway and shut down.
We'd gotten home early enough that I had time to carry our personal belongings inside before we needed to leave for the free community meal. However, the spare tire that had so stubbornly refused to come down when we needed it had finally started loosening enough that it was hanging lower than it should've. Since I didn't want to risk it coming loose and running wild on our trip to Detroit the next week, I arranged to go up to one of the local tire places on Friday and get it tightened back into place. I was quite happily surprised when they not only got me in and out in good time, but didn't even charge me for it. So it was a good end to the trip after all.
Copyright 2019 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated September 11, 2019.