While packing up to leave my fatherr’s house, Laura tried to carry out too many things at once. One of them happened to be a box of All-bran cereal. At the door of my dad’s house, it started spilling all over the floor. Laura couldn’t figure out where it was all coming from: the result was a rather large pile all over the tile and one semi-hysterical wife with the giggles.
We left on time for what we knew would be a seven-hour drive from St. Goerge, Utah to San Diego, California. We set off down I-15. Las Vegas stop at In-n-out burger for restroom and then fueled down the street at a Texaco. Laura answered an email question from our ‘Nightbirds’ editor as I continued the drive across the Mojave Desert. Two separate roll over accidents in California — both on the northbound side. The first required a med-evac helicopter on the closed freeway. The second was being tended to only a few miles further on. We arrived at Barstow and stopped for lunch at the In-n-Out Burger. Continued to a Costco in Victorville to refuel and then down the Riverside Freeway to San Diego.
The hotel we are staying at is remarkable and very convenient to the convention center. We understand that Wyatt Earp lived here at one point. We had a lovely dinner at Toscanos Restaurant in the Gaslamp quarter sharing a Salmon Risotto that was fabulous. We discovered while reviewing the convention materials online that we could pick up our badges this evening. This would save us a considerable amount of trouble the next day so we returned to the hotel and got our papers. This convention has it’s own way of doing things and you have to know how to jump through the hoops if you’re going to make it work. Then we returned to the convention, got in line with all the rest of the ‘professionals’ (there’s quite a few of us) and, receiving the most enormous poster sized bag I had ever seen — with a ‘Batman’ movie illustration of all things — were quickly processed with our badges. We then discovered that the hall was open. 
The crowds were unbelievable and nearly impossible to get past even on this preview night. We then managed to make our way to the Harpercollins booth. Met Nichole of their publicity department — and a young woman who was just buying our ‘Wayne of Gotham’ book. She was going on about how cool the cover looked. I stepped up and thanked her — and she and her companion were both thrilled to meet me. I signed their book and their bag — and then took my picture with them. The booth people said that they had already sold a number of the books and were concerned if we stayed longer they would have mob.
As we were leaving, I felt a twinge in my back. Soon it felt like a back muscle seizure. It was all I could do to get back to the hotel with Laura’s help. Now we’re resting hoping that we’ll be ready for this new day.
