I’m driving down to Atlanta with Garth today so we can set up for DragonCon this weekend. We are hitting the road very early because it’s an estimated ten hours from Garth’s place to Atlanta, not counting for pit stops and food breaks. We did this same journey last year and despite its marathon length I’m really looking forward to it again.
I like long road trips with my friends. When you’re already comfortable with someone and there’s nothing but time on your hands, conversations arise that wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to materialize. On our way down to DragonCon last year we chatted about everything from bluegrass music to the pitfalls of AI art; and on our way back we were so addlebrained from the convention that we eventually had a deep discussion about which classic video game characters fucked the hardest. (We agreed that Little Mac from Punch-Out was a probably beast in the bedroom.)
And no one should have to make a ten hour road trip on their own. I made that journey for two years to a show out in Pittsburgh and, while I had a good time at the show, by that ninth hour in the car by myself I began to have fully spoken conversations with myself and arguments with old enemies where I imagined myself absolutely destroying them in debate. I may have also begun to question who I was at some point. Accompanying Garth on this trip is not only enjoyable for me because I like road trips and his company, but having another person in the car is vital to one’s sanity.
So if you’re going to be at DragonCon this weekend, come say hi to us! We’ll have made the journey all the way down to see your lovely faces, and we’re hoping to collect lots of memories to talk about on the lengthy journey home… provided we don’t leave the convention so addlebrained that we spend our whole drive home trying to determine which Nintendo character fucks harder than Little Mac.