Careful advance planning might address the lodging challenge, but there wasn't much we could ever do about parking. There are parking lots and structures throughout the greater Convention Center area, but again, demand outweighs supply. A parking space isn't like a Port-A-Potty... you can't bring extras in for a week, then fold them up and haul them off after the event is over. So San Diego has to make do with what it's got, which means lots of folks parking in the nosebleed sections. From there, they can hike in, try and find a seat on one of the Convention-supplied shuttle buses, or pay to be transported by bicycle rickshaws manned by entrepreneurs with calves the size of sequoias. One can sense the frustration of many of the parking lot owners, who continue to search in vain for the price that no one will pay.
This year, though, there was an unbelievable alternative offered. Through the CCI website, I could book and pay for my parking in advance, within easy walking distance of the Convention Center. In fact, for the first day, I was able to book parking at the Convention Center's underground lot, normally available only to friends and relatives of Morty, the guy at the front gate. Because the rates were set in advance, I actually paid less than the variable-rate-plus-balloon-payment that I fell victim to in previous years. I was very thankful that this system was instituted, but it seemed too good to be true... I kept checking to see if my parking fees were being charged to a Nigerian prince.
As great as everything seemed to be working out, there was one setback: against all odds in the current economy, Ben is working full-time at a great place, and could only attend Saturday and Sunday of the Thursday-through-Sunday convention. I suppose he could have asked for the extra days off, but Ben's theory is that you start a job with a certain amount of implied credibility, and you don't shove all those chips to the center of the table by asking for Comic-Con leave.
So Sam and I drove to San Diego on Wednesday afternoon, and we arranged for Ben to take the Amtrack Pacific Flier down on Friday night.
As most of you probably know, although CCI technically runs for four days, from Thursday through Sunday, they have a preview night on Wednesday where a select group of four-day registrants can pick up their badges and spend a couple of hours in the vast exhibit hall. In previous years, preview night was available to all four-day registrants, but this year they limited attendance to the first million ticket purchasers, a group we're always a part of. So although technically CCI is a four-day event, we always consider Wednesday "Day Zero", where we traditionally check into our hotel, carefully examine the hotel's TV channel line-up, go to a local market to stock up on Diet Dr. Pepper and an assortment of chips, then head to preview night.
So things were all set: we had our tickets, our room, our parking spaces, and Ben's train. Sue finished sewing our names and addresses into our clothes, and Sam and I hopped into the Thorntonmobile, brought batteries to power and turbines to speed, and rolled south to Comic-Con 2010.
All material copyright 2009 Chuck Thornton