Two of my wyrms, the ones who usually stick to me like glue, write about their experiences on the trip to Atlanta and DragonCon. Comments always welcome.
Day 1:
Reth: I wish we weren't traveling but my pocket companion, Rommel, insisted it would be fun. Having traveled with our handler before, I wasn't so sure. We had to go through the dark tunnel that my handler calls a "stupid scanner" instead of staying in her pocket like I wanted to...but some strange thing she called TSA wouldn't let us. The female officer who checked her ID was nice and kind of funny. She said our handler had a nicer badge picture than she did. My handler also works for the government and used her badge as her ID, since her mate had said it usually resulted in a nicer experience. It didn't work this time. She got stopped by the big full body scanning machine and had to be patted down. We were both squeaking indignantly, our handler is no terrorist. Rommel also felt the need to attempt to point out that the only place our handler had metal in her body was her left shoulder...the one place they didn't pat down. No wonder our handler is so unimpressed with these machines.
Rommel: After we got through the security theater that is the TSA, we had a nice quiet period of waiting for the flight. Our handler talked to a nice person who had a migraine and they traded tricks of the trade for dealing with them. The flight itself was crowded and we were shoved into a window seat at the back of the plane. That wouldn't have been so bad but for the weather at the end of the flight. I was able to watch our progress on the in-the-back-of-the-seat screen thingy. Reth and I were very confused when the ETA jumped from 30 minutes to over an hour. Then the pilot came on the comm and explained there was weather at the Atlanta Airport. We almost had to go to the alternate airport. We waited for about 20 minutes and then the pilot said the airport had reopened. The problem was that there was weather between us and the airport. There was horrible turbulence, Reth was convinced the plane would fall out of the sky. He doesn't like traveling on the "big metal birds". I know our handler hates them too, something about "being stuffed into an aluminum tube with no leg room with a bunch of people who's germs I have never met before" as she puts it. I wasn't too worried about getting to the ground safely, it was a bit rough but no strange noises or anything like that. On the other hand, I was worried about our handler, she was looking positively green. I knew that she had been up much too early after getting to bed much too late because of her work schedule. She works nights and we had to be out of the house at 11:30am to get through security. Even if the plane flight had been smooth, I think she would have been looking a bit green. Fortunately nothing happened. The pilot hit the breaks hard when we hit the ground, a very unpleasant experience but we were all alright. I chittered at our handler until she took her migraine medication.
Reth: After a horrible, scary trip, our handler's parents got a car and we all drove to the hotel. I didn't quite understand why her parents were there but it seemed important. After a bit of unpacking and repacking her shoulder bag, we all went to dinner. I think our handler was feeling better. Her parents looked a bit surprised to see me and Rommel with her but they didn't say anything. I think they have learned better by now.
Day 2:
Rommel: Up too early again. The one problem I have with my handler's parents, they are those most horrifying of things known as morning people. We have a lunch meeting with someone my handler referred to as her biological mother. I am not sure what this means but I know it has her very nervous. I know it wouldn't have been a good idea but I wanted to bite the ear of her father...but I didn't since he was driving. He was being much too loud about getting lost. We had plenty of time before our meeting and it is a new city, getting lost is to be expected, or so it seemed to me and Reth. We finally made it to the meeting place, a restaurant that served steak and bison, and got parked. The whole meeting was very strange. The people we were meeting seemed nice enough, at least from my perspective, tucked into my handler's shoulder bag, but they were very emotional where as my handler wasn't. It isn't that she isn't emotional but I guess these people didn't seem to mean anything to her. I guess that makes sense, since they were meeting for the first time. I got the feeling that our handler was also a bit overwhelmed. Traveling doesn't ever seem to agree with her, no matter the mode of travel. During the lunch I observed several members of the Secret Service come in. I could tell who they were from their infamous ear pieces. They sat down a couple of tables away. Between them and us was a table full of con goers, which I deduced from their DragonCon tee-shirts. The two groups kept looking at each other, both slightly confused. With the meeting over, her parents took us to DragonCon.
Reth: After a very strange meeting I didn't quite understand, we arrived at the event known as a DragonCon. That was very neat and very scary. So very many people, many in costumes. It turned out we had gone to the wrong place. Our handler and her mate had to find the hotel with something called registration. This required our handler and her mate to walk a very long way. It was very hot, not like Texas hot but worse. It was sticky. I kept trying to hide deeper in our handler's shoulder bag, looking for a piece of cool metal to curl up against to stay cool but couldn't find anything. This was strange but Rommel explained that that was because of the strange TSA rules. I usually like being in her bag. It is from WW2, from the DAK, my handler's and my favorite military unit. It is nice and safe and strong despite its age. My handler has been re-enforcing the leather on the edges so I know it is very safe. We finally got to where ever the badges were and got that taken care of. Then we went looking for the Art Show.
Rommel: And this is why my handler's mate should never do the navigation, we got lost and went into the wrong hotel. Thankfully it was connected by something called a sky bridge to the hotel we wanted to be in but finding that took some doing. I know our handler was annoyed because, by the time she found D's table, the Nogitsune wyrm she wanted for our Squirm had already been found by another handler. That caused her much annoyance but she got to pick a very nice Growler and an equally friendly Canine wyrm. Then we went perusing the rest of the art show. The art was quite amazing. I think that is one of the reasons our handler likes these events, the art. Then we went wandering, to see what else there was to see and do. We found some place called the armory, where they had bows and swords and other things. Our handler chatted with one of the people running the area about Mongol tactics and the joys of shooting bows off horse back. He was the first person I have met who didn't look at our handler like she was crazy when she mentioned that the Germans used a lot of Mongol style tactics in World War 2, particularly in the North African desert. We eventually wandered back into the Art Show and our handler picked a Cardinal egg. That was when my handler handed me to Zia, to give me a good grooming. So I stayed with Zia over night.
Reth: I wasn't too happy that my companion wasn't around but I know she really needed the grooming. We then went to a program on the history of how firearms were made. I thought it was very neat, I share an interest in mechanical things with my handler. My handler and her mate eventually decided it was time to head back to the hotel. They used something called a Taxi, that wasn't fun. The driver was very mean and not a very good driver. He nearly lost his front bumper due to stupidity with a big truck. I was very glad when we got back to the hotel, safely.
Day 3:
Reth: My handler and her mate got up a bit earlier than usual but nothing too strange. After gathering up the costume things that my handler wanted, her mate got us a ride using something called Uber, the driver was very nice, to a breakfast place. My handler's mate wanted a proper breakfast. I haven't ever seen my handler really eat breakfast, so I wasn't too surprised that she just had a glass of milk. Then we got another ride and went to DragonCon. We started out with a panel about armor making and how people use art and museum pieces to make historically accurate armor for their recreations. That was very interesting. Then we went to Art Show. Along with picking up Rommel from her over night grooming/TLC, our handler had wyrms to pick for others and a couple more for herself. Her mate also picked a wyrm, which was new for him. He got a jungle wyrm that I was very nervous about but no problems. She also gave D and Zia bags of treats from Texas. After that, we went to a panel on science fiction writing. It seemed to be mostly about how the writers got published. It was very funny. Then our handler's mate took us to see the other half of the armory, the firearms section. It was quite the museum.
Rommel: I was happy to be back with our handler. I enjoyed the writing panel, the writers were all very amusing. Then we went to see the firearms section of the armory, that was an amazing museum. Everything from modern weapons to the most ancient of firearms. I particularly liked the Gattling Camel gun. I got to take a look at many of the weapons very carefully as our handler was involved in a most amusing conversation, she missed the panel her mate went to but the conversation was good fun. I know she hasn't had access to intelligent conversation much with where she works. I particularly liked the part of the conversation talking about how silly the government can get. The nuclear power plant where one of the people in the conversation works, it has created a situation where a population of endangered American Crocodiles has gone from 80 breeding pairs to 300 breeding pairs which is very good but the government has got its tail all up in a knot because with more crocodiles comes more crocodile road kill. It is just the natural order of things. This seems very silly to me that the government was unhappy about this, I mean they have massively increased the population of an endangered species, a few dead as roadkill seems a small price to pay. After her mate got back from his panel, it was off to dinner. It was very funny, seeing all these convention goers in costumes and make up sitting in a restaurant like it was nothing and the staff acting equally non-plus. It was the only time we ran into a mundane during the whole trip. She was in the bathroom, looking at all of the convention goers like they were nuts. After that, we got back to the hotel using another Uber driver. He wasn't as good as the first two drivers we had. He actually got pulled over for running a light. Our handler told me he was like so many drivers, driving downtown makes them crazy.
Day 4:
Reth: We slept in...sort of. Our handler and her mate went off to the convention after a little bit. We didn't know it at the time but it was going to be the longest day yet. We started out in Art Show again. My handler got three more wyrms including another very friendly Growler. Her mate picked a Leaf Crawler and an Imperial Fu. The Imperial Fu decided to ride on his head for the rest of the day. Rommel had decided to ride on our handler's shoulder. I was happily tucked into our handler's hip pouch, where it felt safe. We did a bunch of walking around and picture taking. I didn't like it, too many people. We took a bit of a break in a quiet corner and then went to a panel where someone explained the various weapons in the firearms section of the armory. After that we had dinner, took another break and then went to the concert. The first band was much too loud, that I didn't like one bit. The second band was another matter. While I like the music at the concert, since it was a band that our handler listens to a lot when driving, I really didn't like the concert very much. Too loud.
Rommel: We did a lot of walking around and taking of pictures at the beginning of the day. We also went to the table of a band our handler and her mate both like, The Cruxshadows. They got tee-shirts and two CDs. When we were turning to leave, her mate saw the bands lead singer and asked him to sign one of the CDs. He was very nice to them, which mildly surprised her mate. He asked about where they were from and mentioned a club to go check out in Austin that plays the band's music. Then we did more walking around and picture taking. The group I most liked was the group who's costumes were all from the game Destiny, that our handler's mate plays. Those costumes were truly amazing. (http://i.imgur.com/W4KpHoM.jpg). Then we went back to the main building for a pane in the armory. I enjoyed the panel on the weapons because it was a history lesson using the various weapons as examples of the various steps in the progression. Then someone asked our handler to take pictures of her, she had the pink rifle from the wall display. So our handler did and then she asked if she could have her picture taken with one of the weapons. After being told no, she couldn't handle the World War 2 era German "Storm rifle", it was a museum piece, she asked about the Israeli Tavor. That she was able to handle and her mate took pictures. She commented on how, despite it being heavy, it was very natural to handle. I would have expected nothing less, given what I have read over my handler's shoulder about the was the Israelis do things. I was very annoyed, I had been hoping to get up close to the German weapon, to be able to tell my friend, the one who told me my name, that I had been up close to something from his time, even if I know that his troops didn't use them, it was still from his time and world. After that, we went out for dinner again. A Chinese restaurant this time. We had to sit at the bar but neither our handler nor her mate seemed too bothered by it. Our handler talked about how eating at the bar was usually the only way to get into the good restaurants in some of the places she had lived. She was very happy with the food. She said it was much more the sort of Chinese food she was used to from the cities she had lived in before. Small menu, very good food. Once we got done with dinner we went back to the convention hotel and the quiet corner we had found. At that point, her mate decided that his wyrms would be safer in the hip pouch our handler was wearing and where Reth had been for most of the day. She put me in too, to keep the peace. That was a bit more than I was expecting, Reth, an Imperial Fu, a Zilla and me. The reason was that he was concern about the concert. Very late at night, more like the time our handler would be at work, we got up and got in line for the concert. The concert was interesting. The first band was pretty horrid. I heard my handler commenting how people were leaving. The second band was the one they had come to see. I snuck a look out of the pouch to see people and the performers. I also saw our handler had her sunglasses on. The lights in the dark room were hard on her eyes but she had fun all the same. The performance was quite something to watch and hear. I wish that they would record the songs at the concert speed which was faster than the CD versions, since it would much better for the highway driving our handler does so much. After the concert, we called another Uber car and driver to head back to the hotel. They were a good driver.
Day 5:
Reth: Up later than before. We only really got to the Art Show for a little bit. Our handler added a very nice Leaf Crawler to our Squirm. I was very glad that it was a nice Leafie. I am a bit leery of Leaf Crawlers after the very strange Leaf Crawler I have met. Not a lot going on and our handler was getting sick so we didn't stay long at the convention.
Rommel: Our handler didn't do much, other than add a Leaf Crawler to the Squirm. Since she was getting sick and really hadn't gotten enough sleep, I was very glad she did. Her and her mate went for a late lunch after the Art Show closed and then went back to the hotel. That's when the fun part started. Packing is always fun to watch, since our handler treats it like a game of Tetris.
Day 6:
Reth: Another icky plane flight. The stupid security people felt the need to pat down our handler again. At least we had a new friend in the bag, the Leaf Crawler our handler picked at DragonCon. Her name is Rhubarb. The flight was horrid, we hit something our handler's mate called Dead Air, that caused the plane to fall suddenly too many times and made for horrible turbulence. Her mate said the pilot should have warned them since they were flying through clouds and clouds always have turbulence in them. Once we got on the ground, I was very happy.
Rommel: Along with explaining to Rhubarb what was going on, I had to resist the urge to bite the TSA person. Why do they always pat our handler down? She doesn't look like a terrorist and she is also a government employee. It is very strange. They always miss the fact that she had metal in her shoulder from surgery. The flight was uneventful, minus being stuck next to the engines, which were horribly loud...until we flew through clouds. Then we hit Dead Air, which was not fun. Reth was very scared and Rhubarb was very confused. Our Handlers mate was very erked, since the pilot should have warned us. Once we were safely on the ground, and despite our collective chittering to the contrary, our handler decided to go to work.