New Orleans to San Antonio: PAX South Adventures Part 1

The preparation for any trip has its difficulties. From hotels, routes, driving vs. flying, what to bring, wear, and a whole host of other details that go into having fun. In the summer of 2014, three friends decided to attend the inaugural PAX South, and this is my story- part 1- the preparation gibberish.

PAX is the Penny Arcade eXpo, which started in 2004 located at Bellevue, Washington. This convention is simply a gaming convention with publishers, studios, developers, and fans congregating together to share in the love of all types of games. It became so popular that in 2010, PAX East was created, thus we have PAX Prime in Washington and PAX East in Boston. Not satisfied with providing two of the largest gaming expos in the United States with over 70,000 attendees* each, PAX Aus was created in 2013 for thousands of Aussies to have their own PAX down under. When it was announced that there would be a PAX closer to home in the form of PAX South, my friends Ackote and Madlaugher (names withheld for legal reasons[not really]) became enthused, nay, enthralled with the idea of traveling to San Antonio for a weekend of nerd-gaming fun.  The three of us have bonded over playing video games. You can see a short video of us playing Dead Island (2) together here. I quickly jumped on board especially with there being a fair amount of board gaming action, which do not display my pitiful eye-hand coordination like video games, and tickets were purchased. We agreed on Saturday and Sunday, since three day passes sold out quickly.

Finding a room can be difficult around a large convention, plus prices are increased because capitalism, free market, blah, blah, blah. So the market has responded to this ability for people to take advantage of situation. Ackote handled the room arrangement, and he is an avid user of AirBnB, the online website for people to turn a room or rooms in their home into a Bed and Breakfast, of sorts. Basically, it is a cheap way to find a room in lieu of a hotel or actually Bed and Breakfast establishment. This was my first experience with a room obtained through Air BnB. Analysis to come later. So, tickets purchased-check, room reserved- check, and now how to actually get to San Antonio.

The only problem with traveling in a group is that I can't ride on my motorcycle- the best way to travel. I, oddly, have the only car that could handle this trip, a 2001 Honda Accord with over 190,000 miles, a slight gasket leak, and transmission situation. I say a transmission situation because I have no idea what the actual problem is, but it works well enough that I do not feel an overwhelming desire to get it checked out. It also does not have A/C either- so a real gem of a car. When the weather is warm and raining is the worst because the only way to keep the windows from fogging up is keeping the door windows down, and then you get wet from the rain. Remember, this is the best of the three of our cars.

The only problem in the preparation phase came within three to four weeks of the trip and Madlaugher for personal reasons had to drop out the trip. Ackote and I searched for weeks for a replacement, but in the end we could not find a worthy enough person (that is what I'm telling myself not that people didn't want to take a road trip with me), and the tickets were given to a young man. The time came, arraignments, routes, and all where concretized, thus the adventure began and fun was calling like a Siren's Song. Oh, I will willing and warmly step into your gentle embrace PAX.

Part 2

Until I ramble again on again. . .


*It seems that PAX has cease to give out the number of attendees since 2011, or getting a final count with vendors, exhibitors, and fans, so this is the last officialish count since that year. The limited 3 Day Passes appear to usually sell out within 24 hours.