From Bob Greenberger:
Well, the Davids and the Greenbergers, among many others, are snowed in at the Hunt Valley Inn as the snow continues unabated. It’s weird, you’d think being trapped an extra day at a con would be fun. Instead, it’s eerily quiet as people wander aimlessly. There’s a full slate of programming today, with evening activities added. The con, which suffered from poor attendence due to weather fears, threw their programming open to all hotel guests since, after all, no one was going anywhere. The highways were closed around 9:30 a.m. and the National Guard got called out this afternoon. The hottest selling item in the dealer’s room was the “I Survived the Farpoint Blizzard ’03” t-shirts.
Given the current forecasts, those of us returning north will not try it until Tuesday morning. The true test of patience will be filling Monday’s empty hours without a con. People are lining up to borrow Deb’s laptop since Peter has a column due at CBG on Monday and Mike Friedman is on deadline. The three of us have already picked three episodes to watch in preparation of our next Mystery Trekkie Theatre performance, so we hope it thaws out by next July.
From those of us trapped down in Baltimore, to those of you potentially trapped up in Boston, we wish you a safe journey home. And to those on the west coast, we envy your current existence.
Okay, let me see if I understand: Boskone was also this weekend, but the convention in Maryland is snowed in rather than the one in Massachusetts?
• 
Oh, that wacky God; he just keeps ya guessin’!
Wishes for a safe and soon journey home to everyone.
I’d probably have gone up to see Peter, if a) I’d known about the convention before today and b) we hadn’t gotten something on the order of 18 inches of snow today. Blech. Stupid missed chances.
“A three-hour con … a three-hour con …”
Well, the storm is moving up the coast from down south after all, thus the DC area getting hit before Boskone.
What I want to know is how they managed to get t-shirts printed and delivered to the dealer’s room if the roads were closed.
Anyway, this envied West Coaster just hopes they dig out before Farpoint gets renamed DonnerCon.
>>And to those on the west coast, we envy your current existence.<<
Hey, don’t forget about those of us here in Florida….even though our taste of the storm was a fairly incessant rainstorm all day. Yeah, no comparison, I know! I, too, add my thoughts, prayers and best wishes to those snowed in. May your return home be soon, and safe!!
Hooper
As I mentioned in the first Farpoint thread, I made it to Farpoint on Friday and Saturday. Since I live not too far away, I did as I usually do, and drove back and forth to the convention so I can have breakfast and sleep at my own house.
So, I couldn’t make it in on Sunday. It would have been an interesting adventure, but I am glad to be safe at home.
Yesterday we cleared more than 12 inches of snow off our driveway and who knows how much more it there now. I think sleet is coming down now. The drifts from the snow are quite amazing.
Neil
No snow at all for Boskone.
There was, though, David Brin’s “why aren’t there any young fans at this convention?” rant … Santayana, roll over.
There was a anime con close to DC in Crystal City Virginia–Katsucon. They also had lots of otaku and guests stranded there while a few brave people managed to get 4X4s along the one plowed lanes of of Interstate 95 back to Baltimore.
Not going anywhere ’till Wednesday
Fushigi Ojisan… I just got back from being stranded at Katsucon for an extra day too. I like the “”I Survived the Farpoint Blizzard ’03” idea, I think I’m going to adapt it and put it on the back of my Katsucon 9 shirt…
On the way home, we passed about 6 or 7 accidents, including two overturned SUVs and one jack-knifed tractor trailer. So everyone, please, PLEASE be careful.
Here’s wishing everyone still stranded a safe journey home.
Sounds like fun, aside from the work aspects of it. I remember another “close and personal” con I got to do in Chicago with De Lancie and Campbell(where we got to do Peter’s Rebel Without A Q) and Levar Burton. Could never figure out how Levar got there on saturday as the storm began friday night and everything was closed by midday saturday. Only about 100 people in total at that one. And we couldn’t leave until monday, But, being a small group had its own fun to it.
Well, I hope once the snow clears and the plows do their thing that everyone gets home safely. I was over at the website of Diamond Comics Distributors this evening and I noticed that the snow has closed their offices in the Baltimore area. Toronto is slated to see some of that snow system over the next few days, although if the rest of this winter is any indication, we’ll get more of the cold and less of the snow.
I saw about the huge snowstorm yesterday on TV. Pennsylvania’s got snow too, and so does North Carolina, and it sure is a very heavy one. I sure hope that everyone’ll be allright through this snowstorm.
To Tom Galloway
T-shirt dealers usually have blank t-shirts, printers and presses with them at cons. They don’t rely only on delivery
We had programming on Monday. It started at 12:30pm with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerors Stone”. After that, it continued with Scott, Steve, Renfield, Rachel and Rick doing “Whose Trek Is It Anyway”. More videos followed. I think everyone on the Farpoint staff did one terrific job of filling the extra day with programming.
Plus, the Farpoint Gaming Oasis crew kept the games going all through Monday – some authors were reportedly seen in a furious Trivial Pursuit battle!
Some of the dealers stayed open to take advantage of the “exclusive market”. There were several impromptu parties, including a Joe Millionaire viewing party, a bingo party and yes, a Donner Party in the bar. The actors and authors were out and about visiting with con-goers. It was definitely a weekend for the record books.