It was amazing. Also: Fuck Pasco, WA If anyone in Pasco reads this, your city is made of poop and fail and I hate it.

Story time!

Day One

Having a midterm right before you want to leave for a con is hyperballs pretty cool. Evan wanted to leave at three; I finished my midterm at three. In Corvallis. No conflicts here, right? Right. Oh, and then I picked up my new glasses. I ended up in Stayton at about five, and Evan was halfway to murdering me. Then we zoomed off to grab Dami and dealt with fun Portland traffic. And then we drove. Forever.

It's funny; Oregon really doesn't seem that big on the map. And then you drive along the gorge, and drive along the gorge, and drive along the gorge, and seriously start wondering if the same hills have just been looping around. I don't care what anyone says. The gorge looks like crap and I loves me some trees. One of the few things I enjoyed looking at outside of the car was a young coyote that was ducking off of the highway. "Hey, a coyote," I thought. "That's a good sign, right?" HA. HA. I laugh at me. And there was more driving after that. For a while. We did pass a sign that read "Ritzville" on the way up. It's apparently pretty ritzy; for the half-square mile it takes up.

After a while, Evan chucked the AAA tourbook at me and and asked me to make reservations at the Budget Inn in Pasco. It was pretty cool, lemme tell you. The guy who answered the phone had an almost impenetrable accent. I finally managed to get a room reserved. Several hours later, we arrive at where Pasco is supposed to be. The highway junction is indecipherable. Not only is it indecipherable, but also poorly designed. We pull off at an arbitrary stop and wander blindly around for the next fifteen minutes until Pasco comes up like "Oh hai." At least we're in the right city now. We continue to futilely drive for the next hour or so; wandering through at least two ghettos and an airport. It is at this point that "Fuck Pasco" has become the unofficial motto of the trip. Stopping at a Best Western doesn't prove very helpful. Another half an hour of wandering and we finally find the right street that it's on. We pass by a Motel 6 on the way and several other lodgings. Fifteen more minutes of wandering down the street gives us nothing. Half an hour of wandering up the street gives us more nothing. Finally, we stop into the Motel 6 parking lot to try and figure out where the hell it is. Twenty more minutes pass and at this point I say, "Fuck it" and go inside to ask where the Budget Inn is. "Oh the Budget Inn? This is it." It is at this point that "Fuck Pasco" has become the official slogan of the trip. T-shirts may be made. The guy on the phone never said anything about, you know, IT COULD HAVE A DIFFERENT FUCKING NAME ON THE SIGN. Little things.

Day Two

Day Two was considerably better. Despite sheets that were shitty even by budget standards, I managed to get a bit of sleep. Pasco is two hours outside of Spokane and we got up early to catch registration by ten. The drive was uneventful and we made it there in good time. Spokane actually looks a lot like Portland, only cleaner, and easier to navigate. AFF was like three blocks from the Ramada; which everyone was grateful for. Check-in was at three; and we got there at a little before ten. Dami had unfortunately forgotten his wallet, and we walked back to the hotel to get it. Also, Evan was amazing and paid for mine.

There were a lot of nerdy furs there. Stratosfear was one; mostly because I really like the song of the same name and it was the inspiration for his. Synthwolf was another. He had experience in the therian community and was a blast to talk to. There was one that absolutely crushed Evan's hopes when she mentioned her husband. On the other hand, she also worked with chainmail.

The panels we attended were really good. Performing in Fursuit was a really interesting topic, and covered a lot of the pantomime and acting of it. After that was the Fursuit Parade. Some of the fursuits were /ridiculously/ cool. Soki Twopaw had made one that light-up ears, mouth, and eyes. Greyhound Rescue followed that and had a beautiful racer there. Soooo sweet... We had lunch after that and attended the Fursuit Building Workshop. It was really informative; and I learned a fair number of things. Moorcat made a digitigrade paw which I thought was cool as hell. Soki and Moorcat, the two leading the workshop, were also really good friends and made it throughly enjoyable. Soki also designed heads along the Golden Ratio. (I call badass.) It was interesting to see the difference in their styles. Soki's was complex, showy, and awesome. Moorcat's was simple, pragmatic, and awesome. The Furry Spirituality panel followed directly afterwards, and Soki and Moorcat were leading it as well. I felt sorry for Soki when Moorcat wandered off; since Moor was supposed to be leading it. We talked about what furry spirituality is, where fursonas came from, and how the furry fandom is also a community. After that was dinner. Hilarious fun ensued when Evan decided that delivery was the pussy way out and tried to navigate. It didn't help that our order went through a regional call center and then to a random Pizza Hut in Spokane. Bad, bad times. We ended up ditching the order and stopped at Jack in the Box. The three of us got back just in time to catch 2 the Ranting Gryphon's opening joke. 2 is even more amazing in person. His delivery was killer. I think the thing that made me like him the most was how he was willing to sit afterwards and talk to people one-on-one. Also, I totally got his autograph. (Epic win.) We stopped by the Exquisite Corpse read afterwards, and did jamming art in the Art Jam where I totally figured out how to do a geometric braid.

Day Three

Hotel beds in the Ramada are amazing. And the woman working the front counter was a godsend. She was cheerful, smiling, and really nice. We checked out at around ten-ish and headed for the last panel we could attend. (Ride back and all...) Furries in Public was a fascinating discussion led by 2 that went from how the media views furries to an analysis on the furry fandom. It was a really, really cool discussion.

After that, we drove home. And when I got back; I made an offering to Coyote, thanking him for the lesson.