On the road again: World Fantasy Con, Columbus, day 1

Other than an hour in the Cincinnati airport once many years ago, I've not spent any time in Ohio. This trip will begin to fill that gap in my travel resume.

We drove here, a long drive that with lunch and gas breaks took almost nine hours. For a bit under an hour we had to fight fog and rain, but the rest of the way the weather was lovely. So was the scenery. I'd also never previously been in West Virginia, but I've always heard it was beautiful. It truly is. The old, low mountains sported fall colors just a bit past their prime, as if they were college professors adorned in well-worn plaids. Rarely was the view less than lovely.

For lunch, on Jain's recommendation, we pulled over and ate in the food court at Tamarack. This odd structure houses many different types of craftspeople, a conference center, an art gallery, and, of course, the grill from which we ordered. The food was decent, better than I'd initially feared, and the break in the trip was great.

Even though I had cellular connections most of the way and so could keep up with work somewhat, I still hit the hotel desperately behind on work. The evening plan thus turned simple: work, get dinner, work many hours more.

For dinner, we headed half a mile north to a very pleasant little place, The Happy Greek. I have no idea how authentically Greek the food was, but it tasted good, the portions were bigger than we'd expected, and I left happy.

Of course, we were only a block and a half away from a Jeni's ice creams store that was still open, so we had to drop in there and try a little tasty creamy goodness--and good it was. I expect to visit that place another few times before I leave town.

The con starts tomorrow, and I hope to manage to do it and my job and my writing--always a recipe for long days!