Tuesday morning revealed itself cloaked in gray, with the threat of more snow in the forecast. The TV in the hotel where Mini-me and I had ended up the previous night had the local weather guesser talking about several inches of snow coming from the North, and arriving in Kansas City by afternoon drive-time.
We were about to run headlong into that.
Fueled by a really good breakfast (seriously, if I end up stopping in Lawrence again, the Comfort Inn & Suites is going to be my go-to. Good room price, waffle maker, decent coffee, and good biscuits and gravy were part of the free breakfast), we were rolling North-East before 1000, and hoping to get home.
After all the threats of snow the previous couple of days, the actual drive turned out to be fairly anticlimactic. The band of rain which turned into freezing rain and started to ice up the windshield was the biggest problem we ran into. There was barely any snow to contend with, and Mini-Me and I got home safely before 1600. Plenty of time for me to go running!
Okay, I didn’t actually do that last part, even though it was a Tuesday. I did at least do some light shoveling to clear the sidewalk around our house of snow that had been blown in after the Mrs. had cleared things the previous day.
The interesting thought is that there’s a good chance I’m going to be making this road trip almost an annual thing now. Certainly all of the other kids are now eagerly anticipating their turn even more, since their eldest sibling came home bearing amazing tales of all the fun that he had.
In the end, I think that’s the important thing. Something that’s been bothering me for a few years now is the memory of the annual road trips that my parents somehow used to take us on. For various reasons, my wife and I haven’t been able to do that with our kids. It may not be the entire team, but it’s good memories for the teenagers in those precious few years while they’re still at home.
At PAX, the big games come and go, to be replaced by whatever the next crop of “Must-Haves” and “Next Big Things” are. It’s something different every year. But great traditions, like Acquisitions Inc. panels, Friday night concerts, Harddrive shuffleboard in BYOC, are things that help make consistent memories.
I’ll save talk of my favorite games for other posts. There were some cool games, but next year there will be new cool games. Last year there were other cool games. Mostly, I’m grateful I got the chance to hang out with my son, and introduce him to my very favorite convention. His way of doing PAX may not be my way, but it’s just as good, and I feel like the torch has been successfully passed to another generation.