My First Book Festival, Part 2

So there it was, Friday, and at some point, I needed to leave for the 1 ½ to 2 hour drive to Gainesville. At first, I thought I’d leave at 1 pm. I put my 5 small boxes of books in the trunk of my car. I put my suitcase in the back seat. I filled a grocery sack with snacks and a 6-pack cooler with drinks, and about 2 o’clock, I stopped procrastinating and pulled out of the driveway.

After I filled the tank, I meandered through some back roads to get to the turnpike. Before I got on that, I had to stop and find my sunpass box, which had popped off the windshield. I tried to get it to stick to the windshield, but it kept popping off, so I placed it on the dashboard and hoped it would work. When I took the entrance to the turnpike, the machines recognized my sunpass, so I breathed a sigh of relief. It wouldn’t have been a disaster if it hadn’t recognized my sunpass, but it would have been more expensive.

I reached the service plaza on the turnpike and pulled in for a few minutes. I very seldom drive on highways anymore, and had been having problems keeping my speed fairly consistent. The speed limit was 70, and it seemed the fastest I was comfortable going was 60, and even that wasn’t consistent. After about 10 minutes, I got on the road again.

About an hour later, I pulled off at a rest stop to eat a little snack and drink some pop. My speed still wasn’t very consistent, but at least it was fluctuating between 60 and 70. Again, after about 10 minutes, I got back on the road.

I was still having trouble keeping my speed steady, but now I kept finding it veering toward 80. And then we approached the Gainesville exits, and the right hand lane, where I was, came to a dead stop, as the exit lane was backed up that far. Having come to a stop, traffic was heavy enough that I could not pull over into the next lane to continue. Eventually, the exit lane moved forward enough that I could move past the exit and continue on my way.

The Gainesville exit I need was the most northern one, naturally, since I was coming from the south. But I found it, successfully got off, and drove right by the street leading to the hotel. I had to turn around and come back to it. The hotel was busy with people checking in, but I got checked in with no problem, and got my stuff up to my room.

Now the nerves really started to bother me, thinking about that 'meet and greet' I was supposed to go to from 7 to 9. I got myself ready by 7, memorized the route to the site, and took off. It was dark, since it was the end of January, and I was trying to keep an eye on the street names so I didn't miss my turns. I did not keep up with the speed limit, and thankfully, I did not need to change lanes. I thought there would be signs on the church campus to direct us to the correct building, but there weren't. I parked my car and headed for the building that had lights on.

I had the right building, as evidenced by the Sunshine State Book Festival sign that stood outside the doors, but I hadn't seen that from the road or parking lot. I walked inside, and found there was some confusion going on at the registration table, where we were to claim our name badges. The registration person had stepped away for some reason, and 3 or 4 people (myself included) were going through the badges, trying to find ours. Instead of being arranged alphabetically, they were arranged by table number. I found the badge for Table 45, but it wasn't my name on it. When the registration person got back, I asked if possibly my table number was 145, and sure enough, there my name was. Which meant John's name badge was 146.

I wandered into the large inner room, where lots of tables and chairs were set up, just like for a dealer's room. I found my way to the refreshments, and realized I hadn't bothered to eat any supper. Not that there was an awful lot to choose from. There were a few pinwheel sandwiches, but I didn't know what was in them, so I skipped those. I selected a couple cookies, a few pieces of vegetables, fruit and cheese, and a glass of lemonade to drink, since I don't drink coffee.

I had worn one of my MoonPhaze shirts, with the MoonPhaze logo on the back, and 'Author' on the front. I received 3 or 4 comments on that shirt, all thinking it was a good idea. One lady said she had done something similar, but had put the front of her book on her shirt, which is also a good idea. Most of the authors were already gathered in small groups, talking, but several paused to exchange pleasantries as they wandered from 1 group to another.

After I finished my refreshments, I noticed a man sitting at a table alone, staring at his phone. So I decided to REALLY step outside my comfort zone and start talking to him. Turns out he's not an author, he's a computer geek, but he was there to support his wife, who is an author. Pretty soon, our little group of 2 people grew to 5 people, and we were having a nice little chat about nothing in particular. About that time, the organizers announced it was time for us to leave, so we all said good-bye and I went out to my car.

Having memorized the route to get there, I only had to follow it backwards to get to the hotel. That only took me 15 minutes, but I didn't feel like going to the sports bar restaurant attached to the hotel for supper, so I just ate some more of my snacks in my room before climbing into bed. I had to get up early in the morning to have breakfast and get to the site by 8:00.