On the Groovy Road: Headed for the Orlando Comic Con

Wow...what a weekend! I hardly know where to begin so I will simply give you a play by play and hope that you don't get too bored along the way. ;)

No, did not mean to rhyme. Left at around noon on Friday, headed to Orlando, for the Orlando Comic Con at the Caribe Royale Resort. Car packed, snacks for along the way and we were set.

Stopped in Clermont for lunch at the Cracker Barrel. My hubby loves that place so we went in there. Picture this...going into country Cracker Barrel wearing a black velvet dress with red lace sleeves with black fringe. My new pocket watch was pinned to the front of me with a black ribbon. In my hair was a cute little red bow with a bat on it from Natey at FreekyFallz which I thought rather nifty.

So, we sit down at Cracker Barrel and the waitress asked me if I was going to a Ren Fest. I told her "no" and explained who I was. She asked for card and then this other waitress came running up to the table and said "Who is she? I want a card!"
So about that time, everyone is looking at me and asking who I was. It was rather funny. I needed a sense of humor because when we left, we got halfway down the road and just my luck, the clutch cable on my car snapped. I managed to get the car off onto the shoulder but here is yet another mental picture for you...

State Road 50, busy, busy, busy, the type of road that is non-stop day and night. We were in the middle of nowhere between downtown Clermont (which is getting built up but is still out in the middle of nowhere in parts. Nope couldn't break down in town...had to break down in the middle of nowhere...) and Winter Garden, which was the next biggest town.

I called Triple A and they said it would be a 45 minute to an hour wait. I asked them hurry because standing on the side of the road in a long, black velvet dress in 90 degree heat was not fun. The tow truck driver made it in about a half hour and we were on our way to my parent's house.

We got to use our Sun Pass too. Yes, I am easily amused, that I get such joy out of a Sun Pass. We have a Sun Pass to use on Florida toll roads and it was so cool! A little beep and your toll is automatically deducted as you pass under the toll ramp. No fishing for money, no nothing...yes, I know...I am strange.

So we made it to my parents, and my brother was on his way home from work with a clutch cable for my car, thanks to my dad calling him.

Once my brother got home, hubby got into the car (and under it) and had it fixed in about 15 minutes and then after freshening up, we headed to the convention to unload my books. It was around 8 PM by this time and so after unloading my books, I spent the rest of the night wandering around Downtown Disney with my pal, actor Darryl Baldwin of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Adventure at MGM Studios and hubby, watched Resident Evil Extinction (please don’t ask me what I thought of it) and ate a late dinner at Planet Hollywood.

The weekend did improve with me almost selling out by Sunday morning and I was thrilled. As luck would have it, the “adventure” home was nil and we arrived in good time with no trouble along the way.

But the getting there, I have to tell you…started off rough! ;)

Road Trip by
Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc

http://www.myspace.com/gothicscrybe


Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc
Best Seller-Two Time Award Winner
VOA Haunted Voices Radio Network Corp.
SE Regional Rep - The IOHP
http://thelosttheforgottenthedamned.com/

Road to Fort Lauderdale: Andrea's Adventure!!

I left my house on a Thursday in a rented car, my husband and son in tow, headed for the Florida Super Con, one of the biggest comic book, anime and character driven cons in Florida the weekend of June 22-24. I marveled at how simple it seemed to get to the roads that would take us to Fort Lauderdale--we cut through Brandon and Plant City. I am a native Floridian yet have never been to Fort Lauderdale until I attended the Super Con. We traveled and traveled and found the sidewalks rolling up along S.R. 60, as we ventured into towns that obviously closed at sundown. I even saw gas stations that were closed by 8 PM! Don't laugh, I honestly haven't seen gas stations that aren't open for 24 hours (except mom and pop stations, but one of these was a CITGO!) since I was a little girl and I'm approaching 40!

Once back on the Interstate we were almost to Pompano Beach when we hit a snag. The DOT had decided (at midnight) to work on the Interstate. Here it was, wall to wall cars and one lane was open, down from three.

There were cones as far as the eye could see, trucks with shovels and all manner of official looking street fixing stuff and lots of cops. Well, as luck would have it, the turn off we needed? Closed off by cones...lot of them. Hubby saw a cop and we drove past the cones and over to him to ask for his help.

MISTAKE! The cop was rude, making snide remarks about how long we had been driving a motor vehicle (my husband is nearly 54) that we didn't know the significance of cones--we knew the significance of them, we were mistaken in thinking that the cop would help us when we saw no other way to get to where we needed to go and were unfamiliar with the area! Let's just say that he was no help...far too much enjoying himself with being snotty and sarcastic.

Finally we made it back to civilization around 1 AM. We found a McDonald's open in Pompano Beach (where we were staying with a friend--the convention was right down the street from her home) and got a late snack and then headed to her house to get some rest.

I won't say that was the worst trip I have ever been on, but with a rude cop, Interstate shut down and long stretches of nothing to see but the lines of the highway (which is why I hate to drive...it makes me sleepy!) it was one of the more interesting ones!

Written by:
Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc
Best Selling Horror Author and
Two Time Award Winner
SE Regional Rep - The IOHP

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