Road Trip to Adelaide

First event of the year, a brand-new Australian event called Oz Comic Con held in Adelaide. Another interstate event meant it was time for another road trip too. I organised with friends to road trip across, I worked until 5pm and my mate Jen met me at my work. We then headed to pick another friend Sarah up on the other side of the city, then started the trek to Adelaide.

This was a very rough road trip, we’d planned to drive overnight, get ready in a mates hotel then head to the event. Unfortunately, another friend had pulled out and left me as the only driver so I couldn’t get any sleep. Which meant that by the time I arrived in Adelaide I was feeling incredibly exhausted. I’m very thankful to Jen, who did her best to stay awake and keep me company during the drive. The other form of keeping myself awake was my American mate RJ, who kept entertaining us. We were using a fun walkie-talkie type app on our phones called Voxer, hilarity insured during sleep deprived messaging.

We arrived in Adelaide and at our friends hotel room, where we were able to shower and get ready for the event. I had brought some of my costumes along, mainly my Stargate costume and Criminal Minds vest. I ended up wearing a mix of the Stargate costume with my FBI vest and P90. A bit of a random mix of costume, but it was hot that weekend so it was enough. We then had something to eat and I got myself a bottle of Coca-Cola to keep myself caffeinated and awake.

Ben Browder

The tiredness I felt meant that I don’t remember a lot of specifics of happened during the Saturday. Jen and I spent a lot of time chatting with Ben Browder, who had what we dubbed as his porn-stache. Ben was a real gentleman and good to spent time with, he was willing to play along with our shenanigans. He commented on how exhausted we looked and we explained that we’d driven overnight from Melbourne. He then offered to drive us home after the event, of course we took him up on his offer, we were both exhausted. Of course we knew he was only playing around with us but it was fun. At the end of the weekend when we were leaving we went via Ben and told him we’d be waiting at the car.

Favourite Moments

Jen and I were exhausted and about to crash, it was not long after lunch time and we talking to the photographers. They were hungry and so we said we would watch their gear whilst they took a break. It meant that we could sit down and hide in the photo booths for a while. Whilst we were taking the time to chill out, things got crazy when the photo prints arrived. We were suddenly helping to hand out the photos to people, it was chaotic but also kind of hilarious. Mostly though, it was memorable.

Over the weekend I had several guests comment on my costume, such as Sean Astin and Norman Reedus. It’s always nice getting compliments but I felt it strange since I was in a fairly random mixed costume. It was good to get the compliments and even though I was feeling exhausted it was still a great day.

Other than the hectic chaos of the photo collection, the event run quite well. There were only a few small issues here and there. One being that the photos didn’t all get printed on the Saturday, so we had to wait until Sunday.

Saturday Night

I was too exhausted to really enjoy anything about this evening, I remember going out for dinner with friends. But I ended up eating left over pizza in the hotel room. I’m very thankful for the hotel room and for Jen’s friendship. When we got to the hotel room, I was so exhausted that I completely broke down crying. Jen was there helping me through, I really appreciated her for that, it meant a lot. Exhaustion can do very crazy things to you.

Sleep came easily that night, I barely remember anything else. Unfortunately, that sleep was interrupted so it wasn’t the greatest night Thankfully, it was enough sleep that I still felt refreshed enough the following day.

Day Two Adelaide

I managed to have a pretty good day this day, got to hang out and catch up with a lot of different friends. Chatted with quite a lot of the guest, including; Gigi Edgley, Jewel Staite, Jonathon Frakes, Corin Nemec, and of course Ben. We told Ben to look for the number plate MALPY in the carpark. The only item I brought over the weekend, was Corin Nemec’s event poster. The first event poster to start my collection.

The plan was to leave the event around midday to start the long trek home. This would have given us plenty of time to get home and get some sleep before work on the Monday. As always though, things did not go according to plan. We didn’t end up leaving until much later in the afternoon.

The Trek Home from Adelaide

The drive home was hard, a lot harder than the drive there. I was already running on low energy so it didn’t take long until I was feeling exhausted. In addition one of my friends turned the heater on, and that’s one thing you should never do when tired. The heat and tiredness got the better of me and when we were four hours from home I had to pull off the highway. I parked and got out of the car and went for a walk, I needed the cool air. It was about 2am and I called my Mum, I was worried about making it home. We weren’t stopped too long and back on the road after a short break.

Things got a little bit crazy after that, there was inuendo hour and then there was superman out the window. The girls helping to row the car up the hills, at least this helped to pick my energy up a bit. The travelling isn’t part of the actual event, but this was an impactful adventure. I know I was utterly exhausted but I still managed to have a great time at the event. I did however learn a valuable lesson, to never drive under those conditions again.