Travel, Books And Tote Bags - Oh My!

Rosie and I got an early start yesterday when we met at the airport around 7AM. Our travel went fairly smoothly, but it was a long day with little food. See, we were unable to score a direct flight, so we made a stop in Phoenix. We got off the plane in Phoenix, hit the restroom, got to our next gate - and they were boarding our flight to Orlando already! So lunch for us consisted of Ritz crackers with nuclear orange cheese and candy bars we had purchased in California and stuffed in our purses. Ahhhhh, nutritious!

We opted to take a cab to the Swan & Dolphin Hotel, and it turns out that there were four others going there as well - so we split the cost on a van. Which was really nice, because we didn't have the multitude of stops to make like a shuttle service would. Sounds like KristieJ's flight leaves around the same time as ours on Sunday, so I think the three of us will split a cab when we go to head home.

Speaking of KristieJ - she arrived before we did, and was hanging out in the hotel lobby while I was checking in! I got my room keys (after getting stuck behind a tourist family with umpteen questions - seriously how do people live in Orlando?) and I hit our room to get settled in. The rooms here are pretty nice. Not the nicest hotel I've been in for an RWA conference (damn, some really nice hotels over the years) - but still nice. And the staff has been friendly and helpful so far. Of course I'm sure they're bracing themselves for the influx of romance authors that will be descending on them over the course of today and tomorrow!

While we stood in line for dinner (by this point I was ready to gnaw off my arm) we met a reader who made the trip from Australia. Madelyn was on holiday with her husband and decided to hit Florida just to attend to the conference! We had a nice dinner and chat - complete with book recommendations of course!

Later that evening, AnimeJune swung by our room. Her travel experience to Orlando was just short of Hell, so she got into Orlando later than she had planned. But we had a nice chat with her, complete with her and me dissecting Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas (which somehow Kristie survived - Heh).

After a fairly decent night's sleep, we got up this morning for breakfast and went down to stuff tote bags. Rosie and Kristie tagged along, and with the added help we made quick work of it! After an hour we ran out of books. Tote bags everywhere! And piles of books (including the Meredith Duran and Karin Harlow titles pictures above). The tote bags are a nice size this year. Roomy without being ginormous.

And now? Now I'm blogging, Kristie is on an errand, and Rosie has left to check into her room (Ms. Lisabea is apparently at the airport and should be arriving soon-ish). Registration opens at 1PM, and I want to get that taken care of - and then it's just relaxation until the Blogger Bar Bash at 7PM.

Until my next update, I've downloaded a couple of pictures to my Flickr stream and have created a photo album called RWA 2010. The plan right now (Ha!) is for me to add pictures to this album all week. So check back often (and hopefully I won't flake out!). Right now? Just three pictures from the tote bag stuffing....