Aggiecon 42 - Don't Panic - a summary

This weekend was the 42 edition of Aggiecon and it was my 29th consecutive time to go to the con.  It was held at the College Station Hilton.  Not my favorite place for the con, but while the MSC is under construction, it'll have to do.

I left for the con bright and early Friday morning, as is my tradition.  This year, I skipped breakfast.  There were a couple of cafes on the way to College Station that I was going to try instead of grabbing donuts from Shipley's.  Up 45 and onto the Beltway, zooming around Houston without too much traffic.  Zigging off onto 290 and zagging onto Hwy 6.

At this point, the bluebonnets and other flowers starting showing up, so I stopped a couple of times to take pictures.  Here are a few of the images I captured:

I drove on up to Navasota and found the place I wanted to try for breakfast, but it was closed.  The next stop was Wellborn for the Hullabaloo Diner, but they were closed, too.  So, I ended up skipping breakfast, and lunch, for the day.

I made it on in to CS and the con hotel.  I got my badge and then checked into the hotel.  I then caught the tail end of the "Don't Panic" panel, which was the welcome to AggieCon panel.  I chilled in the reading nook for a while with Elizabeth Moon's "Kings of the North", occasionally chatting with folks who stopped by.

Around 3, I dropped into "Have all good ideas been done?" where it was the unanimous consensus that the answer was "no."  The next panel was "Steampunk Jewelry" where they discussed where to get gears, glue types, resins, molds, silicone, etc.  An informative panel.

Time for a little more reading and then off to dinner at Los Nortenos with Bill P.  Back to the hotel afterwards for a brief respite before hitting the "Texas in 2013" party.  Then to bed.

Up early and off to the Kettle for breakfast, some more reading and then some panels.  First of the day was a reading by Matthew Bey and then the "Airship GOH" panel.

The third panel was "How to get started selling your artwork" where I chimed in with a few tidbits.  A couple hours break for some more reading of "Kings of the North" and then off to listen to Kim Kofmel read a couple of stories.

Double Dave's for dinner, "Sucker Punch" at the local theatre, a couple of parties and then off to bed again.

Up early Sunday morning and on the road back to Houston.  Overall, a much better con than last year's
 and probably the most panels I've been to in a long time.