Conventional Wisdom

(Historical Notes: In retrospect, this turned out to be a lot more historically important than I realized.  As you can see, I completely struck out at finding a spot in a room in the main hotel, and there’s so few alternatives in the National Harbor that striking out there means you’ve pretty much struck out entirely.  This was already becoming a problem for years before this point, but 2019 was the first year where it all truly boiled over for me.  The only room we were able to get was out in Alexandria, which mean commuting back and forth each day.  On the one hand, I didn’t actually mind that part too terribly much.  Yes, the motel we were in was a lot crappier than the once in National Harbor, but it’s not like we’d actually be there for long.  And it was a LOT cheaper.  Like, a LOOOT.  Even without and kind of con discount, I was able to book this whole room for less than my individual share of last year’s room.  But therein lies the other problem, which I need to unpack a bit.  Obviously, this hotel was far enough away to need to commute back and forth, but since the National Harbor only barely has any Metro access, and what few buses go there do NOT run on MAGFest time, it meant we had to drive.  Now, on the one hand, having a vehicle right there in the parking lot negated a lot of the inconveniences that come from not having a room right there on-site.  But on the OTHER hand, we had to pay for parking.  And we had to pay a LOT.  Like, the cost of whole second hotel room.  Whatever financial benefit there was in getting a cheaper room was completely obliterated by the absurd cost of reserving a spot in one of the handful of available parking lots.  It shouldn’t surprise anybody that I haven’t been to a con in DC at all after this weekend, or any city bigger than Charlotte.  The strain of trying to even get into major cities just outweighs whatever benefits I might get out it once I get there.  Now, if somebody ELSE wants to invite me along to stay in THEIR room, that’s another matter entirely.

Oh, and just for the record, that meth head flop house of a motel in the second panel isn’t actually one of the various sketchy Alexandria hotels, but a place down here in North Carolina… which is inexplicably still around as I write this.)