The plane was full, the taxi driver took me on a tour of Inglewood, Gardena and Compton, the hotel reservations were screwed up, and yet somehow I made it.

I am in Anaheim, California for Gen Con SoCal 2004. [Pictures inside.]

After checking in at the Coast Hotel, I checked in at the Anaheim Convention Center to see if I could pick up my press credentials. Things were pretty quiet. With the exception of the two guys with leaf blowers out in front - it was almost too quiet. I saw a few familiar faces. I saw the Hero Games crew, off in the distance. Michelle Nephew, of Atlas Games, was also there. She is working for GenCon SoCal as Atlas Games will not have a booth there this year.

I talked to a couple of the Gen Con staff members and they directed me to the Press HQ. Allan had theoretically arranged a press pass for me. In the past, when I went to these conventions with Allan, getting our press credentials was always been a hit or miss affair. One or the other of us would end up with misplaced, misspelled, or just plain missing credentials. With only me covering Gen Con SoCal, all bets were off. Sure enough, I was not on the list. Fortunately, the press coordinator recognized me from GenCon Indy. She remembered the email and everything was cool. Press pass in hand, I walked the convention center and checked out the press room. But first I had to find it. The press room, it turns out, was nearly impossible to find. It should prove to be a nice, quiet, place to write articles as it is likely that most people won’t be able to find it at all.

It should be really interesting to see how things go at Gen Con SoCal this year. This is the sophomore year of the convention and I’m looking forward to seeing how much things have changed. I think this year will be a better gauge of where the convention is going. Tomorrow is opening day. See you then.