View 733 Saturday, July 21, 2012
Chattanooga
Niven and I are at LibertyCon in Chattanooga. We have a busy schedule, and the convention is in a unique hotel, where everything is spread out over a vast area: the hotel is the former railway station and railway yard, converted into a hotel, with some of the rooms (not mine) being in old railway cars. There is a dining room in a former railroad car diner, but it didn’t open early enough for us to eat there. The main dining room is the former lobby and waiting room of the station. I’ve seen this station before, twenty years ago, but at that time they hadn’t built the conventions center and some modern hotel structures and the old station was mostly a museum and a place to display a spectacular model railway layout. I would guess that the model railroad is still there since I saw a sign offering tickets to a model railway museum, but I haven’t had a chance to see it.
I don’t think I have ever seen a hotel constructed from a railway station and old railroad cars before. The downside is that it makes for a lot of walking, but that has its positive aspects as well.
We have a very busy schedule. Last night Niven and I were invited to discuss how to save civilization. Today we talk about education. Tonight we have dinner with our Baen Books publisher, and hang out with some other writers. All is well, but there isn’t a lot of slack time.
Another long book signing session, followed by speechifyng which I pretty well left to others. Bit of a problem with the wireless connections. The ThinkPad thinks it has one wireless control system and Windows thinks it has another, and they get confused. As usual it all sorts out eventually. All well if somewhat exhausting.
