Harmonycon 2022 experience and finds

[lonewolf]

 I was sure we had seen the last of conventions when the pandemic started, but they've been slowly coming back with restrictions, and after only being online last year, Harmonycon was back at a new place (the old hotel went under thanks to financial troubles capped by the virus); the Sheraton next to DFW airport. The restrictions was masks all the time and proof of vax or negative test (other pony cons were only allowing vaxxed people which doesn't sit right with me).
 
 Once again though I had to deal with winter weather for the trip. Kansas got hit by a big storm that ended early afternoon Thursday, and I was going to leave around 2AM Friday, so I was sure the roads would be uncleared by then. I was constantly checking the road condition sites for KS and OK, and even called a couple of the KS Turnpike service areas when the KanDrive site wasn't updating. Things seemed to had been cleared, so I waited until 5AM to leave.
  Well the first 100 miles was a slow white knuckle drive as the turnpike was not completely clear, and there were plenty of snow and ice spots left. I seldom got above 45mph, and there were times I felt my truck's wheels spinning out. Finally south of Wichita things got better and by the time I reached Oklahoma the interstate was dry. The only other delays were 4 spots of construction in OK where traffic was at a standstill. I finally got to the con at about 2PM which meant missing the opening ceremonies.

 It took another hour to get checked in and unpacked and get into my Flash Sentry cosplay. There wasn't any panels I was really interested in, so I went to the autograph session. Special guests this year were Claire Corlett (Sweetie Belle), Black GryphOn (now engaged to Claire), Ingrid Nilson (Maud), Tony Fleece, Lea Dabssi (does work for G5 including designing Izzy, Sunny, and Sprout), and  the return of Elley Ray (Mistmane). I brought my Celestia R/C pickup to have Claire, Ingrid, and Gryphon sign it (all 3 thought it was awesome), and of course Elley recognized it from the 2019 Harmonycon (when she signed it) and had me drive it around while she filmed it: https://twitter.com/Elley_Ray/status/1494821705294008320 (she is such a character). Later that night I had my entire fleet of R/C pony trucks and cars out:

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Running on fumes from being up over 24 hours, I went to bed around 11PM and didn't get up until after 10AM Saturday, which meant I missed a couple of things I wanted to attend. Got into my Joker Pinkie cosplay (Heath Ledger Joker with a pink and green wig. Couldn't do the face scars and paint due to the mask mandate, so I found a mask printed with the Joker's mouth, then just used facepaint on the upper half of my face) and caught the rear half of the special guest Q&A panel. Elley talked about another pony con where The Joker and Batman were bidding on a charity auction item, and there I was in a full Joker costume .  I stayed and entered the cosplay contest after that (didn't win anything but I wasn't expecting to), then caught the tail end of a panel on storm chasing.
 During the con someone was placing plushies of the OC Anon Filly around the con for people to find. I was in the lobby when they posted one had been planted on Discord with a vague photo of it. I thought it looked familiar so I checked a little room for people to use their laptops about 30 feet away, and there it was.
The rest of the night was just hanging out in the lobby until a "brony roast" panel at 11 which I only stayed for an hour of.
 During that time I decided to eat at the hotel's lounge. As you can imagine the prices were astronomical, but I ordered some brisket mac and cheese for $24. It wound up being a serving big enough for 3 or 4 people and oh man was it good. Took 3 tries to eat it all (glad I got it in a takeout box).

Sunday I got up around 7:30 and finished packing and putting on my NLR pilot cosplay, and after getting some pic's and videos of planes landing at DFW (one approach path was right next to the hotel), headed out to a comic reading by the VIP's. After that it was more hanging out in the lobby until the closing ceremonies. The charity auction raised 12 grand for the Dash Network (nonprofit group helping asylum seekers). At one point Ingrid came out, and in Maud's voice, offered Boulder up for auction (it was an actual rock autographed by her). It went for $500.

  The drive back was way nicer than the drive down. Plus this time Google Maps gave me detours to get around the stopped traffic at the work zones in Oklahoma. The first detour put me next to  some RR tracks and I got a photo of a train as a bonus.

Anyway here's what I got: visitors can't see pics , please register or login

 There was one person selling blind bags and G4 brushables in bags, and they had this g1 for $10. What's the name of the pony?

Edit: Found it. It's winger Lady Flutter.

[Pokeyonekenobie]

Glad to see you had fun!  I believe your G1 is named Lady Flutter.  She's a Summer Wing pony.

[starscout]

Love your raver pony plushie
That Anonfilly scavenger hunt sounds fun! I haven't been to a convention in years because of my agoraphobia, but I would absolutely love to go to one again.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Such cool stuff and stories! I really hope that conventions will open up around the Bronycon area again soon. I miss having something in driving distance to look forward to.

The Maud auction in particular sounds so fun, haha.