Jerzei Collie's journal

I took my change jar to the credit union to pad my account a little. I was expecting to only have $30-40 worth of change based on past trips. This time, I had $88.29!

One of the reasons I hate driving at night is that the delivery customers sometimes don't turn their house lights on. If I ever owned an actual house, one thing I'd do is paint the address numbers in glow-in-the-dark paint to make things easier at night.

UPDATE (10:20 PM): I had forgotten that my dad was going to take me out to dinner tonight. We went to Cracker Barrel because Dad heard great things about their fish and chips. I had a hamburger steak with corn and mac & cheese, along with some "biscuit beignets" for dessert. Those are biscuit pieces covered in cinnamon and sugar, and served with a butter pecan dipping sauce.

UberEats gave me two shopping orders for Safeway one night. It was stressful for me because some of the items were unavailable due to the shelves being half empty. Also, my cell phone's battery died while I tried to check out. (I needed to scan a QR code on my phone to pay for the orders.) Thankfully a staff member offered to partially charge my phone so I could finish checking out.

The next day, I got another delivery that had to go to Woodland Park, a 40-minute drive northwest of Colorado Springs.

I'm glad I learned I don't need to leave a tip on every Fiverr order. My bank statement is cluttered with $8.78 withdrawals ($5 tip plus service fee.)

 Today's forecast calls for anywhere from 2 to 6 inches of snow. While I don't look forward to driving in this weather, I hope it will boost the DoorDash orders I get. I'll be dashing every day until Friday. I also have a catering delivery on Thursday morning.

UPDATE (7 PM): The snow was definitely a huge amount (about 5 inches according to the TV news.) I got a few food delivery orders, along with a pair of grocery orders. One order was from a pet store and the other was from a regular supermarket.

I left home around 2:30 and got to the DenFur hotel at 4:10. At first, I originally thought the hotel's parking garage was closed because there was a gate over the entrance. I called the hotel to ask about the gate; the hotel employee said the gate would automatically rise when I pulled up to it.

I had bought a chicken strip meal from Whataburger before the drive to Denver. My hotel room wasn't ready when I arrived, so I ate the meal in the lobby while waiting. The room was ready about 15 minutes later.

I'll do my best to wake up early tomorrow for DenFur's registration.

I didn't plan to go anywhere today since it's raining. While cleaning off my kitchen counter, I found a flyer from Molly's Mountain Pies with coupons that expire tomorrow. I used one of the coupons to get some free garlic bread nuggets with my pizza.

Today is graduation day at the Air Force Academy. Some of the local roads are congested, especially between the academy and the airport since the vice president is this year's commencement speaker.

I finished packing for Furry Fiesta and left home around 7:30 AM.

I'm spending the night in Wichita Falls. Since my hotel room has a microwave, I picked up a breakfast at a convenience store to heat up Thursday morning before leaving for Dallas.

I almost ran out of gas before getting to Wichita Falls. I thought I got a full tank in Dumas, but it was only 3/4 full. Luckily, I found a gas station when my car's low-gas light came on.

I thought my GPS was incorrect while making a delivery yesterday. The address listed for the customer didn't technically exist. I called the customer and found out he was about 5-6 blocks south of where the GPS took me. He had put the wrong street name on his address.

I'm currently listening to Rhythm Bastard on the Anthrocon live stream. Romeo did a special Rabbit Hole show this morning from the Omni William Penn Hotel.

I got home from Furry Fiesta around 3:10 PM today. The convention itself was very good, though long waits for elevators and not enough parking put a damper on things for me. It took 90 minutes of driving through the parking garage before I could find a space.

I'll break up my trip report into pre-convention, convention and post-convention to make things easier.

WEDNESDAY
I left home around 7:30 AM then got breakfast in Raton, New Mexico just after 10 AM. I had plenty of time to have lunch at Furrbie's diner in Amarillo since I arrived earlier than expected. One of the waitresses said I looked familiar to her. I had visited Furrbie's back in 2018, but the waitress was thinking of someone who visited more recently.

I spent the night in Childress, Texas at the same motel I stayed last year. This time the elevators were working! I forgot to change the top on my APAP tank, so it still had the open spout for my machine's cleaner. I went to the Dollar Tree to get some plastic wrap, tape and pencil erasers to cover the spout. I picked up dinner at Taco Bell on the way back to the motel.

If I stay at this motel next year, I'll make a note that the rooms have both refrigerators and microwaves. (The hotel in Amarillo where I stayed on Monday night also has these.)

THURSDAY
I stopped at Buc-ee's in Fort Worth on the way to the convention hotel. I got two of their Texas cheesesteak burritos to have for lunch and dinner, along with some bottles of water and two rice crispy treats.

The registration line for the con moved MUCH faster than last year. The "line before the actual reg line" only took an hour to get to the front. Unfortunately, a tornado warning forced everyone in line to take shelter for a while. When the coast was clear, it took another 40 minutes to get through the line again and about 10 minutes to get registered.

I was looking at restaurants to visit during my trip to and from Furry Fiesta. If I arrive in Amarillo on Wednesday at 3 PM or earlier, I'd like to pay another visit to Furrbie's Diner downtown. I liked their food the last time I visited in 2018. I chose Furrbie's both because of the name and because it's on the original alignment of Route 66.

I found a Buc-ee's location along my route near Fort Worth. A few furries have posted pictures of a work of art, the Buc-ee's Texas cheesesteak burrito, which I just HAVE to try! Northern Colorado will get a Buc-ee's location, though it won't be open until sometime next year.

For the drive home, there's a steakhouse in Amarillo that offers cash back on my phone's Dosh app. I'll have dinner there on the Monday night after the con since it's near the motel where I'll stay that night.

"La-de-da, de-da-de-dum, 'tis Autumn!"

I wish it was Autumn today. It's currently snowing and 7 degrees, with a forecast low tonight of -2.