Since I got back from Waterloo, I have been at long 10 hour day seminars for work since Monday (except for Tuesday when I got excused because my air conditioner went out which here in Las Vegas in late July can be a life and death situation, but thankfully my AC is still under warranty and the AC tech got it fixed and I only had to pay a $60 service fee.) The seminar thankfully ended today (I am now off until Wednesday) so I now finally have time to post my Galacticon recap.
Before Galacticon, I was also on the road last Monday through Wednesday in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa.
Monday, Tuesday, WednesdayI already made some posts about these days, just to quickly mention again some highlights and lowlights:
3 AM Lyft Ride from Hell
adding Kansas to my list of states visited (Kansas was my 34th state)
KC BBQ
churro beer
temporarily losing my pants (turns out they were in my gym bag)
adding Nebraska to my list of states visited (now up to 35 of the 50)
an awesome Omaha beef cheeseburger in downtown Omaha
Lighthouse Pizza with
Thomas (TK) and
pokeSt. Paul vs Omaha AAA game with TK (I think Omaha is my 8th or 9th AAA stadium I have visited)
ThursdayMe and TK picked up
hexxstar up at the Omaha airport and then we drove to Waterloo. On the way, we stopped at this awesome pizza place that TK knew about in downtown Des Moines where a great slice of hamburger and macaroni and cheese pizza and a Bud Light actually only cost me a total of $3.29 (the pizza was free there if you buy a beer but the pizza was not free there if you buy a non-alcoholic drink.)
After we arrived in Waterloo and after I dropped my stuff off in the hotel room, I walked the 2 blocks to the Hall of Fame for the weekend's opening ceremony which included pizza from Doughy Joey's (I follow them on Facebook but I like their sandwiches even better than their pizza) and Dan Gable beers.
Back at the hotel, at the bar, a number of us entered as a group into the annual Thursday night wrestling trivia contest which we would have won if our table had gone with my Boston Garden answer for the final question. The Hale Twins and Bryce Jordan at first were sitting at the table next to us for the trivia contest so I asked them to autograph my copies of their newly released cards.
After the trivia contest, I got my TS Aggressor card autographed and then I went bar hopping and ended up closing down the Broken Record at 2AM (it is sort of different hearing "Last Call!" when you live in Las Vegas where there is no such thing as "Last Call!")
Friday At Galacticon, I lost in the First Round in the first two tournaments but in one tournament I drew Zulfiqar (who has held the ROV Championship in my fed) and I won twice to advance all the way to (I think) the Semi-Finals before I lost to
Pete (good to see him last weekend!) who had Quagmire. I was winning that match and running up Quagmire's fatigue, but then I rolled snake eyes when Quagmire finally landed a PIN attempt on Zulfiqar. Or was that tournament on Saturday? For lunch, with
"Emperor Norton" (Mark T), his brother Matt (aka "Bloody" Harker Dirge,) and
Sinestro24, I went to Doughy Joeys and got their Hawaiian sandwich I really like alot.
Before the Friday night IPW show, me and
Tournament Master (thank you again for helping me out last weekend!) went down the hall to
malicelover's room where he brought in some great beers from Wisconsin. Barry has great taste in beers! Also,
iowaoaks this past weekend gave us some beers he personally brewed in Iowa, he is a very talented brewer. Hopefully next year in Buffalo/Jamestown,
j can bring us some beers that he has brewed too!
At the IPW show I got these autographs for my WWE Encyclopedia: D-Von Dudley, Haku, John Nord, and Masked Superstar and I got these autographs for my copy of the following color cards: Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant, John Nord, Bob Roop, Bill DeMott, and Wes Briscoe. As mentioned previously, I also made some requested Indie signings at that show. After the show, we went to the afterparty at Doughy Joey's and then I went to the hotel bar and hung out with
Sam Fain,
Cory Olson,
Mike M, Mark, and Sinestro24 until they closed at 2AM.
SaturdayI had fun at Galacticon during the day. For lunch, after the panels were over, I went back to Doughy Joey's and had a different sandwich.
At the banquet, I was assigned to Table 5. At first I was the only one at that table until I heard a voice from behind me jokingly say "Well now that I see you took the seat that I wanted, I will sit next to you." It was Rock Riddle. I talked to Rock Riddle a little about the book he is currently working on and he said he is hoping it will get released by November. From my seat, I heard Rock Riddle tell
Chad Olson that he and Troy Peterson have the same birthday in July 1973, but Rock Riddle was not serious there as he is a little older than that. Rock Riddle was hilarious at dinner, on the stage when he accepted his award, and in the elevator as he would say "I thought he'd never leave" after another person in the elevator stopped and got out when the elevator reached their floor. At dinner, in addition to Rock Riddle, I got to sit with Bob Roop, the podcaster from Charting the Territory (at least I think that was the name of his podcast,) Cory,
TDalton stu, briefly with Chad (although Chad was not there for long as he works really hard for the Hall of Fame and for Impact Pro during these weekends,) and Chad's son Connor (who has excellent taste as he is another big Doughy Joey's fan.)
After the banquet, we went back to the hotel where I drank some beers/hung out with Mark, Mike, Barry, Cory (who I talked to a little about some bootlegs I am working on,) Sinestro24, Todd, Sam, Nick, and some others I am probably forgetting until almost 2 AM and then I crashed on the couch of the hotel room that I shared with Todd and Sam.
SundayBecause it was I think a little closer to the Hall of Fame where the tournament finals were held, I went to breakfast at Single Speed which is OK but definitely Doughy Joey's > Single Speed. Afterward, it was time to go and, with TK and Hexxstar, I rode back to Des Moines where I caught my flight to Denver and then to Las Vegas. Thanks again to TK for doing all that driving! I tried to get his PayPal address and send him some money but he very generously told me not to worry about it.
a few shout outs to some people who were there who I have not tagged yet:
cman (good to see you again my friend!, I hope to see you next year too in Jamestown!)
TTX (excellent work as usual on running the tournaments!)
DK II (always great to see you! Did you notice I wore Raiders colors to the banquet with my silver dress shirt to go with my black slacks?)
mikefortune (perhaps the biggest hockey expert in the community! On one day I wore my new 2023 Vegas Golden Knights Stanley Cup Champions shirt.)
Mike C. (I am also looking forward to seeing you next month at the CAC my friend!)
Avarice (congrats on winning the Cup last weekend!)
the_faction (good to see you again Jared!, I am glad you did not get sick again this year in Waterloo!)
~KB~ (I am glad you made the trip!)
There are others too whose screen names I unfortunately do not know such as Sam L, Milton, JR, Nick, etc, or I would tag them too. It was great to see all of them again as well!
This was my 9th straight consecutive Galacticon as I have been going every year since 2015. It was also one of my favorite Galacticons. With the close relationship that has been established between Filsinger Games and Tragos-Thesz, I hope Waterloo gets put into a Galacticon rotation so we can do both Galacticon and the Hall of Fame weekend at the same time again in the future.
