Wes takes Erica to a video game convention, day 1

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Wes & I went to RTX 2016 in Austin, Texas. For those of you who don't know what that is
   1. don't feel bad because I didn't know what it was either until we got there;
   2. it's a huge video game expo hosted by Rooster Teeth, an Internet entertainment company
   3. it partnered with SGC (Screw Attack Gaming) so, basically, two video game conventions for the price of one!

I don't know much about video games, and I know even less about YouTube and podcast celebrities so this was a completely virgin experience for me...first time in Austin & first time at a video game convention. LOL It was pretty much just as I expected: tons and tons of very passionate geeks in their geek heaven. It was definitely interesting and I ended up having a good time. And, most importantly, Wes liked it as well.

       Austin is quite a way's away from Oklahoma City so we decided to stop at the half-way point and have brunch in Fort Worth. We ate at the Ol' South Pancake House. It was delicious! I got the smothered biscuits, which came in a huge portion; I couldn't finish them so I packed them up to go. They ended up going bad so I couldn't even eat them that night after carrying them around all day. I was pretty devastated.
       The rest of the drive was awful! There was construction practically all the way from Fort Worth to Austin and traffic was moving slower than molasses. I assumed there was a bad accident up ahead or various lane closures but there was nothing. Just regular construction; the construction on I-35 going through Moore is worse. But for some reason, it took us about three hours to get from Hillsboro to Belton, only 76 miles away. I stopped timing it after the City Limit sign for Belton because it was just too frustrating.

People were in costume at the convention, obviously, but also out on the street and at local restaurants. 

The only thing that I had made plans to attend (aka watch and take pictures) at RTX was the costume contest. It was from 4-5pm and we got into Austin at 5pm. Arrrrgh, just missed it!! But I was still able to take a TON of pictures of costumed convention goers throughout the weekend. The convention was held at the Austin Convention Center, JW Marriot Hotel and Hilton Hotel. There were only panels at the Hilton so we didn't go in there. The JW Marriot had panels, a section for computer based games and a section for arcade games (my favorite). The Austin Convention Center had numerous rooms for panels & signings and a huge room of video games & vendors. That is where we spent a majority of our time.

Top: arcade at JW Marriot. Bottom: a group of people playing Just Dance. The lady in front was on fire!

We spent a couple of hours at RTX exploring and deciding on which games we wanted to come back to play later. We also looked at all the vendors and Wes picked out a few panels to go to. The vendors were a bit of a let down. They were waaaay too similar. I guess I'm used to showing at craft shows where only one type of each product is allowed. Almost all of the RTX vendors there were either selling t-shirts or posters. If I had the money and time to rent booth space, I would probably make a killing selling my RagsReborn pillows. 

Just before dusk, we left to go to the Congress Avenue Bridge. There is a huge colony of bats that live under the bridge and they fly out nightly around 8:30pm (their website stated 8:32pm for the month of July). We lined up along the bridge with all the other spectators and waited...and waited. The bats ended up flying out to fetch their dinner an hour later. There were tons of bats but we could hardly see them because we were too far away. 

After the bat viewing, we went to dinner. I didn't really like Austin (I honestly thought the city was kinda ugly with poor landscaping & litter everywhere) but there was good food downtown. And good food is one of the reasons why I travel. We ate dinner at Gus's World Famous Hot & Spicy Fried Chicken. It was sooo good! 

Candid pictures of cosplayers. My favorite part of RTX.

We headed to the JW Marriot after dinner for a little more video gaming before the night was over. I discovered my new favorite arcade game, Centipede, and we watched the Game Attack Live! panel. It was four grown-ass men dressed in onesies playing video games & cursing at each other while someone recorded it all and put it on YouTube. I was not impressed. We left the panel early and I played a little more Centipede before going to the hotel. Our hotel was amazing. It was an extended stay hotel so our room was huge. It was probably the same size as the apartment that I am currently living in. All in all, we had a good first day! Day 2 blog to come next week!!