HAuNTcon 2011

We just got back from Louisville, KY where The Haunted Attraction National Convention was held this year.  We flew in Wednesday night to the Crowne Plaza Hotel right next to the airport.  We met a few of our vendor friends in the hallways but called it a night pretty early.  Thursday we spent all day shopping for all the make-n-take supplies for everyone and our own supplies for our Monday Workshop.  We didn't make it out to the haunt tour that night because we were still setting up the make-n-take room till late.   We spent the evening in the bar and in Leonard's suite  and then called it a night.  Friday Morning I got up extra early so we could shop for a missing part for the first make-n-take at 9am.  I was unsuccessful at getting enough of the parts but I did get some.  We spent the entire day assisting the make-n-takes and got to browse the show floor a little between sessions.  We spent the evening getting ready for our make-n-takes on Saturday so didn't go out on the Haunt tours plus we were told they were a long drive away.   On Saturday we spent the whole day in the Make-n-take room running our 2 part Tombstone and Books with Skull make-n-takes.  We ran into an issue with the Hotel who said we can't cut foam or sand it in the room.  They were ok with carving with a knife and shaping with a rasp and painting though.  Fortunately they didn't approach us until after our 2nd session and all we had left was mostly painting.  We then had to head up to the seminar rooms and do our foam texturing presentation. But before we did we spent a few minutes with some close friend who had a brief memorial ceremony for a dear friend who unexpectantly passed away last October.   Our seminar went well but was lightly attended as it was at the end of the day and people were heading off to eat dinner and get ready for the costume ball.   Afterwards we ate dinner in the bar with our favorite Kentucky waitresses and then headed to our rooms to get dresses for the costume ball.   The ball was a  lot of fun as usual and the costumes were outstanding.  At midnight we surprised one of our crew with a birthday song since Sunday was her birthday.  The Dance lasted till 1am and then we went to Leonard's room for a while.  We were told that a TV morning crew was stopping by at 6am and asked if we could make it down so after a few hours of sleep.  We got up and waited until 7am when we found out the crew canceled and covered the thunderstorms that morning instead.  We ate at the breakfast buffet that was just laid out and then went back to bed till noon and then came back down to help with the Make-n-takes at 1pm.  Luckily a few of our crew handled helping the morning sessions. We spent some time at the show floor and I bought a couple of things to try out this year.  We managed the rest of the make-n-takes and then went on the haunt tour that night.  It was a haunted house in an old 1960's movie theater.  It was interesting and a little different but didn't blow us away.   We stayed up late that night in Leonard's suite again but had a 8am workshop on Monday to get started.   On Monday our workshop got moved to upstairs so we had to move all our supplies and materials upstairs.  We only had 4 students in our workshop so we scaled the pieces we were going to build down a bit.  We finally finished at 5pm with a 1hr lunch break in between.  The paint was very wet and the coffin we made wasn't glued together or finished painted but everyone was done.  One student from Oklahoma  who drove took some of the tombstones but all the rest of the monuments we gave to a local haunter who said she'd take them.  We cleaned up the room that night and headed back to our rooms to get cleaned up and head to dinner in the bar for the last night. We shipped back our tools and a box to a vendor.   We spent the evening in Leonard's suite with a few stragglers who we got to talk with for quite a while.  We slept in for the first time on Tuesday and then went to lunch with Leonard and Jeanne and her brother at a Makers Mark Resturant in downtown Louisville our first venture out into the town all weekend.   We got back and headed to the airport and then home.   It is nice to be back.  The trip was fun but exhausting and not quite like all the others we have done because of our heavy involvement.  Next year we go back to just attending.