–by Bevianna Bones

Holy cattle!! Call the sheep hearders, Batman! Was I ever wrong! If you read yesterday’s recap you’ll know that I had much hope for an avoided cluster fuck here on day 2. It is to laugh. The experience for us actually began on our way to the convention center, as the monitors above the freeway stressed how parking at the Almaodome (told you everything here had to represent the Alamo…remember the Alamo!! How could we forget at this rate…) was by permit only for the…game? For those of you not familiar with the downtown layout and parking situation in the Alamo city; the Alamodome is across the street from the convention center which is across the street from the rivercenter and riverwalk, which is across the street from Hemisfair park, which is next to the Tower of America’s, which is next to the precious Alamo.

Top this off, that minus the tourists, San Antone is the seventh largest city in the nation with a population of nearly 1.5 million. To accommodate all of this, our current infrastructure and city planning accommodates approximately 1,000 downtown parking spaces, give or take 500 or so.

(Truth be told, I was looking for my useless information picture, but unfortunately couldn’t easily find it. Insert new “joke” here)

So there we are, heading down to the convention center when it occurs to me that the opening of college football season was last weekend and our homegrown UTSA Roadrunners were in fact having their first home game. Texans love their high school and college football. Way more than any “normal” people should, but that’s a topic for another day. Just know, that the combination of the regular, everyday parking situation, the football game, and the comic con all at the same time lead to extreme frustration with the parking situation.  We parked around 11:15 or so, and by 11:40 were still in line to pay for the space at the terminal. The mate stayed in line to pay, whilst I ran to the convention center (about 4 blocks away at this point) to find a sea of people flowing it’s way through the doors to purchase tickets. The Legends of Wrastlin panel started at noon. I had zero time, nor did I have the patience to wait in line again. I had already waited yesterday to get my pass. I had purchased online a month ago. Look at all these people who waited until the last minute. Who, because of their procrastination, made my parking situation worse.

I had to get in. So I cut across the crowd, flashing my wristbands, like I owned the place and waltzed in. By the time I got into the line for the ballroom I had a few moments to spare and made the wrastlin on time. The misses had to sit it out unfortunately, but I don’t think she was nearly as excited about seeing a group of once were superstars all washed up and wrinkly.

The line up for the panel was supposed to have included Jerry Lawler, Ric Flair, JBL, Chyna, Rob Van Damne, and originally Rowdy Roddy Piper (RIP). After waiting for another 20 minutes for the panel to begin, some WWE spokesman came out to to the stage and gave us some spill about how when they brought Chyna out, we all needed to chant “Hall of Fame” for some promotional bullshit they are making. After a few more minutes, the moderator finally came out and introduced us to the panel, Chyna and RVD.

Wait, who? Are they bringing them all out separately? Is that why there is only a loveseat on the stage? Where are the Nature Boy and The King supposed to sit? Surely they will bring them out…wait, this is it? This is the whole thing? What happened to the rest of them? Oh well, I guess I’ll just listen as RVD acts like an STD and reaffirm my thoughts that he’s a total DB.

Then, Chyna opened up about her Playboy shoot, and named it the highlight of her career then told us she likes to spend her time mediating in Japan. She reminded of the porn star sketch in Amazon Women on the Moon.

After those thrilling twenty plus minutes of stimulating conversation, the panel ended and the crowd dispersed so the Walking Dead panel could start. My hopes that I could just go get back in line for the Walking Dead were soon crushed. The line to get into it was wrapped twice around the convention floor. The mate and I agreed that neither of us wanted to deal with it, and decided we would catch the Breaking Bad one instead, which started at 2.

We shopped, we laughed, we perused and took pictures of the cosplayers (which will be highlighted in a separate post) and at about twenty til 2, we decided it was best to get in line for Breaking Bad. When we got to the ballroom doors, there were still people filing in for the Walking Dead. What. The. Fuck. So we ask the people that are working the con, where the line for Breaking Bad was, and they tell us that the people lined up are for Sons of Anarchy and Walking Dead. I asked them politely a couple where the Breaking Bad line is and no one seemed to know; so, again channeling a young Debbie, I proclaimed to them that the line for it would essentially start in the spot I was standing, on account that no one knew what was going on.

Be its that Walking, and Breaking were held in the same ballroom, by the time they got everyone in there, there was about 20 minutes left of the actual panel that was supposed to have been 45. Luckily the ballrooms all have private bars, so the mate and I got some much needed “refreshments” by the time our panel started.

Breaking Bad ft. RJ Mitte, was to feature production stories from the set as told from the perspective of Walt Jr. And, while we got a few snippets of facts about Bryan Cranston, (Somebody brushed up on their Wiki before the show…) the majority of the panel felt like a motivational seminar about being handicapable. Alcohol definitely made this one go down easier.

In light of the “Walking Dead Debacle”, we decided to skip Stan Lee. We we’re peopled out. We ate, shopped more, visited with some of the vendors, and some of our friends that were there and called it a day.  We are both looking forward to a quieter and more laid back day 3 today. Our lineup today includes Flash Gordon (the 80s tastic one), Comic Book Men, My Little Pony, Extreme Horror, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Oh and here’s an aerial view I got of part of the convention floor. The crowd had died down at this point.

Until next time.

–BB