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Am settled in my hostel in Hollywood for the night so time to update!!! It's a 4 bed all-female dorm but I'm the only one in here so it's basically a private room for only $35US. Briefly spoke to another guest as she was packing her things and she gave the place a glowing review so I think I'll be happy to stay here again when I come back to LA in a couple of weeks. It's pretty clean and rather quiet considering it's right on Hollywood Blvd (where the Walk of Fame with all the stars is).

Have got a very early start tomorrow as I have to be at the Greyhound station in LA by 6.30am for my bus trip to Vegas so alarm is set for 5am. Am catching a train and bus to the station for only $1.75. Will have to see how it goes with all my luggage. If it's too much of a pain in the arse, will use shuttle bus next time. (To here from LAX it was only $16 so not too bad) But am hoping I can manage on public transport as it will save me quite a bit of money. Luckily, the train station is right across the st from the hostel and according to Google Maps, I only have a couple of 5 min walks between train and bus and then the Greyhound stn.

Had a fantastic flight from Auckland, NZ to LA overnight. There were lots of empty seats so I ended up in a row of 3 by myself so was able to lay down and stretch my legs out -- one of the few times being short has come in really handy. Managed almost 5 hours sleep on the 10 hour flight when I usually struggle to doze for more than 30 mins at a time when flying so arrived in LA feeling very refreshed.

Kudos to AirNewZealand for the wonderful and very speedy service on board. Could order free drinks and snacks thru the entertainment screen and they were delivered to my seat in less than a couple of minutes.

Plus they had season 10 of SPN so I was a very happy fangirl. Ended up watching about 5 eps.

I got through customs pretty quickly, though trying to explain to the border security dude why I was going to a tv show convention was pretty funny. He thought I was there to buy tv shows for a network, obviously had no idea what a con is. Ended up telling him it was just a smaller version of San Diego ComicCon but am still not sure he got it. Oh well, he let me in so that's all that matters.

Then bought a US sim card with unlimited data and texts (thanks for that tip, Betty. Will have no trouble d/loading my SPN eps whilst I'm here!!! Priorities, dude!!!) Then found a power outlet for my laptop (which had died on the plane and 3/4 of the way through my viewing of the latest SPN ep) and sat down to watch 11x04 in full. Loved it, it certainly lived up to all the hype J2 and fandom had for it.

Can't wait to squee about it with a thousand other fans at DenverCon in 8 days time as I'm sure it'll be the talk of the con.

Ok that's about it for now. Gonna watch 11x04 again then hit the sack. Will probably post again once I'm settled in my hotel in Vegas tomorrow.

Just bought my JDM photo and auto tickets. Way, way expensive but I just know it's going to be worth every cent.

Would have preferred to split the cost of them over 2 pays but couldn't risk 1 of them selling out during the next fortnight.

Made major progress with booking things for my big Con trip to the USA which is just 2 months away.

It's going to be quite the mixed adventure as I'm doing all my internal travel on Greyhound buses -- LA-Vegas (5 hours), Vegas-Denver (23 hours) and Denver-LA (19 hours) The last two legs are overnighters, thereby saving myself 2 nights accommodation. Where I'm staying is even more interesting, ranging from 6-bed dorms in hostels in LA and Denver to the 5-star Sheraton (PasCon) and Marriott (DenverCon) hotels on the con weekends. In between I'm staying for 4 nights at the 3 star El Cortez hotel & casino in Vegas that my travel agent found for me for just $67/night.

Now that travel and rooms have been taken care of, I can put all my savings towards spending money for merchandise and photo-ops at the 2 cons and general day-to-day living expenses. The budget is still going to be super tight but I know I'll have enough to have a good, fun trip.

Autos & Photos I'll be getting are:

Denver- Autos (All included with Gold ticket)
Jared, Jensen, Misha, Mark Sheppard, Gil McKinney, Tahmoh and Mark Pellegrino

Photos paid for-
Jared x2, Jensen x2, J2

Photos I'd like to get (depending on budget)
Mark P, Gil, Tahmoh.

Pascon - Autos (included with Gold ticket)
Jared, Jensen, Misha, Mark Sheppard, Osric, Kim Rhodes, Ruth, Brianna, Richard, Matt, Travis, Kathryn Newton

Extra autos-
Rob Benedict ($25)

Photos paid for-
Jared, Jensen, J2

Photos I'd like to get (depending on budget)
Kim, Richard/Matt/Rob triple

Just waiting for some money to clear into my bank account and I should be buying my gold ticket and photo ops for Jared, Jensen and J2 tomorrow or the weekend at the latest. Just crossing fingers and praying nothing sells out in the meantime.

Since Jared missed coming Downunder for AHBL6 last month, seeing him at the 2 US cons is even more of a priority now, so much so that I will be doing Supanova this month on a very tight budget. I can't pass up the opportunity to meet Nathan Fillion as I don't know when or if he'll do another Aussie con in the future but will have to go on a cheaper weekend pass ($55) than the specialty VIP ticket I normally get for this con. Am also going to have to choose between getting a photo with Nathan or his auto as I can't afford both (unless I win lotto or do a shit-load of overtime in the next couple of weeks). Prices are pretty damn expensive ($110 photo/ $100 auto) which is more than what I paid for Jensen at AHBL6 ($100 photo/ $90 auto). Will probably do the auto unless one of my friends wants to split the cost of a photo op.

The other auto I would like to get is Dean Haglund (Langly from the X-Files' Lone Gunmen). I'm hoping I can get into panels for Nathan, Dean and --- don't laugh!!!! --- Peter, Bobby and Cindy from the Brady Bunch. Being in my late 40's that show was a huge part of my childhood so I think it could be a lot of fun.

ETA: this wonderful, amazing and brilliant birthday banner by the equally wonderful, amazing and brilliant milly_gal




November, 2015 and I'll be travelling all the way from little ol' Perth, Western Australia to the grand ol' US of A to attend not 1 but 2 SPN cons. I'll be meeting Jared and Jensen for panels and photos and autos (OH MY!!!!!) and the rest of the amazing cast (and hopefully some crew as well), hanging out with hundreds of other fans and generally having the time of my life.

First up will be Denver Nov 5-9 and then LA the following weekend, Nov 13-15. I'm also visiting Las Vegas for the first time and hope to squeeze in a quick trip to the Grand Canyon.

So I'll be using this masterpost to keep up to date with Con and travel related things and general squeeing which I'm sure will only get louder the closer I get to flying out.

( Flights )

( Denver Con )

( Pasadena Con )