The great Paco Panda adventure

This has been one of the best trips I've ever made in my life, and I've had the fortune to make many trips, but this exceeded the number of spontaneous adventures and experiences that any other of my trips have done before. Maybe I'm exaggerating, maybe there was more spontaneity in the trip last summer where instead of going directly to Mexico from Pittsburgh, we went to New York City, and from there we went north to Quebec City, where we drive from there until Mexico city, and not of a direct form, going through several cities. That trip lasted 3 weeks.
That was another great adventure, the one of 2017, surely if you haven't read that one, after reading this one, already knowing if you like or not how I tell my adventures, you'll want to read that other one, which was great.

https://inkbunny.net/j/311595-pandapaco-cancun-and-furn...

We are still in the first half of 2018, several trips ahead and new adventures to live for the rest of this year, which excite me. But I can't believe how much happened in these 36 days away from home, the trip you are about to start reading about.

If you could notice, I didn't upload many things to my social networks, or drawings, or many pics. I'm not used to be one of those persons who are sharing their online diary at the moment (I'd love to, but I've never gotten used to it). I prefer to start sharing everything, once the adventure is over. Here I'll leave a summary, if you want to skip a part, know what comes next:

1-NYC
2-Furrnion
3-Madrid
4-Switzerland
5-Museums and strange food in Madrid
6-The great adventure heading to BLFC
7-BLFC
8-Another great adventure heading to Las Vegas (with a stop in San Jose)
9-Las Vegas

So here we start!

1. NYC

Why did I decide to go to NYC?
When I decided to go to the Madrid's convention, I started looking for flights and couldn't find any cheap flights directly from Mexico, and while I was searching from other cities, I found that from New York it was quite cheap to get to Madrid.

It was not my first time in Manhattan, in fact it was my third time, but in my two previous trips I was exploring the most basic tourist. 1st time the classic, and 2nd time I repeated because I was with guys who had never been there before.
And something I had always wanted of going to New York, was going completely alone, with the sole purpose of visiting museums, going to Broadway plays, and exploring corners of Manhattan that are interesting. So in my plan I contemplated a few days before, to be able to get to Manhattan and explore it on my own.

It's not that I was regretful of the upcoming I'm going to say or it was a bad thing, but my plan to be completely alone in Manhattan was not entirely successful. Well, I told about my plans to the two friends I know from New York:

noirex

and Kuma (I love you, guys); knowing I was going to visit town, both wanted to be with me almost throughout my stay. I appreciated their company a lot, I spent a lot of time with them, exploring the Guggenheim, the museum of the city of new york, and eating in places that they recommended me.
But my idea of being alone in Manhattan was to be able to do things that I knew not many appreciated the same way as me, or that I wouldn't depend on anyone else's decision about where to go and what to do. And more than I already know how to move in the city perfectly, being my third time there.

I didn't achieve the goal of exploring corners or going to any Broadway play; that desire will remain paused until I get to go, again on my own or go with someone who has that same concern to explore Manhattan as I do want to.
That for more than New York is a city very crowded, full of movement, traffic, angry people, homeless, colorful characters that sometimes provke fear, thick and unkind people who ask tip for anything, rats on the train tracks, peculiar smells and high costs for anything; It is a city that I love to visit, it is very exciting, there is always something to do.

Those were rainy days, where people's umbrellas turned upside down, everyone ran to keep from getting wet, the drops of rain were so heavy that they hurt. I appreciate that it was not my first impression of the big apple.

The museum that I was able to explore on my own was the MET, so huge that not even walking it from morning to the museum's closing time, I was able to explore it completely, I'm sure I only covered 20% of the museum. There were many pieces that I loved and that filled me with emotion. I love going to art museums because I never know what I can find, whether desepción, bad or good emotions, new paintings that I had never seen, or known paintings that for the first time I can see their original versions. Oh, and when passing through central park, I could finally try one of those classic hot dogs that everyone warns you never try because they can be made of rat. Well, those warnings were right, the worst hot dog I have ever eaten in my life (and expensive).

Something very touristy that I had never done until now, was going up to an observatory deck on top of a skyscraper, and see Manhattan from on high. I did it from the Top of the Rock, at the Rockefeller building. Very expensive in my opinion, but that the view was so spectacular that it was worth it. I saw the day, the sunset and the dusk of all central park, middle and lower manhattan; how they were turning the lights on, little by little, of the empire state, the one world trade center, and how they illuminated the statue of liberty. A magical moment that I kept for myself.

A quick anecdote to tell, maybe not interesting. I bought the transit ticket to be able to use it a whole week, so it was completely filled of credit for all my trip. It was very common when passing through the turnstiles, it popped the sign "error, swap again", so when I tried again, it worked, showing me the days that the card left (more than my stay in town).
But there was a time when I got the classic "error, swap again", and when I tried to pass for the second time, it showed me "just used", and it didn't let me in. The tourniquet was not letting me in and even though I was sweeping the card again for the reader, it kept me telling me the same thing "just used". So I had to apply the Mexican one, to jump the turnstile, because the train was just arriving. >:3
Bad Panda!

On my last day in New York, before making my way to the airport, I decided to go to the 11/S museum, something I had never wanted to do before because I thought I could only be a little sensaniolist, but before traveling, I read that it was one of the more complete museums that exist and that was unmissable, so I was hooked to that marketing and attended. In truth, it was a good museum, but it doesn't stop creating a lump in the throat about that attack, which I remember with perfection the moment it happened, and see how it affected not only a city, but an entire nation. It gives a lot of impotence to know what some people can do only for their own interests no matter what cost.

Returning to the adventure ... I thought that the 9/11 museum could be covered in 2 or 3 hours, to my surprise, I had been there for 4 hours, and it was getting late to go to the airport, so I had to use a faster alternative to the subway: the train.
When I arrived at the train station, I didn't understand where or how the train had to be paid to use it (still don't know), the train was just there to board it, and if I didn't take that one, definitely my flight would be missed (or the alternative to take a taxi, which could be more expensive, and not a guaranteed for the traffic). I tried to ask any of the people who were boarding the train, but nobody wanted to answer me, everyone was very busy or late; then I asked one of the workers of the station, and in a very rude tone, shouting at me, he simply said "ABOARD THE TRAIN RIGHT NOW, IS ABOUT TO DEPART!" No, no, wait, but I haven't paid and I want to know how to pay. "YOU CAN PAY IT ON THE TRAIN, SO GO UP RIGHT NOW!"
I trusted him and went up, behind me the doors were closed and the train started moving, I thought maybe there would be a payment machine as there were on the trains in Toronto, but I coudln't find anyone. And I was really scared when I saw a sign in the ad area that said "Do not you have a train ticket? Fee $ 250". I was not going to pay 250 dollars! I was very scared and started sending messages to my friend Yoshi, he reassured me a bit showing me that there was an alternative, paying the ticket with cash, exact change, to the person who checked the tickets, but at a cost a little higher than the regular, I was not going to care, if that was a solution, as long as I didn't pay the 250 fee.
Fortunately, nobody appeared to check the tickets, so the train actually came out completely free for me, hehe. >:3 Once again, bad panda!
But I was sweating cold throughout the way, I couldn't even appreciate those views outside the city in Brooklyn from the train window how the skyscrapers were getting farther and farther away.

2. FURRNION

My first time crossing the Atlantic, I had never been to another continent before, and I had never been on such a long flight before.

The bad thing is that when I arrived in Madrid, instead of enjoying that I was finally in unexplored lands, and being able to see European culture ... instead of all that, I arrived at the hotel of the Spanish convention, where I was immediately put to work, because I signed up as Staff (to be able to have a free room, hehe).

I couldn't sleep on the plane, so the jetlag hit me especially hard, but I was still there, sticking posters in the hotel, yawning and blinking. When it was finally time to sleep, I died.
But not for a long time, because the next morning I was supposed to work in the registration, but for some reason I didn't understand, it didn't happen: I arrived at the registration and it was full of workers, there were already people registering, all the chairs were filled and just few people were on the reg line, I asked and they just told me "stand there back , if we need you we'll call you ", obviously I didn't want to do that, standing up behind doing nothing, so I went to breakfast, and to set up my things for artist alley, which was soon to begin.

As you can see, the convention so far was a bit of a mess, and it was even more so.
I'm very used for the artist alley to start my setup at least half an hour before the time indicated in the opening hours. So I arrived half an hour early with all my things, but the rooms were completely empty, and suddenly someone from the staff saw me and shouted in Spanish "YOU CAN'T BE HERE RIGHT NOW! COME BACK WHEN THE ARTISTS' ALLEY STARTS!" Hey, but I'm one of the artists who go to set ... "Yes, yes, everyone knows you, you're Paco Panda, and you're also a staff, but NEITHER YOUR FAME NOR YOUR POSITION ALLOW YOU TO BE HERE UNTIL THE TIME IT IS INDICATED IN THE SCHEDULE! "
I was very angry at the attitude of that person, and maybe it was a little childish that I went to accuse him with the cheerman, anyway my complaint didn't help at all.

I was even more angry than when I arrived at the right time, supposedly when people could go to see what we were selling and ask for commissions, but we still didn't even make the setup ... they were setting up a different activity in that same room, and they had moved all the tables for their convenience. Again I went to complain to the big Furrnion authorities, who resolved the matter a bit and let the artists begin the setup. Although the hurry didn't help, because absolutely nobody was going to see the artists alley. We spent an hour, two hours there, and nobody.

It was not so bad at all, because among the artists we started talking and making friendships, we had fun talks and joked with each other, we even exchanged some stickers that we had to sell. But there came a point when that started to be exasperating, that nobody in the whole convention was really putting one paw in the place, so we started putting up posters with arrows so that people would know where the artist alley was. It worked with 3 people, who only went, they checked our things, they felt intimidated that nobody else was more than them, and they left. It was then that I decided to post on my networks that I was going to leave artists alley, since it was not being successful at all. At that moment people began to arrive and finally began asking for commissions. Some told me they were waiting until later to go see.

Maybe I was already used to the modus operandus of the conventions in America, where it seems that when they open the doors of the artists alley/dealers den, it's as if they live on a Black Friday, where they run to the artists to ask for commissions in the first hour. It was not at all the same in Spain.

Something very curious, is that the events at the convention were very linear, there weren't many options to do, and apparently the Karaoke was a great event, the whole convention was there watching the Karaoke (non other event was at the same time), and it was not like anyone could go and sign up to sing, they had already signed up for weeks before.
For me, seeing people singing on a karaoke, good or bad, I find something very boring, but there was nothing else to do. I couldn't go to fursuit on my own because there were no more fursuiters around (at that point, I hadn't even used my fursuit yet), and the event lasted so long that the dance started much later than scheduled, however it ended at the same time it was scheduled so it lasted very little, and it was my only moment on that day (and my first time in the whole convention) that I was in fursuit.

The next day, Saturday, it was a little more fun, with more activities. Another bad point of the convention was that all the events were late. Sometimes I have seen at conventions that events are delayed 5 or 10 minutes, but in Furrnion they were late for hours. And that produced a chain effect that affected all the following events, especially because almost all the schedules were linear. But the fursuit parade, which although it was very short, was very fun. Tronchy had me disguised as a monk, in fursuit, I was the little priest panda, with a boat I started walking around the convention asking for cooperation for charity. It was like a competition between Tronchy and me to see who collected more money for charity, obviously I won, because pandas are cuter and people give us more money. >:3

I run a panel there, related to art, which now I think I should give more often at conventions.
With delays, again. Well, my panel was supposed to start at 5pm. There I went back to find my "friend", that same guy shouting at me at the artist alley, and when I asked him where they had moved my panel (because according to the program, my panel was in a room that in the end never existed), he simply told me, again shouting " I DON'T KNOW, AND YOU SHOULDN'T READ THE PROGRAM, BECAUSE NOTHING IN THE PROGRAM IS RIGHT, PLEASE IGNORE IT!" There I learned that I shouldn't absolutely ask anything of him, and instead I went directly to the cheerman again, who gave me the solution, that my panel had moved at 6pm, and to a much larger room. The awesome thing is that they posted all over the place, announcements that my panel had changed place and time, so that everyone who were interested could find out.

According to me, I had prepared the panel in Spanish, my logic was "if I'm in Spain, the panel will have to be in Spanish", but what I didn't contemplate is that the convention helds people from many countries in Europe: UK, France, Germany , Italy...; and the universal language is, again, English. I had no problems in deciding to give my panel in English, and also that the room itself was full, there were many people determined to listen to me, which made me a little more nervous. My first question on the panel was in Spanish "Is there someone here who doesn¡t speak English?", What a shame when I saw 8 raised hands, that made me not only give the panel in English, but also in Spanish. It was very long, to be saying everything first in English and then translate it into Spanish, so it didn't last an hour, but two. And also the Q&A part was longer than I expected. Hey but I really liked how it ended my panel, I think it was a success.

Hey wait, there is another thing I have to tell about that. During the panel, someone from the staff arrived (if I remember correctly, it was the same grumpy guy, but maybe my memory failed, because I was not paying attention to him at all) , and without asking me for permission, he snatched the microphone and told me "we need it for the auction panel" and left, leaving me without microphone. Some people was pissed off with the staff to see that I had suddenly been left without a microphone, so they had to close the doors of the room so that no outside noise could fit, and I had to be screaming so that everyone could hear me. Apparently the event had only ONE microphone.

Immediately finishing the panel, I went up to my room to use the fursuit and start the Viernes Furry broadcast, the funny thing is that I just left my room to start the stream and in the hall there were already guys waiting for me, eager to get out on the stream.
The stram was a success, and of course you can see it (as soon as you finish reading all this journal) in this link (sorry they are only in Spanish):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4-uYXxtnd4

By the time the convention was getting good, one of the first events on Sunday morning was the closing ceremony. It was very strange for me they close the event very early. And instead of people still having a party after the closure, in fact everyone started to leave, soon the hotel was empty, there was still daylight on Sunday and it seemed that the convention was a thing of the past.

After returning from a very long and tedious staff meeting, where everyone was shouting each other, and they barely were listening my feedback opinions; I was supposed to be in charge of the artists alley (which, according to the program, would be from 18 to 00 hours, very late for artists alley, isn't it?), but upon arrival, there were no artists interested in signing up, nor was there anyone who wanted to go and see if anyone was selling something else, the dead cheath (the Spanish version of "the dead dog") was indeed more dead than any dog, there were only two people dancing, not even in fursuit, and after a few minutes the room was completely empty. I really didn't wait to see if any artist bothered to arrive, I preferred to leave my booth, because that was depressing me a lot. And Tronchy still told me "the rest of the day is to have fun, enjoy the dead cheetah", if I had listened to him, I would have been there alone. Well, there was not even a DJ, they just left the music in play mode.

3. MADRID

After the convention, I spent a few more days in Madrid in good company with @Moof, @LittleOrion,

rosebuster

and

Salmy

(our host), exploring the tourist areas of Madrid, I also went to the zoo and Parque del Retiro with Rosebuster only. We tried the food of our three countries, first Spanish food, then Mexican food, and the last day Polish food.

When all the other guys went to their respective countries, and only Salmy and I were left; We went, along with other furries, to the premiere of "Los Vengadores", the last movie of The Avengers in its dubbed version with the classic Iberian accent. A whole new experience for me.

4. SWITZERLAND

I had once promised a good friend that, if I ever went to Europe, I would visit him, and that would happen when I finished a very large drawing with all the characters in his comic. And so it happened, promises are promises. This great friend is Hukley, great cartoonist, author of a funny comic called "Freddy Fox" (http://www.freddyfoxcomic.com/), a great person and an excellent friend. Finally I had the pleasure of meeting him in person.

And besides being a great host, he took me to see landscapes of his country that I couldn't believe they existed. Switzerland is beautiful, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, green fields, waterfalls, forests, lakes. There came a point when my eyes and my mind got used to seeing so many beautiful places. Once we passed a waterfall that was on the edge of a path, the waterfall was beautiful, but it was just another waterfall there, with no importance; and I told him that surely that same place, in any other country, would be a national park, instead of Switzerland is just another waterfall.

In his house we tried real yummy food, such as the fondeau with original Swiss cheese, the sausages, the liqueurs, the lasagna that his mother prepared (a great person, also, very lovely!). And it was also beautiful to meet his two cats, one of whom Hukley presumed was very sullen (the female), and that the other was very loving (the male). And it happened the opposite, it was the female cat who became fond of me and all the time she was following me, and the male cat very rarely was shown around.

It was a long and enjoyable weekend full of long talks, very short trips by car or train (the country is very small, it was very fast to get from one end to another), movie nights and video games (never before had enjoyed playing Mario Kart as that time), riding bikes through those beautiful landscapes, tasting delicious cuisine, full of cheeses and chocolates, trying to swim in a lake but failing in the attempt because the water was frozen.

Oh, talking about swimming, there was a morning when it was raining and completely cloudy (I was grateful that was not my first impression of Switzerland, because all the mountains were covered by fog), and that was when Hukley said "today is a perfect day for go to a water park ", it was very strange for me to say that, I think that in any other place, a rainy day would completely ruin a trip to a water park, but I was very surprised that when we arrived, it was an indoor park , all the slides were covered, as were most of the pools. It was very funny, I had not been to a water park for years and I remembered how much fun they are and how much I like them.

And speaking of water, a few days before, we arrived to a very beautiful city: Lucerne (after having gone to a city also just as beautiful named Berne, which I loved because of the fact that there were many symbols of bears, and even some real bears), in Lucerne we had the unfortunate that exact day was a marathon day, and the city was full of people, it was very difficult to walk, so instead of continuing to explore by paw, we rented a boat, and started pedaling near the lake. In the distance, a romantic saxophone music sounds, I told Hukley that it was a very romantic moment for both of us, and we laughed a lot (bros being bros). On the train back to his house I made a drawing related to that fact. (The boat was not in the shape of a Swan, it was only to give more dramatism):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yg83be9bdbxymju/Suiza%28180%2...

For Hukley it was unforgivable if I went to Switzerland and didn't get to see snow, so he took me to Davos, a place that supposedly always has snow, but this time it didn't have it, and we continued on our way up to the mountains until we found a part with snow. Incredibly it was not cold, but the level of snow was very deep, there were times when walking my feet sank and snow got into my boots. It was fun.

We also went to Liechtenstein, a tiny country on the side of Switzerland, only 20 minutes driving from Hukley's house. We were in the capital, Vaduz, which I walked it in 10 minutes, and that because I went at a very slow pace. An extremely small city, whose number of inhabitants is no more than that of BLFC assistants, but it is also a very beautiful place, with its castle and many chinese toursists around.

Driving up a mountain, it was a road of only one lane, but it was a double way road, so in the middle of a curve, you could find another car going down. Huk was telling me that kind of roads are very common in the mountains, and there is where usually people learn how to drive, because that way they learn to be very careful with other cars.
Then we hiked up that mountain, when we couldn't keep driving, until we reached a very high part, where we could see the whole valley, and beyond the mountains that we had opposite. What surprised me a lot was that we could see some isolated houses high up in the mountains, which made me wonder how these people live? In truth they must have a very hermit life.

I spent some beautiful days in Switzerland with Hukley, it was my favorite part, and the most relaxing part of the trip. I have very nostalgic and beautiful memories of all those moments, I really enjoyed it a lot.

5. MUSEUMS AND STRANGE FOOD IN MADRID

When I returned to Madrid, I realized that until that moment I had not been able to say that I had really tasted the typical food of Spain, what until then we had eaten was McDonalds, Burger King, tapas, tortas, Mexican and Polish food.

But once I came back, I started to really try what was the food of Spain, and I sure missed a lot to try. However, I can't say that I am a fan of its gastronomy, some things were hard for me to decide to try them, like octopus, blood sausage, paella (and its giant lobster that I was afraid to see, much more to have on my plate, and worse still try it), the piglet; other very rich things like veal or deer (sorry, Tiny Deer, Buckley, Kinter and more deer friends); and things that I definitely didn't even have the courage to want to try as the ear pigs.

Another very curious thing about Madrid were its "terraces", that every time they mentioned a terrace, I imagined a high part of a building, and not simply chairs with tables directly on the street. Which personally made me very uncomfortable, sitting at a table in the street while pedestrians pass by you and see you eat. For me there is nothing better than sitting inside a restaurant, the farther from a window, better, so I can feel I'm no longer on the street. That is personal preference.
But it seems that Spaniards enjoy much more than people pass by them while they eat, because even the prices of food and drinks on the terrace were higher; and sometimes when you arrived at a place, the waitresses said with great sorrow and with possible client's disappointment, that they had no place available on the terrace, only inside, and that was even better for me. I really didn'tt like to sit in the street to eat.

My favorite food of all the rest of the time that I were in Spain was a buffet of Japanese food, where I could fill my glass, supposedly for wine, with soda. All dishonor to any Spanish, hehe, I'm sorry, it was really very yummy.

Those extra days in Spain we took advantage of very well, visiting museums, such as the Thyssen (my favorite), Reina Sofia and El Prado museum, as well as places around Madrid such as Toledo, the castle of Manzanares, Segovia (visiting its aqueduct and the Alcazar), the monastery of El Escorial, the royal palace of Madrid, the cathedral, and Chueca, the gay area of Spain which took us a long time to find, because Salmy was lost, at the moment of wanting to be my guide.

Something that I didn't like so much about some touristic places in Spain is that they don't allow you to take pictures of anything, and the guards walk in the hunt for tourists who try to take pictures. It seemed more sinful to take a picture of something than to touch with your fingers something historic (which was sometimes allowed, but ironically you couldn't take them a picture). So I saw many tourists doing their best to break their absurd law, taking out their cell phones quickly to take a picture as soon as possible to something before a guard noticed. It was like a game for all tourists, a challenge. I think they should simply let the tourists enjoy, taking picture memories of the places visited, and only not allow the use of flash, as in almost everywhere happens.

Thanks to

Balasch

for going out with me one day when Salmy was not at home. With that guy I went to a record store, where I bought Mecano's "Aidalai" album, just because I don't have that one in physic, it's my favorite album from Mecano, and I can say that I bought it in the original land of the band. And thanks for that good talk with beer in that bar.

Yes I liked Madrid, it was very interesting to have visited and see where part of the roots of the culture of my country come from, well, the roots from the conquer, which was a very important part of the final culture of my country, combined with the aztec, mayans and other original roots. As well as things that we Mexicans believe are very typical of us, such as rice pudding, churros and marzipan. Something great about Spain is that rice pudding don't have raisins (Thank you, Spain!)

6. THE GREAT ADVENTURE HEADING TO BLFC

Here comes a very interesting part of the journal, but first, to know that you are still reading up to this point, comment "Paco doesn't like peanut butter". (Don't judge)

In this part of the trip several unexpected moments. Starting with the flight back from Madrid to NYC, being a flight to the United States, they only allowed 50 pounds (23 kilos), not 25 kilos (55 pounds) as in the previous flights, and since I already had a little more luggage than when I started the trip, the wright marked that my luggage was 25 kilos. What a problem! I had to take two kilos out, and also I was not allowed to carry the carry-on with me (my suitcase where I put my furhead, to take it with me all the time, so I wouldn't see it again until San José, CA. Around 28 hours later). Not knowing what else to take from my suitcase, I exchanged the paws of my fursuit for my shoes, being that the fursuit paws are heavier, and then I wore my paws all the rest of the journey in airports.
The security guards had different opinions about my panda shoes, some laughed at me, others told me they looked very comfortable, and others said it was super cute, and they asked me why I was wearing that.

In my wait for change of plane, in Munich, Germany, I had an anxiety attack, I had never lived one, now I know what it feels like. At that time I desperately wanted to be at home, however I was barely halfway through my planned trip, but it was so much my despair that I even looked for flights from NYC to Guadalajara, to see if it was possible to just return and make landfall in America, but the prices were very exaggerated, being that they were for that same day. I decided to calm down, to think that nothing was going to go wrong. And I suddenly felt a new fear during the trip already on the plane from Munich to NYC, because I had a very silly dream where they didn't let me back to the United States and they threatened to deport me, and I couldn't sleep the rest of the way, which was very long.

But no, when I arrived in the United States, I went very easy, very few customs questions, everything went well. A funny experience during my waiting on the JFK airport, in NYC, was when I went for a coffee to Starbucks, there was next to me a....person (sorry if I couldn't tell the gender, it was a short person, no boobs, short hair, but their aspect was like a girl, with curves and a girly cute face), it was a pretty person to be honest, they were staring at me, like wanting to start talking to me. I'm so shy that I couldn't tell them anything first, but I knew they really wanted to start a conversation with me, and didn't know how. When the starbucks girl called my name "Paco!", I could see how this mysterious person decided to come with me and told me "Hey, I love your art", then they run away and disappeared. I would have loved to know who were them and said something back. Anyways is the first time someone made me feel famous, out any furry convention.

Another great thing about the plane from NYC to San Jose was that we started our flight during sunset, and since we were flying to the opposite of the world, I could se a beautiful sunset for 3 hours.

Hey, Paco. But the convention is in Reno, NV, not in San Jose, CA.
What happens is that when looking for flights, it was outrageously expensive to get directly to Reno, I couldn't find anything accessible, so I looked instead for San Jose (much cheaper, it was really much the difference in price), and since I have many friends there, surely somebody would leave me ride with them to BLFC.

And so it was, I found that my friends

pepemapache

and Mirawis would leave on Thursday morning to Reno, with their trailer, and enough space for me and my bags. In addition, there was also his Chihuahua puppy, which was very quiet throughout the trip.

Something unexpected happened: the truck stopped working halfway. It started to show some problems when we started the trip, but it was thought that it wouldn't be a great inconvenience and that it could survive until Reno. But more ahead to Sacramento, in the middle of nowhere, the transmission ended up overheating and leaking large amounts of oil (A lady was shocked because she thought that the oil was blood that we had run over a deer). At that time Pepe and Mira decided that it would be better to return to San Jose, but I had many commitments in BLFC, and I even had to be there the next morning in the event.

I didn't posted my problem publicly, I didn't want to cause a lot of gossip or half the world knew that (However, already at the convention, apparently everyone found out about that problem, because many asked me how we had solved everything), I just told some friends to see if they knew someone who was also heading to BLFC and were at that time near Sacramento, it had to be a great coincidence for that to happen, however there were two coincidences that met those requirements, except one: They didn't have space for me. There were two cars that were just up to Sacramento and were heading to the convention, but they were completely full.

But several friends started giving me solutions: Mira was very tempted to pay me a Lyft to take me to Reno (which would have given me much embarrassment; if that was a solution, I could have paid without problems, but he insisted on covering that expense ), and 3 friends offered to go for me, even if they were already at the convention. A very great gesture on their part, really thank you, guys, for the solutions. However Pepe and Mira decided that we were going to get to Reno in any way with that truck, even if it came to pieces.

Have you seen "Little Miss Sunshine"? Something like that happened to us.
We were on the freeway heading to the Grand Sierra, we were seeing the building, the truck was still overheating, there were 10 minutes left by 12 o'clock at night, the time when the BLFC registration closed (and I needed to have my registration ready for the next morning), so we kept driving until we reached the parking lot of the hotel, they left the van in a random spot, we just went out and ran to the hotel, right where the registration was, and when they arrived, they closed the curtain behind us, and they could give us our badge on time. It was 12 o'clock.

After a long day full of broken trucks, I greeted my roomies (which this time were Tiny Deer, Jae Bunny and Sander the black cat), I put on the fursuit and went down to dance.

Now if you are at this point of the journal, write me if you like peanut butter or not.

7. BLFC

Along with MFF, this is my favorite convention, and I was there again, in that place whose strange smell brings me so many good memories, and seeing so many happy furries always puts a big smile on my face. I love BLFC.

On this occasion I made many plans, I had so many things to do during that weekend that I almost had everything planned for what was going to happen those 3 days. But of course there were some things that made many plans go bankrupt: in this year they banned the use of fursuits in go-karts and mini-golf. And several of us had planned to do those activities, and no, not in our human version, but in fursuit. But later I'll tell you what happened.

Friday was of artists' alley, which was one of those that I enjoyed and I'm already very familiar with as they are, it's like my comfort zone. As soon as the doors opened, the commission slots were completely filled. I chatted with a lot of people, I took pictures with several fursuits that came to visit me at my table, I was glad to meet people I had never met before but only online, and I was also happy to see people who are already like a family for me.

In the afternoon I was in the fursuit festival. About that issue shown on internet about the girl who was bullied... I knew absolutely nothing, I found out until I checked the internet and the BLFC published the news, but neither at that time nor during any time of the convention I saw something related to that. But speaking of rodents, something very special for me in that furuit festival, right after they took the group photo, was meeting Mausie, the NordicFuzzCon's mascot. When I saw him, I was about to mourn with happiness, I couldn't help that big smile on my face, even when nobody could see it and everyone just saw that big smile of my fursuit that, although it is always very sincere, this time fitted more that never with my real smile.

A very good friend asked me what my favorite part of BLFC was, and it may sound very exaggerated but I can't help but answer "Mausie". What a great personality that mouse has. I admire the performance in fursuit of many people, who sometimes ask me why I admire them so much if they are not artists like me, and it is clear that I consider them as great artists, the interpretation of a character is something that not everyone can do well. Mausie is one of those characters that I think are exaggeratedly well interpreted.

I will try not to talk so much about Mausie or if I will not tire you, thank you if you continue reading this during this point, not many have the patience to read such long texts on internet.

Another moment that I enjoyed a lot was the dance set "Audiodile", by my great friend Croc. Not only because their remixes cause me to dance and they are very fun, but also because many friends in common go to that set, precisely to dance with his music, and I always find very well-known faces. After he finished his set, instead of continuing to dance, I went to see the Foxes and Peppers show, which I always enjoy a lot.

The next day was also a great day, sharing a time with new and old friends like Shorty, Croc, @Koidel Coyote and Jib Kodi. That day I went back to see Mausie <3 in the inflatable panel, which was very fun and I could see how Mausie and Croc were running in a big bubble. Although this time at this con there was very little space for them to run inside the bubble, it was fun. I have never been able to get inside the bubble, there is always a long line waiting for other fursuiters, and I always prefer to keep playing with all the inflatables and fursuiters instead of waiting. But when I saw that Mausie was getting into one of those bubbles, I pleaded to be in the other, and so play together with Mausie, both in our respective bubbles; but they didn't allow me, because there was already someone else waiting for their turn u__u
And since they told me it was my turn to get into the bubble, either Jib, Mausie and Croc were gone, so ... with which friend was I going to be able to share my time while I was in the bubble? Only Koidel was there but he was already lying in an inflatable, tired. I rejected the invitation and better I left the panel.
I'm not complaining at all, it was very fun and I have very nice moments from that time we were playing with the inflatables.

One of my definitely favorite moments of the convention, was having a good time with Mausie (eh, once again...Mausie), while he was playing with other fursuiters in the dealer's den with the convention props, like dice, hula hoop rings, the tricycle, and other own props from other fursuiters. That rodent is just beautiful.

Remember that I had told you that they didn't allow fursuits in go karts this year? Well yes, it was, they didn't change their mind, but we had an exception, thanks to Shorty, a friend very close to Mausie and also a new great friend of mine, moved heaven, sea and land to have that great exception. We went Mausie, Jib Kodi, Keepo and I in a Go-Karts race that we were videotaping, and I'm really looking forward to see that video edited because I know it was spectacular.

That evening, with Fox Amoore, Dixie, Kurtt, Ed Puma, Alf and Majira, we run a panel about our travel experience in Mexico. There were fewer people than expected (it was logical, at that time all were already at parties or dancing) but that was not wrong, at least we made people laugh, we talked a bit about Mexico, we gave some typical candies. In the middle panel, Majira's fursuit arrived (someone else was using it) and I asked Majira (the real one) ... "then who are you?"
Oh, Majira told an embarrassing anecdote about me driving, that anecdote I hadn't told in the other journal where I spoke about my trip to Mexico because it seemed very shameful. It was about a toll, seeing that other cars were passing by without stopping, I thought it was a free toll (that maybe it was not working), when I was about to pass through, the bar closed in front of me, stopping suddenly. I realized that the cars in front had the automatic payment chip, which of course I didn't have. >////< That was the experience Majira told about "Panda driving".

Another very funny thing during the panel was Majira's curious facts about Mexico, which were not surprising and that made it funnier, such as "Did you know that the main language in Mexico is Spanish?"

The last night I played bowling with Kazan, Cosu Raccoon,

TkCoyote

, Wusky and Koidel. Before I escaped to go dancing for the last time.

It was a very nice convention, I would have liked to share time with many more people, but I just ended up saying hi to many people I knew and I was very happy to see, and it was practically a hello and a goodbye, but thanks to everyone with whom I was able to share incredible moments during that weekend. As it has always been BLFC, once again it was a very fun convention.

8. ANOTHER GREAT ADVENTURE HEADING TO LAS VEGAS (WITH A STOP IN SAN JOSE)

And here begins another great adventure.

My BLFC plan ended with an adventure to Las Vegas, accepting the invitation of my friend Cloud Husky to visit him. And since I had never been to that city in Nevada before, I planned my flight back home from Las Vegas.

I was determined to buy bus tickets from Reno to Las Vegas, not to be a problem for anyone, however Kurtt told me that there was a caravan of cars that were going to Las Vegas from Reno, and that I could be included in one of those , contacting me with Dreyse, who is the organizer of such caravan.
But everything went wrong when one of the trailers that was going to Las Vegas, left earlier than normal, without telling anyone, and then those who ran out of place from the caravan were Koidel and me. And even though we tried to find a new ride, they were all full. So we had to improvise. (By the way, thanks Shorty, for being there with us during our wait to know what would happen to us).

Our spontaneous plan was to take a ride with Koby and Jib Kodi, who were going to San Francisco, to be able to leave Jib Kodi at the airport. There was enough space for us and our bags.

While we were going to San Jose, and I with the question in my head "why are we going to San Jose and not Las Vegas?", I started moving contacts and figuring out how we were going to get to Las Vegas later.
First I warned Cloud that we were not going to arrive as soon as we thought.
And then to Croc, who lives in San Jose with Bacon and Jimmy:
-Hello, unexpected plans, Koidel and me are going to San Jose
-Oh really? When?
-TODAY!
(Hehe, sorry for being so unexpected and spontaneous)
And then I bought bus tickets from San Jose to Las Vegas a day after.

Thank you very much, Croc, Bacon and Jimmy for letting us stay one night at your home, and thanks to Blue Badger and Bacon for picking us up at San Jose station, it was very fun to see a car arriving with a big badger fursuit on the front seat.

We spent one night with these guys, it was a nice day, playing Mario Kart (unlike Hukley's house, I was very bad this time, it was a very different version than the one I played in Switzerland), watching movies and videos of conventions from more than 10 years ago. I always have a great time with those guys. Croc is one of my best friends.

And a new adventure began when we left on the bus from San Jose to Las Vegas. It's the first time I use the Greyhound bus service. I missed a lot the bus services in Mexico, which are super comfortable, with internet, pillows, very reclining seats that are like beds, movies, etc.
Oh no, these were hard-seat buses, with giant windows without curtains, seats very close to each other that don't leave room for the knees, and I knew that they would be very long hours.

We made several stops, either for breakfast, stretch our legs, enter the restroom. Those were very short stops of 10 minutes, maximum 30 in some specials stops.
But in one of those that lasted only 10 minutes, I appreciated that stop because I really needed to use the restroom, and really didn't want to use the bus (smelled terrible).
I run to the stop's restroom, it was one of those toilets with doors, which locks need to be closed very hard, you had to apply a lot of force to be able to close it. That was a big problem, I would have preferred to leave it open and live a shame that someone opened the door thinking it was free, comparing with what happened next.

After rushing to go back to the bus, I tried to open, and I realized that I was stuck, even though I applied a lot of force I couldn't open the door. I started to scare because it had been more than 10 minutes and I kept trying to open the cubicle door, of despair, when I realized that I was not going to be able to achieve it, I went out on the bottom floor, dragged myself, leaving the door closed, and ran to reach to the bus, and what a surprise when I realized that the bus was no longer there.
I don't know why I was not scared at that moment, I remember that I just thought "Oh, crap, they left me" but without any worry; I took the phone to call Koidel and tell him to stop the bus, when I thought about "stopping the bus" it was that moment I started to get very worried, of course the driver wouldn't stop if he was already halfway there! But fortunately it stopped, I ran to the highway, and I realized that it had not really go very far, but oh geez, I don¡t know what I would have done if they had definitely left. X_X

Remember guys, if you have time limit to enter a public restroom in the stop of a bus, make sure not to lock the cubicle door so tightly.

And after hours and hours of more freeway and a monotonous view of the desert of California and Nevada, we finally arrived in Las Vegas.

9. LAS VEGAS

What can I tell about Vegas?
Many years ago I thought: I want to explore the world; and go that dream is being achieved. But there was a fact that had in my head "The place I want least to know is Las Vegas", I've never been a party guy or alcohol drinker, much less be gambling and wanting to live in excess, and for me that was the meaning of Las Vegas, I was not very attracted to that. But when I started having friends who are from there, and receiving invitations from them (like RedWulf, E, and now Cloud), I gave this city a chance.

I could describe it as "Spectacular". It really is full of luxuries, elements that encourage vice and sex, is not something that I have to persist, not that I am a saint, hehe. In the end, I really changed my concept of Las Vegas, not only is it the place of perdition and fun that they show in the movies, I could find in Las Vegas that which I admire so much from the Americans, and that is to be able to fulfill any crazy idea that have in their mind, and also make it look impressive. In every city that I visit from United States, I see that, that great creativity and imagination that not only stays in a thought "this would be absurd", but they really make those absurd ideas true. And not only talking about pyramid-shaped buildings, giant coke bottles, roller coasters surrounding a hotel, lakes in the middle of an avenue that dance to the rhythm of music, and Roman temples converted into hotels; I also talk about furry conventions, comic conventions, spectacular concerts, plays that leave people with their mouths open.
Americans dare to dream, and to make their dreams come true.
(A fact that I need they lack them, is a good taste of their food, hehe, they believe that the more quantity, the better)

Cloud Husky was a great host, I had a great time with him and with his friends who introduced me, just as I introduced friends who were local for him and he didn't know. They were Red Wulf and Erwin.
Who was very fun to visit, we were in fursuit at the RedWulf's house, we set up our own "furry convention" in their house, and we titled it "RedCon 2018". We even had our own fursuit parade, artists alley, fursuit lounge and even fursuit games (the challenge was to raise a 10 cent coin from the floor with our fursuit paws, it's more difficult than it seems).

Thank you, Yaps, for insisting that they take us to eat at SkinnyFats, all of us went for the happy side.

We were not only in the city seeing lights and hotels, Cloud and his dad (both his parents are very kind, great people, like his dog Dusty, who looked like Koidel's pop filter) took us to see the Hoover Dam, incredible gigantic dam. Really spectacular. Something I didn¡t expect to see on the trip.

The last night, before leaving home, we went out with several furries to walk the Vegas strip in fursuit, a great way to close this trip, another of my favorite moments that will remain in the prosperity of my memory.

Before going to the airport, we tried to book a room for MFF, but we failed in the attempt, as well as 98% of the people who also tried T_T
But anyway we'll go to MFF, it doesn't matter if it's not at the main hotel.

And this is how this trip ends, we returned to Guadalajara. Roni went through us, I missed that dog very much, I hugged him like never before, and I thank him infinitely for the patience he has in keeping me out so long, he knows I always carry him with me in my heart.

Experiences like this make one learn so much, and they are adventures that nobody can take away from me. It's one of the best investments one can make in their life and for their spirit.

Thank you very much for reading me, see you in Megaplex for more adventures!!

If you want to check ALL my pictures from this adventure:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tl2ean1a3wdnfi1/AACoP8qjTsYk...