haha, that picture makes me laugh, cause really, wtf?!

One year, we got lost in downtown Chicago, after dark, with a giant cross strapped to the top of our van. That was a bit terrifying.

>>1332328

My friend got a ticket while he was driving from L.A to San Jose for Fanime. He was going 88 in a 65, but the cop let him off with 80 in a 65.

I sweet talked that cop for my friend. :3

On time I was traveling to a con by boat, and I somehow got it stuck on top a tan-ish colored Sedan in a parking lot in front of a apartment building.

Otakon this year,
I leave with a few people to go to the greyhound station around 2 p.m. to catch a bus back to Philly.
Upon arriving there were many people there... so they refused to sell me a ticket untill the lines went down. Many people started to call friends and have them reserve e-tickets which are printable at the station from a computer. They unplugged and disconnected those computers from the network.
All the lines had faded by about 8 p.m. So I remained waiting for the sales office to notice this untill 4 a.m. at which point in a very angry manner I asked "WILL YOU EVER SELL ME A TICKET? I'M ONE OF THREE PEOPLE IN THIS STATION!" To which they said they did not see ticket sales opening in the near future because lines were still too long........
So I walked to Amtrak station in Baltimore and bought a ticket there for the train. I was home within an hour and a half...

This is one of my less tragic stories...

>>1332356

I bet those tits of yours helped a lot, you magnificent slut.

>>1332372
Tell another?

...Sooo what happened to yours?

Ohayocon 2003: Cabin light left on in my car, so I needed a jump. My oil light came on shortly before I had gotten to the con, so I drove around a bit before leaving looking for somewhere I could get an oil change. Failing that, I headed out with a hope in my heart my car could make it alright back to Philly.
Half-hour outside of Columbus, kathunk. Fourth piston in my engine snapped. I was stuck out there for two extra days in bumblefuck til my mom was able to come get me. Thus why I didn't go back to Ohio until this past Ohayo, heh.

Otakon 200...5? 6? Eh, battery apparently died on its own, got a jump, and the PepBoys was a lie, but made it home fine. Kinda funny because the previous year I gave someone else a jump out of the same garage after the con.

Two mishaps out of almost 60 cons, not a bad record I'd say.

Sleeping in an airport is the most surreal feeling in the world, I'll just say that. I would have killed for Monopoly or Cutes and Ladders.

Coming home from NYAF last night, my car wouldn't start. ;_; I've had my battery die on me almost yearly, that shit is not normal.

Heeeres my story from this weekend.
My boyfriend and I were driving back from SogenCon yesterday and about 80 miles into our 360 mile drive, my car started to vibrate quite violently. My boyfriend attributed it to the bad road quality, but I, being the ultra paranoid person that I am, made him stop and check out the tires to be sure one of them wasnt going flat, and they werent. A few minutes later, however, the vibrating was getting worse, so we decided to stop at the next gas station [which wasnt for a while, south western Minnesota is pretty bleak]. On the exit, the car started to make some pretty terrifying noises and felt like it was limping like it had a flat, but when we stopped at the gas station, there was no flat, and the car was lurching baadly.

Long story short, we ended up having to wait for my dad to come pick us up while my boyfriends stepdad got a hold of a trailer to get the car. We had left at 1pm Sunday, and didnt get home until 1:30 am Monday morning. My car got dropped off around 5pm.
Turns out the drivers side front wheel was only being held on by one lugnut and bolt. The other 4 had rusted off completely.

tl;dr My wheel couldve fallen off at any time.

>>1332328
Driving back from AX this one year I was so tired I almost took an exit that wasn't an exit, but rather just an orchard.

Then we ended up passing through this narrow freeway though the hills that seemed to repeat itself and all of us swear the trees made faces as the headlights hit them. We could only get one radio station at this point and it was on of those conspiracy and UFO type programs, talking about some bizarre phenomenon or another. Fucking creepy, e/x/perience.

Not exactly the type of 'horror story' you had in mind, but it scared us shitless for a while there.

Living in the D.C. without a car, Anime USA was a miserable trek out back when it was in Tyson's Corner two and three years back. Metro out to West Falls Church or Dunn Loring, wait half an hour, catch a bus out to the Tyson's Corner Transit Center, wait half an hour, catch a bus to a half mile from the hotel, walk for not quite half an hour, con time. Fork over money for a taxi to the Metro at night after buses stopped.

In retrospect, going to a con with a two-hour public transit commute is a very stupid idea.

>>1332374

Nah, not quite. My friend's dad is a Sargent in the California Highway Patrol, and they both have told me what to do to reduce or weasel your way out of a ticket.

ALA08, I was traveling for the holidays and coming back the day before con. I had taken parts of my masquerade costume with me to do hand sewing and embroidery during down time with my family.
I had extreme dumb luck happen. My luggage was a few pounds over the 50lb per bag weight limit, so I dug in and grabbed a few things off the top and stuck them in my carry-on bags. Got on the plane...and didn't take off until an hour after our departure time. I get to my layover and quite literally had to run across the entire airport to make my connection, and bang on the door of the airplane to open back up, as they had JUST shut it.
I get back to LA, and find out that my luggage didn't make it to my plane...and that I wouldn't get it until a couple days after ALA.

That stuff I grabbed to carry-on? My masquerade costume pieces.
Never have I loved my dumb luck as much as this time.

On year on our way home from AX our bus left us. The next year, the bus was an hour late picking us up to get there. I hate Amtrack.

>>1332457
Id be terrified to fly anywhere for cons because of lost luggage. I wouldnt want to lose my costumes or be stranded somewhere without clothes.

On my way back from Otakon a few years back my friend flipped our car off the road and I wound up being carted to hospital to have surgery on my leg (the bone smashed through the skin) Both of us broke ribs and he smashed his hand in. The car was totalled and most of our gear from the con destroyed.

Good times.

>>1332561

Oh and now I have metal pins in my leg.

With this past AX I had my Best traveling experience and my worst.

Getting there was amazing. Me and the two people I went with got to Logan about 2 hours early (for a 6 AM flight) about an hour after we got there, it started boarding, and got the go ahead to go. An hour later, we arrived at Milwaukee for a transfer, and that too, was boarding a bit early. after 6 hours, cue the best freakiin week of my life.

Getting HOME... thats a totally different story.
I was getting my PSP ready by converting a few videos to it, only to fine out the USB cord I brought didn't work with it (It shit the bed entirely a week later. I didn't even have it a year.) We got to the airport 3 hours early. Our plane was late getting in. So, after a 45 minute or so delay, we finally boarded. The seat in front of me was busted so it could recline a lot more than the other ones (No laptop for me) I take out my iPod. Its battery was almost dead (I made the mistake of playing Action-Zero earlier in the day, and one of my friends took it, as she is a Den-O fangirl.) I then take out my Showcase: Booster Gold. I get but a few pages in that before my friend falls asleep on my arm. (This was easily forgiven, as she is awesome) I decide to try and sleep as well. but those fucking flight attendants had to keep asking me if I wanted anything, which I wouldn't mind if I a) wasn't trying to sleep, or b) just said no thank you to someone five minutes ago. There was also an in flight emergency, so when we landed, we couldn't get off for another 45 minutes. In this time, our flight left and we wound up getting stuck in Baltimore for another hour. when we finally get back, we waited another hour for a ride, at which point, I dont remember the ride home at all, as we all just passed out.
On the trip I also discovered the magic of a Cap'n Crunch milkshake, and learned that there's only 7 states without a Hardies\Carl's Jr. We live in one of those.

>>1332561

win

or a lieing faggot

Otakon, 2002. I'm in high school, living with parents, and I plan on road-tripping it to Baltimore from Georgia with 2 friends, and one other person who one of said friends knows named Dustin, who would be driving. My friend told me he has a large van with power outlets so we can plug in a TV and play games and watch DVDs, sweet.

Since I had never met him, I got his AIM screen name and we chatted a bit so we could get to know each other before we were about to be in a car for 14 hours. He asked for a pic, so I sent a pretty basic one, but apparently he was enamored and told me that he would subject me to some romantic "17th century prose". Great. So I ask for his pic, and God I wish I saved it, because here's what it was: a stocky dude with a buzz cut, in his mom's dining room, wielding a fantasy sword while wearing a wife beater. CLASSY GUY.

Anyway, we were gonna leave Thursday afternoon or so, drive all night and get there Friday morning, and leave Sunday afternoon. Sounds good, right? I had one of my friends over, and we waited to be picked up.... and waited... and waited.... and waited.... Apparently Dustin had something better to do than stick to the plan, and he didn't come over until the NEXT NIGHT. He was a DAY LATE. So he finally rolls up into my driveway in what looks like the fucking mystery machine, this piece of shit 70s van with a shitty paint job, and is loud as fuck. As soon as I saw that shit, I knew I would want to kill myself over the weekend.

Prediction: fulfilled. So the van DOESN'T HAVE ANY SEATS. There are just a few planks of wood somehow attached to the walls, with some ratty cushions that would slide off on every turn. Also, no windows....and no air conditioning. None. And those power outlets? Yeah, not enough power in the car battery to actually operate a small TV, none the less a TV and a playstation, so we had this TV and playstation just... floating around in the back of the car, along with a bunch of DVDs and games, taunting us for being unusable and taking up precious space.

So the three of us friends in the back try to think up ways we can kill ourselves, like by using spoons to gouge our eyeballs out, because it was so freaking stuffy and hot in the back of that stupid van. The only ventilation was a small swing window in the back, over the exhaust pipe, which would let in constant stream of carbon monoxide that started making us sick. When we asked Dustin if we could perhaps shut the window because we didn't want to fall asleep and not wake up (even though we secretly did want to die), he famously replied, "Oh don't worry, there's not enough carbon monoxide in there to kill ya." If ONLY. We started getting delirious and imagined that the trees were broccoli and it would rain salt, and we had cheese guns. Yeah.

14 hours of that, and 2 of those smelled like a dead moose for some reason. And the trip BACK was even worse, because we drove during the day, and we almost died of heat exhaustion. When we stopped at gas stations, we got inside of the freezers. INSIDE.

Worst road trip ever.

>>1332663
.............whoah.

If that were me, I don't know that I would have even gotten in.... weird guy driving.... no seatbelts...

Did you at least have a good time at Otakon?

>>1332663
>>1332662
And this why I will never road-trip it with someone I don't know.

Last road trip I went on was with /b/lackula and we traveled to Boston where he basically dropped me off. Good guy, that /b/lackula.

Worst con trip?

Flying to and from Japan. Fuck. Those. Tiny. Seats. FOR 14 FUCKING HOURS WITH SCREAMING KIDS GAHHH. Thankfully I was still sick/drunk (srsly.. still drunk) from the night before that I just passed out for most of it. Airplane food was not settling well with me either. Blegh.

>>1332679
I had a terrible time. When we got there in the morning I looked and felt like total ass, and subsequently stayed up all day and all night, didn't really sleep for a whole 2 days... and Otakon is (was?) in such a huge space, I didn't get to hang out with many people. Totally not worth that horrible, horrible drive. Never went back.

>>1332687
Oh that too. Flying to Japan for the first time was SHIT, I was totally unprepared. I lucked out tho and the seat next to me was empty, the only empty seat on the whole plane! I didn't bring any sleep aids with me though so I was awake for pretty much the entire trip. Balls.

>>1332687
THIS. THIIIIIS.

I was going to Japan this summer (for many things, but the main event was Comiket), and my friend and I get the middle and end seats of the middle section of this plane. It just happened that the seat next to me was empty. So I think, "Sweet! The lady on the other side of the empty seat and I can sort of put stuff there if we need to!" NO. NOT THE CASE. She decides to lay down over both seats. I didn't think it was a big deal, I wasn't expecting a seat and a half to begin with. But then she kicks me. I figure that it's an accident, but I glance over and she GLARES at me, like I've done some unforgivable thing. I look to see where my legs are, and they're IN MY DESIGNATED AREA. She goes back to laying down, and kicks me a couple more times (with a bit more glaring). It was like she was getting mad that she couldn't stretch out over THREE seats. And a baby started screaming (doesn't this happen on every flight though?). Then I watched "The Wild," which was a freaking retarded movie and put me in a bad mood.

The flight back was better, but the guy behind me was a kicker and when I tried to fall asleep by using my tray table, the guy in front of me put his seat back and I got my face smashed in. Not really his fault, but not very fun.

I guess it was mainly just bad luck where I was sitting though...

>>1332663
>>1332662

That is some fucking creepy shit. Eeeugh.

DRIVING TO OTAKON '08, LORANBASARAEVIN REAR ENDED US.

8D

I went to AX for two years and one Fanime with a guy who would constantly threaten suicide just to get my attention.
He hated cons and large groups of people and would constantly blame me and my family for making him miserable even though he forced us to take him along.
those road trips were the worst fucking things I have ever had to deal with. I wish my mom would have just let me leave him in fucking Nevada. Seriously, this guy spent the whole time either moping, angry, or spouting obscenities at my mother. Directly at my mother! He would constantly call her an idiot and stupid and he showed absolutely no respect for this woman who was practically acting as his second mother and paying for him the whole trip!
fuck I hate him.
I am so glad I fucking cut him out of my life completely.
Unfortunately the fucker showed up at AX this year, I had to see him several times. shit sucked.

>>1332779
He was trying to send you a message, Faux.

>>1332779
hahaha my friend chris Rearended my mothers car on the way home from AX 07. Pigeons are not to be trusted.

>>1332826 my friend chris Rearended my mother

>>1332812
Mostly to my bf. He tailgated us the entire drive down, then some drywall fell of a truck and the whole lane stopped abruptly except Loran rolled into us. Everyone was ok, no whiplash, we pulled off into the left shoulder and checked, no damage! But it took about 15 minutes to merge back onto the interstate from the left shoulder D: And very hard to see an opportunity since his car was still so close to ours. Lulz

I've been fortunate to never endure anything worse than being charged twice for parking. The hotel said the garage was connected to their business so I paid at the front desk, $45, then tried to leave. Some dude at the parking lot exit kiosk (who strangely looked like Morgan Freeman) charged me another $45 to let me out. He said the garage was its own seperate entity despite charging exactly the same amount as the hotel. Then, on the way home, I got a speeding ticket...but it wasn't that bad.

I flew back from Europe to LA right before AX, so I guess this counts. The nonstop flight was overbooked, so they paid me $400 to move to a flight with a 4 hour connection in Montreal... didn't tell me the flight left BEFORE my original one. So I had to haul ass to the other end of the terminal and go through security AGAIN and barely got on the plane. Then had no Canadian money to use in Montreal, no cell phone to tell people that I was going to be late. When I finally got to LA, I had to buy a $10 phone card to call my roommate to pick me up. My bags didn't make the same flight and I had to wait a WEEK to get them because fucking Swiss Air had them and Air Canada didn't realize it.

Also, Japan story. I've flown there a few times without a hitch, but I screwed myself over on this one. I figured I'd save $10 by taking the subway cross town and riding the cheaper airport train. But it took almost 40 minutes to get to the stop, plus 20 until the next airport train, and by then it was mathematically impossible for me to make it to the airport before checkin closed. So I called Korean Air from the train and begged in English and poor Japanese. I got to the airport and had to return my rented cell phone and rush through security but they actually let me check in and I was one of the last ones on the plane. I ran with all my luggage (no carryons, otherwise no way they could've gotten me on the flight) the entire way. :(

But on the flight I had a delicious bibimbap and took a nap with the eyeshades/earplugs they give you for free. I <3 Korean Air so much, everyone needs to fly with them if possible.

>>1332779
>>1332838

What a fucking idiot, tailgating is the dumbest fucking thing to do while interstate driving.

on the road to Oni-Con me and the two friends I was traveling with almost got decimated by a semi-truck coming the opposite direction. It was admittedly our poor judgment of trying to pass on a two-lane road we (thought) was more empty than it was.... thanks to the driver's quick reactions we managed to make it to the side of the road without even a scratch.

yeep. I was almost a Moogie sandwich!

>>1332863
Well, I did say "follow us" but I did also print everyone a copy of directions. Eh, definately had worse.

During some 8 hour drive to stay with a good friend for a Zombie Walk / halloween party event thing... boyfriend and I pulled into a rest area. When we pulled out, the bumper was caught on a thing and got loose again (it wasn't properly repaired after an accident). We fnagle it onto there and just keep driving anxiously.
At 80 mph, he's like "Whats that sound? Stick your head out the window and find out!!" I don't want my head falling off so we pull over. The bumper was dragging and some shit in the wheel well had fallen down and rubbed the tire bald and everything was a mess. We hung around in the rain trying to solve this mess, briefly got lost in bumfuckwhere Pennsylvania/West Virginia border woods (zombie movie film locations) and peed in the woods.
Eventually we made it into our friends town where he graciously helped us find a VW dealership to leave the car in over the weekend and he took us home and we had a great time anyway. While it was a major bummer and costed some monies, the trip was still totally awesome. Not much can bring us down.

Drove over to Sakura-con a couple years back in a multi-car entourage. My car was the last to arrive at our friend's place, so I ended up parking off the side of the bottom of their steep driveway.
We decided to leave for the con in shifts the next morning - some people being early-risers and others, like myself, hating to wake up anytime before 9 am.
I went to sleep on my friend's floor, and woke up waaay too early to sounds of sobbing and a frantic knocking at the door. I instantly knew something was wrong - and my friends knowing that waking me up early isn't agreeable with me - my first thought was that something must've happened to my car.
Evidently, whilst backing down our host's steep driveway, the car carrying the early shift decided that brakes weren't something to be dealt with, which resulted in their car barreling towards mine down on the street.
Luckily, the driver - who was sobbing when waking me up with another friend to report the news - managed to impact only my corner bumper, and everyone ended up uninjured, albeit quite shaken.
I was unusually calm about it, trying to help keep the driver from breaking down emotionally and keeping back the realization that my beloved car was hit. After calming her down and sending her off with the early shift, I had a quiet breakfast and went about a half-hour later with those riding with me in the late-shift.
I made sure she paid for the repairs, though. Could've been worse.

One time this happened on the way to a con...

Thankfully I haven't had any real bad con trip experiences.

Driving to ALA this year, rain was a bitch to drive in. The drive to the con wasn't so bad because I got to it before the heavy rain started, on the way back home, not so lucky. I do NOT like driving next to big rigs, even on regular sunny days, But in a heavy down pour, at night? Fuck. I'm just happy I got home in one piece.

>>1332924

Forgot another one;
We were down for Fanime the same year, and got a hotel room near the con. We planned to split the bill like usual, but two people completely skipped out on us, making the remaining people have to pay to cover the jerks.
Now, we either room with friends we can trust - or track down easily - or demand their share up-front.
Still have never gotten either the money or an apology from either; one of them even had the nerve to say we owed HIM.

>>1332991
Oh god, THIS. I had to go back for my makeup bag that also had my medicine that I absolutely need to take every day, and thanks to that ended up racing the worst of the storm to Los Angeles on the trip down.

AX2005. Over the course of the convention I hooked up with this girl. My female friend who I let crash in my room as she had nowhere else to go sees me with this girl and freaks out. My friend starts spreading stories to everyone we know.

Con's over and I'm stuck driving my friend home to Bakersfield. After getting her home and telling her I won't be hanging out with her anymore, my car overheats on the way home to LA.

I have to wait 4 hours for the tow truck to get there, and I end up having to spend the night in Gorman because we arrived after the mechanic had closed for the night. Turns out I blew a head gasket which is like a $1200 repair job.

For me, going to any con, even one i've been going to for the last 6 years(fanime,lolz), i somehow get lost. I take a wrong turn or take an exit too soon or too late. I have even once ended up in a cliff like area where my passenger decides that we're gonna die by the hands of axe-wielding-ninja-pirate-mountain-lions. As if my driving reputation isn't bad enough.(6 incidents of no gas, two tire blow outs, one accident, and a car malfunction)