Before I start, I want to once again extend grateful thanks to Ed Tracey for his Monday night diary. As you’ll discover, there was no way I was going to be able to write (and it was NOT because we’d spent too much time in The 720, aka the classier & quieter of the two Hotel Bars!).
It was SO good to be back at Netroots Nation, after two years of remote conferences during the height of the Pandemic and then Casa Brillig’s need to skip last year for a multitude of reasons. Of the 18 Netroots Nation/YearlyKos conferences, we’ve missed just last year in Pittsburgh. According to email attendees received today, NN23 was the second-highest attended of all, its 2900 attendees surpassed only by NN22 in Pittsburgh. And while many of the regular faces were unable to be there, new faces came and became part of the NN Family. Including K1’s significant other, who has made himself an invaluable part (along with K1) of the NN behind-the-scenes volunteer contingent!
Because I’m terrible at formatting photo diaries (how DO y’all get pretty formatted diaries with photos exactly the size you need for your text?!), I’m shifting to comments under the photos for a bit:
Netroots Nation was held at the Chicago Hilton just across from the lovely park bordering Lake Michigan. It also was just down the street from the Studebaker Theatre, which just about anyone who listens to NPR will recognize as the home of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. K1 said (as a selfie was grabbed next to this sign) “I guess I’m a real adult now. I’m so excited about both seeing and recognizing this!”
The conference was spread over four levels of the Hilton, which itself is a total maze internally. Thankfully there was much signage plus a pretty good map in the NN app. I was very grateful that while masks could not be REQUIRED there was a strong masking contingent encouraged by NN’s framing that we want to keep everyone safe, and that we wouldn’t be as rich and full if those who cannot safely attend without masking stayed home. I masked almost 100% of the time I was at actual conference events. We’ve tested once and will do so again tomorrow, so far all negative.
I did not believe Friday’s evening Keynote could be any better than a conversation between Alicia Garza and Justin Jones. And then “We have a special guest” led to the Reverend Jesse Jackson appearing on stage to lead us in the “I Am Somebody” call-and-response. I cheered, clapped, and then my face was all wet. I never expected to see him in person in my lifetime. Physically diminished but with the power of a lifetime of social justice work surrounding him.
Saturday morning’s first panel featured Rep. Ilhan Omar moderating a conversation with four of the newest progressive members of Congress—Reps. Summer Lee (PA-12), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Greg Casar (TX-35) and Maxwell Frost (FL-10)— about what work and life has been like for them in their first few months. With this as what Congress can and will one day look like, I have hope for our future.
What a great conference, and between sessions I got to see so many of my NN family at the hotel bar, at impromptu dinners, and at Ed Tracey’s expertly organized in abstentia C&J dinner. We stayed up too late, walked for MILES, had fun at pub quiz (Team 15th Time’s The Charm took third place!) and social events, and even managed to find fellow Pokemon Go fans in attendance!
Exhausted and ready to head home after a Sunday visit to the Shedd Aquarium, we were in a taxi to O’Hare when we learned our flight was cancelled due to terrible storms in the northeast. Mr. Brillig took charge of rebooking as the taxi continued to the airport, and then he said “So. The earliest flight they can get us on is Tuesday afternoon. To LaGuardia. Umm.”
We looked at Amtrak, who had seats on a Monday train that would get us in sometime Wednesday. And that’s when K1 said “This might be silly but could we rent a car and drive?” Escape From Chicago was begun!!
We rented a Toyota Rav 4 for an exorbitant one-way rate at the airport and set off at 5:08pm Central.
I’ve got photos of the signage as we entered Indiana… then Ohio. Well, that one’s blurry because it was 11:15pm and we were exhausted. At 2am we checked into a Red Roof Inn in Elyria OH to get some sleep because while we wanted to get home asap, we also thought not falling asleep while driving was a good idea.
After a trip to caffeine up, we were on the road at 9:30am with 677 miles to go. We made it to Pennsylvania around 11am and then New York State a little over an hour later. We realized we’d be driving the rest of the way back on I-90, which runs right past Rochester, so we took a detour both to show K1’s significant other the University of Rochester (where so far all of Casa Brillig but K2 have attended) and to get lunch with K1’s friend at our favorite bubble tea/ramen/sushi bowl restaurant. It was as delicious as we remembered!
HOME!!! Well, almost. Just a few hours to go...
Thankfully, after the sheer number of trips we’ve made to and from Rochester, it was a relatively easy final push. We left at around 4pm and with a couple of stops to stretch our increasingly achy bodies, we crossed into Massachusetts at 8:30pm Monday night. At 11pm Eastern, 29 hours after we started our rental car and began to drive, we pulled up in front of the house. Mr. Brillig went to return the rental car to the airport and ransom our car from Airport Parking, and at 1am Tuesday morning, we fell asleep.
You may be wondering… hey, Brillig, you haven’t mentioned K2 at all, what gives? K2 didn’t want to go to NN23 and so had his first weeklong experience staying at the house alone. He did a spectacular job, managing the dishwasher, washer and dryer, and driving himself to everywhere he needed to be. He also retrieved the dog from the boarding facility because we weren’t home in time. I couldn’t be prouder of how his week went.
Netroots Nation 2024 will be held in Baltimore MD. Casa Brillig ALREADY is planning on taking the train down. Given the current state of airline travel, I can’t imagine taking a plane when any other option is feasible. While our fare was refunded, our Great Escape ended up costing more even as it got us home a full day earlier than the potential rebooked flight.
I’m glad to be home, although we’re getting into the car tomorrow to see relatives at their cabin on Sebago Lake Maine. I hope all’s well in your world… let’s chat in the comments after you peruse tonight’s Tops!
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