I woke up around four in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I dozed off a couple times for just a couple minutes, but nothing substantial. It was a wonder I didn’t drag harder throughout the day than I did. I ran home to clean up, and then Summer came down for our trip to Hot Springs. We stopped at Hardee’s for breakfast first, and then we were on our way in the Model 3.
I felt confident enough in our ability to find a charger that I didn’t even bother changing my charge limit. We left with 90% and got to the convention center with right around 60%. I started off testing autopilot on the curves, but quickly gave up because it made me nervous, and I enjoy driving through the curves anyway. Once we got to The Hotel Hot Springs, the parking garage had a few Tesla destination chargers available. I parked next to an older red Model 3 Performance, which was kind of cool. Unfortunately the Sentry Mode never caught them leaving, so I never got to see who was driving it.
Eaddie was evidently staying at the Embassy Suites on the opposite end of the convention center, but we didn’t learn that until we had waited a few minutes in the wrong lobby. We finally found her, stowed her belongings in the bus, and then made our way inside to watch the concerts. We ran into Reece and Christina inside, and chatted with them for a bit. Summer wanted to watch some of the choirs, but they went on the same time as the other bands, so we had to switch auditoriums and spent the rest of the day in the arena.
The orchestra was actually pretty awful. Eaddie figured it was mostly the acoustics, but I was pretty sure it was the average skill level. The non-string instruments simply didn’t know how to play when they weren’t the majority. There was an immediately noticeable improvement with the concert band, but the one to beat was the smaller wind symphony, in which Eaddie played. They did a fantastic job, and I hated that we had to fight the cold and the harsh lighting fatigue just to watch them.
After the show, I got the car and picked up the girls. We were hungry for something uniquely out-of-town, but Eaddie just wanted a hamburger. That was when I remembered seeing an A&W on Google maps, so we made our way across town only to be disappointed to learn it was built into a gas station. In spite of the location and the completely over-it staff, the food was actually really good. The burgers tasted fresh and held together well. The sriracha cheese curds were a nice surprise. The root beer was phenomenal as always. It just made me want to sell everything and open one myself.
By the time we finished, Eaddie was ready to head home. We made it downtown, and the girls needed a restroom, so I stopped to get water while they took care of that down the block. Then we made it home in a flash. Eaddie apparently outgrew getting car sick, so I probably lost more money due to rubber on the road than what I saved by only having to pay for fuel to drive one way.
It was a quick run for beds once everyone got back home. I fought sleep long enough to get my own chores done, and then I was down for the night.
I got the powah!