After hours, before hours

Some of my favorite times at any Sherlock Holmes weekend are the moments that happen in the spaces between the planned events. The late evenings, the mornings, just wandering about the hotel . . . that's where the happy surprises lie.

Last night, after the initial St. Louis acclimatizing with blues and barbecue, the organized part of the evening got over by about 6:30, which meant Sherlockians left to their own devices. Luckily, I had brought podcast devices and had already set up a meeting with the three gentlemen that seemed like they'd be in the same hotel as me to do a little recording. But hotels changed for some, and we had a last minute venue change from the Hotel Majestic to the Holiday Inn (the latter having more open space, without the name that sounds like John Wick should be staying here).

We also added two more participants in the recording, Cindy Brown and Dean Clark, to the original list of Don Hobbs, Bill Mason, and Tim Johnson, and in our little corner of the expansive Holiday Inn lobby, some merriment ensued, which you can hear here. Once the podcast recording was finished, the conversation kept going with occasional comments that we should still be recording, which made us all quite thirsty and we headed to the bar.

There, over a few drinks and a little hummus, we got to telling stories and discussing all those odd bits of Sherlockian life that few ever write about, yet we are all so very familiar with . . . that one scion member that every group has, the peccadillos of . . . well, there are reasons we don't write these parts. It was especially good to catch up with my old website partner Don, who I shared a good many adventures with back in our web-prime.

But starting what is usually the later part of the evening at an earlier hour, and having different hotels to return to on streets that some had questioned the night-time safety of, we broke up a little earlier than usual and wandered our ways home for the night. I used the free time to do a little sound editing (very little, actually, as you might hear should you take a listen . . . not sure where that swimming pool was).

The lack of a late Friday night made for an early Saturday morning, so I got plenty of time to work on a Sherlock Holmes version of "One Night Werewolf," take a scouting walk down to the library where the day's events will be held, and generally prepare for the day, and then . . .

. . . just settle down to blog this bit. On to "Holmes in the Heartland" proper!