The first night
Upon arriving in Crested Butte, I spent the first hour in my hotel room. All of that time went to trying to get my first slideshow hooked up to my web site and uploading my additions to this web site that I wrote on the plane. Success! Time to party.

(To hear about my trip to Crested Butte from Boston see my story starting with "The trip to Crested Butte: To the airport".)

We drove to the Conference Center. Dark and closed. A sign on the door:

Attention: location has changed...
The sign
Time to drive around Crested Butte (not very big). Stop some people walking, ask them where Elk Avenue is (20 feet ahead). Drive down a darling street past cute, inviting shops, to number 130:

The Bar and Grill
The Powerhouse Bar & Grill
Here's the front door:

Front door
Private party!
Here's the registration part:

Registration desk
Registering
We got a bag full of magazines about Crested Butte and handouts from sponsors. Also a T-shirt. Here I clutch my bag:

Dan holding bag labeled What's your story?
Dan and Goodie Bag
Food!

People getting food
The food table
A close-up:

Veggies, mexican food, etc.
The food
Dana Atchley, Festival Director, gets up to speak. We all listen carefully. What words of wisdom will he start the conference off with?

Faces looks towards Dana
Waiting for Dana
Dana speaks. The "Schedule Changes" page has a change that is for 1:30pm. That is not the start of the conference. The unchanged part is still 8:30am. So much for sleeping late after getting this page written and posted on the web site.

Dana
Dana speaks
People sit in groups talking.

Group 1
Group 1
Group 2
Group 2
Dana talks with people:

Dana and people
Dana talking
Denise Atchley, Festival Producer, continues to man the registration desk:

Denise smiling
Denise Atchley
The bar is active. We have coupons good for two free drinks.

Bottles and people
Bar from the front
People at the bar
Bar from the back
Don Wrege, who will be doing the live streaming broadcast on GoGaGa's Internet Radio Show during lunch tells Shelley McIntyre of RealNetworks that she's going to be on the air:

Shelley and Don
Shelley and Don
I met up with my cousin and her family. I hadn't seen them in over a year, so it was really nice. They'll be with me on and off throughout the Festival. One mission accomplished.

Enough partying. Enough picture taking. Back to the hotel to write up the plane ride and this evening and put it on the web. We'll see what tomorrow brings. (That's in the journal that starts with Thursday morning.)

Next: Crested Butte >