The Cost of Attending Conventions

How far are you willing to travel, and whereabouts in Indiana are you? There are at least two major cons in Indianapolis every year -- one of which is among the granddaddies of all conventions, GenCon, and will be celebrating its 45th anniversary in 2012. Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Michigan are also host to some excellent S/F cons, at least some of which can't be more than a day's drive away, regardless of which part of Indiana you're living in. We're in East Central Illinois, and MarCon (Columbus, Ohio) is only about a 5 - 6 hour drive from here; we've got to go clear across the width of Indiana to get there.

I'm in Vigo County, Indiana.
Thanks for the information! Looks like I wasn't looking in the right places when I was looking for Cons to attend.
I've never heard of either GenCon or MarCon before now.
We've been to WindyCon up near Chicago and InConjunction but weren't that impressed with InConjunction and the people at WindyCon were rude and unfriendly (maybe because we're southern and expected southern style friendliness?)
:D

Mid-South Con in Memphis is a pretty nice con.
I generally do a lot of book shopping at Con's. I've watched the national chain bookstores in this area shrink their fantasy/science fiction sections each year that rolls around. While I'd prefer to shop locally, the poor selection is pushing me toward going Amazon. Since shopping locally isn't really a good option anymore, if I see a Con dealer that has books I want, I buy from them since they probably represent a small book store.
:)

Heh - with Elizabeth and I being in Coles county, IL, we're not more than a couple of hours away from each other.

Given your relative proximity to I-70, another con worth checking out is Archon (pronounced Ark-on), which just happens to be coming up this weekend. Here's the link: http://www.archonstl.org/35/

Oh, be-larst my luck! (Wails) It would be this weekend. Hubby has a must-appear social function on Saturday and my cute rump must be there also.
:(

Sometime this spring I'd love to meet the two of you at a Con provided I can get back fully on my feet by then.
I had a pretty bad knee injury back in May and I'm still having to use a wheelchair much of the time.
:[

It depends on where you were looking. If you looked in the filk room, you'd find friendly folks a-plenty. WindyCon is the land of Bill Roper, who has a lovely deep voice and squirrelly, friendly young daughters. He and his wife, daisyknotwise, are filk dealers.

If you're looking to go shopping for books, find some folks to carpool with, & come down to GaFilk [http://www.gafilk.org/ ] in January. Larry Smith [who runs the dealers' rooms at WorldCon & World Fantasy Con] brings his whole huge display to our small [about 130 folks] filk con. He's also at Confluence at the end of July. How far are you from Pittsburgh? Confluence is a wonderful, small general con that has a fabulous filk track. http://www.parsec-sff.org/confluence/ Note that next year's GOH is a Campbell-winning, Hugo-nominated filker.

Hth.

You know, that's one thing I really miss about the South. People are friendly and outgoing. I think I'd love GaFilk. Unfortunately I'm nearly two days' cartrip from it.
Confluence MIGHT be doable though...will have to wait and see...
:}