Day 1:  https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/2019-nmra-convention-day-1-driving-slc-first-clinics-12213194

And..... I'm back! 

I arrived at the Little America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah about noon today (Saturday). 

I know, you're saying, "Hey, Jeff - the convention doesn't start until Sunday!" 

You're right... but the NMRA Board of Director's meeting is on Saturday and I was going to see if I could make it for that..... and it started at 9am. Nope. 

But registration was open so I was able to grab two tickets for the open-top bus tours of SLC tomorrow afternoon, and my wife was able to get her ticket for an all-day non-rail tour around the Salt Lake City (and Salt Lake) area on Monday. I've told her to take plenty of photos. 

If you are into Food Network, you've probably heard of Diners, Drive-In's and Dives, with host Guy Fieri. Several of the show's segments have been filmed here in Salt Lake City - one of the locations, Purgatory Bar, is only about 4 blocks away from the hotel, and was where we went for lunch today. 

Having missed the BoD meeting (dues are going up to $50/yr  January 1st, so you might want to hit the NMRA store and buy multiple years before then, and 2023 will be in Fort Worth, Texas), I decided to scout out the hotel to see where everything is. 

Based on my experience seeing the traffic at the coffee stands at prior conventions, my next statement will be the most important thing I post all week:

DO NOT GO TO "THE COFFEE SHOP" FOR YOUR STARBUCKS-TYPE FIX. GO TO THE LOBBY LOUNGE. 

Seriously - "The Coffee Shop" is actually a diner-style restaurant, and probably a worthy destination for breakfast, but it is not the place to get your Mocha, Latte, Americano, or Frappe. 

Nope. 

That's the Lobby Lounge instead:

Downright reasonable compared to Starbucks, actually. 

So make sure that at 7am on Monday you are here:

And not here (unless you want a full breakfast):

The facilities are very nice here - with the company store and the contest room  are located in the middle of everything on the first floor. All too often I've had to go hunt them down - not this year. 

Three clinic rooms, the clinic office, the silent auction, contest room and the SIG Room are all on the first floor, on this hallway:

Company store and clinic rooms on the left,  with the Clinic office and tour room in rooms at the front of the hall on the right and the auction, contest and SIG rooms past them in the sub-divided ballrooms. 

Upstairs there are _8_ more clinic rooms, although I don't see where more than 8 total are scheduled at a time. The Sun Valley Room on the second floor will be the non-rail clinic room from all appearances. 

For your later evening relaxation there is a jacuzzi and pool (split between indoor and outdoor, kind of novel) at the end of the 2nd floor hall a couple of the clinic rooms are on. There is also a fitness room down there with them. 

All in all, I'm impressed with the convention facilities. I'm not quite as impressed with the hotel itself... no in-room fridge, no microwave, so if you want to economize on the food you're going to be buying a cooler and going for a lot of ice. The $55/night hotel we stayed at last night had a mini-fridge and microwave. Wi-fi is free. The rooms themselves are quite nice as rooms - sizable, and the clock has two normal electrical outlets as well as a USB socket. There is a safe in the room. And a single-serving (not Keurig) coffee maker. If you are bringing drugs or such that need to be refrigerated, you'll need to talk to the front desk - I don't, so I haven't and don't know what sort of accommodations they can make. 

But if you are under 5'2" in height, you might want to ask the ladies making up the room to leave your bath towels on the bed instead of in the well-over six-foot high rack they put them on. I'm 5'"-7'' or better in my shoes, and it was a bit of a stretch for me:

Perhaps the NBA teams playing the Jazz stay here overnight. 

So all the fun begins tomorrow at 4:30pm (or 4:00 if you are going on the open-top bus tour of town) and I'll see you here!

Humorous note - my wife follows (very closely...) an a capella Country & Western band named Home Free. Until today she did not realize that they were in town (okay, about 20 miles away near the site of the NTS later this week) for a concert. Tonight. When we don't actually have anything to do. Yes, we're going. She gets to spend money on Home Free, I get to spend it on trains. It works out.